Ireland's hidden medicine : an exploration of Irish indigenous medicine from legend and myth to the present day

Summary: Ireland's Hidden Medicine traces the path and fortunes of Irish indigenous medicine from the legendary god of medicine, Dein Checht, to today. Unlike the great scribal medical traditions, Ireland's indigenous medicine is based on medical knowledge passed on orally to each succeeding generation. This journey explores the difference in worldview between biomedicine and indigenous medicine, before it sketches the changing fortunes of this indigenous tradition from the coming of Christianity, through the law tracts and the medical manuscripts of the Middle Ages, to its demise with the fall of the old Gaelic order in the seventeenth century. From there the book examines how some knowledge could have disseminated within the wider community before exploring the factors that influenced its decline in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Irish indigenous medicine is like a diamond hidden in plain sight with its beauty present in the Irish landscape, festivals, and language. Yet its riches are not realized and it is ignored it to the detriment of health and wellbeing. Ireland's Hidden Medicine is an important step in changing this.

Record details

ISBN: 9781913504977 (softcover)
Physical Description: print
xviii, 154 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
Publisher: Lewes : Aeon Books, 2021.
Copyright: ©2021

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

Acknowledgements -- About the Author -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. What is medicine? -- The biomedical model -- The indigenous model -- Plant medicine -- Physical manipulation -- Charms, prayers, and rituals -- Chapter 2. History of irish indigenous medicine -- Legend and myth -- Hospitals and physicians -- Medicinal baths -- Humour and expertise -- Déin Chécht's jealousy -- Music and chanting for healing -- The earliest Irish physicians -- The coming of Christianity -- More factual accounts -- Legal tracts -- Hindu-celtic connection -- Diet and nursing care -- Medical manuscripts -- Medical families -- Herbals through the centuries -- 18th-20th centuries -- National Folklore collection -- Chapter 3. Change and decline -- A changing worldview -- Famine: the great hunger -- A national system of primary education -- The Roman Catholic Church -- Economic progress -- Social hegemony -- Chapter 4. Utilising Irish indigenous medicine today -- Spring -- Imbolc/St. Brigid -- St Brigid's flower -- St Patrick's day -- Easter -- Valuable food and plants in spring -- Summer -- Bealtaine/May 1st -- St John's eve, June 23rd -- Valuable food and plants in summer -- Autumn -- Lughnasa -- Reek Sunday -- Puck fair -- Valuable food and plants in autumn -- Harvesting marshmallow -- Winter -- Halloween -- Valuable food and plants in winter -- Christmas -- January -- Chapter 5. Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index.