Cathal

Ireland's 32 Counties, Part 3: Carlow. I visited my uncle and aunt's dairy farm near Crettyard many times, but knew little about Brownshill Dolmen or Carlow's role in the 1798 Rebellion. Researching familiar places keeps revealing new history. #BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers #Ireland

Eire's 32 Counties, Part 2: Armagh. My father came from Forkhill, & Slieve Gullion remains one of my favourite places in Ireland. Ancient tombs, mythology & a remarkable landscape. There's much more to South Armagh than its recent history. www.facebook.com/share/p/1Dt5... #BookSky #Writing #Ireland

A journey through Ireland's 32 counties begins with Antrim. I've visited the Giant's Causeway, Bushmills & Carrick-a-Rede. Seeing Scotland across the water brought home centuries of shared Gaelic history. Tomorrow: Armagh. www.facebook.com/share/p/1AVb... #BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers

The latest Behind the Adventure podcast can be found here: cathalflynnpost.substack.com/p/the-stones... #Booksky #Orkney #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers #TheOrkneyReliquary

@ Orkney's Ring of Brodgar, I wondered why generations left those enormous stones undisturbed. By the time Vikings arrived, the monuments were already thousands of years old. Their encounters with that ancient landscape now influence The Orkney Reliquary. #BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers

My latest substack Behind the Adventure article. Discover the story behind my second novel the Atlantis Enigma. Discover the people and places I encountered on my research trip to Ireland's west coast. #BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers #writing cathalflynnpost.substack.com/p/from-the-a...

Inside Orkney's 5,000-year-old Maeshowe tomb, I learned that medieval Norse visitors carved names, boasts and jokes into its walls. Some sounded like schoolboys leaving graffiti! That unexpected connection between two eras influences The Orkney Reliquary. #BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers

Standing at Skara Brae, I imagined Norse sailors arriving in Orkney and eventually travelling to Ireland. Earl Sigurd of Orkney died at Clontarf in 1014, a battle involving Irish and Norse alliances on opposing sides. History for The Orkney Reliquary. #BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers

Researching The Orkney Reliquary led me to Orkney's Pictish past. At Brough of Birsay, archaeologists found evidence of both Pictish & Norse settlement. What happened when the two cultures met remains debated. Fascinating history behind the landscape. #BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers

Researching Viking Dublin led me to Wood Quay, where archaeologists uncovered remarkable evidence of medieval life. In 1978, some 20,000 people marched to save the site, yet much was eventually lost to development. A fascinating, frustrating chapter of Irish archaeology. #BookSky #Ireland #Vikings

I've explored Dublin's Christchurch, castle & walls, but its Viking history deserves a closer look. From a fortified base in 841 to a Norse-Irish trading town, Dublin's story combines conquest, commerce & cultural exchange. Dublin deserves another trip. #BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers

The first recorded Viking raids on Ireland date to 795, but even the location of one attack is debated: was “Rechru” Rathlin Island or Lambay? It's the sort of historical uncertainty that keeps drawing me into archaeology. #BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers #Vikings #AuthorsLife

The 3rd installment of my Behind the Adventure podcast is now live. cathalflynnpost.substack.com/p/atlantis-t... #Podcast #BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers #Atlantis #IrishMythology

Researching the Viking raid on Lindisfarne in 793, I discovered the monastery was founded by an Irish monk from Iona. Another fascinating connection between Irish, Scottish and Viking history, and more inspiration for my George Ryan novels. #BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers #Vikings

Read more about my recent trip to visit the Terry Fox Monument in Thunder Bay. substack.com/@cathalflynn... #TerryFox #Booksky #ThunderBay

⚔️ Vikings keep appearing in my research. Ireland, Orkney, Canada. Who were they before the raids? Farmers, traders, craftspeople & extraordinary sailors. Today begins my journey through Viking history beyond TV mythology. www.facebook.com/share/p/1DNT... #BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers

We lasted 1 night camping at 3°C on Lake Superior before finding a motel! 😂 Indigenous peoples lived, travelled & traded here for thousands of years. Their waterways were highways long before ours existed. An Ontario George Ryan thriller is taking shape. 🍁 #BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers

🇨🇦 An emotional stop at milepost 3339, where Terry Fox's Marathon of Hope ended in 1980. Now exploring Thunder Bay with my friend Doug Ball and goldendoodle Áine. Spectacular autumn colours, wildlife and inspiration for future George Ryan adventures. 🍁 #BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers

🍁 Oakville to Wawa with my longtime friend Doug Ball, the award-winning photographer behind iconic images of Stanfield and Trudeau! Spectacular Lake Superior scenery, with Thunder Bay ahead. 🇨🇦 And research for a future George Ryan thriller! #BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers #AuthorsLife

My grandfather in Kilkenny helped inspire my love of Irish history and mythology, and eventually my novels. So I dedicated my first Behind the Adventure podcast to him. Episode 1 explores Alice Kyteler, the River Nore and the Mórrígan. Listen: cathalflynnpost.substack.com #BookSky #IrishMythology

Relief that the Drumcree march was stopped. Anger that the Garvaghy Road dispute was reopened after 28 years. Keep the marches to their own communities. I remember the Troubles, and I don't want that history repeated. Peace requires respect for residents as well as marchers. #BookSky #IrishHistory

What if the dystopian future isn't coming? What if we're already building it? I'm considering a novel set in Canada, 2035. AI controls jobs, billionaires wield extraordinary power, and a divided population struggles to resist. Too close to reality for fiction? Would you read it? #BookSky #Dystopia

I got off at the wrong bus stop in Bundoran and wandered into a pub that wasn't even open. The owner, Arón Neilis, poured me a Guinness and later gave me a lift to my hostel. He then told me his story. Seven days later, I'd found a real-life character for The Donegal Cipher. #BookSky #IrishFiction

My father died when I was 4 months old. At 13, I went to Forkhill, South Armagh to meet his family. Soldiers, helicopters and checkpoints were everywhere. But so were grandparents, cousins, football and stories about my dad. I finally found my father's Ireland. #BookSky #Ireland #Forkhill #Armagh

I love Eire's west coast, but Kilkenny feels like home. Summer meant my mum's old farmhouse, hurling, ruins with my grandpa & banshee stories from my gran, who said I'd return to Ireland to live one day. I didn't. But George Ryan did. Maybe she was right. #BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers

I studied archaeology, yet learned surprisingly little about the Indigenous trade/travel networks that existed here before Europeans arrived. On Monday I'm heading to Thunder Bay to see the area for myself. Research for my game &, perhaps, a future novel. #BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers

🎙️ My 1st Podcast is live. Episode 1: The Witch of Kilkenny and the River Goddess Alice Kyteler, the 1324 Kilkenny witchcraft case, An Mórrígan, the River Nore and the older Irish beliefs behind the story. 🎧 Listen here: rb.gy/68oual #BookSky #BehindTheAdventure #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers

Yesterday: Vikings in Newfoundland. Today: follow the money. A Norwegian Viking hoard has passed 5,000 silver coins. Viking Age silver travelled extraordinary distances, linking Scandinavia with England, Europe and the Islamic world. The Vikings travelled. So did their silver. #BookSky #Archaeology

Columbus: 1492. Norse explorers: Newfoundland, AD 1021. We know the exact year because a solar storm in 993 left a radiocarbon marker in trees cut by Norse metal blades at L'Anse aux Meadows. The sagas said they sailed west. Archaeology proved it. Now: how much farther did they go? #BookSky #Canada

There's a lost prehistoric landscape beneath the North Sea. Doggerland once connected Britain to Europe. People lived there, crossed its rivers and hunted in its woodlands. Then rising seas swallowed it. Now archaeology is rebuilding the landscape using seismic maps and ancient DNA. #BookSky #writer

Stop ALL shipments going to Alaska on Canadian roads then. Fuck them. Campobello: Truck held at border carrying 1K bottles of spirits share.google/uPYbg2z6sofW...

Newgrange was built around 3200 BC. At the winter solstice, sunrise still travels through its roof box and down the passage into the chamber. We know what its builders constructed. We know it was deliberate. But we don't know exactly what it meant to them. That's archaeology. #BookSky #Newgrange

Legend says an Earl sleeps beneath Lough Gur, emerging every 7 years on a white horse. Archaeology tells another story: people have lived around this Limerick lake for 6,000+ years. Maybe ancient landscapes collect legends because generations keep needing to explain them. #BookSky #IrishFolklore

They danced on Sunday. So they were turned to stone. Irish folklore turned a Bronze Age stone circle in Wicklow into dancers, with one solitary stone becoming their piper. Archaeology tells us who built monuments. Folklore tells us how later people tried to explain them. #BookSky #Ireland #Folklore

Ireland has about 60,000 recorded ringforts. Archaeology: mostly early medieval farmsteads. Folklore: homes of the fairies. Disturb one and bad luck may follow. Did superstition help preserve some archaeological sites? Possibly. Either way, I'm not cutting down the tree. #BookSky #Ireland #RingForts

Drumcree was never just about a road. The Orange Order saw tradition and freedom to march. Many Gar... Read more: https://longer.blue/posts/9ulWfy9uxe

Drumcree was never just about a road. The Orange Order saw tradition and freedom to march. Many Gar... Read more: https://longer.blue/posts/9ulWfy9uxe

Irish legend makes Emain Macha the home of Cú Chulainn. Archaeology found something stranger. Around 95 BC, a huge timber structure was built there, deliberately filled with stone, burned and buried. It doesn't prove the hero existed. It proves his legendary home was extraordinary. #BookSky #Ireland

Four children transformed into swans for 900 years. Archaeology can't prove the Children of Lir. But Lough Derravaragh is real, surviving manuscripts preserve the tale, and people were still recording the legend from Irish storytellers in the 1930s. Why do some stories survive? #BookSky #Ireland

Queen Medb is supposedly buried beneath a huge cairn on Knocknarea. Problem: archaeology suggests it's about 5,000 years old, probably thousands of years too early for the legendary Medb. So who's inside? Nobody knows. The cairn has never been excavated. I love Irish archaeology. #BookSky #Ireland

Queen Medb supposedly launched the Táin from Rathcroghan. Can archaeology prove she existed? No. But Rathcroghan is very real: 240+ archaeological sites in a landscape important for thousands of years. Sometimes archaeology doesn't prove a legend. It explains why it belongs there. #BookSky #Ireland

Charge them double. Why would we sell it to you for less? You can join us as the 11th province, Premier dRumpf you #asshat. #FuckTrump #FuckTheUSA #dRumpf ##TrumpIsLyingToYou #Merica #Canada #Tariffs #TradeWar globalnews.ca/news/1206908...

Oisín returned from Tír na nÓg to discover centuries had passed and the Fianna were gone. Legend, not archaeology. Still versions were being recorded from storytellers in the 30s. Archaeology asks what happened. Folklore asks what people believed happened. #BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers

C U Next Tuesday... Is it November yet? Donald Trump scolds CNN anchor for covering him at the UN | Donald Trump | The Guardian share.google/D10XbPkX1foP...

Before Northern Ontario had highways, it had water highways. Lake Superior. The Kaministiquia. Lakes and portages travelled by Indigenous peoples long before fur traders arrived. For my research trip, I need to stop following roads and follow the water. #BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers

Thunder Bay was created in 1970. Its story wasn't. Anishinaabe history, ancient trade routes, the Kaministiquia, fur traders, railways, shipping and two rival cities all occupy the same landscape. My Northern Ontario research list is growing quickly. #BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers

And let's not forget McDonald's Drive Thru. Because #dRumpf puts the #POS in #POtuS. There is NOTHING a #Drone station and #Weapons #Arch needs more than the #GoldenArches #WashingtonGoldenArches #TriumphOfTheWill share.google/TlvA4A1l2wnK...

I called my Northern Ontario game The Copper Route. Turns out the name goes deeper than I realized. Thousands of years ago, Indigenous peoples around Lake Superior were already working native copper and moving it through vast exchange networks. Research trip just got more interesting. #BookSky

Let's FG Canadian Women’s Rugby! Top 2 teams in the world, head 2 head! We will take the draw and have 2 matches back on Canadian soil. Effing LOVE it! #RugbyCanada #RedRoses #WXV #WXV1 #CanVEng #EngVCan #Rugby #Canada #WomensRugby

A friend asked me to visit the Terry Fox Memorial in Thunder Bay. That may have accidentally become a research trip. I'm already building a game near Lake Superior and considering Northern Ontario for a future George Ryan novel. Time to explore. #BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers #Writing