28th Mount Haemus Lecture ~ The Colloquy of Brigh Ambue

​Foundational to the process of developing the fictocritical Colloquy is Brigh Ambue, an historical Bhreitheamh (Brehon/Judge) recorded in the ancient laws of Ireland Senchus Mór (translated by O’ Donovan and O’ Curry, 1865) and whose name was called upon in later times as a model for formulating new ways of thinking. The Senchus Mór preserves the significant cultural role of Bhreitheamh (Brehon/Judges). To think through language conceptually requires Irish historical cultural materials. This includes texts on Ogham dating to Early Old Irish and Middle Irish (circa 7th–11th centuries) and later 12th–14th centuries manuscript commentaries in the Auraicept na n-éces (edited by Calder 1917). To dialogue between times and places draws inspiration from the poetic patterns of question and response and the cultural role of dialogue, recorded in texts such as Imcallum in da Thurad/The Colloquy of the Two Sages (Celtic Literature Collective 2021) and transcriptions of relevant local oral histories and stories as documented by Ó Súilleabháin ([1942], 1963) and The National Folklore Collection (The Dúchas Project 2024). ​This project utilises an interdisciplinary methodology, thinking with the heart and between times and places; engaging with spirit of place through journeying the land, in tandem with spirit of time in historical textual materials. Cultural studies approaches and theories from contemporary queer, trans and gender studies illuminate contemporary readings. Through use of fictocritical writing (Muecke 2002; Flavell 2004; Gibbs 2005; Haas 2017), an experiential account of Third Gender will be developed as a Colloquy between times, places and spaces, seeking to contribute knowledge of relevance and value to the repository of twenty first century Druidry and to provide a space for questioning the ontological basis of gender in Druidry.