The blessing of houses, water divining, traditional healing and other customs appear in Snowflake. Author, Louise Nealon will discuss this more with Dr. Garrett Fagan, UCD while Dr. Kelly Fitzgerald, UCD will also explain the origins of such traditions, and their relevance over time.

Garrett Fagan has taught at universities in Dublin and at Warwick University in the UK. He has interests in Renaissance literature, legal – literary relations and Anglo Irish writing. Garrett is teaching a course of four classes in April at Pearse St Library on this year’s One Dublin One Book choice, Snowflake.

Prof Kelly Fitzgerald is the Head of the School of Irish, Celtic Studies and Folklore as well as the Head of Irish Folklore & Ethnology in the School. She graduated in folklore and early (medieval) Irish at University College Dublin and defended her doctoral dissertation in 2009. It was titled: Literary and Oral Interaction in Irish Folklore. She has written on the intellectual history and development of Irish folkloristics and archives amongst other aspects of folklore studies and oral history. She sits on the editorial board of Béaloideas, The Journal of the Folklore Society of Ireland. She is also Chairperson of ANU Productions and a Director of the National Folklore Foundation. Recently she directed the collecting of oral histories in the development phase of Dublin’s Tenement Museum. She is currently overseeing the collecting of a number oral history initiatives in social housing communities in Dublin.