Founded in 2017 by Diarmuid Lyng (hurler and facilitator) and Siobhán de Paor (poet and celebrant) in Corca Duibhne, Wild Irish curates events for adults and children in the form of retreats, workshops, wilderness camps and rituals rooted in the Irish language, indigenous culture and sharing of ancient skills.  We create conditions in which people can reconnect with nature and our not-so-lost traditions.

Our focus is trifold: Language that feeds the mind, Skills which feed the body and Culture that feeds the soul. As hurler and poet and Irish speakers, we carry cultural flames. Rediscovering a native spiritual tradition, is part of the saothar(work), one that is rooted in a personal gnosis and which integrates our pagan roots and Celtic Gnostic history with our contemporary mysticism. In the Celtic fire festivals, sweatlodge, ancient pilgrimage and new sacred rites of passage, we are weaving the fabric of a collective expression of faith.

In Collaborating with a community of experts involved in nature-based skills, we serve the physical aspect of our reclamation. We believe that the revival of these skills goes hand-in-hand with the rising of the Irish language.

Our mission

We are part of a growing national movement of re-indigenation.

We recognise that a global severing of people from place has occurred. And that this severance is at the core of our environmental degradation and habitat loss. We recognise that the reconnection of people to Nature will cultivate the strong collective will needed to preserve our land and reverse the destruction of it.

Indigenous culture provides all the tools nessacary for this reconnection to occur.

Our values

Resilience building: Wild Irish focuses on using the language in the context of nature based skills, which will build resilient communities for a future of dwindling resources.

Community: We seek to cultivate a local and national community of peers who are motivated towards the preservation of language and culture and to create an Irish hub in South Kilkenny where we can gather for exchange and support in this goal.

Creativity: Within creative expression there is a prescription for many modern ails. That spirit of creativity invoked with the Irish language is the same spirit that moves us towards a more noble purpose in life.

Children: Páistí sa croílár: Though much of our work is with adults, we aspire to create adult learning spaces that make provision for children so that they can observe and absorb the skills that will make them resiliant for the world of tomorrow.  IN our Teacht Aniar project, we will model the sráidbhaile,the village, where children accompany and assist their parents at work. 

A bit about us

Siobhán de Paor is a file, an artist bard with an expression in ritual, performance and theatre. She hosts creative retreats for women.

Diarmuid Lyng is a hurler with a mission to rewild hurling and make it accessible to the community once again. He holds healing retreats with sweatlodge for men. And teambuilding and connection camps for sports teams and GAA clubs.