Healers and Healing

(2.5,3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Taught as IRFL20050 Healers and Healing at UCD. This course will look at folk medicine in Ireland, in the past and present. Irish popular tradition includes a very great richness of material on this subject, encompassing a wide range of healing agents and media, from herbal remedies to holy wells to particular individuals who were credited with special powers. The importance of ritual practice will be examined and particular attention will be paid to the position of the healer in the community. The remarkable resilience of popular healing practices will be explored, and the course will attempt to investigate the nature of the healing process itself. Assignment: Two 1200-1500 word assignments; Examination: One two-hour paper.