🎓 'Ollave or Doctor'

I'm blown away by the awesome intensity of the Bardic schools in 7th century Ireland.

I like to muse about the characters and careers of my distant ancestors.

A 7th century Irish bard in the style of the Book of Kells - by Stable Diffusion.

I figure if any of them are royalty, or high officials I’d know about it. Families cling to the smallest scraps of that kind of thing. I know the Irish side of my family descends from a rather successful retailer a few generations back. Owners of a family home that was big enough to be converted into a senior care facility a couple of generations later.

But before that? I’m impressed by the sheer endurance of the genes that make me up. Survivors and thrivers amidst wars, plagues, purges and all the other slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

On the male side, I figure that if there’s any nobility involved, then I’m likely descended from a long line of troublesome ‘third sons’. The first son inherits the estate, the second becomes a priest and the third, landless son is the one finds himself shipped out to the colonies - either a…