ix: Book Club
Ireland’s Hidden Medicine (Kingston, Rosarie; Aeon Books, 2021) Reviewer: Stuart Milligan Having grown up hearing tales of the folklore of rural Ireland (my mother was from Co Mayo) and having been an enthusiastic advocate of holistic practice throughout my career in healthcare, I approached this book with eager anticipation. With increasing disillusionment over the modern ‘rat-race’ and growing concerns about the disjoint between humankind and our environment, there could scarcely be a better time for society to review, rediscover and reconnect with the wisdom and practices of our forebears, who were so much more in touch with the rhythms, cycles and transcendent mysteries of the natural world than we are. In this context, Rosarie Kingston’s book would appear to have come along at an ideal time. The book begins with a critique of medical practice, contrasting what we have come to know as ‘orthodox’ medicine with the range of practices gathered under the umbrella term of ‘indigenous’ medicine. It then goes on to provide a highly detailed and systematic review of the history of indigenous medicine in Ireland. A short chapter on developments in the 19th and 20th centuries follows, before what I found to be the most interesting and useful section: the ways in which Irish indigenous medicine can be used today. The book finishes with a highly impressive bibliography containing 264 entries. In her early chapters, the author systematically critiques a substantial amount of material and presents a comprehensive overview of the history of both biomedicine and indigenous medicine. There are references to classical texts, legal tracts, medical manuscripts and herbals from Ireland and around the world, including the teachings of Ancient Greece and Ayurvedic medicine. As well as these more conventional sources, the author draws heavily on folklore and legends. There are 46
fascinating insights into ancient Irish history, the roles played by doctors and other healers down the centuries, and the emergence of the hereditary medical families. Topics I found particularly interesting were the historic role of the practitioner of Irish indigenous medicine (a ‘person with a cure’), the importance of sacred spaces, and the often intangible but powerful influences of Irish mythology and Celtic Christianity. Some parts of the early chapters may be a little over-technical for the general reader, and at times I felt I was reading the literature review of a doctoral thesis. However, it is worth persevering through these sections, as they lead on to the fascinating exploration of numerous, often first-hand, accounts of cures, charms and other practices. It is at such points that the writer’s obvious enthusiasm for the ‘knowledge stored in a community’s stories, songs, folklore, proverbs, dance, myths, cultural values and rituals’ comes through most strongly. The later chapters develop the themes introduced earlier in the book, particularly
