Dr. K. Mark Hilliard will return to Abbeyleix tonight to release his new book The Crow’s Enchanted Dance: The Phenomenology of Sacred Place and Sacred Space.
Under the new publishing branch of Moloney-O’Brien, with local Irish editorial advisors Kevin O’Brien and Marianne Moloney, the book will be launched in Laois one month before it is released in the United States.
Residents of Laois may remember Dr. Hilliard from the many summers he oversaw O’More-Ireland, bringing college students to live and study in Abbeyleix and throughout Ireland.
He recently retired from a long tenure at O’More College. O’More College was founded by Eloise O’More whose husband Rory O’More IV was a direct descendant of the O’More Clan—Ruairi O’ Mordha—from Laois. Dr. Hilliard worked with Rory O’More V for fourteen years.
Dr. Hilliard will be offering a free talk in the Abbeyleix Heritage House, and signed copies of his books will be for sale as he discusses his years of research on sacred place and sacred space.
The book is a collection of material derived from his personal journals while working and studying in Ireland, England, the Great Smoky Mountains, and on the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indian Reservation, and from his intensive research at the Bodleian Library at Oxford University.
In his talk, Dr. Hilliard will discuss the Cherokee dreamcatcher and sacred pipe ceremony; mystery, enchantment, and the imagination; the meaning of sacred; what is sacred place; what is sacred space; are sacred places and sacred spaces real; is a sacred place different than a sacred space; how do we connect with them; with what or with whom do we connect at a sacred place or space; and other aspects of the phenomenon of this enchanting topic.
Tonight, Dr Hillard will share how his twenty-year study of sacred place and space began with a dancing crow on the Cherokee Indian Reservation.
He will explain how it expanded during his years of bringing college students to study in County Laois, how he added scholarly study through documented textual research at Oxford University, and how the study ended with a recent visit by an Irish Hooded White Crow at his home near Nashville, Tennessee.
The event takes place at 8.30pm and will be his last presentation in Abbeyleix.
There will also be an art exhibit from the Abbeyleix FEC students involved with this summer’s sacred space class co-taught by Dr. Hilliard and Jock Nochol.
The presentation is a co-sponsorship between The Abbeyleix Further Education Centre and the Abbeyleix Heritage Centre.
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