Kevin Graal

Kevin uses this Twitter page to list his public storytelling events. For information about Kevin's storytelling work in schools, early years, projects and training, please visit his website: talkingtales.org

@johnstonglenn “To all mankind they were addressed, those cries for help still ringing in our ears! But at this place, at this moment of time, all mankind is us, whether we like it or not”.

Why is everyone staging Waiting for Godot right now? cbc.ca/arts/commotion…

@StevePa46290725 @wildflower_hour Soooo beautiful!

So excited to find this rare and incredibly beautiful plant for #WildflowerHour #GentianFamily challenge. Marsh Gentians (Gentiana pneumonanthe) in Dorset this weekend 23/8/25 @wildflower_hour

@PatrickHawe HAMM: Is it not time for my pain-killer? CLOV: Yes. HAMM: Ah! At last! Give it to me! Quick! (Pause.) CLOV: There’s no more pain-killer. (Pause.)

Nell & Nagg.

@PatrickHawe “Our minds are cold, empty, wordless, and without sound”.

With General Richard Mulcahy's oration at Collins' graveside. Here depicted. Now on view at NMI.

Arthur Griffith Michael Collins. A Pictorial History. Cover illustration by Harry Clarke and with numerous other illustrations. Dublin: Lester, circa 1922. 1/- net. Quarto. First edition. 62 pp.

@johnstonglenn “They were thrown together for 12 days, in which he persuaded her to stop worrying about Old Masters and concentrate on collecting modern artists”. John Walsh

Painter Pegeen Vail Guggenheim was born in Switzerland 100 years ago on August 18 1925. She's pictured with Samuel Beckett, who was a guest of her mother Peggy at Yew Tree Cottage in Sussex.

@PatrickHawe @RobLooseCannon Musha Jimmy - no surprise there!

@RobLooseCannon It was a nun they say invented barbed wire.' [U]

Kids born to unmarried mothers and orphans were illegally used for medical experiments. The Irish State, in partnership with pharmaceutical companies and the Catholic church, allowed thousands of children in institutional care to be used in vaccine and medical trials without consent. Starting in the 1930s Burroughs Wellcome (now part of GlaxoSmithKline) gave experimental diphtheria vaccines to 2,051 kids across Bessborough (Cork), Sean Ross Abbey (Tipperary)and orphanages in Dublin. No follow-up care was offered and the archives are mostly silent on side effects or deaths. In 1960, a "four-in-one" vaccine combining diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, and polio was tested on 58 children from five institutions. In 1965, another "five-in-one" vaccine was trialled at Bessborough. In 1970, nasal rubella vaccines were tested on 35 children in St Anne’s Industrial School (Booterstown) and Killucan, Westmeath, to observe its spread to unvaccinated contacts. This is a deeply questionable and potentially fatal method. In 1973, 19 children at Madonna House were given a DTP vaccine, while 30 others entered the “Trivax” trial. None of these trials met the ethical standards even of those times. Under Ireland’s own Therapeutic Substances Act 1932, these trials were unlicensed and illegal yet Ireland had no legal framework for medical trials until 1987. In the early 1970s, another scandal emerged when there were fears that Irish children had been administered a cattle vaccine, Tribovax T, in error due to a mix-up with Trivax, the human version. The Irish Medicines Board wasn’t informed at the time. Glaxo (GSK) later admitted “deep concern” but attributed the confusion to “transposed batch figures.” The consequences were far from trivial. Kenneth Best, one of the affected children, suffered severe brain damage after a 1969 vaccine batch and was awarded £2.7 million in damages. Of the 296 children thought to have received toxic doses, only one health board had attempted follow-up by 2001. The rest were left in the dark. The Thalidomide disaster which affected millions across the world had a distinctively Irish twist. While other countries pulled the drug from shelves in 1961, Ireland continued to sell it over-the-counter well into 1962, despite mounting evidence that it caused devastating birth defects. A 1962 report by Dr. Victoria Coffey documented malformed infants born during the drug's peak years, but a government and church muzzled Irish media never reported on the drug until August 1962. The episode eventually led to the founding of the Irish Medicines Board in 1966, too late for many. Fast-forward to the 21st century. Ireland’s faith in vaccine oversight was shaken once more during the swine flu pandemic of 2009, when Pandemrix, a vaccine developed by GSK, was linked to a spike in narcolepsy cases among children. A 2012 government report confirmed the vaccine increased the risk of narcolepsy 13.9 times. Over 90 Irish families were affected. Some children received two doses, including during a 2011 shortage, when old stock was reissued. GSK had notified the Health Service Executive of serious adverse events as early as December 2009, but the programme rolled on, unaltered. These scandals unfolded within a broader pattern of state and church-run institutional abuse, documented in the Ryan Report (2009) and the Mother& Baby Homes Commission (2021). High mortality rates plagued these institutions where an inexcusable 15% of all children in 18 institutions died over 80 years. The Commission confirmed 13 separate vaccine trials involving nearly 1,500 children. Efforts to identify those responsible have been hampered. Professor Patrick Meenan refused to cooperate with inquiries. Pharmaceutical companies acknowledged partial responsibility, citing poor record-keeping. The Kiely Report (2000) and the Mother and Baby Homes Report (2021) confirmed key facts but offered little redress.

@StevePa46290725 @wildflower_hour “… dreadful trade”

What a stunning plant, Rock Samphire at Cogden (part of Chesil) Beach in Dorset for #ByTheSea #WildflowerHour @wildflower_hour

@PatrickHawe @johnstonglenn … ineluctable!

@johnstonglenn 'A very short space of time through very short times of space. Five, six: the nacheinander.' [U]

OTD 100 years ago

@Tree_Folklore They pull the little blossom threads From out the knapweeds button heads And put the husk wi many a smile In their white bosoms for awhile ... From John Clare's The Shepherds Calendar

Often mistaken for a thistle, Knapweed speckles Ireland's meadows with its stunning amethyst-like flowers 💜 It was once used in love magic whereby a woman would place a Knapweed bud in the pocket if her blouse or coat 🌿 If the bud bloomed then she would surely soon meet her future husband 🪻✨ #Folk

The campaign for #oracy education continues … theguardian.com/education/2025…

@Tree_Folklore Seems kinda miraculous! Here's a little story about an Oak Tree & how Nature always gets everything just about right.

New Oak leaves, especially those on saplings, are often a rich reddy brown colour 🌿 The cells of new leaves are delicate and in need of protection and the red colour is caused by the presence of 'anthocyanins'. These protect the developing leaves against damage from UV light and may even deter insects from trying to eat them ☀️🪲

@Pergament_F “Think you're escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home.”

"Kyrie! The radiance of the intellect. I ought to profess Greek, the language of the mind." J.Joyce, "Ulysses"

@JamesJoyceCentr @tsurumi_univ “Strings in the earth and air …” 🎶

Please join us on Friday, August 8th at 6.30pm for a talk about James Joyce's book of poetry "Chamber Music" by Prof. Martin Connolly from @tsurumi_univ. The event is free but booking is essential. We hope to see you there. eventbrite.ie/e/what-chamber…

@Tree_Folklore The yellow lad!

Some once believed that the appearance of Ragwort meant that it was time to begin the harvest 🌼☀️ It is deeply entwined in Irish folklore and is essential to the survival of the insects upon which we rely 🐝🦋 One night, beneath the full moon, a man decided to take a shortcut through a Ragwort filled meadow but as soon as he hopped the fence he saw that the field was filled with music and fairies 🎶🧚🏻 Each pulled up a Ragwort flower and bid that he do the same. To his astonishment the flowers transformed into beautiful white horses 🐎 They warned him that he must not speak or make a sound lest he break the spell and they took off through the night on their white fairy horses ✨ As they flew across the breaking waves where Ireland meets the Atlantic the man gasped. The horse immediately disappeared and he fell to the rocky shore below 🌊🌕

@Tree_Folklore O Rowan Tree!

@Tree_Folklore Ah now I remember: in Ireland Sloe is called Blackthorn.

@Tree_Folklore Isn’t Whitethorn the prunus Sloe?

Known in Ireland as Sceach gheal, the Hawthorn tree has many names 🌳☘️ Amongst them are Whitethorn, Mayblossom and even the Butcher's Larder 💮🍖 One of these names, the Quickthorn, which is often attributed to the fact that the tree takes easily from cuttings and grows quickly....but... ...in Ireland it had another reference. For if a baby animal such as a calf or lamb was born early then the afterbirth would be hung in the branches of the Quickthorn whose magic would allow the infant to grow quickly and healthily 🍒🌸

@bmay “I think we invent jargon because it saves times talking to one another”. John Maynard Smith

There's so much new corporate parlance these days that I'm seriously worried if you 'lean in' to something whilst also 'pivoting' to it you might derail your 'level-set' and end up 'circling back' into the 'deep dive' from where you began. Please, in the name of God, stop it.

@BoylanRoger “Do you not remember? We nearly hanged ourselves from it. But you wouldn't. Do you not remember?”

Samuel Beckett in Alberto Giacometti's studio, admiring Giacometti's sculpture of a tree for "Waiting for Godot," 1961.

Class 11 are having a great afternoon of story telling with Kevin Graal @KevinGraal