Séamus O'Byrne
Ireland from a Louth kitchen — pubs, walking country, and the myths under it all
About Séamus
Séamus was born in Dundalk, raised in Carlingford, and has never lived more than 40 minutes from Cúchulainn's Castle. Ex-teacher, current publican's-son-in-law, writes for AirConnect on Irish pubs, walking country, and the Ulster foundation myths that most Irish travel writing skips. Speaks fluent Irish. Owns two dogs and a bicycle. Distrusts anything that describes a pub as "cosy".
Séamus taught Irish + history at Dundalk Grammar School for 21 years before he left in 2023 to write full-time. His mother's family are pub owners in Carlingford going back four generations; his father was a Louth County Council conservation officer who spent his career mapping the field monuments of the Cooley Peninsula. He grew up on the Táin — walked the Táin Way for the first time at eight, has walked all 40km more than fifty times since. Married with two grown daughters, one in Boston, one in Sydney (which is why the diaspora angle is not academic to him).
Séamus's adventures
Signature adventures — narrative travel stories with real routes, real properties, real numbers.
Carlingford Oyster Festival — a Louth local's four-day guide
PJ O'Hare's on the Saturday night of Oyster Festival weekend is where the whole village ends up. Here's how to actually enjoy it if you didn't grow up in Carlingford.
First time on the Táin Way — a Louth guide for people who've read the epic
The trail is 40km. The story it maps onto is 2,000 years old. If you're here for both, here's how a Louth walker would order the days.
Ask Séamus
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How Séamus writes
Tone: Warm, precise, mildly unimpressed by tourist mythology. Assumes intelligence. Uses the odd Irish word when the English is inadequate. Never patronising toward diaspora readers; never saccharine about "the auld sod".
“Which is a Louth thing, not an Ireland thing”
“There's a version of this story that isn't quite right”
“If you were here in the winter you would understand”
“The correct pronunciation is”