Media Watch

Our Media pages exist to bring together media items that could be of interest to anyone on a druid path. We intend it to be an important resource by listing both topical items and also having an archive section where information about past events can be accessed.

For this section to be effective it is hoped that members will forward links of any reports or articles they may find in magazines or newspapers and listings of any interesting TV or radio programs. Especially welcome would be ‘Good News’ stories. These could be of international, national, or local importance and not necessarily druid or pagan based, anything that will raise people’s spirits and let them remember that this is still a beautiful world.

Please send links to mediawatch

Inclusion of a link in no way implies agreement of The Druid Network with the contents of that article. Nor do we attempt to provide a comprehensive listing. Rather we try to include articles from the less known publications so that a broader view of what is being discussed in the media world-wide may be given.

 

Topical links are given below, older media links are given here

 

Glastonbury Weather Forecast: What Do The Druids Think?
The Quietus 25/06/09

With everyone fretting about this year's Glastonbury weather forecast, The Quietus decided to steer away from conventional temperature-related advice and seek a more well-rounded, expert opinion.

Full Article

Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain by Ronald Hutton
Times Online 21/06/09

Considering how little is known about them, the druids have been oddly pervasive in British life at all levels of society. The Queen has been a druid since 1946 when she was inducted into the Welsh Gorsedd of Bards, which organises the National Eisteddfod, and the present Archbishop of Canterbury followed suit in 2002. Druids hang around the new-age fringe, celebrating solstices at Stonehenge and annoying the archeologists with their historically baseless rituals. Somewhere in between are the respectable middle- aged men who preside over the Gorsedd in white robes, looking to the untutored eye like a pagan branch of the Rotary Club. In the 16th century, scholars wrongly credited druids with founding Cambridge University and, in the late 19th it was a test case involving a druid, William Price, that established the legality of cremation. But what a druid is, who historic druids were and what they have to do with the druids of today are questions to which there are no easy or uncontroversial answers.

Full Article

Huge Pre-Stonehenge Complex Found via "Crop Circles"
National Geographic News 15/06/09

Given away by strange, crop circle-like formations seen from the air, a huge prehistoric ceremonial complex discovered in southern England has taken archaeologists by surprise.

Full Article

Cliff erosion on Golden Cap estate exposes Bronze Age settlement
Bridport News - 21/05/09

ARCHAEOLGOISTS working on the National Trust’s Golden Cap Estate have uncovered a rare find – a Neolithic settlement exposed by cliff erosion.

Full Article Here

English Heritage Welcomes Stonehenge Decision
13/5/09

English Heritage welcomed the Government's decision today (13th May 2009) to go ahead with new visitor facilities for Stonehenge. Together with integrated proposals to close the A344, this decision will improve the monument’s setting and presentation to visitors.

Full Article

Unlocking Stonehenge's secrets

By Emma Parkins
BBC Timewatch 31/3/08

Stonehenge is a British wonder of the ancient world - it's also as familiar a part of our landscape as the White Cliffs of Dover.

It's such an iconic sight, we tend to forget that two fundamental questions remain - when was it built and what was it for?

For hundreds of years, these questions have intrigued and frustrated antiquarians and visitors alike.
Remarkably, in the next fortnight, we might just have the beginning of some answers.

On Monday, the first excavation to take place at Stonehenge in nearly half a century will start.

Full Article

Follow the dig HERE 

Man building Stonehenge 'because he can'
HeraldSun.com.au - 25/3/08

FORGET about visiting Stonehenge in England - a replica of the prehistoric monument is to be built in Western Australia.

Brewer Ross Smith plans to recreate the original Stonehenge on his property at Margaret River in time for the next summer solstice on December 21. Full Article

 

Stonehenge - "The Final Insult"
The Guardian - 05/03/08

It is our greatest monument, on a par with the pyramids. But soon it will be plagued by Tesco juggernauts. Why don't we care about Stonehenge? Jonathan Jones finds out - Full Article 

'Big shift' to rail urged for UK
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website

The UK needs a "modal shift" from road to rail if greenhouse gas emissions from transport are to be curbed, a report concludes.

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) says changes are needed to government policies on transport pricing, energy and town planning.
Full Article 

Profits and Principles
The Guardian - 21/02/08

More people are putting their money into ethical funds. But many might be shocked to learn how it's being invested. Full Article

Child let off school for pagan festival
Telegraph - 16/02/08

A primary school allowed a mother to take her child out of lessons to attend a summer festival because the family say they are pagans.
Full Article

The forces of nature
New Statesman - 14/02/08
an article posted by Louise Sutherland

As a child I was deeply inspired by David Attenborough, Diane Fossey and Jean-Michel Cousteau. It was my admiration of them and what they achieved that made me want to work in conservation. I’m very lucky to work in this field and I’m still passionate about it. How does studying Druidry affect this? Although it wasn’t a conscious decision I made, the two are so interwoven it’s hard to pick the reasons apart to explain it.
Full Article

Gone with the wind on 'kite ship'
BBC News - Jan 23 2008

There is something rather magical about being up on deck of a giant cargo ship as it pushes its way out to sea.
Ten thousand tonnes of metal heaving through the water, the ship's giant masts glistening in the winter sun.

But there is something even more magical about being aboard MS Beluga SkySails. Full Article

Celtic Land of Dead ‘lies in North Wales'
Daily Post - Dec 24 2007

A NINETEENTH century map in a North Wales town hall could unravel one of Celtic history's most enduring mysteries - the location of the legendary Land of the Dead. Full Article

Purple paint vandals target Tor
BBC - 1 October 2007

The tower on top of Glastonbury Tor in Somerset has been covered in purple paint and had graffiti daubed on its flagstones. Full Article

'We won't wear it' - pagans furious with Trinny and Susannah
Independent | 5th July 2007

They are masters of the humdrum television makeover, but Trinny and Susannah's latest target has exposed them to the wrath of pagan campaigners. The stylists, who were recording the latest series of Trinny and Susannah Undress the Nation, decided to conduct an unorthodox sex change on the East Sussex pagan symbol, the Long Man of Wilmington. Full Article

Like happy solstice, bru
IOL | 21 June 2007

Salisbury Plain - More than 24 000 people from druids to fans heading for a nearby music festival hailed the sun rising on the longest day of the year on Thursday at Britain's ancient Stonehenge monument. Full Article

Dawn of the summer
The Sun | 21 June 2007

MODERN-DAY druids, pagans and partygoers gathered at Stonehenge to watch the dawn break on the longest day of the year. Full Article

Extra police officers are to patrol the streets of Brighton on nights when there is a full moon. Full Article

Ancient forest threatened by airport expansion bid
The Independent | 29 May 2007

From Plantagenet hunting parties to the 250,000 ramblers who now stroll among its ancient trees, Hatfield Forest has coexisted with humanity for generations without coming to much harm.But this week the forest, among the last remaining of its type in Europe, faces what its custodians at the National Trust say is the sternest test yet of its survival, the ever-increasing thirst for air travel. Full Article

Jody has gone back to her roots and embraced Druidism
Peterborough ET | 25th May 2007

DRUIDISM is a religion that predates Christianity and emphasises getting in tune with the natural world.
Jemma Walton met the guardian of the Peterborough-based Druid Grove of Alban Eiler and asked her about Bardic Chairs, Eisteddfods and walking in the woods. Full Article

Ministers set out plan for waste
BBC News |May 24, 2007

The government is set to unveil a waste strategy that could see rewards for households which recycle more, and conversion of food waste into fuel. Full Article

Nuclear power is needed to help reduce carbon emissions and to ensure that the UK has secure energy supplies in the future, the prime minister has said. Full Article

Tunnel to reopen at mystery hill
BBC| May 11, 2007

Engineers are to reopen a tunnel that goes deep inside the ancient monument of Silbury Hill in Wiltshire. - Full article here: Note the video links.

Aboriginal remains fight resolved
BBC | May 10, 2007