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Ann Mc Donald

@ann_mc_donald

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Yoga Teacher ,
Singer of songs
and Sacred chants
Writer ,
Wisdom healing circles for Women
Shamanism
Reiki Master ,
Sea swimmer
A Calling Home

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🍁 A new season is a lovely reminder to slow down and check in with yourself. 🙏🏼

With busy days, work, family and everything else life brings, it’s easy to keep putting yourself last.

Sometimes all you need is one hour to step away from the busyness, move your body, breathe, and connect back to yourself. 🤎🧡

This October, make a little time for YOU.

Come and join us at Dundalk Yoga Collective for a class that gives you space to pause, breathe, move and simply be.

✨ All levels welcome
🍂 No experience needed for many of our classes
🧡 A warm, welcoming space to take some time for yourself

Make time for yourself this autumn. 🍁
📲 Book your place: 086 229 6417

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To many, he’s just a dog, but to me, he’s the coolest little thing I own. 🥹🤎 So yes, he’s available for sound baths and live singing sessions if you’re ever in need. 💁🏼‍♀️ LOL.
Goji living his best life, lushing out and singing along to @ann_mc_donald 's beautiful music. 🎶🐶✨

#dogsofinstagram #DogMom #DogLovers #DogsOfIG #PawfectCompanion

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🌸 My Five Favourites: Yoga Themed 🌸

~Asanas~
•Ustrasana (camel pose): a challenging backbend, I love the vulnerability yet power that this asana holds.
•Nataranjasana (dancer’s pose): a playful, strikingly beautiful asana.
•Garudasana (eagle pose): squeezing everything together, this asana is fantastic for releasing frustration and for focus. One of my favourites after a frantic day.
•Parsvottanasana (pyramid pose): Feels wonderful. Loosens tight hamstrings and hips.
•Sarvangasana (shoulder stand): Deeply meditative. Calming. Helps with anxiety.

~Books~
•The Tree of Yoga by B.K.S. Iyengar: one of the first yoga books I ever read. An in depth overview of yoga, and pieces all the 8 limbs together, connecting them to everyday life.
•The Stories Behind The Poses by Dr Raj Balkaran: If you ever wanted to know more about the origins and stories behind the yoga asanas, this book gives great insight.
•Tantric Visions of The Divine Feminine by David Kinsley: A recent purchase that I read in a day, an excellent overview of the 10 Mahavidyas. A must read for anyone with an interest in Tantra.
•The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by Sri Swami Satchidananda: The essential and foundational guide to yoga and yogic philosophy.
•Eastern Body Western Mind by Anodea Judith: If you’re interested in learning about the subtle body and the chakra system, this book is like an encyclopaedia. Fascinating and a great tool for building yoga classes around the chakras.

~Songs for yoga class~
•A Calling Home by @ann_mc_donald : Soothing, calming and ideal for Savasana.
•Passage by Garth Stevenson: Another Savasana favourite. Emotive and visual.
•Edge Hill by @groovearmada Not an artist you’d expect in a yoga playlist but this vibes track is one of my favourites for a deeply grounding practice.
•Eleven by Eskimotion: Slow, mindful and intentional. Perfect for winding down a practice or a slow flow.
•Unwinding by @cellomano : Something about yoga and cello paired together just works so well. I have a lot of Cellomano in my various playlists, but this piece of music in particular is so suited to mindful movement and aids slowing down.

Continued in comments #yoga #yogalife #yogateacher

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What an honour to be among this constellation of headliners. ✨

@theyogapicnic turns five this year and what began as a small gathering has become one of Ireland’s biggest wellness festivals, drawing thousands from across Ireland, Europe and beyond, with teachers and presenters flying in from all over the world.

But it’s the people and the place that keep it so dear to mo chroí, my heart.

Lilliput House, the lake and forest at Lough Ennell, the draíocht the Yoga Picnic team weave feels like stepping into a healing portal, a welcome respite from the chaos and tumult of these times.

There’s something magical about the tuatha who show up here. A convergence of grounded, love-filled hearts, with a warmth and recognition I haven’t felt at any other festival. And one that resources me deeply for the year ahead.

It has been a highlight of my year every year since it began, and to share the field with such luminaries, teachers and friends is a joy I don’t take lightly: @marikennedywisdom @michaelryan_thewayhome @jack_harrison_yoga_music @kitty_maguire_womb_therapist @trinityyogawithdebs @blossomingbreath @jenny.ni.ruiseil @aronhugoh @celineflorence.ie @ann_mc_donald @noeleenshannonyoga @helencolganhealingheart @fionaguiheen @alyceharrisonyoga @katyharrisonyoga Mary Gardiner and so many more…

I have never been as excited to share anything as I am to bring what I’ve been preparing for our Yoga Picnic community.

Something profound is weaving through the creating of it, more than I can quite put into words yet ✨

But I will share details on these new teachings and my offering for this years Yoga Picnic in coming days.

Tickets will most likely sell out, so do get yours soon if you’re hoping to join us. 🌾

🗓️ July 4th 2026
📍 Lilliput House, Westmeath
🎟️ Tickets via the link in @theyogapicnic bio

#imbasforosnai #irishwisdom #ireland #yoga #festival

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Wishing you all a bright and fiery Bealtaine! As the Celtic summer begins, may this season spark new growth, passion, and light within you. Just like the spiral of life, we move forward with the flame of hope and joy. Happy Bealtaine, everyone! 🔥🌿

#Bealtaine
#Beltane
#MayDay
#CelticTraditions
#CelticSpirituality
WheelOfTheYear
SacredSeasons
FireFestival
EarthWisdom
SpiralEnergy
YogaIreland
IrishYoga
MindfulLiving
EnergyOfNature
NewBeginnings
celticsoulyoga

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💫 Line up reveal 💫

We are thrilled to announce that Ann Mc Donald @ann_mc_donald will be joining our line up again this year.

Ann is an Inspirational Singer, Yoga Teacher, Writer, Healer and Shamanic practitioner. From the place between worlds Ann weaves Ancient wisdom teachings, traditions and present moment awareness simply into being. From this place of deep connection she brings into being the sounds and chants that are woven into our beautiful wild and ancient landscapes and the Soul songs that bring us Home. Healing energies that stem from the heart and soul of who we truly are.

She weaves into her yoga classes, gatherings and healing circles, sounds chants and songs and a deep and simple healing presence. Awakening within us a sense of knowing and belonging. A Calling Home a chant that is known and shared around the world has been a gift to share, a deep calling from the heart and soul of all that is Calling us Home. She has new songs and poetry that are soon to be released. Some of which will be shared at The Yoga Picnic. Nature is her Muse.

🗓️July 4th 2026
📍Lilliput House, Westmeath

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Today was a day for pilgrimage.

A threshold between what is ending
and what is being born.

A day to honour the openings and to bless the closings.

To practice deep listening beneath the noise. And the grim spectacle of late stage everything

There is fierce beauty here. And there is devastation.

Empires tremble
And the death rattle of patriarchy is near

I find myself counting both joys and sorrows as if they are prayer beads on a rosary

The joyful and sorrowful mysteries
And so much unresolved

I am so grateful for this wild place. I return here often to soothe my heart.

Today this is my prayer
May all beings be safe
May all beings know peace

And may the Force move through us
as tender courage
and as fierce love.

Thank you @ann_mc_donald as always for your gifts

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This essay is an offering. A call to Dán, to the soul-gift and destiny in each of us that knows how to awaken ⟢

Imbas Forosnai is the light born of the dark, and Brigid is the light that comes from the dark: coherence emerging from chaos ꩜

This is why Brigid, and her gift of Imbas Forosnai, feel so archetypal now.

They do not bypass darkness or deny it. They honour it. They alchemise it.

They give it meaning, and allow it to become the fertile condition from which a new paradigm can arise.

By embodying Imbas at this time,
we are midwifing a new way of being:
sometimes a new world,
sometimes simply a truer version of ourselves.

In doing so, we reclaim one of our most life-giving, life-affirming, and empowering siddhis of our lineage — a divine gift once central to how Irish society flourished, then suppressed, oppressed, and even outlawed by patriarchy.

This is the gift that lets wounds, grief, and sorrow transform into wisdom, growth, and life. Cailleach into Brigid. Winter to Spring. Death into becoming.

My first essay on Substack:

The Night a Light and was Born
- on darkness, devotion, and bearing Brigid’s flame

is for anyone who feels stuck, paralysed, or convinced their, or our, darkness is hopeless.

It is for anyone desiring to shine in the light of their Dán.

May each word be a rose petal laid gently at your feet, nudging you, softly, toward the light already forming 🌹

Is sa dorchadas a saolaítear an solas.
Out of darkness, light is born.

Le grá,
Laura ♡

🔗 Link in b!o

#imbasforosnai #brigid #ireland #poetry #mythology

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Performing Is Mise Bríd at the @3arenadublin for @hotpressmagazine ‘s History in the Making fiftieth anniversary concert was an initiation.

I am not the same person I was before it — not only because of the large stage, but because of what I had to overcome to stand on it.

What brought me there wasn’t just poetry or activism, but years of illness, healing, grief, and a deep reckoning with unworthiness — personal shadows that mirror those many of us in Ireland still carry after generations of silence, shame, and survival.

Those shadows certainly rose in the days leading up to the show.

To move through them, I knew that the degree to which I could hold and love myself through the darkness would be the degree to which Brigid’s light could shine through me that night.

Standing at the mouth of the Liffey, with Sinéad O’Connor’s spirit close, and a lineage of women beside me, behind me, and before me, I felt something shift — in myself, and in us. A remembering of voice. A returning of light. A threshold crossed.

No longer an imposter.
No longer inferior.
No longer undeserving.

But rooted among kin,
in service to something far greater than myself,
and ready.

Hot Press has helped carry Irish voices forward for five decades — and this night felt like stepping into that living lineage, alongside artists who have shaped a more open, courageous Ireland.

I’ve written a deeply personal reflection on what unfolded before, during, and after this performance — weaving healing, Imbas Forosnai, the Cailleach’s dark, Brigid’s light, and Ireland’s ongoing emergence.

You can read the full essay now on Substack (link in bio).

Here is the performance. May it reach you where you need it.

Is sa dorchadas a saolaítear an solas.
(It is in darkness that light is born.)

Buíochas ó chroí to my people who held me through - mo mháthair, m’athair, mo ghrá @thegoldkerryman , mo anam chairde @ainetyrrellmusic @kathyscott @benmaccaoiltepoet @oconnortreacy @trinityyogawithdebs @garydunneinsta & more 🙏🏽

Le grá,
Laura x

🎵 Buíochas ó chroí to Banríon @ann_mc_donald and her sacred chant A Calling Home, through which Is Mise Bríd was conceived, birthed, and continues to give life.

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I set out to remind people that my poem Is Mise Bríd commissioned by @kildarecountycouncil during my time as @herstory_ireland Poet in Residence is freely available to anyone sharing Brigid’s light.

As I was preparing this post, 2 banríona in California tagged me in a stunning yoga immersion & art installation based on my re-imagined Bóinn story.

It struck me that my story of Brigid’s birth arose in the same light & energy as Is Mise Bríd & is therefore also an offering free to all who wish to share Brigid’s energy.

Just as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to raise our re-membered stories, lifting them from patriarchal distortion, through the memory of our bones & into lived experience.

As each woman witnesses, embodies & carries these stories, something powerful happens: the imbas codes strengthen, the magic expands, & culture is reclaimed one heart at a time.

I also realised that all the words that came through me while campaigning to make Brigid’s Day a national holiday arrived through Imbas Forosnai.

I now offer them freely to all who are continuing this work, as Brigid’s Day becomes the national & global cultural shift it is meant to be.

Much of that campaigning happened while I was seriously ill with Lyme disease, cognitively & physically impaired. Yet Imbas remained — often the only faculty I had — along with an intent to serve collective & personal healing.

Looking back, these words carried far beyond anything I could have planned allowing me to be a voice for Brigid, M&BH survivors & mná na hÉireann nationally & globally.

I share these moments as an offering to support your dán & as a reminder: when it feels like we are losing everything, it may be the moment we are becoming all we are meant to be.

After all — isn’t that Cailleach giving way to Brigid, winter to spring, death to new life?

🔗 Is Mise Bríd video, transcript & translations, Brigid: Rebirth of the Mother, Finding Brigid & articles in bio

✨ Imbolc appearances
31/1 @readytoberealpodcast live podcast with @sileseoige @abbeychurch.ie for @brigit_dublin
4/2 Vigil M&B Homes, Dublin
6/2 Making History @hotpressmagazine @3arenadublin

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As the sun sets on the luminous presidency of poet Michael D. Higgins + First Lady Sabina, I share this moment where destiny and dán conspired to blow many hearts open on Brigid’s Day 2023, and continues to blow my mind still.

To honour @herstory_ireland ‘s leadership in the campaign to make Brigid’s Day a national holiday, I was invited as poet-in-residence to perform Is Mise Bríd at the Nothing Compares concert, curated by @kildarecountycouncil + @hotpressmagazine, inaugurating Brigid’s first national holiday.

It came at the end of a whirlwind of interviews and recordings. I was exhausted - raw from Lyme healing - and backstage, terrified I’d forget the words, or worse.

Then I saw Sabina in the front row, and my heart burst open.

In that instant, I forgot myself and listened only for the words that wanted to be spoken, words to honour the presidency of Michael D. and Sabina.

With the full-body shivers of spirit moving through me, I walked onstage in deep reverence, knowing I was stepping into a lost tradition, where the file, the poet, would praise the High King when such praise was truly deserved.

As I spoke, the theatre in Naas filled with an unmistakable power. @ann_mc_donald’s chant A Calling Home playing as if Brigid Herself was breathing through the room.

After my dedication, before the poem, Sabina and I locked eyes and were drawn into a spontaneous embrace, heart to heart, hand to back.

What followed was among the most sacred experiences of my life. Memory dissolved. Flow took over. Brigid took over.

This level of draíocht - of living magic - can only arise in the presence of pure love.

Thank you, President Michael D. and First Lady Sabina, for embodying it so beautifully.

May you be wrapped in Brigid’s cloak always, and may Her flame continue to burn brightly in your hearts.

Le Grá
Laura

📽️ my Brigid’s campaign coconspirator and sister @oconnortreacy did more than film this moment, she carried Brigid’s flame from @solasbhride_clg and held space, for this imbas to flow as it did, as She always does with grace, strength and groundedness.

#presidentmichaeldhiggins #michaeldhiggins #sabinahiggins #imbasforosnai #brigidsday #brigid

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It's an honour to welcome @ann_mc_donald a bean feasa (wise woman) as a wisdom carrier & trusted guide on this years Samhain to Imbolg container, 'The Call of the Cailleach' A Journey Beyond the Veil.

Ann Mc Donald is a Singer,Yoga Teacher, Writer of songs and Poetry, Space holder, Herbalist and Shamanic practitioner.

From the place between worlds, she weaves ancient wisdom teachings traditions and present moment awareness simply into being .

From this place of deep connections she brings into being the sounds and chants that are woven into our beautiful wild and ancient landscapes.

Healing energies that stem from the heart and soul of who we truly are, singing the souls songs that call us home.

Awakening within us a sense of knowing and belonging .

Letting go and remembering.

As we feel the call of the Cailleach at this time of Samhain we feel the calling and the deepening of the journey inwards.

A Calling Home a chant that has spread her wings and been a blessing to share has now been met by Ann’s new song Remembering.

Ann will share from the heart her journey through the gifts of song and story, her journey through Love, Loss, Grief, letting go and Remembering, A Calling Home.

It is a deep blessing to welcome Ann to our space.

A woman I deeply respect and honour for her unwavering devotion, grace and strength which is expressed so potently in her songs, words and the ways she moves through this blessed Earth.

Our journey begins one week from today, on the Samhain full moon Wednesday 5th of November.

More info over in BIO. 🌹

🖤

#remembering #wisdom #souls #song #calling #home #elder #wise #woman

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