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INTRODUCTION

It is my experience in studying our historical and quasi-historical legends, and in the best of all ways, namely by going over the actual ground where they are alleged to have happened, that wherever you are on sure ground there is a remarkable appropriateness between the episodes and the incidents of the tales and their topographical setting. The story told whether actual happenings or a conflation of legends, or a conscious invention, suits the geography and the terrain.

–Henry Morris, First Battle of Magh Tuiredh, JRSAI, 1928.

The purpose of this book is to provide a guide to readers who would like to become familiar with those places associated with early Irish history and mythology. In Ireland, the link between place and myth is strong. The hundreds of dolmens and ring forts associated with the love story of Diarmuid and Gráinne, for example, keep this medieval tale alive, just as ‘The Cave of the Otherworld’ near Tulsk in Co. Roscommon connects us to the earliest rites of samain, a festival that is still with us in the shape of Hallowe’en; or there is Glenasmole on the borders of Dublin and Wicklow, where Oisín, the son of Finn mac Cumhail, fell from his horse on his return from Tír na nÓg, having set out 300 years previously from Glenbeigh Strand in Co. Kerry.

Like most mythologies, Irish mythology has a mythos or a sacred narrative and a religio, that which binds members by vows and rules. In the Irish context, the mythos is the strongest component and the religio is the weakest. This means that pre-Christian Ireland did not have a religion as such, but this apparent absence of structure does not mean that there were no beliefs of a spiritual nature. The island receives its name from Ériu, a goddess whose name has been translated to mean ‘regular traveller of the heavens’. Generally, the Irish for Ireland is Éire, and this is the version that you will find on government papers and on all postage stamps. However, most goddesses are to be found in threes, and Ériu shares a triad with Banba and Fódla; Banba represents the warrior aspect of Ireland, while Fódla represents Ireland in the poetic or spiritual sense, and Ériu is the mother goddess who nurtures the island.

The coming of Christianity in the mid-fifth century brought an end to many ancient rites and the mythology surrounding them. Some ancient ceremonies, however, managed to survive quite late, such as those surrounding the inauguration of a king, and many of the stories from prehistory were preserved in manuscripts written by monks in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The fruit of their work can be seen today in such works as the Book of Leinster, a wide-ranging compilation containing Lebor Gabála Érenn (‘The Book of Invasions’) and the Táin Bó Cuailigne (‘The Cattle Raid of Cooley’), or the Book of the Dun Cow (Lebor na hUidre), which also contains a version of the Táin as well as many other stories about the central character of Irish myth, Cú Chulainn. Mention must also be made of two later sources: the Annals of the Four Masters, a chronicle with entries stretching back to the Deluge (calculated as 2,242 years after creation) written in the seventeenth century and based on previous annals, and the great seminal work by Geoffrey Keating from the same century, Foras Feasa ar Éirinn, which retold many of the ancient tales in establishing an approach to Irish history from a native point of view as a counter-balance against Tudor propaganda.

Many of the stories find their genesis during the Iron Age, a time when ash, elm, and oak began to appear in greater numbers. Grass and bracken also increased, as did cereals. Around the Late Iron Age, agriculture was renewed. The Bronze Age artefacts resulting from the copper mines of west Cork, which influenced the Bronze Age throughout Europe, began to be replaced by Iron Age implements, which influenced agriculture and supplied the weaponry which led to the expansion of tribes or clans. This also led to a greater number of tribes seeking territorial expansion throughout the island, and, in prehistory as in history, the dominant tribes and their gods and goddesses took priority in the sagas and legends. The iron fork and the iron axe represent the beginning of expanding agriculture, the depletion of the woods and the onset of the warrior bands which were to become the stuff of sagas and contain the heart-blood of mythic ritual. The Iron Age proper began around 800 BC in Upper Austria with a culture known as the Hallstatt, and the Iron Age culture which influenced Ireland came from Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland and is known as La Tène. For centuries the La Tène Celts were the dominant people in Europe. The distinctive craft of La Tène culture can be seen in metal, gold and stone artefacts. An example of the latter is represented in the curvilinear artwork on the Turoe Stone which stands in Co. Galway.

It was this period that saw the emergence of enclosed farmsteads in the form of raths or ring forts, also known as lis or liss or lios, which have left a lasting mark on the Irish landscape and have contributed to the names of many places. Despite many being ploughed over or destroyed, an estimated 30,000 still survive throughout the island. They generally have a diameter between 80 and 170 feet; a single bank with a circular ditch is the most usual form. It was under the roofs of these primitive residences that the tales of gods, goddesses, heroes and the Otherworld were first formed, building up to a corpus of myth that, despite all the losses, is still impressive.

A conventional approach is to see these stories as divided into four broad cycles:

• the Mythological Cycle, containing stories about the various peoples that arrived in migratory invasions and is especially concerned with the god-like race of the Tuatha Dé Danann;

• the Ulster Cycle, which recounts sagas about the heroes of the Ulaid, a tribe inhabiting the north-eastern part of the country, including parts of modern north Leinster;

• the Fenian Cycle, a corpus of prose and verse mainly about the exploits of Finn mac Cumhail and his band of warriors, the Fianna.

• the Historical Cycle, containing accounts of both legendary and historical kings such as Cormac mac Airt, Niall of the Nine Hostages, and Brian Bóruma, but most important of all the tale of Buile Shuibhne (‘The Frenzy of Sweeney’).

Of these, it is the Ulster and Fenian cycles that have caught the imagination of writers through the centuries. As in all mythologies, the role of the hero is central. In the Irish pantheon, the most important is Cú Chulainn, the Iron Age hero defending Ulster from the forces of Connacht who was eventually transformed into the spirit of Irish resistance to English rule. He is the main focus of the Ulster Cycle sagas, which also include the great romantic tale of Deirdre and Naoise and ‘The Taking of the Hostel of the Two Reds’ (Togail Bruidne Da Derga). The tales from the Ulster Cycle are based between the forts of Emain Macha, two miles west of the city of Armagh, and Dún Dealgan, less than a mile west from the town of Dundalk. They tell the tales of the last years of the Picts, or Dál nAraide, before they were subsumed into the Gaelic order under the O’Neills in the fourth century.

The Fenian or Ossianic Cycle is set in the reign of Cormac mac Airt, who is said to have reigned in Tara in the third century of the Christian era. From the thirteenth century these tales were translated from the manuscripts and slowly entered our culture through the work of poets and bards, and in time, from the written word evolved from the oral tradition. Many of these works are contained in works known as the Duanaire Finn or the ‘Lays of Finn’, many of which were written or rewritten in the early seventeenth century and translated into English in the late nineteenth century.

Not all mythological tales fall into any of these categories. There are, for example, those stories of adventure classified under the heading of imram, from the Old Irish for ‘rowing about’ or ‘voyaging’. The most famous of these is Imram Brain, or ‘The Voyage of Bran’, telling of a voyage to the Otherworld, which was reached after the voyagers fell over the horizon. This saga is found in the eleventh century manuscript Lebor na hUidre, but according to the noted German scholar Kuno Meyer, it was probably written in the seventh or eighth century. A sixth-century imram concerns St Brendan from Brandon Creek in present-day Co. Kerry, who did not fall off the edge of the world but instead discovered America. In the late twentieth century, an expedition using a boat similar to Brendan’s successfully made it to America and back.

THE DRUIDS

Much of the mythology reflects the pagan religious background of prehistoric Ireland, at the centre of which stood the priestly caste known as the druids. Their origins are open to debate, but some have connected them to the Dravidians from the Indus Valley in India. Their idea of an afterlife was similar to the Hindu doctrine of reincarnation and the Pythagorean idea of metempsychosis. Thus, they believed that the spirit at the time of death passed into another body, possibly that of a different species. An early coloniser of Ireland, Partholón, is said to have arrived with three druids called Fios, Eolus and Fochmarc, meaning intelligence, knowledge and inquiry; all druids were said to possess these attributes.

Druidic influence extended from the Indus Valley across Europe to the British Isles and has been recorded by Greek and Roman historians and chroniclers, including Julius Caesar. Stonehenge in England was a noted druidic centre, as was Pentre Ifan between Cardiff and Fishguard, close to the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales; the latter would also, like Tara, have been a centre for initiation.

In Ireland, Tara, Emain Macha and Uisnech were three druidic centres. On the first day of May, the Hill of Uisnech, regarded as being the centre of Ireland, became a gathering place for the druids, who lit the first sacred fire, from which all others were lit. During excavation at Uisnech, an enormous bed of ashes which had turned the earth red to a depth of some inches was found, thus reinforcing the theory of Uisnech as the centre of a fire cult.

In early times, the functions of the druid and the file, or poet, were similar, and both practised magic. One interesting rite was Imbas forasnai, ‘the manifestation that enlightens’, which was used to acquire supernatural knowledge. A tenth-century manuscript by Cormac, the king–bishop of Cashel in Munster, describes it as follows:

Thus it is done: the poet chews a piece of the flesh of a red pig, or dog or cat, and puts it afterwards on the flag behind the door, and pronounces an incantation on it, and offers it to idol gods, and afterwards calls his idols to him … and pronounces incantations on his two palms, and calls again his idols to him that his sleep may not be disturbed, and he lays his two palms on both his cheeks, and in this manner he falls asleep; and he is watched in order that no one may interrupt or disturb him until everything about which he is engaged is revealed to him.

Dreams have been at the centre of aboriginal cultures from Australia to India to Ireland to North America. Another notable dream rite in Ireland was the Tarbfes or the ‘Bull-feast’, in which a druid, after partaking of the meat of a white bull that had just been killed, would sleep for a number of hours while other druids recited incantations over him. When he awoke, he recounted his dreams, and these would determine the kind of man who would be king. The rite was carried out at Tara, Co. Meath, which was, and to an extent still is, the spiritual centre of Ireland. It continued until the coming of St Patrick.

FOUNDATION MYTHS

Ancient Irish culture had its own highly developed foundation myths, as found especially in Lebor Gabála (‘The Book of Invasions’), which cites tribes arriving in Ireland, having set out from the Middle East after the Flood: these tribes included the Nemedians, the Fomorians, the Fir Bolg and apparently the Tuatha Dé Danann and the Milesians. Thus, there is a strong biblical tradition in many of the peoples who arrived here. ‘And the sons of Noah, that went forth were Shem and Ham and Japheth; and Ham is the father of Canann. These are the three sons of Noah and of them the whole earth was overspread’ (Genesis 9: 18, 19). Sharon Paice Macleod, quoting John Carey in his edition of Lebor Gabála, writes: ‘native Irish lore and biblical and medieval traditions were “stitched together” in a pseudo-history which served many purposes.’

Thus Gaedel Glas, the progenitor of the Gaels, can trace his line back to Noah. These myths, obscure yet persistent, introduced two sets of gods; those of light and those of darkness. The gods of darkness found their origin in Ba’al or Balor, and he was worshipped by the Fomorians as a sun god. The gods of light found their god in Lug, and these people are known as the Tuatha Dé Danann. The progeny of Gaedel Glas, or the Milesians, from Egypt and then Galicia in Spain were also associated with the gods of light, while the Picts, or Dal n’Araide were associated with the gods of darkness; the gods of darkness were mostly goddesses, depicting a people unimpressed by the patriarchal godhead from the desert.

The foundation myth of the Irish Republic although acknowledging the Judeo-Christian god also uses the hero Cú Chulainn to symbolise both the warrior spirit and the ancestral rights of a people.

Whatever or not these myths have any relation to historical fact is a moot point, but what we can say with a large degree of certainty is that the first peoples to carry pre-Christian mythology with them to Ireland were Picts, or in Irish Cruithin, the original inhabitants of Britain and Ireland, and named Priteni by Julius Caesar. Due to the Roman invasion they were forced northwards to Scotland, and as the Romans never invaded Ireland, it remained a stronghold for these tribes and for their myths, rites and customs. It also became a haven for one of the last aboriginal tribes of western Europe living in the last habitable island, away from the imperial armies of the Roman Empire and with nothing beyond but the vast and wild Atlantic Ocean. The Picts were so called because they painted their bodies, and the colours they used defined their tribe or status.

Regarding the Milesians, known as ‘the sons of Mil Espaine’, there is another theory to be considered. Eoin Mac Neill said that their invasion was a medieval creation and for O’Rahilly the ‘authoritative’ account in the Lebor Gabála or ‘Book of Invasions’ was a ‘primitive’ story of the invasion. Who was Mil Espaine, ‘the soldier from Spain’? Was he Spanish or was he a Roman soldier in a Spanish division of the Roman army? In an article titled ‘The true origin of the Sons of Mil’ in the 1973 edition of the Louth Archaeological and Historical Journal, Michael Neary writes that the Ninth Legion (Hispana) of the Roman army was stationed in York. This legion apparently disappeared and was never heard of again. Neary contends that they joined with the Brigantes of York and then came to Wexford at Inver Slaney where they joined the Brigantes of that region, after which they proceeded to conquer the other tribes of Ireland. They thus became the Gaels, as legend has it that they originally came from Galicia. The Ninth Legion fought and had victories in Africa and Europe and took the title Hispana after a victory in Spain. If the legion did in fact invade Ireland with the Brigantes, it would have taken place in the early first century AD.

THE CAILLEACH AND KINGSHIP

Of all myths, that of sovereignty stands at the core of Irish mythology. It was known as the banais rigi or banfheiss, meaning ‘woman feast or sleeping feast’ and tells of the power of the goddess or ban dea or cailleach in conferring kingship. Unless the goddess conferred sovereignty, the king was not a proper king; the goddess was sovereignty, and only through her could the king claim legitimacy.

Atbér-sa fritt, a mac mín:

limas fóit na hair-ríg:

is mé ind ingen seta seng,

flaithius Alban is hÉrend.

I will tell you, gentle boy,

with me the high-kings sleep;

I am the graceful slender girl,

the Sovereignty of Scotland and Ireland.

Sleeping with the mother goddess, for example, resulted in Lugaid Mac Con of Munster and Niall of the Nine Hostages of Leinster becoming High Kings of Ireland. Reference to this rite is also found in Roman mythology where the Oracle of Delphi prophesies to the Tarquin brothers that he who first ‘kissed’ his mother would succeed as king prophesied that the conquest of Rome would be achieved by the one who would first ‘kiss’ his mother.

A function of folklore is to reduce such a myth to a common understanding without diminishing the substance of the meaning. The story is told thus: a young man meets an old woman in a wood and mates with her; she turns into a young woman and confers sovereignty on him. As a result, he becomes a king and is accepted as such. As an old man he is again in a wood where he meets a young woman and mates with her; she turns into an old woman and kills him. Thus, life and death resided with the goddess.

The old woman or hag is also known as the ban sídh or ‘woman of the mound’, and it is in the mounds that the spirits of the dead are said to survive. The term is now more commonly written as the ‘banshee’. She is a harbinger of death and appears or is heard before the death of an individual in certain families.

My mother never forgot a verse about the banshee which she heard as a young girl in Wexford; the verse is as follows:

Hushed be the banshee’s cry,

unearthly sound

wailing one soon to lie,

cold in the ground.

The folklore commission of Ireland recorded many stories concerning the banshee in the 1930s. In the 1970s, a student told me that on his way home to the country from the city he heard a wailing sound as he approached his parents’ farmhouse, which made the ‘hairs on his head stand up’. When he arrived home, he found that his mother had just passed away.

Thus, the supernatural being known as the ban sídh or cailleach has the power of life and death over mortals. However, in time the word cailleach was used pejoratively to mean ‘hag’, ‘witch’, or ‘crone’. With the spread of Christianity, pagan Ireland was predictably vilified, as happens in most cases when one mythology takes precedence over another (one possible exception being the relationship between Shintoism and Buddhism in Japan, where both systems have been allowed to flourish).

FIGURE 1. Sheela na Gig (illustration by Jack Roberts).

One powerful symbol of the cailleach is the Síle na Gig more commonly known as the Sheela na Gig, and this figure may be connected to the sovereignty rite mentioned above. Sheela na Gigs are a group of female stone sculptures found not only in Ireland but also in Britain and France. The sculpture is a nude figure, represented face on, with legs splayed and with hands placed behind the thighs with fingers opening the vulva. She is generally regarded as a stone fetish that was supposed to give fertility. Some Sheelas have holes in them and these are regarded as part of the rite. There are more than 100 of these sculptures in Britain and Ireland, although there is a disagreement about the exact number. At a later date they were incorporated into the walls of churches and castles as a ‘ward against evil’. For a long time, many were confined to the crypt of the National Museum in Dublin, but for the past twenty years they have been put on public display.

SACRED TREES

The main political centres of ancient Ireland were Emain Macha, which could be regarded as the capital of Ulster; Dind Ríg, that of Leinster; Cashel of Munster; and Cruachain of Connacht. The spiritual capital of Ireland was Tara in the ancient province of Mide (Meath), which also served as the ceremonial home of the High King. On a more local level, the most important ritual centre was the bile or ‘sacred and venerated tree’. Under these trees, which could be ash, oak, yew or hawthorn, chiefs were inaugurated, and they were the gathering place for tribal meetings and fairs. Some were cut down as a consequence of the zeal of Christian missionaries, others as a result of intertribal warfare. The influence of the sacred tree was demonstrated by the fact that the greatest insult that could be inflicted on an enemy was the desecration of the tree. For instance, the inauguration tree of the Dál gCais at Magh Adhair, now Moyre, near Tulla, Co. Clare, was, according to the Annals of the Four Masters, ‘cut after being dug from the earth with its roots’ by Maelseachlainn of Meath, King of Tara in 980 AD This date lends credence to the persistence of the inauguration ceremony long after Christianity had taken hold in Ireland. When in 1099 the craeb tulca, or ‘tree of the mound’, was cut down in Antrim by the O’Neills, the offending family some years later uprooted the sacred bile of the O’Neills at Tullaghoge.

As there were as many as 100 local chiefs in Ireland at the beginning of the twelfth century, we may assume that there were many sacred inaugural trees throughout the land. According to the archaeologist Barry Raftery, ‘the bile leaves no trace in the archaeological record, but we can assume that this custom [inauguration of kings] is of pagan Celtic origin, for there are clear indications that it existed in Gaul in the pre-Roman Iron Age’.

How to Use this Book

This book attempts to outline all the significant places in every county on the island of Ireland and includes places in Scotland where the early stories of the two countries conjoin. Altogether there are over a 1,000 locations referenced.

Each location is identified by a number in square brackets that refers to the Ordnance Survey Discovery Series for the Republic of Ireland and the Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland Discoverer Map Series.

Names that appear frequently in the text are explained in a glossary and are marked with an asterisk * throughout.

Various time periods are mentioned throughout the book and these are as follows:

Mesolithic: c.7000–4000 BC

Neolithic: c.4000–2400 BC

Bronze Age: c.2400–500 BC

Iron Age: c.400–500 AD

Early Christian: c.400–800 AD

Viking period: c.400–1100 AD

Early Medieval: c.400–1100 AD