Macha is the Ulster goddess of sovereignty, associated with horses and war who came in the form of a woman to the house of a widower called Crunchu. She became the woman of the house on the condition that he would not tell anyone about her, but Crunchu did not keep his promise. Instead, at the king’s annual fair, while people were praising the magnificence of the horses proudly owned by King Conchobar mac Neasa, Crunchu full of ale boasted that his wife could outrun the lot of them. Insulted, the king ordered that she be brought to prove his insolent claim. By then Macha was pregnant with twins, and so she and Crunchu begged the king to wait until her babies were born, but he refused.
Macha ran the race and won, and at the finish line she gave birth with her last breath, but before she died she cursed the men of ulster so that every time they were in their hours of need they would be struck down by the pangs of childbirth.
Macha’s curse is the reason why the great hero Cú Chulainn fought to defend the whole province through single combat. The site Emain Macha, where she delivered her babies became the capital of ulster. This story is very important to the great Epic Táin Bó Cúailnge.
You can read the story from her own perspective in my book, TÁIN : The Women’s Stories
Note : Conchobar mac Neasa was king because his mother married the previous King Fegus mac Róich, and it might be fair to say, manipulated Conchobar’s way to kingship. Fergus and Macha’s names have associations with horses which might suggest that they would have been the rightful pairing of both king and goddess, and so suggesting that Conchobar was not the rightful king.
It is also worth noting that Cú Chulainn’s horse was called the Grey of Macha.
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