Category: gods and goddesses

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Who was Macha in Irish Mythology

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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The Departure of the Sidhe by Karina Tynan

Below is a poem of mine written, with a lament in my heart, because those who have power in the world continue to think of our beautiful planet as an economy. I am reminded of the Tuatha Dé Danann’s departure into the hills after the Celts arrival in Ireland. Let us choose to believe that the Tuatha Dé Danann will never be gone, as long as people believe in the spirit alive in the land; always there, revealing secrets to those who are open, those with the capacity for true happiness. This poem is dedicated to you : The Keepers.

illustration by Kathy Tynan

Our world is blue with change.

We are contrary with it.

Still we dance; in again, out again,

over and under the hills.

War is in the past. 

Losing has brought relief of a kind.

We have released our craft for forging 

symbol and soul on swords and spears. 

The clash of lightening will replace them. 

Thunder will be our drum. 

Cauldrons of stars to light

mysterious elsewhere.

The kings must be trusted, 

kings must not be trusted.

They’ll stop believing 

stars can sing.

They’ll stop believing 

stones will cry 

without alignment with the sky. 

They’ll stop believing

we could make a day seem like a year,

a year seem like a day. 

Some will forget the horse of Lugh,

But some will not;

in the halfway of rippling verse

the mist will hold

for those whose hearts will not grow old 

while they ride the waves of Manannán, 

and in Magh Meall, fall into the lap of Fand,

swim the water of Bóinn,   

feel the fierce heart of Macha.

They will sing our song, play our instrument. 

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The Wooing of Étaín

WOMEN AND POWER SERIES at Bard Mythologies : bardmythologies.com

Last week we talked about the dark feminine in the sorceress, Fuamnach. She was married to Prince Midir of Brí Leith (A hill in Co Longford). Together they had fostered the beautiful Aengus Óg who was son of Bóinn the river goddess and the Daghda, one of the principle gods of the Tuathe Dé Danann (People of the goddess Danú).

When Aengus had grown he left them to claim his inheritance which was Brú na Bóinne (Newgrange County Meath). Alas the couple missed Aengus terribly but when Midir went to visit him he left his wife behind, and while away he met the beautiful Étaín. Then since it was the way of the times that a man could have more than one wife, he brought her home. However Fuamnach’s jealousy didn’t bow to the way of the times and so her jealousy went very very far……

….. so far that she changed her rival into a fly. But a fly will never let you forget its presence.

From SÍDH : Stories from the Women in Irish Mythology. Illustration by Kathy Tynan : kathytynan.net

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Reading Brigid: Goddess and Saint

Wednesday 13th November at the Bard Mythologis Event: Women and Power

see bardmythologies.com

Along with me, the author of SÍDH : Stories from the Women Irish Mythology, Bard Mythologies will explore these stories and the matter of power. Maybe to find and highlight a whole new interpretation of power in today’s world.

Badly needed

Image by kathytynan.net

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Who was CESSAIR in Irish Mythology

Cessair was the granddaughter of Noah who built her own arc, then sailed all the way from the ancient city of Meroë in Sudan with forty nine other women and three men. She became the first person to set foot on the forested land of Ireland. There she and her friends separated into three groups, a man with each group. These men were Fintan mac Bóchra, his friends Ladhra and Bith. Unfortunately Ladhra died from exhaustion and the women buried him in Árd Ladhrann (Wexford). Not long after that Bith died and was buried in Slieve Beagh (Mountain between Monaghan and Fermanagh). One group of fifty women was left when Fintan the shape changer departed leaving Cessair with a broken heart that didn’t repair, and so the women buried her at Cúil Ceasra (Roscommon).

After that the flood of the world took the rest of the women. That group came and went, leaving nothing but the names on their graves, and the story recounted by Fintan of the first woman who sailed to Ireland all the way from Africa.

Fintan did not die however. He changed into the forms of a salmon, an eagle, then a hawk. He lived for five thousand years until eventually he returned to the shape of a man who had seen and could tell all the stories of the people who had come, gone, stayed, fought, won and lost.

Indeed it was Fintan who was called to the Settling of the Manor of Tara when the tribes of Ireland were in disagreement. Because he had lived so long and seen so much, he could recall the ancient arrangement that was the legacy of the Fir Bolg who had divided Ireland into five provinces. Ulster, Leinster, Munster, Connacht, and Cúige, that was the sacred fifth at the centre in County Meath. Fintan described Cúige as the kidneys of a person or animal that maintains a vital balance for the whole body.

The story of Cessair can be found in my book SÍDH : Stories from the Women in Irish Mythology

My story of Fintan is written and will be in my next book in due course