The Sidhe (Singular Sídh) are mounds of earth said to be the underground dwelling places of the People of the Sidhe, the Tuatha Dé Danann or People of the Goddess Danú. They came to Ireland from four mythical cities, Falias, Gorias, Murias and Finias. Danú is an Irish goddess with many appellations. Sometimes she is linked to the Vedic water goddess Danú and to the river Danube that flows through ten European countries. She has no singular story to personify her. That makes her difficult to capture in the mind, which might mean that indefinability is the best description for her. Maybe she is the same goddess that is relevant to the whole of our beautiful planet, the wellspring of our creativity, strength and consistency, through dearth and deluge, destructive fires that scorch the earth, to then produce a flower in the aftermath.
Danú in Irish mythology has many appellations and personifications. For example from my last collection, TÁIN : The Women’s Stories, from the great Irish epic Táin Bó Cúailnge, Mór Ríoghain whose stories are like callings, or warnings, has not been personified apart from what she stands for – taking sides in battles, shape changing, sometimes into the form of a crow, foreboding and taunting. Then Macha, connected to horses, torn by her yearning for human touch. Could Macha’s story be evidence of how our collective imaginations tried to reduce her? Is that an attempt to personify and be relieved of her indefinability? Is it possible that the day we personified the goddess was the day we made her less? Earth as she represented it, became something to own – an idea that First Nation Peoples laughed at before they, like The Tuatha Dé Danann’s way of living, went to the underground of society as we know it. They were the people who knew that the only way to walk is earth’s way, but as they continued to live with awe and respect for what sustained and inspired them, prosperity as it is called, discarded their wisdom. And so, those who knew how to interpret the “cup of healing from the plain of wonder,” the loathly ladies who must be kissed, the silver branches and golden apples are ‘almost’ lost.
In my last collection, TÁIN : The Women’s Stories I tried, in my own way to reclaim Queen Meadhbh. I wanted to afford her more than mere personification, to show her similarity to Mother Nature herself, who is also destructive, promiscuous and intoxicating.
In my second collection, SÍDH : Stories form the Women in Irish Mythology the goddess is present throughout the different myth cycles. Mysterious stories like Midir and Étaín, where it feels like walking through a mist of butterflies to experience the transformations within it, holds both the exaltation and abuse of the feminine. Achtan, who gave up on the joys of mothering her own child to make sure her son, Cormac mac Airt would have his rightful inheritance. Then Muirne mother to Fionn mac Cumhaill leader of the Fianna, also made a great sacrifice by giving her infant to the warrior woman Liath Luchra so that he would be safe throughout his childhood.
The Fianna were a band of mythical warriors who could live in tune with the natural world, while maintaining a valuable place in the halls of queens and kings. Poets valued for their special prowess’, closer to the wild as opposed to those loyal to the measurements of land and coin. Fionn who was infused with wisdom through his encounter with the Salmon of Knowledge married Sadhbh, who was changed into the shape of a deer, and even in that shape gave birth to Oisín who went in the end to Tír na nÓg with the beautiful Niamh Chinn Óir.
Also in this collection is the story of Cessair, the first woman to come to Ireland, said to be the granddaughter of Noah who when refused passage on his Ark went on to make an Ark of her own. Then Brigid, goddess and saint whose stories join the world of magic together with the world of miracles. Of late Brigid has made a wonderful resurgence. So much so, that her feast day has become a national holiday in Ireland.
These books about the women in the myths gently expose psychological content through the medium of storytelling, while remaining loyal to the myths themselves. Confusing chronologies ask for surrender to the many contradictions within each woman’s story. Though maybe it is only within a contradiction that our senses and intuitions are put to their best work. The dark, the light and the strength of the feminine is evident on the roads these women walk; mythic roads with no beginning and no end, where the goddess appears in her many guises. Virgin, mother and crone thread connectivity, without linearity like rivers and streams, that forge links all the same.
It might be that Irish mythology is the reason for the Irish passion for making art. These stories never encountered the Roman invasions throughout Europe, and so have an untouched quality about them. Stories like these for whoever inhabits them are indeed places to go, other worlds, journeys to realms within ourselves that hold the potential for us to come back changed.
It is important to note that this collection does not work with any great sequence of events that lead on to a climax as it does in Táin Bó Cúailnge, nor does it cover the full Irish pantheon. From my imagination the stories I have chosen to tell are linked only by the mysterious ways in which the goddess is present, having come from the wonderful world of the collective Irish imagination that has been the spirit guide to art and literature for centuries.
Both books are illustrated by my daughter, the acclaimed visual artist, Kathy Tynan who has worked intuitively with the stories to produce impactful drawings that resonate with the text.
The images above are Kathy’s drawings projected onto Trinity College Dublin on February 1st 2022 by Herstory
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