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In 1233, Pope Gregory IX issued the first papal bull to encourage the persecution of people who deviated from the dogma issued by Rome. Soon, alleged witches…were to bear the brunt of the inquisition, the hunt for heretics and dissidents. Between 1484 and 1782, about 300,000 [see footnote] people were murdered in Europe for their alleged pact with the devil—the majority of them were women. Wherever witch hysteria has raged, folklore will preserve the memory…

Christine Zucchelli, Stones of Adoration, 2007¹
 

Click to explore the Labbacallee Wedge Tomb in virtual reality.

On one day sometime around 2300 BCE, the Labbacallee Wedge Tomb would have presented a very grisly scene. A woman’s partially decomposed and decapitated remains, wrapped in a crude shroud, were being entombed here, in a hidden chamber only .9 m (3 ft) long. Her head was placed separately, in the large main chamber, upright on the ground and braced between two fragments of a teenage boy’s skull (see photo, below right). Could this have been a ritual purification? Was this a ceremony intended to mute her malevolent powers? Thousands of years later the tomb in local lore acquired the name Leaba Caillighe, which translates to “the Bed of the Witch [or hag].”² Could there possibly be a connection between this bizarre Bronze Age decapitation burial, and the modern legends of the witch?

The Labbacallee Wedge Tomb, Ireland’s largest monument of this type, was the first megalithic tomb in the country to be described by an antiquarian writer, in John Aubrey’s manuscript of 1693. Aubrey included a sketch of the tomb, which may be seen in the gallery at the bottom of this page.³ Labbacallee was also the first megalithic tomb in the country to be the subject of a modern scientific archaeological excavation, by H.G. Leask in 1934.⁴ Its impressive dimensions, with its larger chamber the size of a domestic hut, may have been why it attracted this attention. In fact the tomb did serve as someone’s home, many centuries after it was constructed. During the excavation archaeologists discovered one of the uprights pushed aside to provide an entryway to the larger chamber, where they found deposits suggesting a domestic use during the Iron Age. In the virtual-reality environment, above left, you can use the hotspot to enter this chamber.⁵

The skull of a witch? When discovered, in a different burial chamber than the rest of her skeleton, the woman’s lower jaw was missing from her skull. (Leask, 1936)

The entire tomb, with its two burial chambers, is some 13 m (43 ft) long and 6 m (20 ft) wide at the larger end of its wedged shape. The front of the structure, where it is highest and widest, receives the rays of the setting sun on the equinox dates in March and September. Labbacallee’s western chamber, its larger one, is 6.5 m (21 ft) long. When first built the entire tomb was covered by a cairn of stones, probably some 15 m (49 ft) long and 19 m (62 ft) wide. While there is no obvious entrance to the chambers, upon its excavation archaeologists discovered that one of its three capstones, although weighing 2.7 tonnes (3 tons), could easily be slid back to rest on conveniently projecting orthostats. This, they conjectured, might have been the original means of access to both chambers of the tomb. There are three capstones in all, the largest one an impressive 7.6 m (25 ft) in length.⁶

In total, the remains of at least five individuals were found buried in the Labbacallee tomb, including the bones of a young woman found in a cist burial outside the monument’s ruined western end. Originally a grand ceremonial entrance to the tomb may have been located there as well, but the western end of the monument was lost when the roadway and stone wall were constructed in the nineteenth century. Only two of the orthostats at that end remain.⁷

When the excavators slid back the capstone and first discovered the smaller chamber of the tomb, the space was filled to the top with a packing of stones, intermixed with sherds of pottery and fragments of cremated human bone. One corner of the orthostat separating this chamber from the larger one was broken off, creating a portal from one chamber to the other. Perhaps this was used to add something to that chamber—gifts for the afterlife or additional cremations. It wasn’t until all the materials in the small chamber were removed that the archaeologists discovered, at ground level, the decapitated skeleton of the “witch” (see photograph in gallery).⁸

The excavators noted that the skeleton seemed to have been buried after the flesh had decomposed, but with some of the tendons still in place holding most of the bones together. They surmised from this that the woman had first been buried elsewhere, perhaps to allow for the tomb’s construction, and then reburied when the chamber was ready for her.⁹ A bone pin found beside the skeleton (see drawing in gallery) may have been used as a clasp to draw together the bag or shroud in which the body was carried to its final resting place. Carleton Jones, noting that the woman’s skeleton showed evidence of a deformed leg, speculates that her handicap may have doomed her in life as one who was shunned by the spirits, and “marked out as a witch.”¹⁰

The Cailleach Bhéarra (Hag of Beare) is a classic character in Irish folklore, variously depicted as a witch, a female divinity with magical powers, or (after the legend’s mingling with Christianity) an ancient nun. In Co. Armagh, the witch was thought to live in a passage tomb at the summit of Slieve Gullion. The legends of the Cailleach Bhéarra are considered in some detail in our page on the Loughcrew Passage Tombs located on Slieve na Calliagh, or “The Hag’s Mountain,” in Co. Meath.

The excavation of the tomb in 1934 was completed using workers paid one guinea (£1.05) per week as part of a government unemployment relief plan. (OPW photo)

The Labbacallee Wedge Tomb was built two millennia before the ascendancy of the Celtic tribes in the Iron Age, whose legends named this monument as the Bed of the Witch. Can it be possible that a folk memory from the Late Bronze Age about the woman whose decapitated remains were found here was somehow preserved in oral tradition long enough to find an expression in the Celtic tales of the Cailleach Bhéarra? This seems an unlikely, though tantalizing, proposition. It is more likely, however, that the witches who were tried and executed in the sixteenth century were practicing the survival of a prehistoric tradition, also expressed in Ireland’s fairy lore, transformed and mutated by the centuries of transmission.¹¹

There are, of course, more mundane explanation of how the woman’s skeleton in the Labbacallee tomb came to lose its head. Perhaps when her remains were disinterred prior to her final burial in the wedge tomb her head fell away when the corpse was being transported. By the time it was recovered perhaps the small tomb had been sealed up, and thus the skull was given a resting place in the larger chamber. Or, perhaps the placement of the skull was a tribute, a very early expression of what would come to be known as the Celtic “cult of the head.” Perhaps the woman who was buried in Labbacallee’s inner recess was thought to be a goddess, and only after the coming of the new religion did her tomb develop its folkloric connections to the hag or witch?

In the part of Co. Cork where the tomb is located, the tales of the Cailleach Bhéarra describe her hostility toward her husband, the druid Mogh Ruith. As recorded by the excavator H.G. Leask in 1934, an 86-year-old man, John Egan, repeated the tale he heard from his father:

[The Cailleach Bhéarra] was annoyed with her husband because he took the dew off the grass before her. She was carrying a child and felt very bad and he told her go and see her sister on the hill above Gurtroche near Ballyhooly. And when she’d gone he put his coat on the big stone and went across the stream, and she came back and thought it was he was standing there, and she struck the stone with her sword. So she followed him then, and threw the stone, and he was crossing the river and she struck him and he was drowned there.¹²

John Aubrey, writing nearly 250 years earlier, noted a similar tale of the Cailleach Bhéarra in his own brief report on the tomb; see citation #3, above. The hag’s husband, Mogh Ruith, is said to be buried atop nearby Cairn Thierna.

In local folklore, retold by Crofton Croker in his 1826 Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South or Ireland, the witch of Labbacallee made a prophesy that the infant son of the Lord of Fermoy would drown before he had a chance to grow to manhood.¹³ This story, and how it culminated in the ruin of the Lord’s castle, is explored in our page on Cairn Thierna.

Another legend about megalithic tombs and their connections with hags or witches featured the “White-Woman,” a sorceress, “robed in white,” who resided in an ancient monument while she dispensed her prophesies or cast her spells. An illustration from William Borlase’s Dolmens of Ireland (1897) of such a White Woman prophesying from a megalithic tomb in the Netherlands may be seen below, to the right.¹⁴ Some prehistoric burial mounds, upon excavation, were found to contain artifacts perhaps associated with witchcraft: coils of human hair, a gambling die, and a horse’s skull.¹⁵

“A ‘White Woman’ [a witch] prophesying from a dolmen-mound.” (Borlase, William. The Dolmens of Ireland. Vol. 2. London: Chapman & Hall, Ld., 1897. 553.)

Ireland never experienced the brunt of the bloodbath from the witch inquisition that plagued continental Europe and Britain. In Ireland, the Celtic version of Christianity from the sixth century until the Norman Invasion stood apart in its ability to incorporate indigenous practices, including magic and sorcery, into its belief structure, transforming them into the special attributes of saints. Thus such concepts as witch and devil, which caused so much tragedy elsewhere, had little impact in Ireland. The relatively benign Celtic analogue of the witch, the Cailleach Bhéarra, did not act in her folklore as a conspicuous opponent of Christianity. In fact, by the ninth century, the Cailleach Bhéarra of ancient Celtic tradition had been transformed into the Nun of Beare, who turned in her old age to Jesus and Mary for consolation.¹⁶

This is not to say that Ireland experienced no persecution of witches whatsoever. The most notorious event occurred in Kilkenny, long after the Celtic church had been suppressed and supplanted by Catholic orthodoxy. In 1324 Lady Alice Kyteler was accused of having meetings with the Devil, culminating in murderous assaults on her four husbands. A record from the trial gives the names of all who were said to have taken part in the ceremonies, which were said to include:

…nightly conference [intercourse] with a spirit called Robin Artisson, to whom she sacrificed in the high waie nine red cocks and nine peacock eies…In rifling the closet of the ladie, they found…a pipe of Oyntment, wherewith she greased a staffe, upon the which she ambled and gallopped through thicke and thin, when and in what manner she listed. The businesse about these witches troubled all the state of Ireland…¹⁷

Implicated by her maid Petronilla at her trial, Dame Kyteler escaped to England and suffered only banishment. Petronilla was not so fortunate, as she was first flogged, and then became the first person in Ireland to be burned at the stake as a witch, on November 3, 1324.

Those implicated in this tragic burning in Kilkenny we know by name. We have no way of knowing anything about the woman, witch or not, who is today represented by the decapitated skeleton found in the Labbacallee Wedge Tomb. Did her Late Bronze Age culture even have a name for what we today refer to as witches? In our culture, witches and black cats have traditionally been seen as accomplices, but one story of a cat “with fire erupting from its tail” may have helped to preserve the monument known as the “Bed of the Witch” from avaricious gold-seekers.

Long ago, four men went digging one night for gold that lay hidden at Labbacallee. Soon after they began to dig, a strange cat, with fire erupting from its tail, appeared to the men. Dazzled by the light, they ran in terror through the darkness till they fell into the nearby River Funshion. Although one man died in the dark river, three of the would-be gold-diggers survived to tell their cautionary tale and neither the gold nor the cat were ever seen again.¹⁸

Click here to see all the notes from this page.

Labbacallee Wedge Tomb, Co. Cork
Nearest Town: Fermoy
Townland: Labbacallee
Latitude: 52° 10′ 25.65″ N
Longitude: 8° 20′ 1.86″ W

¹Paterson, T. G. F. Country Cracks; Old Tales from the County of Armagh. Dundalk: W. Tempest, Dundalgan, 1939. Note, p. 44.

²Gribben, Arthur. "Táin Bó Cuailnge: A Place on the Map, A Place in the Mind." Western Folklore 49.3 (1990): 285
The author describes interviewing a native to the area when a British military helicopter came into sight just a few miles away above The Gap of the North. As the aircraft flew along toward the British garrison the local said that "the nationalist community could do with a modern Cuchulainn equipped with a bazooka. Clearly, he saw Cuchulainn as a symbol of resistance to the British presence in Northern Ireland."

³Killanin, Michael Morris, and Michael V. Duignan. The Shell Guide to Ireland. London: Ebury P. in Association with George Rainbird, 1967. 423.

⁴Collins, A.E.P., and B.C.S. Wilson. "The Slieve Gullion Cairns." Ulster Journal of Archaeology Third 26 (1963): 35.
The large destroyed cairn on Slieve Donard (852 m or 2,796 ft) in the Mourne Mountains of Co. Down probably contained a passage grave.

⁵Brooke, Charlotte. Reliques of Irish Poetry: Consisting of Heroic Poems, Odes, Elegies, and Songs, Translated into English Verse: with Notes Explanatory and Historical; and the Originals in the Irish Character. To Which Is Subjoined an Irish Tale. By Miss Brooke. [Dublin]: George Bonham, Printer, South Great George’s-Street, Dublin, 1789. 88.
"During excavations in 1961 it was discovered that the burial deposits had been badly disturbed by treasure-seekers…"
(Cunningham, Noreen, and Pat McGinn. The Gap of the North: the Archaeology & Folklore of Armagh, Down, Louth, and Monaghan. Dublin: O’Brien, 2001. 41-43.)

⁶Ross, Anne. "The Divine Hag of the Pagan Celts." The Witch Figure. Ed. Venetia Newhall. London and Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978. 155-56.

⁷Gregory, Isabell Augusta (Persse). Gods and Fighting Men. London: J. Murray, 1904. 306-09.
This book may be read in its entirety here.
This story is not one of the earlier elements of the Fenian Cycle; it is likely of late medieval origin. However Fionn’s ability to use his magical powers to recover treasure is mentioned in an eighth century text. In another version of this story the antidote, in addition to restoring Fionn’s youth, also gives him wisdom. (Ó hÓgáin, Dáithí. Fionn Mac Cumhaill: Images of the Gaelic Hero. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1988. 23, 134.)

⁸MacCana, Proinsias. Celtic Mythology. London: Hamlyn, 1970. 111.
Ó hÓgáin lists three basic late medieval sources for Fionn: Acallamh na Senorach (the Colloquy of the Old Men) was written around 1175, but is best known from an early thirteenth century copy. More material was added in the thirteenth century, in which Oisin is the narrator. A second source is the body of narrative poems about the Fianna written from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries. The third source is Feis Tighe Chondin (the Feast at Conan’s House), written around the fifteenth century. (Ó hÓgáin, Dáithí. Fionn Mac Cumhaill: Images of the Gaelic Hero. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1988. 114-15.)

⁹Murphy, Gerard. The Ossianic Lore and Romantic Tales of Medieval Ireland. Dublin: Three Candles, 1961. 5.

¹⁰Zucchelli, Christine. Stones of Adoration Sacred Stones and Mystic Megaliths of Ireland. Doughcloyne, Wilton, Cork: Collins, 2007. 53.

¹¹Ó hÓgáin, Dáithí. Fionn Mac Cumhaill: Images of the Gaelic Hero. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1988. 12-13.
When Fionn was grown he avenged the death of his father by challenging his grandfather to “single combat,” or demanding compensation. The grandfather surrendered his fortress (Aimhu) to Fionn, who used it for his principal residence thereafter.

¹²Ó hÓgáin 22.

¹³Ó hÓgáin 3-4.
The action of Fionn is sometimes described as "biting" rather than "sucking" the thumb to gain his special knowledge.
According to Ó hÓgáin (p. 52), "The magical knowledge of seers and poets was known as fios, which is the root used to designate Fionn’s gift, as well as to describe his celebrated ‘thumb of knowledge.’"

¹⁴Ó hÓgáin 52-3.

¹⁵Ó hÓgáin 9.

¹⁶Ó hÓgáin 104-05.
The list of feats required of a warrior who wished to join the Fianna included a number of elements. Nine warriors would together toss their spears at the candidate while he was in a hole in the ground up to his waist, with only a hazel rod for defense. If he suffered any wound, he was disqualified. While running through the woods with braided hair, if a branch of wood disturbed his braid he could not be accepted. If, while running, he found a thorn in his foot he must be able to draw it out without slackening his pace. In addition, he had to memorize “the twelve books of poetry.”

¹⁷Ó hÓgáin 34.
The Church denounced these groups of “pagan brigands” as outlaws and “desperate men who preyed on society and who organised themselves into groups in order to pursue their purposes."

¹⁸Ross, Neil. Heroic Poetry from the Book of the Dean of Lismore. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd for the Scottish Gaelic Texts Society, 1939.190-92.
Cited in Ó hÓgáin 34.

¹⁹Ó hÓgáin 120.
Cited as "Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie, 3, 453. Celtica, 8, 72."

²⁰Collins 24.

²¹"The Cairn on Slieve Gullion." Journal of the County Louth Archaeological Society 5.3 (1923): 165. Extracted from Statistical Survey of Co. Armagh, by Sir Charles Coote, 1804.

²²Collins 19.

²³Collins 26-30.

²⁴Collins, A.E.P. "The Slieve Gullion Passage-Grave Cairn." Journal of the Armagh Diocesan Historical Society 5.1 (1969): 180-82.

²⁵Waddell, John. The Prehistoric Archaeology of Ireland. Bray: Wordwell, 2005. 77.

²⁶Collins 31, 33.
In all, 172 pottery sherds were collected in the north tomb. Most were tiny crumbs, but the few base sherds had outer pot surfaces with continuous decoration. These may be seen here in a drawing by the excavators.

²⁷Paterson 33.
From p. 31: “Often I started up the mountain to see the lake but I cud never head the whole road I wus so afeared for ye know a wedding party went into the Cally Berry’s house once, and they were turned to stone. Her house goes down an’ down, an’ in the bottom chamber sits Cally Berry herself till this very day. Ay, and will, to the end of time. But where Finn is I know not, or if I do I disremember.”

²⁸Paterson 45.
The text of this quotation has been altered to eliminate some of the author’s pidgin-Irish-English renderings of dialogue.

²⁹Ó hÓgáin 108-09.

³⁰Ó hÓgáin 316.

³¹Ó hÓgáin 315.

³²In 1999 former "Riverdance" lead Tony Kemp portrayed Fionn in "Dancing on Dangerous Ground,” a modernized version of "The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Grainne." A punk-rock musical “Finn McCool” debuted in 2010 in Washington, D.C. at the Capitol Fringe Festival. There is a band named “Finn McCool." And there are many local examples of “Finn McCool’s Irish Pub.

³³Ó hÓgáin 322.

¹Murray, Margaret A. The Witch-Cult in Western Europe. Oxford UP, 1921. 22.

²"Archaeological Study| Millennium Forest Location." Millennium Forests Ireland. Web. 06 Mar. 2011. <http://www.millenniumforests.com/location_archfav.html>.

³The meaning of the term “places of power” can change according to the context and the communication intended. The term has even proven useful to agencies considering the cultural value, and potential landmark status, of sites in the United States. According to individuals involved in such deliberations, a good source for a discussion of the animistic beliefs underlying the term would be Malinowski, Bronislaw, and Robert Redfield. Magic, Science and Religion: and Other Essays. Boston: Beacon, 1948. A website promoting a series of books dealing with specific “Places of Power” in different countries, including Ireland, can be found here.

⁴Altadavan Forest Walk. 19 June 2010. Information sign at the site. Altadavan Glen.

⁵"County Tyrone – Selected Monuments." Irish Megaliths: Field Guide & Photographs by Anthony Weir. Web. 06 Mar. 2011. <http://www.irishmegaliths.org.uk/tyrone.htm>.

⁶Livius, T. "The Glen of Altavadan." The Irish Ecclesiastical Record, 4th Series, V. 3 (1898). 220.

⁷"St. Patrick’s Chair and Well." The Megalithic Portal, and Megalith Map. Web. 06 Mar. 2011. <http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=6333353>.

⁸The Blackwater Region Heritage Guide. Web. 06 Mar. 2011. <http://www.visitblackwaterregion.com/HeritageGuide.pdf>.

⁹Bonwick, James. Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions. London: S. Low, Marston & C., 1894. 12-13.

¹⁰Livius 223-25.

¹¹Carleton, William. Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry. Vol. III. New York: P. F. Collier, 1881. 686.

¹Bland, F.C. "Description of a Remarkable Building, on the North Side of Kenmare River, Commonly Called Staigue Fort." The Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy 14 (1825): 17.
The author began with, "It stands upon a hill comparatively low, between four and five hundred feet above the level of the sea, in a kind of basin or rather amphitheatre of lofty mountains; open to the sea on the south, with a gradual descent to it, and distant about a mile and a half from the coast. When the appearance of the country, which is barren and uninviting, is considered, it must create surprise…" The "lost and bewildered…" phrase in the quotation is from a popular eighteenth-century play entitled Cato a Tragedy, by Joseph Addison.

²Bland 17-29.
Bland, who was an author of scriptural commentaries, was described in a biography as "…devoting himself in part to the management of the estate, which, under his care, emerged from the barbarism in which many parts of Ireland were sunk at the time of the potato famine, and in part to the amusements and hospitalities of an Irish country gentleman in a county as noted then for its social pleasures as it is famous at all times for its extraordinary natural beauties. A man of commanding presence and charming address, Mr. Bland was a special favourite with his fellows, and among the tenantry his word was law. Throughout the estate, indeed, his rule was a ‘benevolent despotism.’"

³Harding, James D. Picturesque Views of the Antiquities of Ireland. From the Sketches of Robert O’Callaghan Newenham, Esq. 2 vols. London: Thomas and William Boone, 1830.
The authors claim that Bland, the owner of the property, "…with a laudable zeal and good taste, has preserved this singular and interesting structure…" This might indicate that some restoration had occurred. Archaeologist Peter Harbison indicated that was the case in his 1992 Guide to the National and Historic Monuments of Ireland. However Harbison partially retracted that interpretation in a 2006 journal article. (Harbison, Peter. "An Architectural Enigma." Irish Arts Review 23.3 (2006): 100-01.)

⁴Harbison, Peter. Guide to the National and Historic Monuments of Ireland. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1992. 185.
In a later publication Harbison concludes, "it is now widely accepted that it probably belongs to the early centuries of Christianity in Ireland."
(Harbison, Peter. "An Architectural Enigma." Irish Arts Review 23.3 (2006): 100-01.

⁵Westropp, T.J. "Ancient Forts of Ireland: Part II – The Kerry Coast." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 27 (1897): 316.
Westropp also cites another local name for Staigue, Pounda-na-Staigue, indicating its use as an enclosure for cattle, a cattle-pound. (Westropp, Thomas Johnson. The Ancient Forts of Ireland: Being a Contribution towards Our Knowledge of Their Types, Affinities, and Structural Features. Dublin: Printed at the University, by Ponsonby and Weldick, 1902. 60-63.)

⁶Harbison, Peter. "An Architectural Enigma." Irish Arts Review 23.3 (2006): 100-01.
The author states, "The various etymologies suggested for the word Staigue do not tell us anything about the fort’s origins, though we do know that it was used as a cattle·pound in the 18th century. Even local folklore enlightens us little, and all that John Windele was able to glean in 1848 was that the fort was once occupied by a stranger named Ruanoch, the ‘Brown Shuler’, who so tyrannised the natives that they rebelled and killed him. Was Staigue, then, a barracks, or the home of some affluent farmer or tourist/intruder some fifteen hundred years ago, or could it even have been built as a protective hostel for pilgrims on their way to and from Skellig Michael? Who knows? Like Chesterton’s donkey, it keeps its secret still, and its very mystery will doubtless help to fuel speculation and discussion about it for many generations to come."

This speculation about Staigue continues with modern authors. In Secret Sights: Unknown Celtic Ireland, (2003) author Rob Vance writes, "It may have been used for ritual, as their god, Bolg (the god of lightning) was venerated during storms and the fort would have been a suitable amphitheatre for such observations…"

⁷General Charles Vallancey came to Ireland c. 1770 to work in the military survey, and made the country his adopted home. He was fascinated by the history, philology, and antiquities of the country at a time when such studies in Ireland were not fashionable. He published a number of books with theories regarding the non-native origin of Irish prehistoric monuments, theories later judged to be fanciful and without foundation. Although he never himself visited Staigue, he sent William Byers, his assistant on the Military Survey of Ireland, there to do the first known drawing of it in 1787. This is included in the gallery on the page. (Harbison, Peter. "An Architectural Enigma." Irish Arts Review 23.3 (2006): 100-01.)

⁸Vallancey, Charles. An Account of the Ancient Stone Amphitheatre Lately Discovered in the County of Kerry, with Fragments of Irish History Related Thereto, etc. etc. etc. Dublin: Graisberry and Campbell, 1812.This pamphlet may be read in its entirety here.
Most of Vallancey’s
pamphlet was devoted to his theories regarding the non-Irish origin of the builders of the monument. From p. 2: "Before I enter into further description, it appears necessary for the information of the reader, to say something of the ancient inhabitants of Ireland, who were all Scuthae:, as stiled by the Greeks, but of very different stocks. One, rude, ignorant, and unlettered; the other, a polished and lettered people since the invention of letters." From pp. 56-57: "I do not aver…that there never was a Druid in Ireland: when they and the Bards were expelled by the Britons, a few may have secreted themselves in this country; but I mean to aver, that Druidism was not the established religion of the pagan Irish, but Budhism." Vallancey was not alone in his generation of antiquarians in harboring a prejudice that regarded the native Irish as unsuitable candidates for the construction of the great monuments of prehistoric Ireland.

⁹Vallancey 19-20.

¹⁰Bland 26-27.
Regarding his evidence that the builders of the fort may have been ancient miners, Bland writes, " I have been led into this conjecture from the circumstance of there being two excavations made into the solid rock, obviously attempts in quest of ore, in the neighbourhood of this fort; both of them executed before the art of mining was understood. One of these…is sunk about eight feet into a rock of quartz, decidedly in search of ore, and is situated within a mile of [Staigue]. The other is within four hundred yards of it, and is an indentation made into a hard silicious rock…These attempts seem to have been made in the first and rudest period of the art of mining ; and most likely by the occupiers of this fort."

¹¹The sign explains, "This is one of the largest and finest stone forts in Ireland and was probably built in the early centuries AD before Christianity came to Ireland. It must have been the home of a very wealthy landowner or chieftain who had a great need for security."

¹²Harbison, Peter. "An Architectural Enigma." Irish Arts Review 23.3 (2006): 100-01.
The author writes, "Comparisons with other Kerry stone forts indicate the likelihood that there would have been no more than two or three houses inside Staigue originally, accommodating scarcely enough people to necessitate the building of the ten sets of steps." However NUI-Galway archaeologist Michelle Comber writes,
"The stairs clearly reflect a need or desire for easy access to the top of the enclosing cashel wall. This is common at all large stone cashels along the western seaboard of Ireland. Accessing the wall-top may relate to defence and/or communications. The wall terraces would also have allowed the viewing of activities within the enclosure, if such occurred. A high-status settlement, like Staigue, would have been concerned with all of these – defence, control of communications, and social/political events that may have taken place within the cashel on occasion" (email, February 14, 2012)

¹³O’Shea, Paddy. "Underground Passages at Staigue Fort." Personal interview. 18 June 1979.

¹⁴O’Farrell, Jackie. "Bombardment near Staigue Fort." Personal interview. 18 June 1979.
In the same interview O’Farrell told of a visitor who was brave enough to spend the night alone in Staigue Fort. ""There were few people who would take a night’s sleep inside the fort. There was an artist once, a man not from these parts, who wanted to spend the night there. Everyone around here thought he was a brave man for doing that, to sleep there inside by night alone. That’s because when we were young, there were so much fairies put in our heads, that it was haunted, you know. But that was just handed down, it didn’t happen for real you see. That was just the entertainment, before they had television or radio."
In 1920 Lady Gregory was told by a miller that, "’…if anyone was to fall asleep within the liss [fort] himself, he would taken away and the spirits of some old warrior would be put in his place, and it’s he would know everything in the whole world."’ (Gregory, Augusta, and W. B. Yeats. Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland. New York and London: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1920. II, 211.)

¹⁵Croker, Thomas Crofton, and Sigerson Clifford. Legends of Kerry. Tralee, Ireland: Geraldine, 1972. 21-22.

¹⁶Vallancey 1.
"Fortunately it stands in a wild and desolated part of the country, where no gentleman or wealthy farmer has thought proper to settle; or, like all the ancient buildings of this country, there would not now have been left one stone upon another."

¹⁷In the decades following the publication of these books of engravings, some of them were unbound so that their pages might be sold separately as antique prints. Some engravings have been reprinted with color applied, sold as antique prints in some Irish bookstores. We have not seen the Newenham Staigue engraving in a colored version, but as an experiment, we created one ourselves. This may be seen here.

¹⁸Harding, James D. Picturesque Views of the Antiquities of Ireland. From the Sketches of Robert O’Callaghan Newenham. London: Thomas and William Boone, 1830. v.

¹Geoffrey of Monmouth. The History of the Kings of Britain. Lewis Thorpe, trans. London: Peguin Books, 1966. 172-75.

²Loomis, Laura H. A. "Geoffrey of Monmouth and Stonehenge." PMLA 45.2 (1930): 400.
The story of the Irish origin of Stonehenge was repeated a generation after Geoffrey by Giraldus Cambrensis in his Topographia Hibernica (1187). Loomis adds, "Chroniclers repeated the tale and successive generations believed, to borrow Spenser’s wording, that they could ‘Th’eternall marks of treason… at Stonheng vew.’ (F. Q.,II, x, 66)." The earliest known mention of Stonehenge was by Henry of Huntingdon in 1130: ""Stanenges, where the stones of wonderful size have been erected after the manner of doorways, so that doorway appears to have been raised upon doorway; and no one can conceive how such great stones have been so raised aloft, or why they were built there." Thomas Arnold (ed.) Henrici Archidiaconi Huntendunensis Historia Anglorum. Rolls series, London: Longman & Trübner, 1879. 11-12.

³Grinsell, L. V. "The Legendary History and Folklore of Stonehenge." Folklore 87.1 (1976): 17.
Not a "survival" but a "revival" of the legend may be noted here, in a site promoting the novel Merlin Built Stonehenge.

⁴Loomis 400.
According to Loomis, this story was first printed in 1724 and repeated in an 1821 publication. E. H. Wood (1924) thinks that it may have originated from a tale told to the author of the 1724 book, John Wood.

⁵Grinsell 5.

⁶ O’Donovan, John, Thomas O’Connor, P. (Patrick) O’Keeffe, and Michael Herity. Ordnance Survey Letters Letters Containing Information Relative to the Antiquities of the County of Kildare Collected during the Progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1837, 1838, and 1839. Dublin: Four Masters, 2002. 180-81 (orig. ms.).

⁷Burl, Aubrey. The Stone Circles of the British Isles. New Haven: Yale UP, 1976. 14.

⁸Loomis 415.

⁹Chippindale, Christopher. Stonehenge Complete. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1983. 186.

¹⁰Wood-Martin, W.G., The Rude Stone Monuments of Ireland: Co. Sligo and Achill Island. Dublin: Hodges, Figges and Co., 1888. 130.
According to Loomis, "Geoffrey’s Historia implies or states the following more or less factual elements: (1) Stonehenge was a great stone circle called the Giants’ Dance; (2) it was used for a funerary monument though not originally erected for that purpose; (3) it was built of stones that were Stones of Worship, Mystici Lapides, (4) stones that were brought from afar; and (5) it was related in some way to the stone circles in Africa and Ireland. Since these statements or implications can now be shown to correspond to other megalithic legends or to certain facts known only in modern times in regard to megaliths in general and to Stonehenge in particular, it is evident that they could not have been invented by Geoffrey but must have been known to him through antecedent tradition." Loomis, Laura H. A. "Geoffrey of Monmouth and Stonehenge." PMLA 45.2 (1930): 401.

¹¹Stukeley, William. Stonehenge, a Temple Restor’d to the British Druids. London: Printed for W. Innys and R. Manby, 1740. 12.

¹²Chippindale 82.

¹³"William Stukeley." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 17 Apr. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Stukeley>.

¹⁴Mortimer, Neil. Stukeley Illustrated: William Stukeley’s Rediscovery of Britain’s Ancient Sites. London: Green Magic, 2003. 11.

¹⁵Chippindale 91.

¹⁶Chippindale 84.

¹⁷Voss, Jerome A. "Antiquity Imagined: Cultural Values in Archaeological Folklore." Folklore 98.1 (1987): 82.
As Voss puts it, ".. the public mind, having been conditioned by generations of authorities to see Stonehenge as a temple of the Druids, could hardly be blamed if it were somewhat less agile than that of the professors in turning against the Druid image."

¹⁸Chippindale 44.
Before it was bequeathed to the state in 1918 the Stonehenge property went through a succession of private hands, last selling for £6,600 in 1915. For a 50-year period in the mid-seventeenth century Sir Lawrence Washington, an ancestor of the American president, owned the property.

¹⁹Chippindale 190.

²⁰"Stonehenge Summer Solstice Tour 2011. Private Access." The Stonehenge Tour Company. Daily Sightseeing Tours From London. Web. 17 Apr. 2011. <http://www.stonehengetours.com/html/summer-solstice-tour.htm>.

²¹"Inigo Jones’ Stone-heng Restored." St John’s College. Web. 17 Apr. 2011. <http://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/library/special_collections/early_books/pix/stonehenge.htm>
Jones died in 1652. The book was published posthumously in 1655 by his assistant John Webb.

²²Allcroft, A. H. "The Modernity of Stonehenge." Nineteenth Century 88.1 (1920): 678.

²³Chippindale 267-72.
The 2010 Nova program (PBS), "The Secrets of Stonehenge," has information on more recent archaeological discoveries. It may be viewed online here.

²⁴Ray, Benjamin C. "Stonehenge: A New Theory." History of Religions 26.3 (1987): 232.

²⁵Grinsell 7-8.

²⁶Grinsell 7-8.

²⁷Grinsell 13-14.

²⁸Ray 239-45.

²⁹Hawkes, Jacquetta. "God in the Machine." Antiquity 41 (1967): 175.

³⁰Hawkes 174

³¹Hawkes 176-77.
As defined by Wikipedia, archaeoastronomy is "..[A] field with academic work of high quality at one end but uncontrolled speculation bordering on lunacy at the other."

³²Hawkes 176-77.

³³Chippindale 224.

³⁴Hawkes 180.

³⁵Hadingham, Evan. "Astronomy at Stonehenge?" Nova. Prod. David Levin. PBS. Nova Podcasts. 30 Sept. 2010. Web. 17 Apr. 2011. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/astronomy-stonehenge-au.html>.

³⁶Michell, John. Megalithomania: Artists, Antiquarians, and Archaeologists at the Old Stone Monuments. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1982. 31.

³⁷Wordsworth, William, Selincourt Ernest De, and Helen Darbishire. The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. Oxford: Clarendon, 1952.

¹MacNeill, Maire. The Festival of Lughnasa. London: Oxford University Press, 1962. 68-70.
The author explains, ""A remarkable feature of these Lughnasa celebrations is that so many survived into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries without having been taken over by Christianity. Of course they had shed all obvious connections with pagan rite and lived on as festive outings, as annual occasions for meetings, sports, dancing, courting, and faction-fighting."

²Swan, Leo, and Matthew Stout. Teltown: An Ancient Assembly Site in County Meath. Bray: Archaeology Ireland, 1998.
Archaeologist Michael Herity has identified Rath Airthir as the Tredua or triple rampart fort at Tailtú, as noted in the Metrical Dindshenchas: "The Tredua of Tailtiú, famed beyond all lands, where the Kings of Ireland used to fast that no disease might visit the land of Erin."

³"An Outstanding Meathman Dedicated to Uncovering the Past." Meath Chronicle. Web. 27 June 2012. <http://www.meathchronicle.ie/opinion/roundup/articles/2012/06/27/4011079-an-outstanding-meathman-dedicated-to-uncovering-the-past/>.

⁴Quinn, Billy, and Nigel Malcolm. "Teltown Impact Assessment." Eirgrid Northeast Projects. Moore Archaeological and Environmental Services Ltd., Oct. 2009. Web. 9 July 2012. <http://www.eirgridnortheastprojects.com/media/14.8%20Telltown%20Impact%20Assessment%20Report.pdf>.
Of the artificial lakes, O’Donovan wrote, "The tradition in the Country is that the loughs were formed by an old race of men called the Firvolg, but for what purpose they know not, unless it was for watering their cattle." O’Donovan noted that one of these lakes was known as "Dubh-Ioch," another use of "dubh," (black) which may have originated in the site’s connection to Crom Dubh, the "Black Crooked One," a pagan fertility god later demonized by Christianity.

⁵Ferguson, Samuel. "On Ancient Cemeteries at Rathcroghan and Elsewhere in Ireland (As Affecting the Question of the Site of the Cemetery at Taltin)." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Polite Literature and Antiquities 1 (1879): 127-28.

⁶Morris, Henry. "Where Was Aonach Tailtean?" The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Sixth 20.2 (1930): 113-29.

⁷Quinn.

⁸The photograph of the "fairy bushes" at Teltown was made by Matty O’Brien’s daughter Nora, one of the 13 O’Brien siblings. Nora lives in Australia but was visiting her mother, then 88, at Teltown in 2012.

⁹O’Brien, Matthew. "Tradition in Ireland." Personal interview. 1 July 1979.

¹⁰Quinn.

¹¹See Wikipedia explanations of the Fir Bolg, the Tuatha Dé Danaan, the Book of Invasions, Lugh Lámhfhada, and Lughnasa.

¹²Lughnasa is also the Irish word for the month of August. The Metrical Dindshenshas describe Tailtiu ‘s labor: "When the fair wood was cut down by her, roots and all, out of the ground, before the year’s end it became Bregmag, it became a plain blossoming with clover. Her heart burst in her body from the strain beneath her royal vest; not wholesome, truly, is a face like the coal, for the sake of woods or pride of timber." ("Metrical Dindshenchas, V. Four: Taltiu." Mystical Ireland: Mythology. Web. 9 July 2012. <http://www.mythicalireland.com/mythology/dindshenchas/taltiu.html>.)

¹³Downey, Clodagh. "The Life and Work of Cúán ua Lothcháin." Records of Meath Archaeological and Historical Society XIV.5588 (2008): 61-63.

¹⁴Ettlinger, Ellen. "The Association of Burials with Popular Assemblies, Fairs and Races in Ancient Ireland." Etudes Celtiques 6 (1952): 42-43.
Another source quotes the Annals of the Four Masters as dating the establishment of the Oenach Tailten to the "year of the world 3370." Subsequently it was reported occurring in "A.D. 539, 594, 715, 806, 825, 847, 855, 887, 894, 903, 914, 915, 925, 1001, 1004, 1006, 1120, & 1168." (Petrie, George. "Aspects of George Petrie. V. An Essay on Military Architecture in Ireland Previous to the English Invasion." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Polite Literature and Antiquities 72 (1972 (read 1834): 236.)
According to D.A. Binchy, "…so far as the earlier historical period is concerned, other references in the annals…make it quite clear that the Fair of Tailtiu, far from being an invention of the pseudo-historians, was an ancient institution intimately connected with the Tara monarchy. The only question at issue is whether it had at any time the ‘nation-wide’ constitutional functions…" The author concludes: "Oenach Tailten, while undoubtedly the most important gathering of its kind in Ireland, had never been more than the principal fair of the Ui Neill confederation of dynasties and their vassal tribes.(Binchy, D.A. "The Fair of Tailtiu and the Feast of Tara." Ériu 18 (1958): 113-38.)

¹⁵Gwynn, Edward. The Metrical Dindshenchas: v. 4, Tailtiu. Dublin: Hodges, Figgis, 1913.
The Oenach Tailten, ostensibly pagan in origin, were acknowledged to have approval of the Church authorities. One story illustrates this well: "Of Saint Guaire it was said that he was the most generous man that ever lived in Erinn, and, also, it was said that it was never known of him to refuse anything within the bounds of possibility that anyone would ask. Once he went to the Fair of Tailtean, and a great bag of money with him to bestow on the men of Erinn. But Diarmuid, the King at that time, put the men of the country under geasa not to ask Saint Guaire for anything at the Fair.
Now, Tailtean (‘Teltown) in the County of Meath was, after Tara, one of the most celebrated spots in all Erinn. In the old Annals it is recorded that in the year of the world 8,870, in the reign of Lugh Lamhfada (Lugh of the Long Hand), the Fair of Tailtean was established in commemoration and in remembrance of his foster-mother, Tailte, the daughter of Maghmor, King of Spain, and the wife of Eochaidh, son of Ere, the last King of the Fir Bolgs. The great Fair continued down to the time of Roderick O’Connor, the last monarch of Ireland.
And, so, to this great Fair of Tailtean Saint Guaire went, and with him his bag of money. Up and down and in and out through the Fair he went, among the great crowds, and to his surprise not a man of all the men of Erinn that were there asked him for a penny piece.
Two days went over like that, and on the third day Saint Guaire went to the King and asked him to send for a Bishop for him, so that he might be shriven and anointed.
" What ails thee, then?" asked King Diarmuid.
" Death it is that is near me," said Saint Guaire.
" How do you know that?" asked the King.
" I know it well," said Saint Guaire, " for here are the men
of Ireland all gathered together and not one of them asking aught of me."
After that the King gave Saint Guaire permission to bestow alms, and it is said of him at that time that the hand with which he used to give to the poor was longer than the hand with which he gave to the poets. (O’Byrne, Cathal. "The Road of the Dishes." The Irish Monthly 64.758 (1936): 548-49.)

¹⁶MacNeill 321.
The author lists some of the "pagan rites" of the Lugnasa festival: "…a solemn cutting of the first of the corn of which an offering would be made to the deity by bringing it up to a high place and burying it; a meal of the new food and of bilberries of’ which everyone must partake; a sacrifice of a sacred bull, a feast of its flesh, with some ceremony involving its hide, and its replacement by a young bull; a ritual dance-play perhaps telling of a struggle for a goddess and a ritual fight; an installation of a head on top of the hill and a triumphing over it by an actor impersonating Lugh; Another play representing the confinement by Lugh of the monster blight or famine; a three-day celebration presided over by the brilliant young god or his human representative. Finally, a ceremony indicating that the interregnum was over, and the chief god was in his rightful place again." (p. 426)

¹⁷Ettlinger 30+.

¹⁸Allcroft, A. H. The Circle and the Cross a Study in Continuity. London: Macmillan, 1927. 20-21.

¹⁹Wilde, William Robert. The Beauties of the Boyne, and Its Tributary, the Blackwater. Dublin: James McGlashan, 1849. 149-155.

²⁰Swan.
In 1168 the last ancient Teltown Fair was convened by the High King Rúaidhrí Ó Conchobhair after his inauguration in Dublin.

²¹Quinn.
Folklorist Estyn Evans provides an 1845 account of Dublin’s infamous Donnybrook Fair: "During the week, beginning on the 26th August, is held the notorious Donnybrook Fair, professedly for the sale of horses and black cattle, but really for vulgar dissipation, and formerly for criminal outrage and the most revolting debauchery. It was for generations a perfect prodigy of moral horrors – a concentration of disgrace upon, not Ireland alone, but civilized Europe. It far surpassed all other fairs in the multitude and grossness of its disgusting incidents of vice; and, in general, it exhibited such continuous scenes of riot, bloodshed, debauchery, and brutality, as only the coarsest taste and the most hardened heart could witness without painful emotion.’ This was by day; ‘the orgies of the night may better be imagined than described." (Evans, E. Estyn. Irish Folk Ways. New York: Devin-Adair, 1957. 255-56.) The quotation is taken from The Parliamentary Gazetteer of 1845.

²²Quinn.
O’Donovan wrote, "They say that the Fair of Telton was transferred to Orestown, where it was held till thirty years ago. Orestown is set down in old Almanacks as a fair-town. The sports of Telton were transferred to Martry, opposite the Rath on the south side of the Blackwater River."

²³O’Donovan, John, and Michael O’Flanagan. Letters Containing Information Relative to the Antiquities of the County of Meath, Collected during the Progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1836. Vol. 19. Bray, 1927. 12+.
O’Donovan wrote, "The narratives of Telton think that there was a great deal of fair play in this marriage, for which opinion Paley would condemn them as savages, and Milton would applaud them as men of sound ethical principles!"
Maire MacNeil makes it clear that O’Donovan, in explaining the folk memory of Teltown Marriages, considered them an element of the pagan Lughnasa celebrations and not a modern activity. (MacNeill, Maire. The Festival of Lughnasa. London: Oxford University Press, 1962. 317-18.)
Wood-Martin described the "Teltown Divorce" thusly: "…If a couple who had been married for a twelvemonth disagree, they returned to Teltown, to the centre of a fort styled Rathdoo, placed themselves back to back, one facing the north, the other south, and walked out of the fort a divided couple free to marry again. (What numbers would now take advantage of this simple ceremony were it but legally efficacious!)" (Wood-Martin, W. G. Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland. Vol. 2. London: Longmans, Green, & Co. 1902. 39.)
According to the report made in 2009 by Moore Archaeological and Environmental Services ,"… according to Cormac’s Glossary… a hillock there had the name of Tulach-na-Coibche, "the hill of the buying," where the bride-price was paid. All this is remembered in tradition to the present day: and the people of the place point out the spot where the marriages were performed, which they call "Marriage Hollow." (Quinn.)
In his report, O’Donovan identified the site by its Irish names, Cnocan a Chrainn or Tulach na Coibche. "Knockauns" is from the former term, meaning "the little hill of the tree" while the latter term suggests a word which in early Irish "varies in meaning from ‘a temporary bride’ to ‘a lady of easy virtue’." (Swan, Leo, and Matthew Stout. Teltown: An Ancient Assembly Site in County Meath. Bray: Archaeology Ireland, 1998.)
Trial marriages such as the Teltown Marriages, an imitation of a sanctioned wedding ceremony, may generically be termed "handfasting."

²⁴Cullen, Paul. "Bulldozers Knock down Important Historical Site." Irish Times. 14 May 1997. Web. 10 July 2012. <http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/1997/0514/97051400015.html>. Read here.

²⁵Quinn.
From the excavation report: "The double-banked monument known as the Knockans at Teltown, County Meath, was partly destroyed in May 1997. Excavation (on behalf of the National Monuments Service) was undertaken there in 1997 (Excavations 1997, 143), and a second season, of nine weeks’ duration, took place in July and August 1998.
The focus of this excavation was the eastern side of the southern bank, in order to complete the recording of the archaeological layers exposed by machine in 1997. Excavation revealed that there was a much greater depth of deposit in the central organic core (the burnt deposit) of the monument than the 0.8m recorded in 1997. The core, buried beneath 1-2m of redeposited gley, was made up of layers of deposited silts with some large stones revetting their southern side. Over these, and on the northern side, were many lenticular deposits of silt with pointed stakes driven into them.
Because of machine destruction the relationship of the organic core to what appeared to be a ditch between the two banks was not resolved in 1997, the old ground surface not being clearly identified. Excavation of a greater depth of this organic core in 1998 clarified this issue and demonstrated that the banks were constructed without an intervening ditch, the gap between them containing a considerable depth of silts and clay resting on the original ground surface. Although it was not possible to complete the excavation of this year’s cutting to sterile ground across its entire length, it was possible to recover secure samples for dating and analysis from undisturbed contexts.
The reinstatement and grass planting of the northern bank was completed, but the final reshaping of the upper eastern slope of the southern bank was not finished as additional topsoil was required; the reconstruction of this small area will now have to wait until dryer weather in spring 1999.
Finds consisted of post-medieval pottery and modern material from the plough zone at the southern end of the southern bank. Flint and a fragment of bronze were recovered in the lower layers of the bank construction material, while fragments of leather, wood, a small amount of bone and one sherd of glass came from contexts within the organic core. John Waddell and Madeline O’Brien, Department of Archaeology, National University of Ireland, Galway."

²⁶"Tailteann Games." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 07 Mar. 2012. Web. 10 July 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tailteann_Games>.
A dystopian view of the modern Tailteann Games concludes, "As to historical correctness – the games were influenced more by the zeitgeist than academic excellence. Very similar to "recreations" of ancient life in 1930s Germany and Italy, more a crude caricature than a historic achievement. Pictures of mock castles and round towers at the entrance to Croke Park speak their own language. ("The Tailteann Games – An Olympic Event for the "Celtic Race"" About.com Ireland Travel. Web. 10 July 2012. <http://goireland.about.com/od/historyculture/qt/gg_tailteann.htm>.)
In 2012 there was an unsuccessful bid to have the Olympic Torch make a stop at Teltown prior to its arrival in London. Nora O’Brien, brought up alongside the Teltown Mound, wrote about the modern games in a blog posting.

²⁷An account of the Scurlogstown Olympiad in 2009 may be read here. The Trim Haymaking Festival has its own website.

¹Sayers, Peig. Peig: the Autobiography of Peig Sayers of the Great Blasket Island. [Syracuse, N.Y.]: Syracuse UP, 1974. 13.

²"Peig Sayers." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 22 June 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peig_Sayers>.
In his diary accounts of his collection session with the author, Seosamh Ó Dálaigh describes the scene at Sayers’ home as the seanchaí (storyteller) was about to begin: “When the visitors arrived (for all gathered to the Sayers house when Peig was there to listen to her from supper-time till midnight) the chairs were moved back and the circle increased. News was swapped, and the news often gave the lead for the night’s subject, death, fairies, weather, crops. All was grist to the mill, the sayings of the dead and the doings of the living, and Peig, as she warmed to her subject, would illustrate it richly from her repertoire of verse, proverb and story…”  ("Peig Sayers (1873-1958)." Home. Web. 22 June 2011. <http://www.askaboutireland.ie/reading-room/history-heritage/folklore-of-ireland/Folklore-of-ireland/tellers-and-their-tales-i/peig-sayers-(1873-1958)/>.)

³Westropp, Thomas J. "Promontory Forts and Similar Structures in the County Kerry. Part IV. Corcaguiny (The Southern Shore) (Continued)." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 40.4 (1910): 265-66.

⁴Killanin, Michael Morris, and Michael V. Duignan. The Shell Guide to Ireland. London: Ebury P. in Association with George Rainbird, 1967. 265.

⁵Cuppage, Judith. Archaeological Survey of the Dingle Peninsula: a Description of the Field Antiquities of the Barony of Corca Dhuibhne from the Mesolithic Period to the 17th Century A.D. Ballyferriter: Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne, 1986. 345-46.
According to the authors, "The name Tigh Mhoire, applied to the site in much of the literature, refers to a cabin located about 60m to NE."

⁶Ó Conchúir, Doncha. "Mor’s Ditch." Letter to the author. 30 Jan. 1981. MS.
Ó Conchúir wrote a comprehensive 1977 guidebook to the Dingle Peninsula and its monuments, Corcha Dhuibhne its Peoples and their Buildings.

⁷Ó Siochfhradha, Pádraig. Thirty Hundreds of Gree. Unpublished manuscript. Read in translation by Doncha Ó Conchúir, 22 July, 1980.

⁸De Mórdha, Mícheál. "Doncha Ó Conchúir21." Message to the author. 21 Dec. 2010. E-mail.
De
Mórdha is the director of the Blasket Island Heritage Center (Blascaod Centre) in Dún Chaoin.

⁹Ó Siochfhradha.

¹⁰Curtin, Jeremiah. Hero-tales of Ireland. London: Macmillan and, 1894. xli – xliv.
From the text: "Mor was enormously bulky, and exerted herself to the utmost in climbing the mountain. At the top, certain necessities of nature came on her; as a result of relieving these, a number of deep gullies were made in Mount Eagle, in various directions. These serve to this day as water-courses; and torrents go through them to the ocean during rainfalls.
News was brought to Mor on the mountain that her sons had been enticed away to sea by magic and deceit. Left alone, all her power and property vanished; she withered, lost her strength, went mad, and then disappeared, no man knew whither. ‘All that she had came by the sea,’ as people say, ‘and went with the sea.’ She who had been disagreeable and proud to such a degree that her own husband had to leave her; the woman whose delight was in her children and her wealth, – became the most desolate person in Erin, childless, destitute, a famishing maniac that disappeared without a trace."
This book may be read in its entirety here.

¹¹Ó Conchúir, Doncha. "Mor’s Ditch." Letter to the author. 30 Dec. 1980. MS.

¹²Ni Dhomhnaill, Nuala. "Traveling in Style : SURVIVAL OF THE IRISH : On Ireland’s Dingle Peninsula, the Landscape and the Language Are Revered, And You’ll Hear More Poetry Than Can Be Found in Most Books" Featured Articles From The Los Angeles Times. 05 Mar. 1995. Web. 23 June 2011. <http://articles.latimes.com/1995-03-05/magazine/tm-39910_1_dingle-peninsula>.
The author is an Irish-language poet and author of the collection The Astrakhan Cloak, with English translation by Paul Muldoon. A long poem in that volumn is entitled "The Voyage." Part 8 of that poem, "The Testimony of the People of Dunquin," contains a verse that echoes the theme of Mór’s loss of her children:

‘…There was a man and his wife living in this vicinity
one time who had two children, a boy and a girl.
The mother died and the father
and son would be out fishing every day
while the girl kept house.
They came home one day and there was no sign of her.
She’d disappeared without trace.
Years later they were out fishing
when a mist fell on them and once it cleared
they came upon an island where nothing had been before.
There was the daughter, who welcomed them warmly.’

‘She came home with them, but?’

‘I don’t think so. She had to stay put.’

Ní Dhomhnaill, Nuala, and Paul Muldoon. The Astrakhan Cloak. Winston-Salem, NC: Wake Forest UP, 1993. 89.

¹³Ní Dhomhnaill, Nuala, and Michael Hartnett. Selected Poems = Rogha Dánta. Dublin: Raven Arts, 1988. 33.

¹Wood-Martin, W. G. Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland. Vol. 2. London: Longmans, Green, & Co. 1902. 228-29.

²Frazer, W. "On "Holed and Perforated Stones in Ireland." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Fifth 6.2 (1896): 165-66.
While modern sources state the height of the stone to be 2 m (6.6 ft), older writers such as Frazer and Petrie wrote of it as being up to a meter taller. It is unclear what would explain the discrepancy. Has the stone sunk into the waterlogged ground? Has the bog grown up at its base? Or has the top part of the stone been somehow removed?

³O’Donovan, John, Michael Herity, and David McGuinness. Ordnance Survey Letters, Sligo: Letters Relating to the Antiquities of the County of Sligo Containing Information Collected during the Progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1836 and 1837. Dublin: Fourmasters, 2010. 137.
Letter, to Lieut. Thomas A. Larcom, Superintendent of the Ordnance Survey, from George Petrie, head of the Survey’s Topographical Section, written from Rathcarrick, Co. Sligo, concerning his examination of sites of archaeological interest in the county, with particular reference to the ‘sepulchral circles’ and cromleacs at Carrowmore, Kilmacowen, Co. Sligo. 12 August 1837.
William Wakeman wrote of the Tobernaveen Stone, "Unquestionably some of the holed-stones are of doubtful character, inasmuch as they may be classified either as prehistoric, or belonging to an early period of Christianity. We may perhaps assign to one of the finest monuments of this class remaining in Ireland a degree of antiquity equal at least to that acknowledged to be possessed by the cromlechs, circles, and other megaliths of Carrowmore, immediately adjoining."
(Wakeman, William F., and John Cooke. Wakeman’s Handbook of Irish Antiquities. Dublin: Hodges, Figgis, 1903. 18-19.)

⁴Weir, Anthony. "County Sligo – Selected Monuments." Irish Megaliths: Field Guide & Photographs. Web. 15 June 2012. <http://www.irishmegaliths.org.uk/sligo.htm>
"Through this stone babies were passed to ward off the many infant maladies that for so many centuries afflicted Ireland with a child mortality greater than almost anywhere else in Europe."

⁵Hutton, Ronald. The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy. Oxford, UK: B. Blackwell, 1991. 294-95.

⁶Grinsell, Leslie V. Folklore of Prehistoric Sites in Britain. London: Newton Abbot, 1976. 16.
As an example of the medicinal efficacy associated with prehistoric tombs, Grinsell writes of "The activities of Dr. Toope of Marlborough (c. 1670) in concocting medicines from human bones dug up at the Sanctuary or barrows near it, and at the West Kennet long barrow in Wiltshire."
Author Thomas Keith describes this recourse to magic as being resorted to by earlier cultures "to explain misfortune and to mitigate its rigor." (Thomas, Keith. Religion and the Decline of Magic. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1971. 21.)

⁷The well which makes the trip to the stone so difficult, Tobar na bhFian (the Well of the Warriors) provided the ancient name of the townland, Tobernaveen. One blogger was aided in his trip to the stone by a villager who provided a plank to be deployed as a bridge.

¹Rattue, James. The Living Stream: Holy Wells in Historical Context. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: Boydell, 1995. 10-11.
The initial quotation is from Baker, R., "Holly Wells and Magical Waters in Surrey." 1985. 25.

²Wakeman, William F. M. "On Certain Wells Situate in the North-West of Ireland; With Remarks on the Occurrence of the Croix Grammée, or Swastica, as Found at St. Brigid’s Well, near Cliffony, Co. Sligo." The Journal of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland Fourth 5.44 (1880): 368-69.

³Farry, Michael. Killoran and Coolaney: a Local History. Trim, Co. Meath (33, Avondale Drive, Trim, Co. Meath): [Michael Farry], 1985. Read online: http://www.michaelfarry.com/files/killoran.pdf
The quote is from the Book of Ballymote, compiled in 1391.

⁴Farry.

⁵Wakeman.

⁶"The Holy Wells of Ireland." Library Ireland: Irish History and Culture. Web. 27 Apr. 2011. <http://www.libraryireland.com/HealyEssays/Wells2.php>.

⁷"The Holy Wells of Ireland."
Aligning with a different popular St. Patrick legend, the Tullaghan Hill well was thought to be the home of the last snake to live in Ireland. (Brenneman, Walter L., and Mary G. Brenneman. Crossing the Circle at the Holy Wells of Ireland. Charlottesville: University of Virginia, 1995. 83.)

⁸"Tullaghan." Ask About Ireland. Web. 27 Apr. 2011. <http://www.askaboutireland.ie/reading-room/environment-geography/physical-landscape/the-wakeman-drawings/tullaghan/>.

⁹Wakeman 366-67.

¹⁰Wilde, Lady Jane Francesca, and W. R. Wilde. Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms & Superstitions of Ireland: with Sketches of the Irish past. London: Chatto & Windus, 1902. 238-39.

¹¹Farry.

¹²Evans, E. Estyn. Irish Folk Ways. New York: Devin-Adair, 1957. 264.

¹³Rattue 1-2.

¹⁴"At the Hawk’s Well" Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 27 Apr. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_the_Hawk’s_Well>.

¹⁵Yeats, W. B.: "At the Hawk’s Well" Selected Plays. London: Penguin Books, 1997. 113-14.

¹Ashe, John. Annascaul: Revisited and Reviewed. Melbourne: St. Finbar’s Presbytery, 1949. 35
"Minard Castle," by Ted O’Donnell:

There’s a Castle below by the waters,
Where the wild waves they croon all the day,
And their song is of sorrow and laughter
As they kiss the brown rocks of the Bay.
And my thoughts fly away o’er the long years,
O’er the years to a far yesterday,
And I picture an old-world glory
Where the walls now are broken and grey.

From the Castle the sweet notes are stealing
Of music far over the Bay.
The harpers are softly beguiling
Dull care and dull sorrow away.
The soldiers within they make merry
And they drink to the long, long ago,
The toast is ‘The Kingdom of Kerry’
‘Benburb’ and ‘The Gallant Owen Roe.’

But a black shadow fell on the water
On the summer that Cromwell came o’er
When the gay songs of music and laughter
Would throb in the breeze never more.
Long they fought ‘gainst the might of the Saxon,
‘Gainst the musket and dread cannon-ball.
They fell ‘neath the flag of the country
And they sleep near the old Castle wall.

And now there is left of its glory
The walls and an old-world air, –
The old folk will tell you the story
Of sieges and battles that were, –
And they say when the great storms are breaking
And the winds blow in from the sea
You can hear mid the roar of the tempest
The voice of a lost chivalry.

²Tanner, Michael. Troubled Epic: On Location with Ryan’s Daughter. Wilton, Cork: Collins, 2007. 153.
Ryan’s Daughter. Dir. David Lean. By Robert Bolt. Perf. Robert Mitchum, Trevor Howard, John Mills, Sara Miles, Christopher Jones. MGM, 1970.
In the brief video clip included, Rosy Ryan (Sara Miles), a married but frustrated Irish woman, will consummate her infatuation with the brooding British army officer
Randolph Doryan (Christopher Jones) after their silent meeting at "the Tower" (Minard Castle).
Click here for a VR panorama of Coumeenole Bay, one of the locations most used in the making of the film.

³Kenny, Niall. "Dingle’s Minard Beach." Archaeology Ireland 20.4 (2006): 16-20.
From the article: "The stones that are still being rolled on the beach today are freshly pink, devoid of lichen growth, and are quite dark in appearance because they are wet. This is how such ogham stones would have looked when they were first procured from the beach, and makes one wonder whether the shape, colour and texture of the stones might have been important factors in the choice of material to be inscribed. The use of the water-rolled pulvinar stones from Minard Beach as ogham monuments at various locales in the surrounding area suggests possible links between different places in the early historic landscape. We can begin to see how people sourced this particular material, the places they brought it to and the contexts in which they erected and used such stones…Identity Ogham stones are culturally fixed and enduring points in the landscape. They were almost certainly intended as permanent markers of place that would fix in the soil a part of the identity of those who erected them. This identity would have been evident in the inscriptions through the use of an individual, family or group name. Considering that most people at this time would not have been literate, however, we can say with confidence that this identity would also have been bound up with, and in some ways more potently expressed in, the type, colour, shape and material properties of the actual stone upon which the ogham was inscribed."
More information and an example may be found here. Others sites in Voices from the Dawn feature ogham inscriptions, including the Kilmalkedar and the Ballycrovane stones.

⁴Hitchcock, Richard. "The Castles of Corkaguiny, County of Kerry. No. II." Proceedings and Transactions of the Kilkenny and South-East of Ireland Archaeological Society 3.2 (1855): 388-92.
From the author’s description: "We now come to the interior of the castle. At the southeast corner there is about half, up to the top, of the circular inside of a turret in the thickness of the wall, in which a spiral staircase appears to have existed, the ends or places for two flights of the steps being still visible. Besides two windows looking from this interior…it has also the remains of a circular-headed doorway leading to the interior of the castle, and, over this, another perfect circular-headed doorway looking west. A space appears to have been walled off from the interior of the castle at the east side, but…this side is unfortunately the most ruined. Remains, however, of two arched ceilings, and other accommodations, may still be seen in this part. The three windows next the ground at the south, west, and north sides have, at the inside, the form of large fire-places, each 5 feet 8 inches in breadth. One of the arch stones of the west recess has rudely carved on it the form of a human face; but it is probably a modern production. Similar recesses are at the insides of the two windows over these in the west and north sides, and another recess is at the inside of the centre window in the south side. This side of the castle, like the east, is walled off from the interior, and between the two walls are several small apartments, inaccessible, however, to me. Over the centre window in the south side, just mentioned, is a doorway leading into some of these chambers, and it was probably into them that one of the circular-headed doorways at the south-east comer of the castle also led…Portions of two arched ceilings are to be seen in the castle…From the west wall, beneath the first or lowest arch, two stones, like corbels, project; but they do not seem to have been used for this purpose. The corresponding holes in the north and south walls, or similar projecting stones in the opposite east wall, do not appear; but the latter may have been pulled away…Above the first ceiling at this side are the remains of a fire-place, still exhibiting some traces of ornament."
A comprehensive description and a plan of the castle may be found in Cuppage, Judith. Archaeological Survey of the Dingle Peninsula: a Description of the Field Antiquities of the Barony of Corca Dhuibhne from the Mesolithic Period to the 17th Century A.D. Ballyferriter: Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne, 1986. 375-78.

⁵"Irish Confederate Wars." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 04 Aug. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Confederate_Wars>.
"The conflict in Ireland essentially pitted the native Irish Catholics against English and Scottish Protestant colonists and their supporters. It was both a religious and ethnic conflict – fought over who would govern Ireland, whether it would be governed from England, which ethnic and religious group would own most of the land and which religion would predominate in the country."

⁶Ashe 32.

⁷MacDonogh, Steve. The Dingle Peninsula. Dingle, Co. Kerry, Ireland: Brandon, 2000. 60-62.
The author states that Lewis, in his Topographical Dictionary (1837), claims that the fortification on the eastern cliff was built specifically for the bombardment of the castle.
Ashe (ibid) notes that the cannons on the cliff were augmented by those of British naval forces in the bay.

⁸Hussey, Samuel Murray. The Reminiscences of an Irish Land Agent: Being Those of S.M. Hussey. London: Duckworth, 1904. 4-5.
This book may be read in its entirety here.

⁹Fisher, Mary Jane Leadbeater. Letters from the Kingdom of Kerry, in the Year 1845. Dublin: Webb and Chapman, Great Brunswick St., 1847. 76-78.
In the author’s interview with the customs agent, he goes on to remark on the shell-heaps found around the castle ruins: "…he believed the people in those times lived very much upon ‘bornocks, ‘Anglice,’ ‘limpets,’ for they had found wagon loads of these shells in one corner, under the rubbish of stones and mortar. Poor feeding for such giants! Perhaps the castle was besieged, that the defenders had only those shell-fish for food, and that, while they lasted, they held out against the foe till grim hunger carried the day…"
This book may be read in its entirety here.

¹⁰Ashe 33.

¹¹Williams, John. "Removing Stones from a Fort." Personal interview. 22 June 1979.

¹²Ashe 33.
A photograph of the foundations of the Church of St. Mary may be seen here.

¹³Ó Danachair, Caoimhín. "The Holy Wells of Corkaguiney." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 90.1 (1960): 76.
MacDonough (op cit) explains: "In the past the pattern was an occasion of great entertainment as well as devotion. Penny stalls were set up on the level triangle of grass near by, and at the top of the slip beside the coastguards’ boathouse there was music and dancing into the night. But the authority of the church was brought to bear and the pattern was suppressed in all but its devotional aspect; even that, with its evidently pagan origins, was looked on with no great favour. A particular association of the well which has contributed to the long survival of religious observance here is the legend connecting St John the Baptist with the Corea Dhuibhne people. This legend asserted that John the Baptist was beheaded by an Irish druid called Mogh Roith (the Slave of the Wheel) from Valentia Island on the other side of Dingle Bay, and prophesied that the Irish people – and especially the Corea Dhuibhne – would be called upon to pay for the crime at a date when certain time divisions coincided. In 1096 it was thought that the appointed time was approaching, and Ireland was seized with a panic, similar to the millenialist hysteria that had gripped many in Europe a century before. Rigorous fasting and prayer were undertaken, and it is probably from this date that the well derived its importance, along with many others dedicated to St John the Baptist."

¹⁴Tanner 192.

¹⁵Fisher 76-77.

¹Allcroft, A. H. The Circle and the Cross a Study in Continuity. Vol. 2. London: Macmillan, 1927. 57-58.

²Buchanan, R. H., and Anthony Wilson. "Downpatrick." Irish Historic Towns Atlas. Vol. 8. Dublin: Royal Irish Acad., 1997.

³The Mound of Down. 12 June 2001. Information sign at the site. Downpatrick.
New excavations commencing in 2012 will likely provide a more comprehensive history of the site.

⁴Halpin, Andy, and Conor Newman. "Downpatrick." Ireland: an Oxford Archaeological Guide to Sites from Earliest times to AD 1600. Oxford: Oxford Univ., 2006. 81.

⁵"Downpatrick." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 18 Feb. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downpatrick>.

⁶"Down Cathedral." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 18 Feb. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_Cathedral>.

⁷Harbison, Peter, and Peter Harbison. "Downpatrick." Guide to National and Historic Monuments of Ireland: including a Selection of Other Monuments Not in State Care. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1992. 109.

⁸Down Cathedral : The Burial Place of St Patrick. Web. 18 Feb. 2011. <http://www.downcathedral.org/index.cfm?do=page&id=17>.

⁹Allcroft 5, 75

¹⁰"Saint Patrick and the Spring Equinox." Newgrange Stone Age Passage Tomb – Boyne Valley, Ireland. Web. 23 Feb. 2011. <http://www.newgrange.com/saint_patrick.htm>.

¹¹Edward T. "Myths of St. Patrick’s Day." History News Network. Web. 18 Feb. 2011. <http://hnn.us/articles/623.html>.

¹²Austin, C. "St. Patrick: The Man and the Myth." The Celtic Connection. Web. 18 Feb. 2011. <http://merganser.math.gvsu.edu/myth/patrick.html>.

¹³Wood-Martin, W. G. Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland. Vol. 2. London: Longmans, Green, &, 1902. 311-14.

¹⁴Brash, Richard Rolt, and George M. Atkinson. The Ogam Inscribed Monuments of the Gaedhil in the British Isles. London: G. Bell and Sons, 1879. 95.

¹⁵Bonwick, James. Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions. London: S. Low, Marston & Co., 1894. 12.

¹⁶"Battle for the Body of St. Patrick." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 18 Feb. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_for_the_Body_of_St._Patrick>.

¹⁷"Downpatrick, County Town of Down." Irish Artists – Irish Art. Web. 18 Feb. 2011. <http://www.loughcuan.com/Pages/downpatrick.htm>.

¹⁸McKay, Patrick. "Downpatrick." A Dictionary of Ulster Place-names. Belfast: The Institute Of Irish Studies, 1999

¹Russell, George William (Æ). Imaginations and Reveries. Dublin: Maunsel & Roberts, 1921. 136-37.
The text may be read in its entirety here. Æ was the nom de plume of the Irish writer, poet, and painter George William Russell (1867 – 1935). A mystic who also considered himself a clairvoyant, Russell was part of a group of Dublin theosophists that included William Butler Yeats.
Russell uses some of the same phrases at the end of his poem, "Content:"
Come away, O, come away;
We will quench the heart’s desire
Past the gateways of the day
In the rapture of the fire.
(Russell, George. (A.E.). Collected Poems of A.E. London: Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1927. 297.)
Later in his life Russell gave a further explanation of how he came to imagine the dialogue inside Newgrange:
"To one who lay on the mound which is called the Brugh on the Boyne a form like that the bards speak of Angus appeared, and it cried: ‘Can you not see me? Can you not hear me? I come from the Land of Immortal Youth.’ And I, though I could not be certain of speech, found the wild words flying up to my brain interpreting my own vision of the god, and it seemed to be crying to me…"
(Russell, George. (A.E.). The Candle of Vision. London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1919. 168.)

²O’Kelly, Michael J., and Claire O’Kelly. Newgrange: Archaeology, Art, and Legend. London: Thames and Hudson, 1982. 24.

³The World Heritage Site listing (UNESCO) is for the entire Brú na Bóinne complex of ancient monuments.
"Newgrange is unhesitatingly regarded by the prehistorian as the great national monument of Ireland; in the words of the late Sean O Riordain, ‘one of the most important ancient places in Europe’…each generation finds in it something new and interesting." (O’Kelly, Michael J., and Claire O’Kelly. Newgrange: Archaeology, Art, and Legend. London: Thames and Hudson, 1982.7.)

⁴Lhwyd, Edward. "Several Observations Relating to the Antiquities and Natural History of Ireland, Made by Mr. Edw. Lhwyd, in His Travels Thro’ That Kingdom. In a Letter to Dr. Tancred Robinson, Fellow of the College of Physicians and Royal Society." Philosophical Transactions (1683-1775) 27 (1710-1712): 503-06.
Some 70 years later Thomas Pownell described his difficulty in entering Newgrange, with its cairn partially collapsed into the entrance of the passage: "Four of the side stones, beginning from the fifth on the right hand, or eastern side, stand now leaning over to the opposite side; so that here the passage is scarce permeable. We made our way by creeping on our hands and knees till we came to this part. Here we were forced to turn upon our sides, and edge ourselves on with one elbow and one foot. After we had passed this strait, we were enabled to stand; and by degrees, as we advanced farther…"
(Pownall, Thomas. "A Description of the Sepulchral Monuments at Newgrange." Archaeologia (1773): 2, 236-75.)

⁵O’Kelly 35.
According to O’Kelly: "Most of the other writers attributed Newgrange to the Danes and influences were also invoked from Egypt, India, Ethiopia, Phoenicia, Celtic Gaul, and soon; in fact, almost any race under the sun was considered eligible save for the natives themselves."

It is ironic that the eighteenth-century authors could have considered that the Vikings might have constructed the monuments. As George Petrie put it in 1834, "That the Danes, far from being the erectors of the sepulchral mound at New Grange, and the others contiguous to it, were, on the contrary, the very first that violated them…" (Petrie, George, and D.J.S. O’Malley. "Aspects of George Petrie. V. An Essay on Military Architecture in Ireland Previous to the English Invasion." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature 72 (1834 (1972)): 262-63.)
The impetus to credit the ancient tombs of Ireland to other races may have derived from a conviction by the ascendency that the natives could not be capable of building these monuments. Also, according to David McGuinness,"…this speculative and uncritical approach begun in the first decades of the eighteenth century, combined with the new ideals of Romanticism, was responsible for the excesses of [Vallancey] that saw its close. All the way through to the 1830s, writings on the megalithic tombs of Ireland are dominated by a non-archaeological approach. The spurious philology and etymology of Rowlands, whereby the origins and purpose of megalithic tombs were derived from the meanings and connections of their local names, in conjunction with an almost scholastic obsession with the writings of the ancients and those of modem authors from Rowlands onwards, stifled the ability of most to examine the monuments in the field afresh and without preconceptions." (McGuiness, David. "Edward Lhuyd’s Contribution to the Study of Irish Megalithic Tombs." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 126 (1996): 82.)
About the coins found buried at the monument which Lhuyd cites as evidence that Newgrange pre-dated the Danes, Carleton Jones wrote, "This is a practice that has been documented at ancient sites in Roman Britain and it is possible that the Newgrange offerings were made by visitors from Roman Britain. It is also quite possible, however, that the offerings were made by Irish returning home from raiding or trading excursions to Britain. Whoever made the offerings, it is clear that Newgrange was still a respected and powerful place in the landscape almost three millennia after it had been built." (Jones, Carleton. Temples of Stone: Exploring the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Cork: Collins, 2007. 249.)

⁶Lhwyd 503-06.

⁷Herity, Michael. "From Lhuyd to Coffey: New Information from Unpublished Descriptions of the Boyne Valley Tombs." Studia Hibernica 7 (1967): 128-29.

⁸Boate, Gerard, and Thomas Molyneux. A Natural History of Ireland; in Three Parts. Dublin: Printed for G. Ewing, 1725. 204.
This account may be read in its entirety here.

⁹Pownall, Thomas. Archaeologia; Or, Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity. London: Printed by J. Nichols [etc., 1789. 258.
Pownall tempered his crediting of Newgrange to the Phoenicians with this proviso: "'Thofe whom this conjecture cannot perfuade may, however, profit by the hint, and poffibly amufe themfelve if fuggefting fome more rational account of the matter."

This text may be read in its entirety here.

¹⁰Vallancey, Charles. Collectanea De Rebus Hibernicis. Vol. 4. Dublin: Luke White, 1783. 211. This text may be read in its entirely here.
As an example of Vallancey's interpretation of a Newgrange engraving: "[Stone #3] is found on the front of the covering stone of the east tabernacle, and is written in symbolic characters, signifying the House of God. It is remarkable that all the ancient altars found in Ireland, and now distinguished by the name of Cromleachs or Hoping stones, were originally called Bothal or the House of God; and they seem to be of the same species as those mentioned in the book of Genesis, called by the Hebrews Bethel, which has the fame signification as the Irish Eothal. The tabernacles in the mount of New-Grange have an exact conformity to the Cromleachs, found in different parts of the kingdom." (Vallancey. Vol. 2, 200.)

¹¹Hall, Samuel C. Ireland – Its Scenery, Character Etc. Vol. 2. London: How and Parson, 1841. 382.

¹²O’Kelly 43.
According to O’Kelly, "It is probable that the labourers who were instrumental in uncovering the entrance were more attuned to this aspect of Newgrange than the scholars who came to marvel at it or the landowner Charles Campbell.."

¹³The Tuatha Dé Danaan ("People of the Goddess Danu") were thought to be a god-like race who ruled Ireland before the coming of the Milesians (Celts). After the Tuatha Dé Danaan were defeated in battle they retreated underground, and were thought to live in "fairy fort" mounds such as Newgrange.
"Aengus Óg" is also spelled "Óengus," or "Aonghus."

¹⁴O’Laverty, James. "Newgrange Still Called by Its Ancient Name, Brugh-na-Boinne." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Fifth 2.4 (1892): 430.
Brú na Bóinne actually refers to the entire complex of Boyne tombs, including the other major sites of Dowth and Knowth. Newgrange itself was known in the ancient tales as Sí in Bhrú, the "Fairy Mound of the Brú." The name "New Grange" was given to the townland when in 1142 it was incorporated into the holdings of the Cistercian monks of nearby Mellifont Abbey as a new farm, or "grange." After the confiscation of church property that followed the 1690 Battle of the Boyne, just a couple of miles downstream from the mound, the land was deeded to Charles Campbell.

¹⁵Jackson, Kenneth Hurstone. The Oldest Irish Tradition: A Window on the Iron Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1964. 44.

¹⁶O’Kelly 48.

¹⁷O’Kelly 45-47.
The Dagda was called the "Good God" not because he was "good" in the sense of beneficent, but because he was considered "good for everything." The Dagda, who defeated Lugh at the Battle of Uisneach, was ultimately "one and the same" as his son Aengus Óg.

¹⁸MacCana, Proinsias. Celtic Mythology. New York: Hamlyn, 1970. 33.
Fráech, the son of Boinn’s sister, is buried at the Carnfree inauguration mound at the Rathcroghan Royal Site.

¹⁹Ó hÓgáin Dáithí. Fionn Mac Cumhaill: Images of the Gaelic Hero. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1988. 19.

²⁰O’Grady, Standish. Early Bardic Literature. London: Sampson Low, Searle, Marston & Rivington, 1879. 71.
According to archaeologist Carlton Jones, the name Aengus can be translated as "real vigour."
(Jones, Carleton. Temples of Stone: Exploring the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Cork: Collins, 2007. 198-204.)

²¹Carey, John. "Time, Memory, and the Boyne Necropolis." Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium 10 (1990): 24-36.
Carrey suggests that the meaning and usage of Newgrange was passed down through legend and practice for 5,000 years. "On the literary side, the earliest of the tales may go back to eighth-century originals, but the high degree of variation between them suggests that the legend continued to have an oral basis throughout the medieval period. Even if we posit extremely early written sources for all of the versions, however, we are still left with an oral tradition spanning approximately four thousand years. Besides the sheer duration of this interval, we must reckon with the momentous cultural developments which it included: the conversion of the Irish to Christianity and also, almost certainly, the arrival of Celtic language in Ireland. Could an idea survive such far-reaching changes, and so many centuries? No a priori dogma can settle such a question in advance: the evidence must be considered on its merits. In my own opinion the specific localization of the legends, taken together with the apparent uniqueness of the design of Newgrange, cannot reasonably be dismissed as mere coincidence."
Aengus’ semantic trickery involving time that gained him the possession of Newgrange from his father is analogous to his father’s manipulation of time that contracted Aengus’ gestation and birth into a single day. This emphasis on the passage of time in the legendary tales of the monument is given a astronomical resonance in the yearly appearance of the sun through the roof-box on the morning of the Winter Solstice. As authors Brendan Purcell and Dorothy Cross put it, "Far more than words, our deeds reveal and communicate who we are. In a gigantic drama between stone and sun, re-enacted every year, the neolithic people who built Newgrange expressed their grasp of the mysterious answer to their quest for the meaning and order of their existence. They deployed all their technological, architectural, artistic, astronomic and mathematical skills to elevate midwinter sunrise into a cosmic YES at the zero point of cosmic forsakeness." (Purchell, Brendan, and Dorothy Cross. "Newgrange: Between Sun and Stone." The Crane Bag: The Other Ireland 2.1/2 (1978): 89-95.)

Within her poem "Carnival,"
Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill deals with a this theme, but on an more personal, and mortal, level.

If we were gods
here at Newgrange—
you Sualtam or the Daghda,
myself the famous river—

we could freeze the sun
and the moon
for a year and a day
to perpetuate the pleasure
we have together.

Alas, it’s far from gods
we are, but bare, forked creatures.
The heavenly bodies stop
only for a single, transitory moment.

(Ní Dhomhnaill, Nuala, and Paul Muldoon, trans. The Astrakhan Cloak. Winston-Salem, NC: Wake Forest UP, 1993. 13.)

²²"Aengus." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aengus>.
According to the "Death Tales of the Tuatha de Danaan", Aengus killed his step father Elcmar for killing Midir.
Aengus also slew the poet of Lugh Lamfada for lying about his brother Ogma an Cermait. The poet claimed that Ogma was having an affair with one of Lugh’s wives. Aengus killed the poet in front of Midir.
In "The Wooing of Etain," Aengus was able to partially lift Fuamnach’s spell against Etain, the horse goddess he had won for his brother Midir. Fuamnach in a jealous rage had turned the girl into a butterfly. Turning her into a woman at night, Aengus made her his lover until Fuamnach found out about it and drove her away.
Four bright birds that ever hovered about his head were supposed to be his kisses taking shape in this lovely form, and at their singing love came springing up in the hearts of youths and maidens.
In the "Tale of the Two Pails," a sidhe woman and foster daughter of Aengus gets lost and winds up in the company of St. Patrick. The girl converts to Christianity, and Aengus can not win her back. He leaves, and she dies of grief a few weeks later.

²³Gregory, Lady Augusta, and W. B. Yeats. Cuchulain of Muirthemne: the Story of the Men of the Red Branch of Ulster. London: J. Murray, 1902. 145-46.
An interesting aside to this tale of Aengus and the swans is the fact that the area near Newgrange is a wintering ground for the Whooper Swan, which take up residence in Iceland every October to April. ("101 Facts about Newgrange." Mythical Ireland. Web. <http://www.mythicalireland.com/ancientsites/newgrange-facts/>.)

²⁴Gregory 2.

²⁵Cross, Tom Peete, and Clark Harris Slover. Ancient Irish Tales. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1936. 374
In one of the Fenian tales, "Fort of the Rowann Tree (Bruighion Chaorthainn), a poet puts Fionn Mac Cumhaill under a taboo in which he must answer this poetic riddle:

I saw a house in the country
Out of which no hostages are given to a king,
Fire burns it not, harrying spoils it not.

Fionn replies, "I understand that verse, for that is the Brugh of the Boyne that you have seen, namely, the house of Aengus Og of the Brugh, and it cannot be burned or harried as long as Aengus shall live." (Evans-Wentz, W. Y. The Fairy-faith in Celtic Countries,. London: H. Frowde, 1911 .410-416.)

²⁶O’Kelly 45-47.
According to O’Kelly, this is a Christian interpretation of an old tradition in an effort to add status to the kings of Tara.

²⁷Eogan, George. "The Archaeology of Brugh Na Bóinne during the Early Centuries A.D." Seanchas Ardmhacha: Journal of the Armagh Diocesan Historical Society 14.1 (1990): 20.
As George Petrie retold the story in 1845: "…he came by his death at the house of Cletech, the bone of a salmon having stuck in his throat. And he (Cormac) told his people not to bury him at Brugh, (because it was a cemetery of Idolaters,) for he did not worship the same God as any of those interred at Brugh ; but to bury him at Ros na righ, with his face to the east. He afterwards died, and his servants of trust held a council, and came to the resolution of burying him at Brugh, the place where the kings of Tara, his predecessors, were buried. The body of the king was afterwards thrice raised to be carried to Brugh, but the Boyne swelled up thrice, so as that they could not come ; so that they observed that it was ‘ violating the judgment of a prince’ to break through this Testament of the king, and they afterwards dug his grave at Ros na righ, as he himself had ordered." (Petrie, George. The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland: An Essay on the Origin and Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland. Dublin: Hodges and Smith, 1845. 100.)

²⁸Evans-Wentz, W. Y. The Fairy-faith in Celtic Countries. London: H. Frowde, 1911. 416.
Dalton, John P. "Who Built Dun Aengus? (Continued)." Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society 14.3/4 (1929): 110.

²⁹Pownall, Thomas. "A Description of the Sepulchral Monument at New Grange, near Drogheda in the County of Meath, in Ireland. By Thomas Pownall, Esq. in a Letter to the Rev. Gregory Sharpe, D. D. Master of the Temple." Archaeologia: Or Miscellaneous Tracts, Relating to Antiquity. London: Published by the Society of Antiquaries of London. Sold at the House of the Society, 1770. 236-239.
This text may be read in its entirely here.

³⁰O’Kelly 25.

³¹Herity 136.
The Newenham sketch of Newgrange with the prominent stone atop the mound (see gallery) was accompanied by a note: "’This stone was undermined and thrown down the mound by men seeking for hidden money." The author suggests that Newenham may have been "sketching his guess at the restoration of the original position of a large stone found at the spot…and that he is not sketching something he had actually seen."
O’Kelly believed that Lhwyd saw a stone on top of the cairn, "but it must be questioned if it was a pillar-stone and even if it was, whether it was an original feature of the monument or not." (O’Kelly, Michael J., and Claire O’Kelly. Newgrange: Archaeology, Art, and Legend. London: Thames and Hudson, 1982. 26-27.)

³²Stout, Geraldine. "The Vallancey Triangle." Archaeology Ireland 7.3 (1993): 8-9.

³³O’Kelly 38.
An Ordnance Survey Letter entry (1836) states, "Tradition exists in the county that the caves in these mounds were hiding bars of gold, but they couldn’t be removed as dangerous evil spirits were watching over the treasure." (O’Donovan, John, Thomas O’Connor, P. (Patrick) O’Keeffe, and Michael Herity. Ordnance Survey Letters Meath: Letters Containing Information Relative to the Antiquities of the County of Meath Collected during the Progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1836. Dublin: Four Masters, 2001. 120.)

³⁴Candon, Anthony, and Claire O’Kelly. "An Early Nineteenth Century Description of Newgrange, County Meath." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 114 (1984): 24-27.
An author in 1827 reported that, "All the roads in the neighbourhood are paved with its stones; immense quantities have been taken away." (Higgins, Godfrey. The Celtic Druids. London: R. Hunter, 1827. xli.)
The Irish farmer in the modern era is a partner in the effort to preserve the nation’s heritage. An article entitled "The tombs of our ancestors," in the "Farmers Journal" section of Country Living, January, 28, 2012 mentions the word "farmers" eight times. The article concludes: "While the Stone Age farmers may have constructed these monuments over 4,000 years ago it is the 21st century farmer who is now their custodian, preserving them for future generations and providing the dead with the respect they deserve."

³⁵"Newgrange." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 30 Jan. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange>.

³⁶Herity 136.

³⁷Westropp, Thomas J. "Newgrange." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Fifth 3.2 (1893): 213.
Even once in state care, Newgrange was largely unsupervised and independent investigators, or vandals, could enter at will during some hours. One amateur sleuth thought that he had discovered a new passage within the tomb. He wrote to Westropp: "" I got my head and shoulders so far in that I was able to see that the passage turned towards the middle of the mound. It is nearly filled to the top with small broken stones and the parts of the large stones forming its sides are covered with carvings and spirals; it evidently leads to another chamber within the mound. Its exploration would probably result in an interesting discovery, and valuable arms and ornaments might be found."

³⁸O’Kelly 23.

³⁹Eogan, George, and Eoin Grogan. "Prehistoric and Early Historic Culture Change at Brugh Na Bóinne." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature 91C (1991): 110.
The authors state that there may also have been a fourth large site, at Ballincrad (site G), not much survives, but there is evidence that the main mound might have been about 70m (230 ft) in diameter.
Throughout history there have been different accounts of the number of stones in the incomplete "Great Circle" around Newgrange, since some stones have been broken or removed. O’Kelly, however, concluded that there was "very little evidence…in the excavated areas for the original presence of these ‘missing’ stones…One must be prepared to accept the thesis that the circle may never have been completed." The dating of the monument was made possible because the spaces between the slabs of the roof were caulked with a mixture of burnt soil and sea sand, from which two C14 readings, each of 2500 BCE, could be obtained. (O’Kelly, Michael J., and Claire O’Kelly. Newgrange: Archaeology, Art, and Legend. London: Thames and Hudson, 1982. 79, 22.)

⁴⁰Herity, Michael. Irish Passage Graves. New York: Harper & Row, 1975. i.

⁴¹Ó Ríordáin, Sean P., and Marcus P. Ó HEochaidhe. "Trial Excavation at Newgrange." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 86.1 (1956): 55.
The excavation that first uncovered some of the inscribed kerbstones was done June, 1928 (Praeger and Macalister), and only lasted a couple of weeks.

⁴²O’Kelly 115-16.
The authors conclude their discussion of the "lost romanticism" of the restored monument with this: "We have come to equate the monuments of the past with ruins and forget that the ruin is the corpse, not the living body. We hope that as a result of our work and that of our many and devoted collaborators and helpers over a period of almost twenty years, we have succeeded in breathing some faint spark of life into Newgrange so that it now justifies in some part its ancient claim to be the Brú or mansion of the Good God, the Dagda of early Irish tradition."

⁴³O’Kelly 112.
Geologists have suggested that much of the Newgrange slabs were collected from a rocky beach approximately 20 km (12.5 mi). These blocks were likely brought to the construction site by sea, and then up the Boyne by securing them to the undersides of small boats at low tide. Then they may have been brought uphill to the site by using ropes and log rollers. The stones used for the cairn were from the nearby river terraces. The figure-eight shaped pond below the tomb may have been the site of an ancient quarry.("Newgrange." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 30 Jan. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange>.)

⁴⁴O’Kelly, Michael J., and Claire O’Kelly. Newgrange: Archaeology, Art, and Legend. London: Thames and Hudson, 1982. 74.

⁴⁵O’Kelly 105.
About his decision, at the conclusion of his fieldwork in 1975, to leave much of the tomb unexcavated, O’Kelly wrote: "By 1975 the objectives originally outlined had been achieved and we felt it desirable that the remainder of the site should be left for future generations of archaeologists who, presumably, would have newer and better techniques and fuller knowledge at their disposal." (p. 67)

⁴⁶O’Kelly. 126.

⁴⁷O’Kelly. 98.
The "closing stone," was used in an experiment by the excavators to determine how well it would serve to cover the opening of the tomb. They discovered that "with the curved end on the ground and the straight one uppermost it fitted exactly under the overhang of RS1, closing the passage perfectly."

⁴⁸Wilde, William Robert. The Beauties of the Boyne, and Its Tributary, the Blackwater. Dublin: James McGlashan, 1850. 193.
Wilde’s account of this stone may be read in its entirety here.
Michael Herity observes that the decorated stone that forms the exterior edge of what we now call the "roof-box" was not noted by Petrie, in 1833. Thus Herity suggests "we can limit the date of its discovery to a period of, at most, 15 years (1833-48). It may have been that it was the work of the Ordnance Survey in this area in 1836 that brought [the stone] to light or, alternatively, the work recorded by Lord Albert Conyngham in 1842 which revealed further gold objects." (Herity, Michael. "From Lhuyd to Coffey: New Information from Unpublished Descriptions of the Boyne Valley Tombs." Studia Hibernica 7 (1967): 136.)

⁴⁹O’Kelly 89.

⁵⁰O’Kelly 93-96.

⁵¹O’Kelly 123-24
Cairn G at Carrowkeel, in the Bricklieve Mountains in County Sligo, has a roofbox above its entrance, similar to the one at Newgrange. ("Carrowkeel Cairn G Summer Solstice." Newgrange Stone Age Passage Tomb – Boyne Valley, Ireland. Web. 30 Jan. 2012. <http://www.newgrange.com/carrowkeel-solstice-08.htm>.)
In an interview, O’Kelly’s daughter described accompanying her father to a Winter Solstice sunrise inside the tomb still under excavation: "I still remember just being all alone with him in the tomb in pitch dark, none of the television cameras and all of the things that there are now, then suddenly the light come in and touched the back wall it was incredible…When you went there in the early days it was like 5,000 years ago was speaking to you, now everyone knows about and it’s still wonderful but earlier on you had the feeling that you were having the same experience that they had back then." ("Newgrange Still Subject to Irish Weather." Newgrange Neolithic (Stone Age) Megalithic Monument. Web. 30 Jan. 2012. <http://www.newgrange.eu/solstice_2008.htm>.)

⁵²Jones, Carleton. Temples of Stone: Exploring the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Cork: Collins, 2007. 199.
Dr. Jones imagines the Neolithic Winter Solstice event: "As the sun’s rays moved across the front of the cairn the white quartz facade would have glowed as if lit from within and when the rays reached the roof box, an angular design, composed of triangles, would have been picked out on the stone that forms the top of the roof box. Although those outside would not be able to see it, similar angular designs composed of triangles would have been illuminated deep within the tomb chamber at the same time." Jones suggests that there was likely a morning ritual at Newgrange and an evening ritual at Dowth and on the equinoxes a morning ritual on the east side of Knowth and an evening ritual on its west side. "Only a handful of people can fit inside the chambers of these passage tombs to observe their illumination by the rays of the sun, but large crowds could certainly be accommodated just outside the entrances. Perhaps we should envisage a select group of priests/priestesses within the tomb emerging just after the sun’s rays had penetrated the chamber and displaying to the congregation ‘proof’ of what had just occurred inside the chamber." (p. 186)

⁵³O’Kelly 68.
O’Kelly also discovered, in the same layer as the white quartz, small "grey granite boulders" that he later interspersed with the quartz in the vertical facade that he constructed at the front of the tomb.

⁵⁴O’Kelly 72.
The author states, "It had become obvious that the quartz/granite made up this surface at the front of the mound and that elsewhere selected boulders of the normal cairn material had been used, that it had been built on top of the kerb as a revetment and that when it fell there was nothing to hold the cairn behind it in place."

⁵⁵McManus, Ruth. "Heritage and Tourism in Ireland -an Unholy Alliance?" Geographic Society of Ireland. University College Dublin. Web. 30 Jan. 2012. <http://www.ucd.ie/gsi/pdf/30-2/heritage.pdf>.
Within the heading " Question of ‘Authenticity’, Interpretation, Destruction of Heritage," the author argues that a cultural or historic landscape must be seen as one that embodies different values, and that the "heritage industry" too often does not take into account the existence of contradictory views of historical events, perhaps for fear of confusing its audience. "There is a danger that what will be dressed up for consumption through the heritage industry will be the ‘attractive side of events and life in the past, aspects that will not disturb the visitors or cause them to leave the park, interpretative centre or museum before they have hit the gift shop and the restaurant facilities’ (Cooney, 1991: 23)."
See also: "Newgrange." Irish Megaliths: Field Guide & Photographs by Anthony Weir. Web. 30 Jan. 2012. <http://www.irishmegaliths.org.uk/zNewgrangeCircle2.htm>.

⁵⁶Giot, P.-R. "Book Review of "Michael J. O’Kelly ‘Newgrange Archaeology, Art and Legend’" Antiquity 57.220 (1983): 149-50.
The author added, " I don’t like either the rather artificial arrangement at the entrance so that the ingoing and outgoing flocks of visitors don’t collide. 70,000 intruders a year, most of them philistines, is of course quite a tribulation for such a sanctuary."

⁵⁷Hutton, Ronald. The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy. Oxford, UK: B. Blackwell, 1991. 59.
In his comments on O’Kelly’s choices made during the restoration of the tomb’s facade, Hutton says, "There is a possibility that at times the statements made by the tomb-builders (to spirits as well as to posterity) may be getting scrambled by their most careful interpreters."

⁵⁸Jones 196.
In support of the reconstruction decisions made by O’Kelly, Jones reports that similar near-vertical passage tomb walls are known on such monuments in Brittany.

⁵⁹Jones 168.
The author credits some of these ideas here to sources including: Lewis-Williams, D. and D. Pearce (Inside the Neolithic Mind: Consciousness, Cosmos and the Realm of the Gods. 2005), Bergh, S. (Landscape of the Monuments —A study of the passage tombs of the Cúil Irra region, Co. Sligo, Ireland. 1995.) Darvill, T. ("White on Blonde: Quartz Pebbles and the Use of Quartz at Neolithic Monuments in the Island of Man and Beyond." In Jones, A. and G. MacGreror (eds) Colouring the Past — The Significance of colour in archaeological research. 2002), and O’Brien, W. ("Sacred Ground: Megalithic Tombs in Coastal South-West Ireland." Bronze Age Studies 4, Department of Archaeology. 1999).

⁶⁰Jones 157.
On the subject of the triple-spiral Jones writes, "If it was envisaged as a connecting vortex by the Neolithic people, it is possible that it only ‘opened up’ for these few days each year. Who might have traveled along this vortex when it did open? Two likely possibilities are shamans and the dead."

Celtic Christians have sometimes used the triple spiral to represent the Christian Holy Trinity. Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism and Wicca use it to represent a number of three-fold concepts in their belief systems, such as the "three realms" of Land, Sea and Sky.("Triple Spiral." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 30 Jan. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_spiral>.)

⁶¹Megalithic art motifs are often divided into "ten categories: five of which are curvilinear (circles, spirals, arcs, serpentiniforms and dot-in-circles) and the other five of which are rectilinear (chevrons, lozenges, radials, parallel lines and offsets)." ("Newgrange." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 30 Jan. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange>.)

⁶²Jones 162.
Jones suggests that the inspiration for many design elements of megalithic art may have began with induced hallucinations, interpreted by the Neolithic perspective of their otherworld beliefs (p. 160).
Poet Robert Graves explained, within his own belief system, that, "…the sacred kings of Bronze Age Ireland, who were solar kings of a most primitive type…were buried beneath these barrows; but their spirits went to ‘Caer Sidi,’ the Castle of Ariadne, namely Corona Borealis. Thus the pagan Irish could call New Grange ‘Spiral-Castle’ and, revolving a fore-finger in explanation, could say, ‘Our king has gone to Spiral Castle’: in other words, ‘he is dead.’" (Graves, Robert. The White Goddess. New York: The Noonday Press, 1966. 103)

⁶³Coffey, George. "On the Tumuli and Inscribed Stones at New Grange, Dowth, and Knowth." The Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy 30 (1892): 21-22.

⁶⁴O’Kelly 148-49.

⁶⁵Vallancey 210. This section may be read in its entirety here.
The author’s "translations" for the inscriptions on the Newgrange stones (see illustration on the page): "No 1… Supreme Being or active principle; No. 2…three symbols represent the Supreme Being, or first cause; The Ogham… inscription is To him who is the universal Spirit; No 3 is written in symbolic characters, signifying the House of God; No. 4 Is found on the south side of the east tabernacle, written in the Ogham and symbolic characters. The symbol is that representing the earth and universal nature, and with the Ogham which is written from the left to the right, makes a mor an Ops, that is, to the great mother Ops, or to the great mother Nature; No. 5 Is found on the front stone of the north tabernacle; and represents chance, fate or providence; No. 6 Is found on the north stone of the west tabernacle, written in the Ogham…that is, the sepulchre of the hero; No. 7 Is…written in the Ogham…probably specifying the several species of victims sacrificed at this temple, in honour of universal nature, providence and the names of the hero interred within."

⁶⁶Tuffy, Clare. "Newgrange: A Passage to the Afterworld." World of Hibernia 22 Dec. 1997.

⁶⁷Hoare, Sir Richard Colt. Journal of a Tour in Ireland, AD, 1806. London: Printed for R. Phillips, 1807. 257.
This may be read in its entirety here.

⁶⁸O’Kelly 117.
The author’s estimate of the number of years required to build the tomb presumes that they were able to work for two months each year, after the spring planting season. His figures are based upon the earlier work of Frank Mitchell. (Mitchell, Frank. The Irish Landscape. London: Collins, 1976. 130.)

⁶⁹O’Kelly 47-48.
Carlton Jones suggests that the evidence of small hut found just outside the entrance to the monument, contemporary with its construction, may indicate that the hut played an important part of the rituals that took place in front of the tomb. (Jones, Carleton. Temples of Stone: Exploring the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Cork: Collins, 2007. 198.)

⁷⁰Hutton 91.

⁷¹Condit, Tom. "The Newgrange Cursus and the Theatre of Ritual." Archaeology Ireland (Supplement: Brú Na Bóinne) 11.3 (1997): 26-27.
The author describes what remains of the original, much larger ritual pathway: "The Newgrange cursus, located c. 100m east of the great passage tomb on a north-south axis, consists of two parallel banks 20m apart, the southern end closed off by a V-shaped terminal."

⁷²"The Ancient Astronomers of Newgrange." Mythical Ireland- Newgrange, Ancient Sites, Myths, Mysteries, Tours and Astronomy. Web. 31 Jan. 2012. <http://www.mythicalireland.com/astronomy/ancientastronomers.html>
This website is a good starting point for the discussion of ancient astronomers: "There is a dim light which shines from the remote distance of the Neolithic past. It carries a message of wisdom, of understanding, of cosmic awe and inspiration, and astronomical mastery of the highest order. We have regrettably looked upon the ancient people of this land as being primitive, and in some quarters we are told that these awesome constructs with their dazzling size and arcane symbols, are merely tombs, used to bury the dead. Even today, archaeology calls Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth "passage-tombs". I would like to see that title removed, and to install a more accurate and fitting description – something like ‘astronomical timepieces’ or ‘Stone Age observatories’."
In a completely different, passionate and idiosyncratic vein, another website seems to channel Vallancey.

⁷³"Uriel’s Machine." Knight-Lomas.Com. Web. 31 Jan. 2012. <http://www.knight-lomas.com/uriel.html>.
Knight, Christopher, and Robert Lomas. Uriel’s Machine: Uncovering the Secrets of Stonehenge, Noah’s Flood, and the Dawn of Civilization. Gloucester, MA: Fair Winds, 2001.

⁷⁴Brennan, Martin. The Boyne Valley Vision. Portlaoise: The Dolmen Press, 1980. 1.
From the author’s preface: "What was previously considered the dawn of civilization may in fact have been its high noon. In spite of refinements in the techniques and tools of modern archaeology, we will never be able to fathom the achievements of a people whose primary tools were stone unless we rid ourselves of preconceived ideas about the origins and development of science and art." More information on Martin Brennan is available here.
Mainstream archaeologists and other scientists are usually more skeptical about the claims of a precise Neolithic astronomy. Ronald Hutton writes, "The bold attempts of Martin Brennan to combine the orientations, the art and the settings of the County Meath tombs in order to explain the theology behind them have produced no more than conjectures. His confident tone and refusal to recognize the limitations of his evidence reduce the value of his declarations in the eyes of prehistorians as they may increase it in the estimation of a less wary public. Certainly, the wonderful phenomenaon of the solstice at Newgrange at present offers us puzzles, not answers." (Hutton, Ronald. The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy. Oxford, UK: B. Blackwell, 1991. 59-60.)

⁷⁵Jones 165.

⁷⁶Aviva, Elyn, and Gary White. Powerful Places in Ireland. Santa Fe: Pilgrims Process, 2011. 39-40.

⁷⁷Russell, George William (Æ). The Candle of Vision. London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1919. 168.

¹Westropp, Thomas J. "Cists, Dolmens, and Pillars of East Clare." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy XXIIII.C (1903): 130.

²"Poulnabrone | Fieldnotes by CianMcLiam." The Modern Antiquarian.com. Stone Circles, Megalithic Remains, Prehistoric Sites. Web. 27 May 2011. <http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/38103/fieldnotes/poulnabrone.html>.

³Harbison, Peter. Guide to National and Historic Monuments of Ireland: including a Selection of Other Monuments Not in State Care. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1992. 68.

⁴Aviva, Elyn, and Gary White. Powerful Places in Ireland. Santa Fe: Pilgrims Process, 2011.
Aviva and White’s book explores, from a spiritual perspective, many of Ireland’s ancient sites.

⁵Lynch, Ann. "Poulnabrone: A Stone in Time…" Archaeology Ireland 2.3 (1988): 105-07.

⁶Carleton Jones is a Lecturer in Archaeology at NUI Galway. He is the author of a well-received field guide to Ireland’s megalithic monuments and has done his own archeological excavations in the Burren. He explained this research for an interview in Voices from the Dawn.

⁷Jones, Carleton. "Poulnabrone – Prehistoric Billboard or Ancient Church?" Ireland Fun Facts. Web. 27 May 2011. <http://www.ireland-fun-facts.com/poulnabrone.html>.

¹Cole, Grenville A. J. "Proleek Cromleck." Journal of the County Louth Archaeological Society 5.1 (1921): 24. Quoted from his essay, "Ireland the Outpost."

²"Golf Card & Rules." Ballymascanlon House Hotel. Web. 01 June 2011. <http://www.ballymascanlon.com/html/golf_card.htm>.
The hotel warns its golfers, "THE DOLMAN PATHWAY Fence which runs on the left hand side of the 6th, 7th, 13th & 14th holes is deemed to be an integral part of the course, the ball must be played as it lies or declared unplayable – Rules 24 Def.C."

³Borlase, William Copeland. The Dolmens of Ireland, Their Distribution, Structural Characteristics, and Affinities in Other Countries; Together with the Folk-lore Attaching to Them; Supplemented by Considerations on the Anthropology, Ethnology, and Traditions of the Irish People. With Four Maps, and Eight Hundred Illustrations, including Two Coloured Plates. Vol. 1. London: Chapman & Hall, Ld., 1897. 305.

⁴"Proleek Dolmen’s Summer Solstice Alignment." MYTHICAL IRELAND – Newgrange, Ancient Sites, Myths, Mysteries, Tours and Astronomy. Web. 01 June 2011. <http://www.mythicalireland.com/ancientsites/proleek/proleek-summer-solstice-alignment.php>.

⁵Evans, E. Estyn. Prehistoric and Early Christian Ireland; a Guide. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1966. 158.

⁶Morris, Henry, and Peter P. MacDonnell. "Notes and Queries." Journal of the County Louth Archaeological Society 2.3 (1910): 323-25.
Lloyd, J. H. "The Legend of Proleek." Journal of the County Louth Archaeological Society 1.3 (1906): 46-48.

⁷"Proleek Dolmen." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 18 (1908): 318.

⁸Lloyd.

⁹Wright, Thomas, and Paul Foudrinier. Louthiana: Or, An Introduction to the Antiquities of Ireland. In Upwards of Ninety Views and Plans: Representing, with Proper Explanations, the Principal Ruins, Curiosities, and Ancient Dwellings, in the County of Louth. Divided into Three Books. Vol. 2. London: Printed for T. Payne, 1758. 11.

¹⁰"Louth Ordnance Survey Letters (Continued)." Journal of the County Louth Archaeological Society 7.1 (1929): 65-66.
T. O’Conor and J. O’Keeffe were credited as the authors of these letters.

¹¹Wood-Martin, W. G. Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland. Vol. 2. London: Longmans, Green, & Co. 1902. 29.

¹²Wood-Martin, W.G., The Rude Stone Monuments of Ireland: Co. Sligo and Achill Island. Dublin: Hodges, Figges and Co., 1888. 87-88.

¹Gregory, Lady Augusta, and W. B. Yeats. Cuchulain of Muirthemne: the Story of the Men of the Red Branch of Ulster. London: J. Murray, 1902. xvii.

²Waddell, John, Joe Fenwick, and K. J. Barton. Rathcroghan: Archaeological and Geophysical Survey in a Ritual Landscape. Dublin: Wordwell, 2009. 198.

³Waddell 34.
The author is quoting from Charles O’Connor’s first edition (1753) of Dissertations on the ancient history of Ireland.

⁴Waddell 18.
The techniques employed include: magnetic susceptibility, magnetic gradiometry, electrical resistivity tomographty, and ground penetrating radar.

⁵Killanin, Michael Morris, and Michael V. Duignan. The Shell Guide to Ireland. London: Ebury P. in Association with George Rainbird, 1967. 408-09.
The ancient ruling family of the O’Conors of Connacht (in 1967) still had a descendent with an estate at Clonalis, Castereagh, 12 m. S. of Rathcroghan. The current holder of the title "O’Conor Don" (since 2000) is Desmond O’Conor Don (Deasmumhain Ó Conchubhair Donn) of Horsegrove House in Sussex, England. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ó_Conchubhair_Donn)

⁶Waddell, John. "Rathcroghan – A Royal Site in Connacht." The Journal of Irish Archaeology 1 (1983): 21.
The quotation is from the Tain Bo Fraich: "This was the arrangement of the house: seven partitions in it, seven beds from the fire to the wall in the house all around. There was a fronting of bronze on each bed, carved red yew all covered with fair varied ornament. Three rods of bronze at the step of each bed. Seven rods of copper from the centre of the floor to the ridge-pole of the house. The house was built of pine. A roof of slates was on it outside. There were sixteen windows in it, and a shutter of copper for each of them …" (Byrne and Dillon 1937, 3)
Waddell’s journal article may be read in its entirety here.

⁷Jackson, Kenneth Hurlstone. The Oldest Irish Tradition; a Window on the Iron Age. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1964. 5.
"We know that the latest archaeological expression of the pre-Roman European Iron Age, the so-called La Tène culture, lasted in a vestigial form in Ireland, where there was no Roman occupation to swamp it, until at least the time when the introduction of Christianity in the fifth century brought its considerable changes in intellectual and to some degree social organization and particularly in art styles and motifs. I shall attempt to show that the background of the Irish epic tales appears to be older than these changes, and hence that when all due allowance is made for later accretions the stories provide us with a picture — very dim and fragmentary, no doubt, but still a picture — of Ireland in the Early Iron Age."
Waddell, however, offers a much more nuanced view: "It is questionable whether early Irish epic literature is a window on a prehistoric Iron Age, as Jackson once claimed…for…some descriptive detail of motifs such as the sword [and chariots-ed.] and the use of silver and other precious metals in the tales of the Ulster Cycle reflects the contemporary world of the later redactor." (Waddell, John, Joe Fenwick, and K. J. Barton. Rathcroghan: Archaeological and Geophysical Survey in a Ritual Landscape. Dublin: Wordwell, 2009. 28.)
In his 2008 translation of the Tain, Ciaran Carson argues "Whether or not it is an Irish Iron Age is another question. For instance, it is undeniable that the social and warfaring practices embedded in the narrative bear remarkable similarities to those of the Gauls or ‘Celts’ of continental Europe, as described by Diodorus Siculus in around 60 BC…" (Carson, Ciaran. The Táin: a New Translation of the Táin Bó Cúailnge. New York: Viking, 2008. xx.)

⁸Waddell 39-40.
According to Rathcroghan guide Mike Croghan, the ogham stone is only partially translatable, as much of the markings are obscured. It may be more accurately translated as "Fráech…son of Medb."

⁹Duke, Sean. "The Balance of Power in Ancient Ireland." Science (New Series) 278.5337 (1997): 386.
John Waddell and his team from NUI Galway used techniques such as ground-probing radar and magnetic gradiometry, which measures the magnetic properties beneath the ground, as well as electrical tomography. For this, metal electrodes are placed into the ground and a current passed between them measuring its resistivity, which varies depending on what the substrata is composed of. A large number of such measurements taken in different directions and at various depths allowed them to use computer modeling to construct a three-dimensional image of the interior of the mound.

¹⁰Waddell 174.
In another statement, Waddell refers to "A bewildering complexity of overlapping linear, arcuate and annular anomalies occur in the surface layers beneath the summit…" (168). As would be expected with an emerging technology, the ability of archaeologists to accurately interpret the meaning of geophysical measurements continues to evolve. In the humorous feature "Spoil Heap: A ‘Dictionary’ of Irish Archaeology," the word "Geophysics" is defined as a "method of survey based on spiritualism where archaeologists gather around a table placed over a suspected underground structure and contact the spirit world in an effort to determine the shape of the monument below…" (Archaeology Ireland, 10:1 (Spring, 1996) 36.)

¹¹Waddell 191-95.

¹²"Rath Cruachan." Cruachan Aí Heritage Center pamphlet.

¹³The Feast of Bricriu. Trans. George Henderson. Vol. 11. London: David Nutt: The Irish Texts Society, 1899. 73. (Electronic edition: http://www.archive.org/stream/fledbricrendfeas02henduoft#page/n5/mode/2up)

¹⁴Ferguson, Samuel. "Account of Ogham Inscriptions in the Cave at Rathcroghan, County of Roscommon." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 9 (1864): 161.

¹⁵Cross, Tom Peete, and Clark Harris Slover. Ancient Irish Tales. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1936. 248-53.

¹⁶Stokes, Whitley, ed. "The Prose Tales in the Rennes Dindshenchas." Revue Celtique 15 (1894): 470. (electronic edition: http://www.ucd.ie/tlh/trans/ws.rc.15.002.t.text.html)

¹⁷Waddell 37.
The painter Gabriel Beranger (1779) described his visit thus: "We found there some men waiting for us; and having lighted some candles we descended first on all fours through a narrow gallery, which for the length of 12 or 14 feet is the work of man, being masonry said to be done by the Druids, who performed here some of their secret rites."
Author Elyn Aviva has a blog entry about her modern descent into the cave.

¹⁸Ní Chatháin, Próinséas. "Sir Samuel Ferguson and the Ogham Inscriptions." Irish University Review 16.2 (1986): 160.
Ferguson was fortunate that his wife lit a candle as she waited for him to emerge from the interior of the cave; otherwise he might never have seen the ogham inscriptions.
"When Ferguson returned to Dublin, having made a record of the Rathcroghan inscriptions, he found ‘that one letter in the inscription was uncertain, indistinct, and blurred.’ He rushed and caught the night train back to Roscommon and "’y twelve o’clock next morning he was again at work in the cave.’"

¹⁹Waddell 221.
The author speculates: "It is an interesting possibility that some of these legends may provide a clue to some of the uses to which the cave was once put. The legend of Nera, who had a vision of the destruction of Cruachain, might suggest that oracular and prophetic practices took place here, and, as befits a point where two worlds meet, the cave had ambivalent functions. It evidently had negative and monstrous aspects as well as being a place of refuge and protection."

²⁰Farrell, Tom. "The Long Stone." Personal interview. 27 June 1979.

²¹Waddell (1983): 25.

²²Waddell 39.
The author’s 1981 excavations resulted in radiocarbon findings suggesting a late prehistoric (Iron Age) date for the erection of the stone.
A brief journal article in 1933 quotes a local farmer, "My father said he heard wailings regularly around the red stone to the north side of Croghan’s Hill, and saw lights on several occasions. Queen Maeve-I know the spot she was killed in at the lochán, and she was waked at the red stone at Rathcroghan. (Mac Coluim, Fionán. "A Tradition about Rathcroghan, Co. Roscommon." Béaloideas 4.2 (1933): 130.)

²³Waddell (1983): 22.

²⁴O’Curry, Eugene. On the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish. London: Williams and Norgate, 1873. II, 70-71.

²⁵"Carnfree." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 23 Sept. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnfree>.

²⁶Wilde, W.R. "Memoir of Gabriel Beranger, and His Labours in the Cause of Irish Art, Literature, and Antiquities, from 1760 to 1780, with Illustrations." The Journal of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland 1.1 (1870): 249-50.

²⁷"Carnfree." Cruachan Aí Heritage Center pamphlet.

²⁸Waddell 77.
The author reports, "The earthwork was subjected to detailed topographical survey and a suite of geophysical techniques, including magnetic susceptibility, fluxgate gradiometry, twin-probe electrical resistance and electrical resistivity tomography surveys. The geophysical survey has identified a number of interesting anomalies that are undoubtedly of archaeological significance. These anomalies, for the most part, have no visible surface expression and were unknown prior to the present study." (66)

²⁹Carson, Ciaran. The Táin: a New Translation of the Táin Bó Cúailnge. New York: Viking, 2008. 206.

³⁰Connellan, J.J. "Where on Cruachain Was Seandomnach Maighe Ai?" Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society 25.3/4 (1953-1954): 78.
The author submits his rationale for another location for the "Spring of Clébach" rather than Ogulla. "There is only one such place known to the writer that meets all the requirements, namely Kilnanooan. It is but half a mile from the royal rath, and is directly east of it. Further, it is on the slope of the hill. In the immediate vicinity of Kilnanooan, there is a number of copious fountains, that go to feed the river Cammoge."

³¹Waddell 1.

³²Meyer, Kuno. The Triads of Ireland. Vol. XIII. Dublin: Figgis, &, 1906. Todd Lecture Ser. 5.
"The ancient name Cruachain may mean ‘place of burial mounds’. In several tales it is also depicted as a kingly settlement." (Waddell, John. "Rathcroghan, Co. Roscommon: Where the "Táin Bó Cúailnge" Began." Archaeology Ireland: Heritage Guide No. 44 (2009): 1.)

³³Herity, Michael. "A Survey of the Royal Site of Cruachain in Connacht: 1. Introduction, the Monuments and Topography." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 113 (1983): 124.
The quotation is from The Middle Irish tract Senchas na Relec (Burial Ground Lore). Translation by George Petrie, The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland, 1845. 102.

³⁴Waddell 210.
The author is confident that although the ceremonial use of Rathcroghan was principally in the late prehistoric Iron Age, that its significance would have extended into the start of the Christian era in Ireland in the fifth century CE. He suggests that the "various mounds span one or even two millennia." (p. 222)

³⁵Waddell 222-23.

³⁶Waddell 208.
The author quotes from Giraldus Cambrensis’ observation of a pagan rite in Donegal: "When the whole people of that land has been gathered together in one place, a white mare is brought forward into the middle of the assembly. He who is to be inaugurated, not as a chief, but as a beast, not as a king, but as an outlaw, embraces the animal before all, professing himself to be a beast also. The mare is then killed immediately, cut up in pieces, and boiled in water. A bath is prepared for the man afterwards in the same water. He sits in the bath surrounded by all his people, and all, he and they, eat of the meat of the mare which is brought to them. He quaffs and drinks of the broth in which he is bathed, not in any cup, or using his hand, but just dipping his mouth into it about him. When this unrighteous rite has been carried out, his kingship and dominion has been conferred." (O’Meara, J.J. 1951 The first version of the Topography of Ireland by Giraldus Cambrensis. Dundalk. 94.)

³⁷Jackson 8.
Ronald Hutton provides more detail: "During the sixth century, Irish paganism seems to have collapsed. The last king to celebrate a feis, the symbolic marriage to a tutelary goddess, was Diarmait Mac Cerbaill at Tara in 560…His death in 565 removed the last figure in Irish history (or semi-history) who might have professed the pagan Celtic religions." (Hutton, Ronald. The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy. Oxford, UK: B. Blackwell, 1991. 262-63.)

³⁸O’Curry, Eugene. On the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish. London: Williams and Norgate, 1873. lxxiv.

³⁹Sullivan, Mark. "Divine Appetite:." The San Francisco Jung Institute Library Journal 20.2 (2001): 57-58.
The author quotes Sylvia Perera: "…the word Maeve (written Medb in Irish) . . . means ‘the inebriating one,’ ‘she who is the nature of mead.’ Maeve personifies the honey-based power that inebriates, inflames, expands, dissolves, and radically transforms consciousness." (Perera. Sylvia Brinton. Queen Maeve and Her Lovers: A Celtic Archetype of Ecstasy, Addiction, and Healing. New York, Carrowmore Books, 1999. 62.)

⁴⁰Waddell (1983): 23.

⁴¹Kinsella, Thomas, and le Brocquy, Louis. The Tain. Oxford [Eng.: University, 1969. 53.
Muireann Ní Bhrolcháin observes that "Medb's apparent promiscuity must not be judged in the context of today's morality. Rather, she must be seen as the personification of the goddess of sovereignty with whom the king must be united in order to justify his kingship." (Ní Bhrolcháin, Muireann. "Women in Early Irish Myths and Sagas." The Crane Bag: "Images of the Irish Woman" 4.1 (1980): 13.)

⁴²Carson 3.

⁴³A tale that usually precedes the Táin Bó Cúailnge, "The Debility of the Ulstermen" (Ces Noinden Ulad) explains the curse as a weakness that came upon the Ulstermen whenever they were in peril. This was because the wealthy Ulsterman Crunnchnu forced his wife Macha, a goddess-like creature of great speed, to race against the king's horses even as she was about to give birth. Because of her subsequent weakness at birth she made a curse on the Ulstermen for nine generations. The twins she bore gave their name to what would become the palace of the Kings of Ulster, Emain Macha (the Twins of Macha.) This legend is considered in more detail in our entry on Emain Macha, also known as Navan Fort. "The Debility of the Ulstermen" may be read in its entirety here.

⁴⁴Kinsella 251.

⁴⁵Kinsella 251.

⁴⁶Kinsella 251-52.

⁴⁷Kinsella ix.
Kinsella explains, "The Tain and certain descriptions of Gaulish society by Classical authors have many details in common: in warfare alone, the individual weapons, the boastfulness and courage of the warriors, the practices of cattle-raiding, chariot-fighting and beheading. Ireland, however, by its isolated position, could retain traits and customs that had disappeared elsewhere centuries before, and it is possible that the kind of culture the Tain describes may have lasted in Ireland up to the introduction of Christianity in the fifth century.

^N8Waddell (1983): 23, 26.
The author observes, "Indeed a measure of the change in general opinion is the difference between Ferguson's Medb, whom he compared to Helen of Troy, and the intoxicating fertility goddess of more recent scholarship."

⁴⁹Carson xvii-xviii.
Just prior to appending his Latin inscription, the monk admonishes in Irish: "A blessing on everyone who shall faithfully memorize the Táin as it is written here and shall not add any other form to it."

⁵⁰Waddell 215.

⁵¹Waddell (1983): 44.

Text transcription from the 1779 Gabriel Beranger watercolor of Rathcroghan: "Rath Craughan or Croghan, County of Roscommon, on which the ancient Kings of Connaught were inaugurated and on which they kept their Provincial assemblies, it is an artificial mount made of Earth and of a circular form all covered with grass and in very good order, it stands in a large field and has a gentle slope of an easy ascent all round it. The diameter at the Top is 400 feet, and at bottom 450 being 1350 in Circumference. The Slope is 33 feet, it has in the Center of the Top, a small mount whose Top has only 6 feet diameter, on which it is supposed The King had his station. There is no sign of remains of any stone buildings on the whole spot of ground."
Harbison, Peter, and Josephine Shields. Our Treasure of Antiquities': Beranger and Bigari's Antiquarian Tour of Connacht in 1779. Bray: Wordwell in Association with the National Library of Ireland, 2002. Pl. 21.

¹Williams, W. H. A. Tourism, Landscape, and the Irish Character: British Travel Writers in Pre-famine Ireland. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin, 2008. 69.

²Kelly, Tom, and Christy Owen. "The Ring of the Rath." Personal interview. 13 June, 1979.

³"Archaeological Finds during Excavation." Display card. The National Museum of Ireland, 14 July, 1998.

⁴"Unpublished Excavations." The Heritage Council. Web. 07 Apr. 2011. <http://heritagecouncil.ie/unpublished_excavations/section6.html>.

⁵Orpen, Goodard H. "Rathgall, County Wicklow." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Sixth 1.2 (1911): 142-43.

⁶Kelly, Tom, and Christy Owen.

⁷Dorson, Richard M. Folklore and Fakelore: Essays toward a Discipline of Folk Studies. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1976. 6

⁸"An Academic (P)Review of Akins' Lebor Feasa Runda." Community Center. Web. 07 Apr. 2011. <http://community.livejournal.com/cr_r/318578.html>.

⁹⁹Šmidchens, Guntis. "Folklorism Revisited." Journal of Folklore Research 36.1 (1999): 52+.
An earlier definition (Moser, 1962): "Second-hand mediation and presentation of folk culture." Šmidchens also offers his own definition: "The conscious recognition and repetition of folk tradition as a symbol of ethnic, regional, or national culture."

¹⁰Hall, S. C., and S. C. Hall. Ireland, Its Scenery, Character, etc. London: How and Parsons, 1841. 224.

¹¹Thackeray, William Makepeace. The Irish Sketch Book. 1843. 43. Cited in Williams, W. H. A. Tourism, Landscape, and the Irish Character: British Travel Writers in Pre-famine Ireland. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin, 2008. 79.

¹²Binns, Jonathan. The Miseries and Beauties of Ireland. London: Longman, Orme, Brown, and, 1837. 249. Cited in Williams, W. H. A. Tourism, Landscape, and the Irish Character: British Travel Writers in Pre-famine Ireland. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin, 2008. 79.

¹³Thackeray, William Makepeace. The Irish Sketch Book of 1842. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1904. 43.

¹Mac An Bhaird, Ferghal Óg, and L. McKenna. "Poem to Aodh Ruadh ó Domhnaill." The Irish Monthly 48.567 (1920): 481-85. The text quoted is an excerpt.

²The plaque commemorating the traditional site of the inauguration stone on the Rock of Doon had been vandalized when we made our visit in 1999. The plaque that appears in the VR tour is a composite image in which the damage has been repaired.

³"O'Donnell Coat of Arms and Family History." Araltis - the Internet Heraldry Store. Web. 06 June 2012. <http://www.araltas.com/features/odonnell/>.
See Wikipedia for a listing of the Kings of Tír Chonaill. The earliest printed account of the association between the Rock of Doon and inauguration ceremonies is found in the Post Chaise Companion of 1803. (FitzPatrick, Elizabeth. Royal Inauguration in Gaelic Ireland C. 1100-1600: A Cultural Landscape Study. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: Boydell, 2004. 185.)

⁴"O'Donnell Coat of Arms and Family History." Araltis - the Internet Heraldry Store. Web. 06 June 2012. <http://www.araltas.com/features/odonnell/>.
"Like many of the ruling families at that time, they occupied themselves in tribal conflict, mostly attacking their kinsmen, the O'Neills."

⁵Gerald of Wales (Giraldus Cambrensis), and John J. O'Meara. The History and Topography of Ireland. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1985. 110.
Giraldus was no friend of Ireland, being from a prominent settler family, and his Topographia Hibernica was filled with many fanciful and derogatory references to the native Irish. In the seventeenth century, scholar Geoffrey Keating called it "'a malicious unwarranted lie." However some modern scholars have a more receptive view of the Cambrensis account of the inauguration rite, as they've found "the horse sacrifice associated with kingship rituals among many of the Indo-European peoples [and] … there is evidence to suggest that even at this late date [1188] a symbolic bath may have formed part of the ceremonies…" (Ó Canann, Tomás G. "Carraig an Dúnáin: Probable Ua Canannáin Inauguration Site." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 133 (2003): 43-44.)
FitzPatrick claims that reported folklore of the described ritual "is probably a grambled version of Gerald of Wales’ written account, but the association of that rite with Carraig an Duin is solely the outcome of local tradition." (FitzPatrick, Elizabeth. Royal Inauguration in Gaelic Ireland C. 1100-1600: A Cultural Landscape Study. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: Boydell, 2004. 184.)

⁶O’Donovan, John, and Michael O’Flanagan. Letters Containing Information Relative to the Antiquities of the County of Donegal, Collected during the Progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1835. Vol. 5. Bray, 1927. 53+.
O’Donovan was told by an old O’Donnell gentleman that the inauguration stone in the Kilmacrennan church was "destroyed by a Mr. Mac Swine, who having changed his religion, became a violent hater of everything Irish. He tore down a great part of the old Church to obtain building materials and destroyed all the ornamented stones in the neighbourhood."
Another author suggests that the most significant medieval O’Donnell inauguration site was not The Rock of Doon but rather was at Carraig an Dunain, close to Donegal town. (Ó Canann, Tomás G. "Carraig an Dúnáin: Probable Ua Canannáin Inauguration Site." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 133 (2003): 42.)
Elizabeth FitzPatrick notes that traditions of the Rock of Doon’s use for royal ritual are "based on complex local folktales recorded and reiterated from the beginning of the nineteenth century onwards." ( (FitzPatrick, Elizabeth. Royal Inauguration in Gaelic Ireland C. 1100-1600: A Cultural Landscape Study. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: Boydell, 2004. 184.)
More details of the inauguration rite may be found here.

⁷Archdall, Mervyn. Monasticon Hibernicum, Or, An History of the Abbeys, Priories, and Other Religious Houses in Ireland…. Dublin: Printed for Luke White, 1786. 201. Read online here.

⁸FitzPatrick, Elizabeth. Royal Inauguration in Gaelic Ireland C. 1100-1600: A Cultural Landscape Study. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: Boydell, 2004. 111-112.
The author believes that the Rock of Doon may well have served for the inauguration of the O’Donnells, at least until 1258 when the bishop of Raphoe summoned Domhnall Og Ó Domhnaill to be inaugurated in Raphoe cathedral. In subsequent years the ceremony was transferred, at least in part, to the church of Kilmacrennan.

⁹"Sir Cahir O’Doherty’s Rebellion 1608." Ask About Ireland. Web. 07 June 2012. <http://www.askaboutireland.ie/reading-room/history-heritage/history-of-ireland/the-ulster-plantation/sir-cahir-odohertys-rebel/>.
O’Doherty’s original English patron was a military officer, Sir Henry Dowcra. He was replaced by Sir George Paulet, who mistrusted O’Doherty, and enraged the Irishman by punching him in the face. Paulet was killed during O’Doherty’s siege of Derry.

¹⁰Ó Canann, Tomás G. "Carraig an Dúnáin: Probable Ua Canannáin Inauguration Site." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 133 (2003): 55-57.
The author quotes O’Donovan, whose informant "’shewed us the very spot where Sir Cahir O’Doherty was killed, and the rock at which his members [body parts] were boiled in a cauldron!’"
Another account holds that Sir Cahir’s death was due not to battle but to the treachery of his own companions. (Archdall, Mervyn. Monasticon Hibernicum, Or, An History of the Abbeys, Priories, and Other Religious Houses in Ireland…. Dublin: Printed for Luke White, 1786. 201.)

¹¹Kinahan, G.H. "Donegal Folk-Lore." The Folk-lore Journal 3.3 (1885): 276.

¹²Gallagher, Charles, "Rock of Doon and Doon Well." Personal Interview. 28 June 1999.

¹³Hutton, Ronald. The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy. Oxford, UK: B. Blackwell, 1991. 173.
The Brennemans have described such a sacred marriage to the land by the ruler: "The king or chieftain, then, was married to the goddess of the place, his tuath, through ritual acts at the well. This place" was defined by its natural configurations, through which its power emanated. Because the chieftain was married to this actual place, it was not possible to take land from others through warring activities. Rather, he could take hostages in the form of powerful persons; but the marriage of chief to place is never broken, and its center remained the sacred spring, site of the inauguration ritual." (Brenneman, Walter L., and Mary G. Brenneman. Crossing the Circle at the Holy Wells of Ireland. Charlottesville: University of Virginia, 1995. 36.)

¹⁴"Doon Mass Rock In County Donegal." Your Irish. Web. 07 June 2012. <http://www.yourirish.com/doon-mass-rock>.
Caesar Otway’s nineteenth-century informant at the Rock of Doon spoke of the "difficulties the friar encountered in his attempts to bless the well and how its sanctification ensured that the fairies of the Rock would never return." (FitzPatrick, Elizabeth. Royal Inauguration in Gaelic Ireland C. 1100-1600: A Cultural Landscape Study. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: Boydell, 2004. 186.)

¹⁵"Doon Well." Finn Valley Places. Web. 07 June 2012. <http://www.finnvalley.ie/places/doon/well.html>.
The author writes, "Up to four decades ago, whole train-loads of pilgrims for Doon Well were there every Sunday throughout the summer months, from places as far apart as Derry and Burtonport, and all points in between. To be there on such an occasion, with hundreds of all ages, engaged devoutly in the turas [procession], was to see an impressive and devotional spectacle."

¹⁶Brenneman, Walter L., and Mary G. Brenneman. Crossing the Circle at the Holy Wells of Ireland. Charlottesville: University of Virginia, 1995. 48-52.
The authors describe the Doon Well "rag tree" as "small, only five and one-half feet tall, but it is completely covered with all manner of clooties so that it appears to be bending under the pain and sickness of all the world." The items left on a rag tree are also referred to as "clooties." Charles Gallagher, in the video interview on the page, notes that pilgrims no longer leave their crutches and canes (sticks) at the well: "There’d be more crutches and sticks there in my young days. They’d be over as far as your car. But, crutches and sticks! There’s nobody on crutches and sticks anymore. They’re gettin’ their hips done, and their legs done, and their ankles done. They don’t need sticks anymore."

¹⁷A video of a Catholic Mass being performed in 1999 at the Tawley Mass Rock in Co. Sligo may be seen on this page in Voices from the Dawn. More information about the Doon Mass Rock is here.

¹⁸Gallagher.

¹Fergusson, James. Rude Stone Monuments in All Countries Their Age and Uses. London: J. Murray, 1872. 1-2.

²Fergusson 27.

³Molyneux, Thomas, and Gerard Boate. A Natural History of Ireland in Three Parts. Dublin: George Grierson, 1726. 189-90.
To some, it was inconceivable that the Irish, seen by these observers to be little more than savages, could have had ancestors in prehistory capable of constructing such sophisticated monuments as the passage tombs.

⁴Burl, Aubrey. A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany. New Haven: Yale UP, 2005. 242.
The Shell Guide to Ireland (1967), and Harbison’s Guide to the National and Historic Monuments of Ireland (1992) also refer to the monument as a "stone circle." According to "TomFourwinds," (Megalithomania) the confusion may have originated with the 1840 OS maps. where the monument was labeled "Stone Circle."

⁵Daniel, Glyn Edmund. The Origins and Growth of Archaeology. New York: Crowell, 1968. 33.
Stukeley, for all his eccentricities—he considered himself the "Chief Druid" of his circle—was actually a careful and skilled field worker.

⁶Vance, Rob. Secret Sights: Unknown Celtic Ireland. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 2003. 133.

⁷"County Mayo – Selected Monuments." Irish Megaliths: Field Guide & Photographs by Anthony Weir. Web. 29 Sept. 2011. <http://www.irishmegaliths.org.uk/mayo.htm>.
According to the author, "The site with fine views has been ruined by the usual hideous bungalow plonked right beside it."

⁸"Rossport Five." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 29 Sept. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rossport_Five>.
See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_To_Sea

⁹"Corrib Gas Pipeline: Environmental Impact Statement." Web. 29 Sept. 2011.
The "non-technical summary" of the EIS may be read here.

¹Yeats, W. B. The Celtic Twilight. London: A.H. Bullen, 1902. 148-49.

²"Rosses Point." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 27 Feb. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosses_Point>.

³Yeats 151-52.

⁴Yeats 148.

⁵Yeats 158.

⁶Guy, Francis. Francis Guy’s Illustrated Descriptive and Gossiping Guide to the South of Ireland. Cork: Francis Guy, 1884. 56.

⁷Yeats 150-51.

⁸Yeats 151.

⁹Hirschberg, Stuart. "Art as the Looking Glass of Civilization in W.B. Yeats’s ‘Under Ben Bulben’." Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review. Vol. 71, No. 284 (Winter, 1982). 401.

¹⁰Hirschberg 403.

¹¹Yeats, W. B. Last Poems and Two Plays. Dublin: Cuala, 1939.

The unattributed photographs of W. B. Yeats featured in the video are from the Library of Congress, and University College, Cork.

¹Yeats, William Butler. The Collected Poems of William Butler Yeats. London: Macmillan, 1955. 38.
The poem may be read in its entirety here.

²"Rostellan Portal Tomb" Megalithic Monuments Of Ireland. Web. 14 Dec. 2011. <http://www.megalithicmonumentsofireland.com/COUNTIES/CORK/Rostellan_PortalTomb.html>.
Due to its unusual orientation, and also due to its being repaired by Dr. Wise in the middle of the nineteenth century, some have suggested that the dolmen may be a fake, of entirely of modern construction. Others have described it as resembling a kist, rather than a portal tomb. An article in The Irish Naturalist following the account of the exploration of the Rostellan Dolmen describes a similarly submerged specimen near Etel, Morbihan, in NW France. ("A Parallel to the Submerged Cromleac of Rostellan, Co. Cork." The Irish Naturalist 19.3 (1910): 49.)

³Killanin, Michael Morris, and Michael V. Duignan. The Shell Guide to Ireland. London: Ebury P. in Association with George Rainbird, 1967. 166.
According to this online forum, Mhaistin may also derive from "Mastiff," or "unruly child," or "large ugly thing." Some claim that the name Rostellan comes from Ros (headland) and dallan or dolmen.

⁴"Rostellan Castle/House | Housetorian." Housetorian | The Story behind the House. Web. 15 Dec. 2011. <http://gatecottages.wordpress.com/2011/04/05/rostellan-castlehouse/>.
The 5th Earl of Inchiquin Murrough O’Brien named the tower in honor of actress Sarah Siddons who apparently visited the Rostellan House. She was a British actress, a tall figure with "expressive eyes and a solemn dignity."

⁵The Rostellan Dolmen History 4 June 2010. Information sign at the site. Saleen.
The sign indicates that the stones on the shore are a themselves a megalithic tomb. Others believe them to be a quarry from which the dolmen’s stones originated.

⁶Borlase, William Copeland. The Dolmens of Ireland… Vol. 1. London: Chapman & Hall, Ld., 1897. 16.
This volume may be read in its entirety here.

⁷Welch, R. "Further Note on the Rostellan Cromleac." The Irish Naturalist 16.9 (1907): 267-69.
The Dr. Wise mentioned in the article was a Scotsman who lived in Rostellan House from 1855-1879. According to the author, there was a Mrs. W. H. Johnson in the party of explorers "who stated that she had visited the cromleac some years previously, and that there was then a portion of a stone circle (three stones, which have since disappeared), and she was then informed that the circle was complete within the memory of persons then living."

⁸O’Sullivan, Sean. The Folklore of Ireland. London: B.T. Batsford, 1974. 30.

⁹"A Folklore Survey of County Clare: Rocks, Caves and Stones." Clare County Library. Web. 15 Dec. 2011. <http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/folklore/folklore_survey/chapter18.htm>.
Some have suggested that the origin of the Diarmuid and Gráinne tale’s connection to portal tombs may be the linguistic confusion arising from the word leabaidh, which was understood in its literal sense of a "bed," whereas it was intended to convey the sense of a "tomb."

¹⁰Cross, Tom Peete, and Clark Harris Slover. Ancient Irish Tales. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1936. 374.
"The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Gráinne" as translated in Ancient Irish Tales may be read in its entirety here.
Gráinne’s name may come from that of the sun goddess, Grian. Diarmuid’s full name is usually given as "Diarmuid Ua Duibhne," but some
credit an ancient source for his alternate name of Diarmaid Donn, derived from Donn, the Celtic god of the dead. (Ó hÓgáin Dáithí. Fionn Mac Cumhaill: Images of the Gaelic Hero. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1988. 166-75.)
Some have suggested that "The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Gráinne" had some influence on the Tristan and Iseult legend. Although that story developed in France during the 12th century, it is set in Britain. There are also parallels to the story of Lancelot and Guinevere.

¹¹Grinsell, Leslie V. Folklore of Prehistoric Sites in Britain. London: Newton Abbot, 1976. 42-3.
Some wedge tombs are also associated with Diarmuid and Gráinne. According to DáithíÓ hÓgáin, "the implication of associating huge landmarks in stone with the Fianna is that they were able to construct them due to their enormous strength." (Ó hÓgáin Dáithí. Fionn Mac Cumhaill: Images of the Gaelic Hero. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1988. 308.)

¹²Borlase Vol. 2. 845.
According to T.J. Westropp, "In Hely Dutton’s time (possibly on the same account) some sense of indecency attached, and a girl refused to guide him to those of Ballyganner in 1808, till she was assured that he was a stranger and ignorant of the local beliefs John Windele in July 1855 notes of the Mount Callan Dolmen ‘fruitfulness of progeny in that.’ I learned of an indecent rite taking place about 1902 at a dolmen for the same purpose." (Westropp, Thomas J. "Prehistoric Remains (Forts and Dolmens) in Burren and Its South Western Border, Co. Clare: Part XII: North Western Part (Continued)." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Sixth 5.4 (1915): 267-68.)

¹³Grinsell 42-3.

¹⁴Evans, E. Estyn. Irish Folk Ways. New York: Devin-Adair, 1957. 283.

¹⁵Boland, Eavan. The Journey and Other Poems. Manchester: Carcanet, 1987. 322.
The poem "Listen. This is the noise of myth." may be read in its entirety (with annotations) here.
A short biography of Eavan Boland may be read here.

¹Harbison, Peter. Pilgrimage in Ireland: the Monuments and the People. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse Univ., 1992. 77, 182.
The journal Archaeology Ireland suggests a more humorous definition: "Gallarus: British Christians who settled in Co. Kerry in the 7th century driven mad by the ceaseless talking by the natives in odd accents promised God that they would build an oratory for him if he would do something about their endless talking. He did and they named it ‘garrulous’ but the natives had the last word as they corrupted it to gallarus over the years." ("Spoil Heap: A ‘Dictionary’ of Irish Archaeology." Archaeology Ireland 10.1 (1996): 36.)

²Harbison, Peter. "How Old Is Gallarus Oratory? A Reappraisal of Its Role in Early Irish Architecture." Medieval Archaeology 14 (1970): 34.
In 1756 Charles Smith reported that "some think" Gallarus may have been constructed using an earthen mold: "…a heap of earth was first raised, in the form of the inside of the cell, and that they built over it, and wedged in the key-stones at the top, over which are a range of loose stones laid like a ridge; and the structure being thus finished, they carried out all the earth at the door; and lastly, smoothed the walls on the inside with chissels, &c." (Smith, Charles. The antient [sic] and present state of the county of Kerry: Being a natural, civil, ecclesiastical, historical, and topographical description thereof. Dublin: Printed for W. Wilson, 1756. 192.) This book may be read in its entirety here.

³Rourke, Grellan D., and Jenny White Marshall. "The drystone oratories of western Kerry," in Marshall, Jenny White, Claire Walsh, Grellan D. Rourke, E. V. Murray, and Finbar McCormick. Illaunloughan Island: an Early Medieval Monastery in County Kerry. Bray, Co. Wicklow: Wordwell, 2005. 119-120.
The authors acknowledge that the stone oratories cannot accurately be dated. But they present structural evidence that Gallarus "…represents the final phase of the development of the drystone oratory." Citing the carefully chosen and worked stones that provide the maximum contact area for stability, and the fact that the lateral walls, unlike the gable walls, rise straight up for a meter before they begin corbelling inward, the authors conclude that these modifications are the primary reason why Gallarus is the only such structure still completely intact.

⁴MacDonogh, Steve. The Dingle Peninsula. Dingle, Co. Kerry, Ireland: Brandon, 2000. 175-77.
While the cross-slab beside Gallarus is common to Christian settlements from the seventh and eighth centuries, the oratory was likely built atop an earlier structure at this site. Its refined construction, principally its east window with the rounded arch, suggest a later date.
H.G. Leask in 1955 observed traces of "very fine lime mortar" used to fill the internal joints and provide pointing for the stones of the interior. (Leask, Harold G. Irish Churches and Monastic Buildings. Dundalk, Ireland: Dundalgan, 1955. 41.)

⁵Ua Danachair, Caoimhghín. "Some Primitive Structures Used as Dwellings." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 75.4 (1945): 210-12.
While some of the chocháin have been stabilized with mortar, or have even been roofed with concrete, this does not always bode well for their survival. "One old gentleman complained bitterly of these innovations and pointed out a clochán, on his property, which fell in shortly after being capped with concrete, as the extra weight was too much for the old stonework to bear." There are still dry-stone clocháin being built today.

⁶Cuppage, Judith. Archaeological Survey of the Dingle Peninsula: a Description of the Field Antiquities of the Barony of Corca Dhuibhne from the Mesolithic Period to the 17th Century A.D. Ballyferriter: Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne, 1986. 286-89.
Peter Harbison quotes from O’Donovan’s observations from his 1845 Ordnance Survey Letters: "This Cell or Little Chapel stands in a small graveyard now deserted. In this grave- yard to the North East of the building there is a standing stone with a cross sculptured on the West side of it. This stone is three feet six inches high, one foot one inch broad and four inches in thickness." (Harbison, Peter. "How Old Is Gallarus Oratory? A Reappraisal of Its Role in Early Irish Architecture." Medieval Archaeology 14 (1970): 36-37.)

⁷"Gallarus Oratory | Mysterious Britain & Ireland." Mysterious Britain & Ireland | Mysteries, Legends & The Paranormal. Web. 06 Oct. 2011. <http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/republic-of-ireland/kerry/ancient-sites/gallarus-oratory.html>.
Harbison adds, "A detailed study of the literature on Gallarus reveals that the opinions of earlier authors were taken over almost in their entirety by later writers, who apparently never stopped to consider whether what they were copying from earlier accounts was founded in fact. The notion that Gallarus is one of the earliest church buildings in Ireland began with Smith in 1756 and is still current…these old ideas have cemented themselves into almost complete acceptance." (Harbison, Peter. "How Old Is Gallarus Oratory? A Reappraisal of Its Role in Early Irish Architecture." Medieval Archaeology 14 (1970): 47.)

⁸Petrie, George. The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland: An Essay on the Origin and Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland. Dublin: Hodges and Smith, 1845. 130.

⁹Harbison, Peter. Pilgrimage in Ireland: the Monuments and the People. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse Univ., 1992. 77, 82.
The author asserts that it is wrong to assume that Gallarus Oratory must necessarily be the first building to occupy its site simply because there were no resources for wooden construction nearby. "It is quite possible therefore that wood grew in areas where oratories of Gallarus type are found, and the argument that such oratories must have been the first churches built on the site because there could have been no earlier churches of wood is manifestly untrue. Similarly, the suggestion that Gallarus was contemporary with wooden churches in other parts of the country where wood was plentiful cannot be proved." (p. 44-45) Harbison continues, "my purpose in suggesting that Gallarus could be even as late as the 12th century is to abandon the age-old idea that the 8th century is the latest possible date. In the absence of a more reliable chronological pointer the date of Gallarus must rest entirely on circumstantial evidence, and remains an open question although I lean towards a date later than that heretofore accepted. But if Gallarus cannot be proved to date from the 8th century and could even be as late as the 12th, then there is no longer any reason to believe that it represents the oldest type of stone church in Ireland and the first stage in the evolution of Irish church architecture in stone." (p. 58)

¹⁰Harbison, Peter. Pilgrimage in Ireland: the Monuments and the People. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse Univ., 1992. 181.

¹¹Chatterton, Georgina. Rambles in the South of Ireland during the Year 1838. London: Saunders & Otley, 1839. 133-35.

¹²Harbison, Peter. "How Old Is Gallarus Oratory? A Reappraisal of Its Role in Early Irish Architecture." Medieval Archaeology 14 (1970): 36.

¹³Hartnett, Henry. "Seamus Heaney’s Poetry of Meditation: Door into the Dark." Twentieth Century Literature 33.1 (1987): 9-11.
The author quotes Heaney (a non-believer) in an interview saying that if all churches were like Gallarus Oratory, "congregations would feel the sense of God much more forcefully."

¹⁴Heaney, Seamus. Door into the Dark. New York: Oxford UP, 1969. 22.

¹Curtin, Jeremiah. Hero-tales of Ireland. Boston, Little, Brown & Co., 1894. 33-34.
An illustration from this edition is also used on our Voices from the Dawn page. The author notes: "As told to Jeremiah Curtain by Maurice Lynch, Mount Eagle, West of Dingle, Kerry." The excerpt used on our "Gate of the Cow" essay is very near the end of this tale of 34 pages. Curtin’s text may be read in its entirely here.

²Borlase, William Copeland. The Dolmens of Ireland Their Distribution, Structural Characteristics, (…). Vol. 3 London: Chapman & Hall, 1897. 762.
"At Slieve-na-Glaise, in Clare, is a dolmen, to which an old woman gave the name of Carrig-na-Glaise, that is, the Rock of the Sea-Green (Cow) – the word bo, "a cow," being understood, as it is in the name of the ancient MS., Leabhar na h-Uidhri, that is "Book of the Dun (Cow)." After she had told me the story of how the poor enchanted cow, from whose udders used to flow all the rivers on the mountain-side, had been tricked by an impious old hag, who, in place of a milk-pail, had milked her into a sieve, and how, in consequence, she had either died of grief or deserted that locality for ever." This now-ruined wedge tomb may be seen here. Other Irish versions of this story may be noted here. A similar tale from Shropshire in England may be found here.

³Cuppage, Judith. Archaeological Survey of the Dingle Peninsula: a Description of the Field Antiquities of the Barony of Corca Dhuibhne from the Mesolithic Period to the 17. Century A.D. Ballyferriter: Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne, 1986. 40.
"A pair of standing stones on the NE slopes of Croaghmarhin, commanding an extensive view over the crescent of lowlying land which surrounds Smerwick Harbour. The stones, set 4.15m apart in a NE-SW line, stand at opposite sides of the E-W running field wall into which they are incorporated. The NE stone is 2.17m high and measures 1.2m x at least .4m at base; the SW stone is .25m higher, and measures 1.3m x at least .5m at base. The stones are known locally as ‘Geata an Ghlas Ghaibhnigh’, from their traditional association with the miraculous cow of that name."

⁴O’Sullivan, T. (Tadhg) F. Romantic Hidden Kerry. Tralee: Kerryman, 1931.
A "keeler" is a vessel used for storing milk, from cilorn, meaning "cooler." Cuppage describes this stone thusly: "A multiple bullaun stone consisting of a large irregularly-shaped boulder, 2.41m x 2.54m x at least .34m high, with 7 depressions in its upper surface. These latter are irregular, oval or circular in shape and vary in size from .42m in diameter x .25m in depth to .22m in diameter x .04m in depth ." (Cuppage, Judith. Archaeological Survey of the Dingle Peninsula: a Description of the Field Antiquities of the Barony of Corca Dhuibhne from the Mesolithic Period to the 17. Century A.D. Ballyferriter: Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne, 1986. 312.)
Another source names the stone "St Brendan’s Keelers," and notes "…a reflection in the story about this magical cow of the female deities of supernatural plenty, such as Anu, earth mother and goddess of the Tuatha De Danainn." (MacDonogh, Steve. The Dingle Peninsula. Dingle, Co. Kerry, Ireland: Brandon, 2000. 184.)
A 1959 journal article (quoting from An Seabhac, Trioeha Céad Chorea Dhuibhne. p. 117) notes that "keelers stones" may also be known as "beistí’ (milk-tubs). The local people say that the legendary cow, the Glas Ghaibhneach, was milked into the basins by the monks." (Price, Liam. "Rock-Basins, or ‘Bullauns’, at Glendalough and Elsewhere." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 89.2 (1959): 161-88.)
A perhaps less authentic source connects the magical cow to the warriors of Fionn Mac Cumhaill : "The miraculous cow at Kilmelchedor is said to have deposited her milk in these basins each day, in such an abundance as to supply Fin-MacCuile and his army." (Keane, Marcu. The Towers and Temples of Ancient Ireland. Dublin: Hodges, Smith and Co. 1867. 340.)

⁵"Dingle Peninsula Standing Stones." Standing Stones. Web. 24 Nov. 2012. <http://www.dodingle.com/Heritage/Standing_Stones.html>.
According to this source, the Dingle Peninsula has three stone alignments, and possibly once had another two which have been destroyed.

Cuppage describes the "Gates of Glory" thusly: "This pair of standing stones is the northernmost element in a complex of megalithic monuments which are grouped at the SE end of the townland of Milltown (formerly Kilbrack), less than 2km W of where the Milltown river flows into Dingle Harbour." (Cuppage, Judith. Archaeological Survey of the Dingle Peninsula: a Description of the Field Antiquities of the Barony of Corca Dhuibhne from the Mesolithic Period to the 17. Century A.D. Ballyferriter: Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne, 1986. 43.)
A 1907 account of the stones records that "these stones were being carried by Fion MacCool’s labourers for a building in Ventry, but upon hearing the War-Cry for the battle of Ventry Harbour, they stuck them down like nine-pins and hastened to the fray." Foley, Patrick. History of the Natural, Civil, Military and Ecclesiastical State of the County of Kerry in Baronies. Dublin: Sealy, Bryers & Walker, 1907.)

⁶Zucchelli, Christine. Stones of Adoration Sacred Stones and Mystic Megaliths of Ireland. Doughcloyne, Wilton, Cork: Collins, 2007. 39.
The author notes the sexual symbolism of some paired stones: "Where one of the stones is tall, thin and sharp-topped, while the second appears rather small, square and blunt-topped, the pair is often taken for a representation of a divine couple, or of the female and male principles."

⁷Danaher, Kevin. Gentle Places and Simple Things: Irish Customs and Beliefs. Dublin: Mercier, 1964. 86.
Another author claims that some farmers would insist standing stones impeding their cultivation were modern in order to remove them. (Michell, John. The Old Stones of Land’s End. London: Garnstone Press, 1974. 13.)

⁸Gregory, Isabella Augusta (Persse). Gods and Fighting Men. London: J. Murray, 1904. 20. This story may be read in its entirety here.

⁹Anther version of the story of the enchanted cow may be found in William Larmanie’s West Irish Folk-tales and Romances (1893). See also Wikipedia entry.

¹⁰"Augusta, Lady Gregory." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Web. 24 Nov. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusta,_Lady_Gregory>.

¹¹Cuppage 312.

¹²Harbison, Peter. Pilgrimage in Ireland: the Monuments and the People. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse Univ., 1992. 86.
The author (quoting William Wakeman) offers that the word derives from the Irish word bullaun meaning "little pool." But the Sites and Monuments Records definition of a bullaun is: "…(from the Irish word Bullá, which means a round hollow in a stone, or a bowl) is applied to boulders of stone with artificially carved, hemispherical hollows or basin-like depressions, which may have functioned as mortars. They are frequently associated with ecclesiastical sites and holy wells and so may have been used for religious purposes. They date to the early medieval period (5th-12th centuries AD)." (Kelleher, Matthew, and Caimin O’Brien. "Between a Rock and a Hard Place." Archaeology Ireland 22.3 (Autumn, 2008): 8-9.)
An 1846 text reports a "respectable farmer" declaring "that he was not above saying a prayer at the ‘blessed stone’ when he came that way," and noted that "the water found in hollows of bullan stones was held good for bad eyes." (Bonwick, James. Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions. London: Griffith, Farran & Co., 1894. 80-81.)

¹³Harbison 223.
The author also notes the "Deer Stone" found at the ruined monastic site of Glendalough. The legend tells how in response to St. Kevin’s prayer to save the lives of twin newborns whose mother had died, a wild doe came down and filled the bullaun with its milk. "The water in the Deer Stone is reputed to have the power of healing, but in order for the cure to be effective the pilgrim must crawl round the stone seven times before sunrise, fasting, and saying the necessary prayers." (p. 108)

¹⁴Westropp, Thomas Johnson. "Notes on the Antiquities of Ardmore." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 33.4 (1903): 375.
Another author give more latitude to his imagination regarding the potential usages of the bullauns: "The libations that were poured out were of various kinds, milk and wine, or oil and wine, which were merely symbolical representations of blood and fat." (Ffrench, J. F. M. Prehistoric Faith and Worship: Glimpses of Ancient Irish Life. London: D. Nutt, 1912. 9-11.) This may be read here.

¹⁵Kelleher, Matthew, and Caimin O’Brien. "Between a Rock and a Hard Place." Archaeology Ireland 22.3 (Autumn, 2008): 8-9.

¹⁶Dolan, Brian. "Bedrocks and Bullauns: More than One Use for a Mortar?" Archaeology Ireland 23.1 (2009): 16-19.
The author includes photographs showing shallow depressions in a rock from industrial sites in Karnatka and Rajasthan in India resulting from crushing gold-bearing quartz using small hand-held hammers.

¹⁷"Kilmalkedar Monastery." Kilmalkedar Monastery. Web. 24 Nov. 2012. <http://www.nd.edu/~archire/sites2005/KilmalkedarMonastery2.html>.

¹⁸Cuppage 312.
"The present remains , situated near the E end of the graveyard, consist of a nave and chancel, the latter a subsequent addition replacing the original altar recess. The Nave: The walls survive to full height and rise to gables of steep pitch. The lower courses of a corbelled stone roof are preserved, springing externally from a projecting chamfered eaves course. Recesses for substantial purlins are visible on the interior of the E and W gables and suggest that an internal support structure of timber may have existed. The walls are built of dressed sandstone blocks, well- jointed and approaching ashlar construction in places. A band of yellow stone, at least 1m thick, is visible on the W gable, commencing at a height of c. 2m, and is returned on all sides of the nave. Above this, the walls are of more random construction, with coursed flags of thin section being widely used. A gap at the E end of the S wall has been repaired in modern times."

¹⁹Keane, Marcu. The Towers and Temples of Ancient Ireland. Dublin: Hodges, Smith and Co. 1867. 23.
Even more imaginative may be this story related by Keane: ""In reference to the custom of wrestling with human victims before offering them in sacrifice, which Bryant notices in general among Cuthites, I would observe that a curious tradition exists among the peasantry of Kerry of a wonderful wrestler named Deargan O’Dunne, who lived in ancient times at Kilmelchedor in the peninsula of Dingle, and who was gifted with supernatural power from the evil one; so that, although a small man, he never failed to overcome those whom he engaged in wrestling, and he invariable killed every man who he overcame. The high antiquity of this tradition may be inferred from the fact that several townlands and ancient monuments are called after the name of this celebrated wrestler. There can be, I think, no doubt but that the significance of the tradition refers to the period when human sacrifices were offered to the Golden Molach at his temple of Melchedor." (p. 217-18)

²⁰O’Connor, Bosco. "Church Built in One Night." Personal interview. 22 June 1979.
In support of this legend, Marcu Keane adds, "… the tradition of the common people in this place is that it was erected by supernatural agency in one night. I may also remark here that this legend, of being erected in one is night, is never applied to Gothic ruins but only to Round Towers, Irish Crosses, ‘Norman’ Churches and such Cuthite relics, which may perhaps be accounted for by the fact that after a long period of the dominion of the Celts, who had no stone buildings, these beautiful Cyclopean remains could only be explained by the peasantry as the result of supernatural agency." (Keane, Marcu. The Towers and Temples of Ancient Ireland. Dublin: Hodges, Smith and Co. 1867. 24.)
Another account of the folklore regarding the window states that on Easter Sunday the faithful would pass through it nine times with the belief that by doing so they will be assured of going to heaven. ("Kilmalkedar Monastery." Kilmalkedar Monastery. Web. 24 Nov. 2012. <http://www.nd.edu/~archire/sites2005/KilmalkedarMonastery2.html>.)

²¹Kilmalkedar Monastery." Kilmalkedar Monastery. Web. 24 Nov. 2012. <http://www.nd.edu/~archire/sites2005/KilmalkedarMonastery2.html>
The translation of the ogham inscription was noted here.

²²O’Sullivan.
This is also noted in McNally, Kenneth. Ireland’s Ancient Stones; a Megalithic Heritage. Belfast: Appletree, 2006. 116. The original source is given as William Wakeman’s Archaeologia Hibernica (1881).

²³Ó Conchúir, Doncha. "The Keelers Stone." Personal interview. 26 May 2001.

¹Thackeray, William M. The Irish Sketchbook of 1842 and Character Sketches. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1889. 325.
The unabridged quote: "It looks like the beginning of the world, somehow: the sea looks older than in other places, the hills and rocks strange, and formed differently from other rocks and hills—as those vast dubious monsters were formed who possessed the earth before man. The hill-tops are shattered into a thousand cragged fantastical shapes; the water comes swelling into scores of little strange creeks, or goes off with a leap, roaring into those mysterious caves yonder, which penetrate who knows how far into our common world. The savage rock-sides are painted of a hundred colours. Does the sun ever shine here? When the world was moulded and fashioned out of formless chaos, this must have been the bit over—a remnant of chaos!"
The book may be read in its entirety here.

²"Giant’s Causeway." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 10 June 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant’s_Causeway>.

³Wilson, William. The Post Chaise Companion, Or, Traveller’s Directory through Ireland. Dublin, 1813. 42.

⁴"The Giant’s Causeway." The Dublin Penny Journal 1.5 (1832): 33.

⁵"Giant’s Causeway." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 10 June 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant’s_Causeway>.

⁶"Fingal’s Cave." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 10 June 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fingal’s_Cave>.
Just as with the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland, some authors insisted that Fingal’s Cave in Scotland was a manufactured, rather than a natural phenomenon. This excerpt is from a popular science magazine of 1882: "Until it is shown that a thousand yards of landlocked, iron-bound coast can be cut and tunneled in utter disregard of every known law of mechanical action, the caves in Staffa, on the west coast of Scotland, driven into igneous rock, not modified by local conditions, or in the weak places ‘of an exposed cliff,’ can not be classified as merely remarkable instances of caves worn by the sea." Whitehouse, F.C. "Is Fingal’s Cave Artificial." Popular Science Monthly 22.12 (1882): 240. The article may be read in its entirely here.

⁷"Finn MacCool" Causeway Coastal Route. Web. 10 June 2011. <http://www.causewaycoastalroute.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=76&Itemid=61>.

⁸Kennedy, Alasdair. "In Search of the ‘True Prospect’: Making and Knowing the Giant’s Causeway as a Field Site in the Seventeenth Century." British Society for the History of Science 10.10 (2007): 21-22.
An earlier article with the same subject was published in 1896: "No mention is made of this marvellous work of Nature in the Four Masters, the Chironicon Scotorum, or the Annals of Ulster, nor does any medieval author apparently allude to it, although other objects of curiosity in Ulster are described…The learned antiquaries of a later date—Camden, Boate, and Ware—alike seemed ignorant of its existence. Equally do the geographical map makers—Mercator (1594), Speed (1610), and others, down to the I8th century—omit it in their various publications…So late as 1727, when Les Délices la Grande Bretagne et de l’Irlande was published in 8 vols. at Leydern, no mention occurs of its existence. A more remarkable circumstance, however, is its omission by Richard Dobbs in his description of the natural features of the County Antrim, which he wrote for Pitt’s Atlas in I683. This was printed for the first time in extenso in the Rev. George Hill’s Macdonnells of Antrim. Dobbs mentions Dunluce, Bushmills, and Ballycastle, and was particularly fond of natural history and mineralogy. It may be possible that he had intended to add an account of the Giant’s Causeway to his other notices of County Antrim, but certainly he has not done so. This strange omission of any mention of such a remarkable natural phenomenon is the more curious, when we consider how very fond our ancestors were of tabulating natural wonders, and how many pages in old books are filled with descriptions of trivial objects of interest." "Early Notices and Engraved Views of the Giant’s Causeway." Ulster Journal of Archaeology Second 3.1 (1896): 41-42.

⁹Kennedy.

¹⁰"Early Notices and Engraved Views of the Giant’s Causeway." Ulster Journal of Archaeology Second 3.1 (1896): 43.

¹¹Pococke, Richard. "An Account of the Giants Causeway in Ireland, in a Letter to the President from the Rev. Richard Pococke." Philosophical Transactions 45 (1748): 124-27.

Lord, Richard. "An Account of a Production of Nature at Dunbar in Scotland, Like That of the Giants- Causeway in Ireland;." Philosophical Transactions 52 (1761): 98-99.

Strange, John. "An Account of a Curious Giant’s Causeway, or Group of Angular Columns, Newly Discovered in the Euganean Hills, Near Padua, in Italy." Philosophical Transactions 65 (1775): 418-23.

As a refutation to all suggestions that the Causeway was not a work of nature, the author of Hibernia Curiosa in 1764 wrote: "The romantic supposition of its having been a causeway from Ireland to Scotland is ridiculous and absurd at first view. The nearest coast of Scotland to this place is at least 30 miles; if any use or design of this kind can be imagined ever to have taken place, it must to have been to some island not far from the shore, which the sea has swallowed up. But the general form and construction of the several parts is at the utmost distance from favoring such a supposition. Nor is the ridiculous opinion that is met with in some of the old natural histories of this kingdom less absurd, on a comparison that is made of this to Stonehenge on Salisbury-plain, that this, as well as that, may have been originally a monumental pile, or some ancient place of worship, for there is no more likeness in the comparison than would be found between two of the most dissimilar productions of art, or nature. Into such ridiculous fancies will men suffer themselves to be led, who have never seen the originals, of which they pretend to give a description; but implicitly write from the authority of others, equally with themselves, unacquainted with them." Bush, John. Hibernia Curiosa: A Letter from a Gentleman in Dublin, to His Friend at Dover … :. London, 1764. 59-60.

¹²"A Guide to the Giants’ Causeway." The Dublin Penny Journal Supplement 2 (1834): xiv-xv.

¹³"The Causeway Court Case" Causeway Coastal Route. Web. 10 June 2011. <http://www.causewaycoastalroute.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=77&Itemid=61>.

¹⁴Thackeray 326.

¹Pochin Mould, Daphne D. C. "The Irish Pilgrimages." The Furrow, 5.3 (1954): 131.

²Herity, Michael. Gleanncholmcille: A guide to 5,000 years of history in stone. Dublin: Na Clocha Breaca, 1998. Introduction by Fr. James McDyer.
Fr. McDyer in his autobiography writes of his experience with the turas on Tory Island prior to his tenure in Gleann Cholm Cille. He doesn not, however mention the turas in Gleann, where he spent the most significant years of his career.
Fr. McDyer, best known for his social activism and his efforts to organize community-own enterprises (including the successful Folk Village) said about his work:
"Action! Action against injustice, inertia, hypocrisy and greed! It is for this that my whole being has yearned. In this I am moved by the old Irish mythological leader, Fionn Mac Cumhall, who instructed his harpist to play "not the music of things that are said, but the music of things that are done." McDyer, James. Fr. McDyer of Glencolumbkille. Dingle, Co. Kerry, Ireland: Brandon, 1982. 116-17.

³Quinn, Moore E. "Portrait of a Mythographer; Discourses of Identity In the Work of Father James McDyer." Eire-Ireland Journal of Irish Studies Spring-Summer (2003): 130-31.
The author states, regarding the revitalization of the Turas and other authetic Celtic practices, "This model dominated the political landscape during the formation of the Irish state. Prime Minister Eamon de Valera attempted to create a sense of Irishness by revaluing the West of Ireland in terms of its ‘heroic past.’"

⁴Lacey, Brian. Colum Cille and the Columban Tradition. Dublin: Four Courts, 1997. 33.

⁵O’Cuinneagain, Liam. "Stations of the Turas." Message to the author. 9 Aug. 2010. E-mail.

⁶Herity 17.

⁷Lacey, Brian."Constructing Colum Cille." Irish Arts Review 21.3 (2004): 120-23.
Regarding the uncertainty of the dates of the Colum Cille’s death, the author writes, "Despite the widespread belief that he died in 597 (his alleged 1400th anniversary was commemorated in 1997), it is now almost certain that he died in 593."
Colum Cille, siimilar to other early saints of the Celtic church, was a possessed of characteristics that may not today be regarded as "saintly." Lawrence Taylor writes, "The wandering Irish saints prophesy, cure, win battles, even raise the dead. They also curse. They are indissolubly associated with the landscape, and share its ambivalence and bouts of tempter…Like the Hebrews they were tribespeople, not townspeople, the shamans of a pastoral folk who themselves moved in the landscape." Taylor, Lawrence J. Occasions of Faith: an Anthropology of Irish Catholics. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1995. 43.

⁸O’Cuinneagain, Liam. "Turas Cholm Cille" Message to the author. 22 May 2010. E-mail.

⁹Lacey. Colum Cille and the Columban Tradition.10.

¹⁰Harbison, Peter. Pilgrimage in Ireland: the Monuments and the People. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse Univ., 1992. 106.

¹¹Lacey. "Constructing Colum Cille." 121.

¹²Lacey, Brian. Colum Cille and the Columban Tradition. Dublin: Four Courts, 1997. 87-8.

¹³O’Donnell, Manus, Andrew O’Kelleher, Gertrude Schoepperle, and Richard Henebry. Betha Colaim Chille. Life of Columcille. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois under the Auspices of the Graduate School, 1918. 5.
One of the enduring legends of the saint is that his mission to the Picts in Iona was occasioned by his exile from Ireland under duress after he had lost both a "copyright" suit and the ensuing ferocious battle. In this story the saint made an unauthorized copy of a Psalm book, and the high king ruled that he was required to return it to the owner of the original, reasoning that "To every cow its calf, to every book its copy." It is, however, more likely that Colum Cille’s journey to Scotland was entirely voluntary. This book may be read in its entirety here.

¹⁴O’Donnell 7.

¹⁵Lacey, Brian. Colum Cille and the Columban Tradition. Dublin: Four Courts, 1997. 8.

¹⁶Pochin Mould 136.

¹⁷Price, Liam. "Glencolumbkille, County Donegal, and Its Early Christian Cross-Slabs." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Seventh 11.3 (1941): 82-84.
The quote just above is from John O’Donovan’s translation of the story.

¹⁸O’Donnell 132.
The tale continues (my edits) “And that javelin grew in the place whereas it struck the ground that that time till now, and thus it shall be till Doomsday. Then Columeille blessed that stream, and its venom and enchantment departed therefrom. And he crossed it. And an angel brought him a round green stone, and bade him cast it at the demons, and they should flee before it, and the fog also. And the angel bade him throw his bell Dub Duaibseeh at them in like wise. And Columeille did as the angel commanded him, so that the whole land was yielded to him from the fog. And the demons fled before him to a rock out in the great sea opposite the western headland of that region. And Columcille cast at them that stone that the angel had given him, and his bell Dub Duaibsech. And he bade the demons go into the sea through the rock whereas they were, and be in the form of fish forever, and to do no deviltry against any thenceforth. …And lest folk should eat them, Columcille left a mark on them passing every other fish, to wit, that they should be blind of an eye and red. And fishers oft take them today, and they do naught to them when they perceive them, save to cast them again into the sea. Then required Columcille of God to give back to him his bell and stone from the sea. And lo, he beheld them coming toward him in the likeness of a glow of fire, and they fell to the ground fast by him….And in the place where the bell fell, it sank deep ill the earth, and it left its clapper there. And Columcille said the bell was none the worse without the clapper." This book may be read in its entirety here.

More than 400 years after Manus O’Donnell, Gleann Cholm Cille’s Fr. McDyer made good use of the "evil fog" allegory when he reported on his battle with the bureaucrats in Dublin: "But the most powerful bodies were against me…The civil servants hedged by asking for feasibility studies. I reminded them about St. Colmcille and the druids and the efforts of the druids to thwart him by calling up the mists. I said: "The druids have gone but they have left their peers behind in you boys, the senior civil servants. The modern druidical mist is your feasibility study." McDyer, James. Fr. McDyer of Glencolumbkille. Dingle, Co. Kerry, Ireland: Brandon, 1982. 67.

Another brief quotation, supposedly from Colum Cille, was mentioned by Liam Price: "…it is written in early modern Irish, and was composed perhaps in the 15th century. It speaks of Senglenn Coluim, " the old glen of Colum, and of the old glen named from Colum. Na saruigbtear Seinglenn, aitreb na lee nime" ("The old glen will not be harmed, the place of the slabs of heaven.") Price, Liam. "Glencolumbkille, County Donegal, and Its Early Christian Cross-Slabs." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Seventh 11.3 (1941): 32.

¹⁹Harbison 109-10.
Harbison explains that St. Fanad’s "cult was overlain by that of St Colmcille, whose relics may have been brought to the valley for safety some time in the first half of the 9th century."

²⁰Herity 8.

²¹Harbison 109-10.

²²Harbison 54.

²³Price 87-88.

²⁴Williams, W. H. A. Tourism, Landscape, and the Irish Character: British Travel Writers in Pre-famine Ireland. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin, 2008. 44.

²⁵Harbison 105.

²⁶Pochin Mould 133.

²⁷Pochin Mould 133.
The author goes on to write specifically about the turas in Gleann Cholm Cille (pp. 138-39) "The midnight barefoot round of three miles in Glencolumbkille is, to my mind, harder while it lasts than Lough Derg. In many cases, these smaller pilgrimages are now headed and directed by the clergy, which is as it should be, for they can do much to concentrate devotion along the right lines, as did their predecessors of the Celtic Church, turning it away from queer superstitious practices on to the real intention of the pilgrimage of prayer and penance and devotion to the local saint and to Our Lady. …A symbol of the continuity of the Faith in Ireland, of our close link with our native Celtic saints."

²⁸Another hillside sacred well considered here in the Voice from the Dawn project is the Tullaghan Hill Holy Well in Co. Sligo.

²⁹Harbison 196.
Harbison here states, "The Glencolmcille pillars are unlikely to have acted as gravemarkers and were almost certainly erected in connection with pilgrimage activity in the valley." However an earlier publication he states, "The most conspicuous remains of this monastery are the pillars decorated with cross-motifs and geometric designs which may originally have been grave-slabs, but are now the centres or ‘stations’ of the pilgrimage…"
Harbison, Peter. Guide to National and Historic Monuments of Ireland: including a Selection of Other Monuments Not in State Care. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1992. 68.

³⁰Pochin Mould 136.

³¹Taylor, Lawrence J. Occasions of Faith: an Anthropology of Irish Catholics. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1995. 58.
"They are yet anxious to perform the lustrations and purifications, which so much prevailed in the early ages of christianity, and though the turas left by Columbkille in the old Glen is now condemned by the clergy, some of the natives go through it yet with reverence and solemnity, visiting each hallowed spot where Columbkille knelt or stood or left any of his sacred footsteps…"
Here Taylor is quoting from: O’Donovan, John, Thomas O’Connor, P. (Patrick) O’Keeffe, and Michael Herity. Ordnance Survey Letters Letters Containing Information Relative to the Antiquities of the County of Donegal Collected during the Progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1837, 1838, and 1839. Dublin: Four Masters, 2002. 120-21.
In a note on p. 253 Taylor writes, "The ‘Outrage Papers’ contain crime reports for the period, and while faction fights seem to have been typical in the north, and to some extend to the east of southwest Donegal, the region itself is not much represented. This might of course be a function of reportage—the absence of police in the area—but both Ewing and O’Donovan, who traveled through the entire region taking notes—make a point of observing the quiescence of the region."

³²Pochin Mould 137.

³³Hastings, James, John A. Selbie, and Louis H. Gray. Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics. New York: Scribner’s, 1919. 21.

³⁴Hardy, Philip Dixon. The Holy Wells of Ireland: Containing an Authentic Account of Those Various Places of Pilgrimage and Penance Which Are Still Annually Visited by Thousands of the Roman Catholic Peasantry. With a Minute Description of the Patterns and Stations Periodically Held in Various Districts of Ireland. Dublin: Hardy, & Walker, 1840. iii.
This book may be read in its entirety here.
Hardy’s book is very much an artifact of the racist, anti-Catholic views commonly held in Protestant communities of nineteenth-century Ireland, which often looked upon the rural poor of Ireland as almost a sub-human species. See this illustration from the book. The author supplements his own observations with those of other with similar views about the excesses of the "patterns." On p. 89 he quotes from Crofton Croker, Researches in the South of Ireland, (1824) "Scene at River Lee." "The tents are generally so crowded that the dancers have scarcely room for their performance: from twenty [94] to thirty men and women are often huddled together in each, and the circulation of porter and whiskey amongst the various groups is soon evident in its effects. All become actors, – none spectators, – rebellious songs, in the Irish language, are loudly vociferated, and received with yells of applause – towards evening the tumult increases, and intoxication becomes almost universal. Cudgels are brandished, the shrieks of women and the piercing cry of children thrill painfully upon the ear in the riot and uproar of the scene: indeed the distraction and tumult of a patron cannot be described. At midnight the assembly became somewhat less noisy and confused, but the chapels were still crowded: on the shore people lay ‘heads and points’ so closely that it was impossible to move without trampling on them; the washing and bathing in the well still continued, and the dancing, drinking, roaring, and singing were, in some degree, kept up throughout the night."

³⁵0 Giollain, Diarmuid. "Revisiting the Holy Well." Eire-Ireland 40.1&2 (2005): 32-33.

³⁶Taylor 65-67.
Talor writes, "…many clergy so successfully captured and tamed such devotions that some began to look further, reviving defunct pilgrimages in order to reinvigorate what could now be perceived as quaint local custom. Once securely positioned as patrons of the pilgrimages, local clergy would sometimes promote other devotions at the site, with lay support…"

¹Taylor, Lawrence J. Occasions of Faith: an Anthropology of Irish Catholics. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1995. 61.

²Taylor 58.
Quoting O’Donovan, John, Thomas O’Connor, P. (Patrick) O’Keeffe, and Michael Herity. Ordnance Survey Letters Letters Containing Information Relative to the Antiquities of the County of Donegal Collected during the Progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1837, 1838, and 1839. Dublin: Four Masters, 2002. 120-21.

³Taylor 58.
Quoting O’Donovan, John, Thomas O’Connor, P. (Patrick) O’Keeffe, and Michael Herity. Ordnance Survey Letters Letters Containing Information Relative to the Antiquities of the County of Donegal Collected during the Progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1837, 1838, and 1839. Dublin: Four Masters, 2002. 120-21.
"On the summit of the gloomy mountain of Slieve Leag are yet shewn the ruins of the little cell of Aodh Mac Bric…A most solemn turas was performed here in the memory of the last generation, but he liveth not now who could point out all the hallowed spots to be visited and prayed at, so that it has been abandoned as a station of pilgrimage to the rapid oblivion of the name and fame of the solitary Bishop Aidus."

⁴Price, Liam. "Glencolumbkille, County Donegal, and Its Early Christian Cross-Slabs." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Seventh 11.3 (1941): 72.

⁵Taylor 60.
Quoting O’Donovan, John, Thomas O’Connor, P. (Patrick) O’Keeffe, and Michael Herity. Ordnance Survey Letters Letters Containing Information Relative to the Antiquities of the County of Donegal Collected during the Progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1837, 1838, and 1839. Dublin: Four Masters, 2002. 127.

⁶Price 71-88. Photographs credited to "T. H. Mason"

⁷Herity, Michael. Gleanncholmcille: A guide to 5,000 years of history in stone. Dublin: Na Clocha Breaca, 1998. 16.

⁸Cunningham, Gerard. Turas Cholm Cille – A Pocket Guide. Dublin: Faduca, 2010. 5.

⁹Harbison, Peter. Pilgrimage in Ireland: the Monuments and the People. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse Univ., 1992. 109.

¹⁰Cunningham 6.

¹¹Price 74.

¹²Price 74.
On p. 55, the author quotes John Ewing (Statistical Return of Glencolumbkille, 1823:2): "There is a stone of very particular use in curing head aches which must be lodged every night in St Columb’s bed but is generally taken off every morning through the parish. I was not fortunate enough to see it tho’ I called twice—but each time it was out on duty."

¹³Price 74.

¹⁴Taylor 67.

¹⁵Price 75.

¹⁶"Farranmacbride Court Tomb." Megalithic Ireland. Web. 19 May 2011. <http://www.megalithicireland.com/Farranmacbride%20Court%20Tomb.html>.

¹⁷McGinley, Séamus "’Cloch na Súil (The Stone of the eye)." Message to the author. 7 Jan. 2011. E-mail.
"Cloch na Súil" is also the name for Station Eight used by Turas leader Jimmy Carr in the video interview (1999) on this site.

¹⁸"Interview Note." Bealoideas: Journal of the Folklore of Ireland Society VI (1936): 162. From a card on file at the Department of Folklore, University College, Dublin. 1979.
Voices from the Dawn features other such "holed stones," including the Aghade Holed Stone, the Tobernaveen Holed Stone, and the Doagh Holed Stone.

¹⁹Wood-Martin, W. G. Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland. Vol. 2.. London: Longmans, Green, & Co. 1902. 242.

²⁰Cunningham 18.
The author explains that the name of this ruined church comes from a legend first recorded by a local schoolteacher in the mid-nineteenth century. The story is that a priest found a dying Spaniard near Sliabh Liag, and as he performed the last rites the Spaniard gave him a purse of gold coins and asked him to build a church with it. Cunningham states that this legend may be but a cover story for how the local community—where smuggling of Spanish wine and tobacco was lucrative—was able to afford its own church.

²¹Herity 28.

²²Price 76.

²³Harbison 109.

¹Bernard, Walter. "Grianan of Aileach." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 15 (1879): 415.

²Bernard.

³Grianan of Aileach." Megalithic Ireland. Web. 19 Mar. 2011. <http://www.megalithicireland.com/Grianan of Aileach.html>.

⁴"Grianan of Aileach – Ringfort – County Donegal." Stone Circles and Megalithic Monuments in the British Isles and Ireland – Megalithics. Web. 19 Mar. 2011. <http://www.megalithics.com/ireland/grianan/granmain.htm>.

⁵Maghtochair. Inishowen: Its History, Traditions,& Antiquities Containing a Number of Original Documents,with Numerous Notes from the Annals of the Four Masters,and Other Sources. Londonderry: Journal Office, 1867. 17-20.

⁶O’Curry, Eugene. On the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish. Vol. 3. New York: Lemma Pub., 1971. 8-9.

⁷The Annals of the Four Masters were compiled between 1632 and 1636 at the Franciscan monastery in the town of Donegal. Entries date from the biblical flood, ( 2,242 years after creation) to 1616 CE.

⁸Macalister, R. A. S. "Pre-Celtic Ireland." The Irish Monthly, 46.540 (June, 1918): 330-31.

⁹"Grianan of Aileach." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 20 Mar. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grianan_of_Aileach>.

¹⁰The Grianan of Aileach.. 17 June 2010. Information sign at the site. Burt.

¹¹Grianan of Aileach." Megalithic Ireland.

¹²Lacey, Brian. "The Grianán of Aileach: A Note on Its Identification." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 131 (2001): 148.

¹³The Grianan of Aileach. 17 June 2010.

¹⁴"St. Patrick’s Well, Carrowreagh, Donegal." The Northern Antiquarian. 11 Nov. 2009. Web. 20 Mar. 2011. <http://megalithix.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/st-patricks-well-donegal/>.

¹⁵The Grianan of Aileach. 13 July 1979. Information sign at the site. Burt.

¹⁶Cormacan, John O’Donovan, and Robert Payne. The Circuit of Ireland, by Muircheartach MacNeill, Prince of Aileach; a Poem, Written in the Year DCCCCXLII. Dublin: Irish Archaeological Society, 1841. 25

¹⁷Harbison, Peter. Guide to National and Historic Monuments of Ireland: including a Selection of Other Monuments Not in State Care. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1992. 101.

¹⁸Bernard 417.

Note: the two illustrations in the web gallery were taken from The Book of Inishowen; the "St. Columb’s Stone" from p. 9, and the "Grianan Plan" from p. 88.
Swan, Harry Percival., and William J. O’Doherty. The Book of Inishowen; a Guide Book and Conspectus of Information Relating to the Barony of Inishowen, County Donegal. Buncrana, Co. Donegal: W. Doherty & Co., 1938.
The Belmont House School has a web page with more information about St. Columb’s Stone.

¹Ferguson, Samuel, George Petrie, and Margaret Stokes. The Cromlech on Howth: A Poem. London: Day, 1861.
Another page from the book, in color, may be seen here. A grayscale pdf of all the verse pages from the book may be viewed here. The text of "Aideen’s Grave," as published by the author in his Lays of the Western Gael collection of poems (1888), may be read here.

²Bonwick, James. Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions. London: Griffith, Farran & Co., 1894. 262.
A quoit is defined as "a single-chambered megalithic tomb."

³McNally, Kenneth. Ireland’s Ancient Stones; a Megalithic Heritage. Belfast: Appletree, 2006. 95.
Sources differ on the dimensions of the tomb’s capstone. William Wakeman wrote in 1903 that it was nearly a meter larger on each side than measured by modern visitors.

⁴"Howth Castle." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 15 July 2012. Web. 19 July 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howth_Castle>.
An 1895 book described the scenery in the vicinity of the monument: "There are many beautiful spots on the Hill of Howth, and there is no place near Dublin, at all events, which teems with such rich and varied associations with our history and literature. But there is one spot in Howth preeminent in its beauty and preeminent too in its associations. It is a dell in the demesne bordered on one side be precipitous cliffs. A grassy path lies through it edged with ferns and shaded with larches and firs, and graceful silver birches, such as McWhirter so loves to paint, and then it ascends in a gentle slope to the top of the cliffs. In the latter end of May, and beginning of June, these cliffs from base to summit are all ablaze with the purple, and rose, and flame colour, and yellow and white blooms of myriads of rhododendrons, while along the right, beyond and among the ferns, is spread a great blue carpet of wild hyacinths. Near toward the path ascends the cliff, another path turns off to the right and leads you to the Cromlech of Howth." (Carton, R.P. "The Associations of Scenery. Part II." The Irish Monthly 23.263 (1895): 234-35.)

⁵Kennedy, Patrick. Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts. London: Macmillan and Co., 1866. 183.
In legend, Oscar’s "battle-rage" was so intense that "in his fury he also slew by mischance his own friend and condisciple." (Rolleson, Thomas William. Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race. London: George G. Harrap, 1949. 260-61.)
From Ferguson’s introduction to his poem: "Oscar was entombed in the rath or earthen fortress that occupied part of the field of battle, the rest of the slain being cast in a pit outside."

⁶Ferguson.

⁷Ferguson, Mary Catharine Guinness. Sir Samuel Ferguson in the Ireland of His Day. Vol. 2. Edinburgh: W. Blackwood, 1896. 82-85.
The poem "Aideen’s Grave" was also published in collections by the author, and subsequently by many others. One reviewer wrote in 1889, "Sir Samuel Ferguson’s poetry is delightful in its lyrical and elegiac vein as well as in its narrative. A better specimen of it can hardly be referred to than ‘Aideen’s Grave’…Obviously its qualities are those characteristic of the noble, not the ignoble, poetry, viz. passion, imagination, vigour, an epic largeness of conception, wide human sympathies, vivid and truthful description; while with these it unites none of the vulgar stimulants for exhausted or morbid poetic appetites, whether the epicurean seasoning, the skeptical, or the revolutionary. Its diction is pure, its metre full of variety; and with these merits, common to all true poetry, it unites an insight which only a man of genius can possess into the special characteristics of those ancient times and manners which are so frequently its subject. His Irish poetry is Irish, not, like a good deal which bears that name, i.e. by dint of being bad English, while stuffed with but the vulgarer accidents, not the essential characteristics of Gaelic Ireland—not thus, but by having the genuine Gaelic spirit in it. That spirit, like the Irish airs, its most authentic expression, has much of the minor key about it, and many ‘shrill notes of anger’ besides; but alike with its sadness, its fierceness, and its wild fits of mirth, a witching tenderness is mingled; and all those qualities are largely found in Sir Samuel Ferguson’s poetry." (De Vere, Aubrey. Essays, Chiefly Literary and Ethical. London: Macmillan and Co., 1889. 120-25.)

⁸"Capital Letters 007." A Whole New World. Web. 19 July 2012. <http://dublincitypubliclibraries.com/content/capital-letters-007>.
The Cromlech on Howth‘s illustrator, Margaret Stokes later edited Dunraven’s Notes on Irish Architecture. She wrote and illustrated Early Christian Art In Ireland (1887). She produced two works on early medieval Irish saints in Europe, Six Months in the Apennines (1892) and Three Months in The Forest of France (1895). Her final work, The High Crosses of Ireland, was unfinished at her death. Stokes was credited on the title page of The Cromlech on Howth only by an elaborate monogram of her initials. See the page here.

⁹Denman, Peter. Samuel Ferguson: The Literary Achievement. Savage, MD: Barnes & Noble, 1990. 93-94.
Author and folklore scholar Ron James writes (in a personal email 7/20/2012) "[Ferguson] creates a tradition, which was a perfectly acceptable practice in nineteenth-century Romanticism…So much of real, honest folklore was inspired by the written word, just as folklore inspires literature. It has been a fluid back and forth since writing was invented, and that is a healthy process. Nineteenth-century Romantic nationalists felt they were fully justified in creating traditions where existing ones might be a little thin. And for a poet to find artistic if not spiritual inspiration when gazing on a megalith ruin, creating a tradition out of that inspiration where no folk tradition might exist, was perfectly in keeping with the time."

¹⁰Hofheinz, Thomas C. Joyce and the Invention of Irish History: Finnegans Wake in Context. Cambridge UP, 1995. 75-78.
The author links Ferguson’s work to Joyce’s in Finnegans Wake: "Finnegans Wake‘s cultural kinship to literary works like The Cromlech on Howth is evident on many levels. Like Ferguson’s poem, Finnegans Wake performs topologically, forcing readers to encounter it as an
autonomous object that demands them to meet it on its own terms. Like the poem, Finnegans Wake‘s superabundance of graphical imagery precludes clearly charted narrative by simulating problems of historical understanding through rapid alternation of the familiar and the unrecognizable, guiding readers with submerged indexical structures. Most of all, Finnegans Wake, like The Cromlech on Howth, constellates historical reflection around an interment in the Howth promontory. The legendary Irish figure buried alive in Finnegans Wake is Finn rather than Aideen, but the cryptic location of Fenian imagery determines the Wake’s narrative in a way linking it thematically to Ferguson’s poem."
Russell K. Alspach writes that Ferguson was the "Irish poet who, before Yeats, most made use of Ireland’s legends in his poetry." According to Alspach, a line in Yeat’s "The Wanderings of Oisin" can directly be traced to "Aideen’s Grave" ["We thought on Oscar's penciled urn ."] Alspach, Russell K. "Some Sources of Yeats’s "The Wanderings of Oisin"" PMLA 58.3 (1943): 859.)

¹¹Ferguson, Samuel, George A. Cogan, and Joseph Tierney. Aideen’s Grave. Dublin: Talbot, 1925.
Two the pages from this small volume are included on our web page. Another one, a painting of Aideen’s Grave, may be seen here.

¹²Parsons, Anne, and Niamh Parsons. "The Wild Bees Nest Project." Niamh Stage Two. Web. 19 July 2012. <http://www.thewildbeesnest.ie/Niamh_Stage_Two.html>.

¹³Denman, Peter. Samuel Ferguson: The Literary Achievement. Savage, MD: Barnes & Noble, 1990. 93-94.
The author writes, "Ossian is represented as looking forward to a later age when some future poet, also on Howth, will transfer the burden of his poem into a form more suited to that later time. Whom might he have had in mind, if not Samuel Ferguson?"

¹⁴Ferguson.

¹Däniken, Erich Von. Chariots of the Gods? New York: Bantam, 1968. Intro.

²"Erich Von Däniken." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_von_Däniken>.

³"County Cork – Selected Monuments PART 2." Irish Megaliths: Field Guide & Photographs by Anthony Weir. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. <http://www.irishmegaliths.org.uk/cork2.htm>.

⁴Ó Ríordáin, Seán P. "Excavation of a Stone Circle and Cairn at Kealkil, Co. Cork." Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 44 (1939). 48.

⁵Ó Ríordáin 47.

⁶"Chariots of the Gods?" Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chariots_of_the_Gods>.
From this article: "A 2004 article in Skeptic magazine states that von Däniken plagiarized many of the book’s concepts from The Morning of the Magicians, that this book in turn was heavily influenced by the Cthulhu Mythos, and that the core of the ancient astronaut theory originates in H. P. Lovecraft’s short stories ‘The Call of Cthulhu’ and ‘At the Mountains of Madness’."

⁷Lethbridge, Thomas Charles. The Legend of the Sons of God: a Fantasy? London: Routledge and K. Paul, 1972. 112.

⁸Michell, John. The Flying Saucer Vision, 2nd edn. London: Sphere, 1977. 14+.
Cited in: Chippindale, Christopher. Stonehenge Complete. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1983. 245.

⁹"Extraterrestrial Archaeology?" Bad Archaeology: Leave Your Common Sense Behind! Web. 24 Apr. 2011. <http://www.badarchaeology.net/extraterrestrial/index.php>.

¹⁰"Erich Von Daniken’s "Chariots of the Gods?": Science or Charlatanism?" The Debunker’s Domain, by Robert Sheaffer. Skeptical Resources on UFOs, the "paranormal," Feminist "scholarship" Web. 24 Apr. 2011. <http://www.debunker.com/texts/vondanik.html>.

¹¹Lingeman, Richard R. "Erich Von Daniken’s Genesis." The New York Times 31 Mar. 1974, Book Review sec.: 6.

¹²"2001: A Space Odyssey (film)." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_(film)>.
See sections on "Influence," and "Parodies and homages."

¹³Lingeman 6.

¹⁴"Erich Von Daniken’s "Chariots of the Gods?": Science or Charlatanism?"

¹⁵The text is from the "Mystery Park" website, which is no longer available online.“Mystery Park” re-opened in 2009, as “JungfrauPark Fun & Shows” by its new owner, New Inspiration Inc., for the summer seasons only. The former von Däniken amusements are featured in the new park as the “Mystery World.” During the summer of 2011 Erich von Däniken was scheduled to appear on select Thursday evenings to lecture on the “Mayan Calendar 2012.” While the Erich von Däniken Mystery Park’s website is not online at this date (4/24/2011), pieces of it can be assembled from a web archive (image link), where von Däniken’s personal page may also be viewed. In the event the von Däniken "404" page is taken down, it may be viewed in this screenshot.

¹⁶"Closure of Mystery Park in Interlaken Is No Mystery – Swissinfo." Swissinfo – Swiss News and Information Platform about Switzerland, Business, Culture, Sport, Weather. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. <http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/Home/Archive/Closure_of_Mystery_Park_is_no_enigma.html?cid=5576928>.

¹Dean, John F. "Slievemore Village on Achill." Irish Quarterly Review 65.258 (1976): 151.

²O’Donovan, John, and Michael O’Flanagan. Letters Containing Information Relative to the Antiquities of the County of Mayo, Collected during the Progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1838. Vol. 18. Bray, 1927. 342-43.

³De Valéra, Ruaidhrí, and Séan Ó Nualláin. "The Megalithic Tombs of the Island of Achill." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 80.2 (1950): 205.
The authors explain: "The sites actually located by us lie within a confined [arable] area about 1 mile square in the townlands of Keel East, Doogort West and Bal of Dookinelly, placed centrally within the zone. This seems to be a favoured area, being the most productive at present. However, the ruined village of Slievemore, to the west, and the settlement of Doogort to the east, rather complicate the picture. The very intensive occupation of Slievemore during the past century could account for the absence of tombs due to destruction."

⁴De Valéra 205-208.

⁵O’Donovan.

⁶De Valéra 205-17.

⁷"Achill Archaeological Field School Achill Island, County Mayo, West of Ireland." Museums of Mayo Network, County Mayo, Ireland. Web. 14 July 2011. <http://www.museumsofmayo.com/achill_1.htm>
The "byre [barn] house" enabled the poor tenant farmer to keep his most valuable possession—his cow—protected inside with him during the winter months. The animals were at the lower end of the slightly inclined floor; their effluent would collect away from the living quarters. There is a good explanation here.

⁸"Visit Achill – Deserted Village at Slievemore, Achill, Co Mayo, Ireland." Visit Achill – Visitor Guide to Achill, Co Mayo, Ireland. Web. 14 July 2011. <http://www.visitachill.com/en/desertedvillage.html>.

⁹Wood-Martin, W.G. "The Rude Stone Monuments of Ireland. On Certain Rude Stone Monuments in the Island of Achill (Continued)." The Journal of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland Fourth 8.75 (1888): 368.
The author introduces Wilde’s quotation thusly: "The island is still in a very primitive condition, and though slowly changing for the better, yet the old order of things lingers on. Fifty-two years ago the late Sir William Wilde thus describes the customs of these primitive people…"

¹⁰"Round House 2 Summary." Archaeology in Ireland – Achill Archaeology Field School Ireland Mayo Achill Archaeology Achill Island University Ireland. Web. 14 July 2011. <http://www.achill-fieldschool.com/research-excavations/synopsis-of-2010-excavationsat-round-house-2>.

¹Scharff, R. F. "The Exploration of the Caves of Kesh, County Sligo." The Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy. Vol. 32, Section B: Biological, Geological, and Chemical Science (1902/1904): 173.

²"The Pinnacle – Kesh Cairn." Sacred Island Guided Tours | Carrowkeel & Carrowmore Co Sligo | by Martin Byrne. Web. 23 Feb. 2011. <http://www.carrowkeel.com/sites/carrowkeel/keshcairn.html>.

³"Following Celtic Ways: Living In "The Shire"" Celtic Ways Explores Ancient Traditions and Spirituality. Web. 23 Feb. 2011. <http://www.celticways.com/blog/2005/03/living-in-shire.html>.

⁴Scharff 212

⁵Gregory, Lady. Gods and Fighting Men: the Story of the Tuatha De Danaan and of the Fianna of Ireland. London: John Murray, 1905. 79.

⁶Rolleston, Thomas William Hazen., and Stephen Reid. The High Deeds of Finn and Other Bardic Romances of Ancient Ireland. London: Harrap, 1910. 172-75.

⁷"Cormac Mac Airt." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 23 Feb. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cormac_mac_Airt>.

⁸O’Grady, Standish Hayes. Silva Gadelica, a Collection of Tales in Irish. London, 1892. 343.

⁹Wilde, Sir William, M.D. Memoir of Gabriel Beranger and His Labours in the Cause of Irish Art and Antiquities from 1760 to 1780. Dublin: M.H., Gill & Son, 1880. 48-9.

¹Baillie, R. Æ. "Portnoo: A Corner in the Donegal Highlands." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Fifth 10.2 (1900): 149-50.
The author includes a quotation from 1 Peter 1:24. In the essay, he compares the Kilclooney Dolmen with similar structures in the Middle East.

²McNelis, Tony. "Kilclooney Dolmen." Personal interview. 13 July 1979.
The term "tinker," as used by Mr. McNelis in 1979, is today considered offensive. The preferred term is "traveling people." McNelis died on July 4, 2006, and his sister Nellie now (2006) resides there.

³Borlase, William Copeland. The Dolmens of Ireland, Their Distribution, Structural Characteristics, and Affinities in Other Countries. Vol. 1. London: Chapman & Hall, Ld., 1897. 239-40.
According to Borlase, "Partially covered by a flat stone in the circle of stones which surrounds this monument was a spring of clear water at a distance of a few yards E. of the two pillar-stones." This book may be read in its entirety here.

⁴Evans, E. Estyn. Prehistoric and Early Christian Ireland; a Guide. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1966. 89.

⁵Herity, Michael. "The Finds from the Irish Portal Dolmens." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 94.2 (1964): 138.

⁶Keeling, David, Karen Molloy, and Richard Bradshaw. "Megalithic Tombs in South-West Donegal." Archaeology Ireland 3.4 (1989): 154.
According to the authors, the Neolithic farmers’ woodland clearance may have led to a decline in soil fertility and ultimately the growth of blanket bog in the area.

⁷Harbison, Peter. Personal interview. June, 1979.

⁸Borlase.
Some of the other suggestions for what the dolmen resembles were found here, and here.

⁹O’Grady, Standish. Early Bardic Literature. London: Sampson Low, Searle, Marston & Rivington, 1879. 80+.

¹⁰McNelis.
The folklore regarding visitors tossing stones onto the monument is heard at other dolmens in the country; see Co. Louth’s Proleek Dolmen for a good example.

¹¹Mac Neill, Maire, Sean O’hEochaidh, and Seamas O’Cathain. Fairy Legends from Donegal. Dublin: University College Dublin Dept. of Irish Folklore, 1977. 279.
The story cited is from Co. Donegal’s Bluestack Mountains.

¹O’Brien, Henry. The Round Towers of Ireland: Or, The History of the Tuath-de-danaans. London: Parbury and Allen, 1834. 63, 91.

²Barrow, Lennox. The Round Towers of Ireland: a Study and Gazetteer. Dublin: Academy, 1979. 15.

³Leerssen, Joep. Remembrance and Imagination: Patterns in the Historical and Literary Representation of Ireland in the Nineteenth Century. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame in Association with Field Day, 1997. 111.

⁴Barrow 37.

⁵Leerssen 121.
The author is quoting a reviewer in Dublin University Magazine, 3, 16 (April, 1834): 380.
Leerssen explains on p. 118, "O’Brien started out from four clues. One was the Round Towers look like erect penises; the second… was that the word ‘Erin’ looks like the word ‘Iran’; the third was that Iran lies in the east, the cradle of Irish civilization, and that in the east there are pagodas, which, to the extend that they look like Round Towers, also look like erect penises, and the fourth one (clinching the matter) was that the Gaelic word for penis, bod, looks like the first syllable in the word ‘Buddhism’, denoting an eastern religion. The rest follows a a matter of course." The author goes on to explain (p. 118: "O’Brien started out from four clues. One was the Round Towers look like erect penises; the second… was that the word ‘Erin’ looks like the word ‘Iran’; the third was that Iran lies in the east, the cradle of Irish civilization, and that in the east there are pagodas, which, to the extend that they look like Round Towers, also look like erect penises, and the fourth one (clinching the matter) was that the Gaelic word for penis, bod, looks like the first syllable in the word ‘Buddhism’, denoting an eastern religion. The rest follows as a matter of course."

⁶Historical Cloyne and Surrounds. Cloyne, Ireland, 2010.

⁷Wood-Martin, W.G., The Rude Stone Monuments of Ireland: Co. Sligo and Achill Island. Dublin: Hodges, Figges and Co., 1888. 104.

⁸Westropp, T. J. A List of the Round Towers of Ireland, with Notes on Those Which Have Been Demolished, and on Four in the County of Mayo. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Vol. 5 (1898 – 1900): 455.

⁹Barrow 38.

¹⁰"Irish Round Tower." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 04 Mar. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_round_tower>.

¹¹Corlett, Chris. "Interpretation of Round Towers: Public Appeal or Professional Opinion?" Archaeology Ireland 12.2 (Summer, 1998): 26.

¹²"Irish Round Tower."

¹³"Why Round Towers?" Round Tower Churches Society. Web. 04 Mar. 2011. <http://www.roundtowers.org.uk/history.html>.

¹⁴"Irish Round Tower."

¹⁵Barrow 18-23.

¹⁶"Irish Round Towers." Library Ireland: Irish History and Culture. Web. 04 Mar. 2011. <http://www.libraryireland.com/Antiquities/II-V.php/>.

¹⁷Keane, Marcu. The Towers and Temples of Ancient Ireland. Dublin: Hodges, Smith and Co. 1867. xix, xvii.

¹⁸Petrie, George. The Eccleciastical Architecture of Ireland: An Essay on the Origin and Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland. Dublin: Hodges and Smith. 1845. ii.

¹⁹Bonwick, James. Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions. London: Griffith, Farran & Co.1894. 215.

²⁰Wilkes, Anna. Ireland: Ur of-the Chaldees. London: Trübner & Co. 1873. 39, 44-50.

²¹Barrow 17.

²²Petrie 3.

²³Petrie 18.

²⁴Barrow 32-3.

²⁵"Dating Ancient Mortar – American Scientist." American Scientist Online. Web. 04 Mar. 2011. <http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/feature/dating-ancient-mortar/1>.

²⁶Stalley, R. A. Irish round Towers. Dublin: Country House, 2000. 10.

²⁷Callahan, Philip S. Ancient Mysteries, Modern Visions: the Magnetic Life of Agriculture. Kansas City, MO: Acres U.S.A., 1984. 36.

²⁸O’Donovan, John, and Michael O’Flanagan, ed. Letters Containing Information Relative to the Antiquities of the County of Kildare. Vol. 13. Bray, 1927. 89, 211.

²⁹Croker, Thomas Crofton. Researches in the South of Ireland: Illustrative of the Scenery, Architectural Remains, and the Manners and Superstitions of the Peasantry. London: John Murray, 1824. 261. Cited in Williams, W. H. A. Tourism, Landscape, and the Irish Character: British Travel Writers in Pre-famine Ireland. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin, 2008. 36.

³⁰Corlett 27.

³¹Killanin, Michael Morris, and Michael V. Duignan. The Shell Guide to Ireland. London: Ebury P. in Association with George Rainbird, 1967. 317.
The fire was kept burning there until the dissolution of the monasteries. An account from the twelfth century describes a circular enclosure where the fire was tended by 19 nuns. Men were forbidden to enter.

¹Ferguson, Samuel. Lays of the Western Gael and Other Poems. London: Bell and Daldy, 1865. 54.
"The Burial of King Cormac" may be read in its entirety here.

²Davies, O., and D. Lowry-Corry. "Killinagh Church and Crom Cruaich." Ulster Journal of Archaeology Third 2 (1939): 98.
The authors begin: "The ancient church of Killinagh probably marks the site and preserves the traditions of one of the more important sanctuaries of pagan Ireland…It stands on a small promontory, whose excavation might throw a flood of light on that obscure period of Irish archaeology before the introduction of Christianity. Between it and the church is a thicket, in which slabs set on edge seem to represent the remains of a megalith, probably of passage grave type, but the dense undergrowth makes it impossible to plan the structure. This place is known locally as the Queen’s Grave or St. Brigid’s House. Close to the south wall of the church is a long slab set on edge, perhaps the remains of another megalith."

³Wakeman, W.F. "On Certain Markings on Rocks, Pillar-Stones, and Other Monuments, Observed Chiefly in the County Fermanagh." The Journal of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland Fourth 3.23 (1875). 460.

⁴Johnston, Harold. "St. Brigid’s Cursing Stone." Personal interview. 30 June 1998.

⁵Wakeman, W.F. "On the Bullàn, or Rock-Basin, as Found in Ireland; With Special Reference to Two Inscribed Examples." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 1 (1889-91): 262.

⁶Glyn, Daniel. "Megalithic Monuments." Scientific American July 1980: 90.
The author explained:
"At first Christianity strongly disapproved of people who worshipped stones, but gradually there came a new tolerance, which was generous enough for certain menhirs [standing stones] to be Christianized. Indeed, in Spain and Brittany a few megalithic monuments have been incorporated into functioning modern Christian churches. I take this to be a sign that the older faith of the builders survived in some shape or form until at least the Middle Ages of western Europe."

⁷Kinahan, G.H. "Cursing-Stones in Counties Fermanagh, Cavan, Etc." Folklore 5.1 (1894): 4.
The author describes another type of cursing stone: "Not many years ago, but it seems to have died out now, there was a system of cursing in common vogue in Fermanagh with tenants who had been given notice to quit. This was: they collected, from all over their farms, stones. These they brought home, and having put a lighted coal in the fireplace, they heaped the stones on it as if they had been sods of turf. They then knelt down on the hearth- stone, and prayed that as long as the stones remained unburnt every conceivable curse might light on their landlord, his children, and their children to all generations. To prevent the stones by any possibility being burnt, as soon as they had finished cursing, they took the stones and scattered them far and wide over the whole country. Many of the former families of the county are said now to have disappeared on account of being thus cursed."

⁸O Giollain, Diarmuid. "Revisiting the Holy Well." Eire-Ireland 40.1&2 (2005): 31.

⁹Richardson, Phyllis, and Dorothy Lowry-Corry. "Some Further Megalithic Discoveries in the Counties of Cavan and Leitrim." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Seventh 10.4 (1940): 170.
The stones are on the north wall of the ruined church, not far above ground level.

¹⁰Zucchelli, Christine. Stones of Adoration Sacred Stones and Mystic Megaliths of Ireland. Doughcloyne, Wilton, Cork: Collins, 2007. 144.
The author quotes George Petrie, who suggested that "early missionaries and clerics carried consecrated stones on their journey, and placed them on altars when celebrating Mass. He refers to a passage in the Book of Lecan regarding St. Aire, ‘who lef no heirs but mass stones’ when he died in 737 AD."

¹¹Davies 103.
In some places Garland Sunday is the first Sunday in August, while in County Cavan it is the last Sunday in July. The event, which historically was a harvest festival which including bonfires and peak-climbing, descended from the Celtic festival of Lughnasa.

¹²Davies 101.

¹³Evans-Wentz, W. Y. The Fairy-faith in Celtic Countries. London: H. Frowde, 1911. 427-28.

¹⁴Johnston.

¹"Living Spring Journal – Issue 1 (May 2000) – Notes & Queries 3." Student Subdomain for University of Bath. Web. 30 May 2011. <http://people.bath.ac.uk/liskmj/living-spring/journal/issue1/notes/notes1c.htm>.

²Hutton, Ronald. The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy. Oxford, UK: B. Blackwell, 1991. 293.

³"Gilsland Bits & Pieces." Laverocks Home Page. Web. 30 May 2011. <http://www.laverocks.co.uk/gilslandmag/placenames.htm>.
The author argues for the retention of the traditional local name for this site at Hadrian’s Wall Milecastle 48.

⁴Hutton 147-48.

⁵"Trumpet." National Museum of Ireland. Web. 30 May 2011. <http://www.museum.ie/en/list/artefacts.aspx?article=0a8a7a56-b35e-4b72-ba70-f288fea435c0>.
There is a video here about the discovery of the trumpet, and how it would sound (using a replica).

⁶Lynn, C. J., Chrintine Penn, Maureen McCorry, Moira Delaney, and Robert Lamour. "Trial Excavations at the King’s Stables, Tray Townland, County Armagh." Ulster Journal of Archaeology Third 40 (1977): 42.

⁷Lynn 54.

⁸McCormick, Finbar. "The Dog in Prehistoric and Early Christian Ireland." Archaeology Ireland 5.4 (1991): 7-9.

⁹Lynn 47.

¹⁰Morris, Henry. "Emania at the Present Day." Journal of the County Louth Archaeological Society 2.3 (1910): 254-56.

¹¹Paterson, T. G. F. Country Cracks: Old Tales from the County of Armagh. Dundalk: W. Tempest, Dundalgan, 1945. 45.
The dialect in the original has been removed for clarity. Also, the use of such dialect may imply a rascist attitude regarding the speaker. Here is an example of the original text: "An’ he started till cut the bank an’ it’s so lovely an’ round it wus a pity till destroy the shape."
According to W. H. A. Williams, "Although use of the peasant’s brogue in travel writing suggested authenticity, it had long been a vehicle for comedy on the stage and in fiction. Many of the travel accounts, therefore, contain elements of Stage Irish humor, which, while they entertained, also served to emphasize the gap between the writer and reader, on the one hand, and the Irish peasant on the other. Much of the comic material came from Hibernian turns of phrase that popular entertainments had trained tourists to expect and to recognize. Few travel writers bothered to consider ‘proverbial Irish wit’ from the perspective of the peasantry. It was easier and more comforting simply to imagine that they had encouraged a ‘genuine’ Paddy, a real-life example of the Stage Irishman."
Williams, W. H. A. Tourism, Landscape, and the Irish Character: British Travel Writers in Pre-famine Ireland. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin, 2008. 68.

¹²The King’s Stables. 19 June 2010. Information sign at the site. Tray townland, Co. Armagh.
The sign warns the visitor, "The original bottom of the pool is more than 2 metres (7 feet) below the present surface which is VERY DANGEROUS and must NOT BE WALKED ON."

¹Evans-Wentz, W. Y. The Fairy-faith in Celtic Countries. London: H. Frowde, 1911. 81.
The author
attributes this material to Count John de Salis, with annotations by the Rev. J. F. Lynch. Some material originated with Fitzgerald, David. "Popular Tales of Ireland." Revue Celtique IV (1879-1880): 185-200. The quotation continues, "The underlying purpose of this latter ceremony probably was…to exorcise the land from all evil spirits and witches in order that there may be good harvests and rich increase of flocks. Sometimes on such occasions the goddess herself has been seen leading the sacred procession…One night some girls staying on the bill late were made to look through a magic ring by Aine, and lo the hill was crowded with the folk of the fairy goddess who before had been invisible." Evans-Wentz concludes, "Under ordinary circumstances, as a very close observer of the Lough Gur peasantry informs me, the old people will pray to the Saints, but if by any chance such prayers remain unanswered they then invoke other powers, the fairies, the goddesses Aine and Fennel, or other pagan deities, whom they seem to remember in a vague subconscious manner through tradition." In a 1988 interview a local man claimed that "…one night the ceremony was omitted on account of the death of a neighbour, but that upon looking toward the sacred site the people observed phantom torches in even greater number than when they usually circled the hill, with Aine herself in front directing the procession…The festival of Aine and Saint John’s Eve were closely linked: they were some of the festivals that were changed from the old religion to the new." (McNamara, Sean. "Aine Leads Fire Procession." Ed. Michael Quinlan. The Lough Gur & District Historical Society Journal: Special Folklore Edition. 7 (1991): 9-10.)

²Dames, Michael. Mythic Ireland. London: Thames and Hudson, 1992. 63.
The source of the archaic name "’The Seignory of Any" for Knockainey is: Dunlop, Robert, and George O’Brien. "An Unpublished Survey of the Plantation of Munster in 1622." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Sixth 14.2 (1924): 129.

³Monaghan, Patricia. The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore. New York: Facts On File, 2003. 10-11.
Fitzgerald, David. "Popular Tales of Ireland." Revue Celtique IV (1879-1880): 185-200.
According to some, Áine "was one of the Goddesses who suffered at the hands of the Christian monks who found Her idea of ‘free love’ too disturbing for them; thus, as a symbol of the powers of the feminine, Her followers were among the first to suffer repression at the hands of the Christians…"

⁴Gregory, Isabella Augusta (Persse). Gods and Fighting Men. London: J. Murray, 1904. 77-78. This story may be read in its entirety here.

⁵"Through a geopolitical lens, the reputed union of Geároid Iarla’s father, Maurice Fitzgerald (Second Earl of Desmond) with Áine, the goddess of Munster sovereignty, may have done much to gain the acceptance of this Norman family into the local Irish community." ("Lough Gur." Voices from the Dawn. Web. 24 May 2012. <http://www.voicesfromthedawn.com/?p=58>.)

⁶"Aine – Celtic Goddess." Tansy Firedragon’s Tome. Web. 25 May 2012. <http://tansyfiredragon.blogspot.com/2011/02/aine-celtic-goddess.html>.
Michael Dames writes that, "Aine’s proper name was also an Irish-language word, aine. Aine the goddess lives on as aine the word, which means: ‘Delight, joy, pleasure, agility, expedition, swiftness, play, sport, amusement, music, harmony, melody, experience, truth, veracity, brightness, glow, radiance, splendour, glory, brilliance, wit, and drinking up.’" (Dames, Michael. Mythic Ireland. London: Thames and Hudson, 1992. 62.)

One source lists medicinal items associated with Áine: "Healing: Angelica Balm, Blackberry, Cowslip, Elder, Fennel, Flax, Garlic, Goat’s Rue, Mugwort, Nettle, and Oak; Fertility: Hawthorn, Mistletoe, and Oak; Prosperity: Alfalfa, Ash, and Elder; Protection: Agrimony, Angelica, Ash, Birch, Blackberry, Bladderwrack, Broom, Elder, Fennel, Flax, Holly, Lavender, Mallow, Mistletoe, Mugwort, Nettle, Oak, and Parsley."

A different website provides the recipe for "Aine’s Incense:
½ oz. meadowsweet flowers and leaf~ must be gathered when the plant is in full bloom.
½ oz. finally chopped pine needles
½ oz. Lemon Verbena oil."

A blessing to evoke the goddess may be found here:
"We will wash our faces
In the nine rays of the sun
In the sunwoven cloak of the Lady of Light
We will find peace

We will be blessed in our rising up
And in our lying down
We will be blessed in our waking
And in our sleeping
We will be blessed in our coming in
And in our going out
Light before us
Light behind us
Light above us
Light below us
Light within us
Light without
Bright about us shall ever be
the cloak of Áine Cli."

⁷Westropp, Thomas J. "The Ancient Sanctuaries of Knockainey and Clogher, County Limerick, and Their Goddesses." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature 34 (1917-1919): 51-53.

⁸Westropp 57.

⁹Smyth, Sean. "Cnoc Áine." Personal interview. 21 June 1999.

¹⁰Westropp 61.
The author’s measurements for the ruined cairn are: "48 to 55 feet across [14.6 to 16.8 m], and 11 feet [3.4 m] high to the west, 6 feet [1.8 m] to the south, and 8 to 9 feet [2.4 to 2.7 m] elsewhere."

¹¹Meehan, Cary. The Traveller’s Guide to Sacred Ireland: A Guide to the Sacred Places of Ireland, Her Legends, Folklore and People. Glastonbury: Gothic Image, 2004. 427.

¹²Quinlan, Michael. "Francis Byrne’s Account." The Lough Gur & District Historical Society Journal: Special Folklore Edition. 7 (1991): 9-10.
The stepping-stone bridge was called Clochaunainey (
Áine’s Stones). A bit farther downstream from this primitive bridge the river widens into a shallow ford for vehicles. Near the center of the ford were three large stones, set upright in a line to mark the position of Áine’s safe crossing for time of floods. (Crawford, Henry S. "Primitive Bridge or Causeway at Knockainey, Co. Limerick." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Sixth 7.1 (1917): 82.)

¹³Dames, Michael. Mythic Ireland. London: Thames and Hudson, 1992. 62-3.
"Knockainy Castle." Irish Antiquities. Web. 25 May 2012. <http://irishantiquities.bravehost.com/limerick/knockainy/knockainy.html>.
This is a tower-house of four stories. Part of the top level is gone. The original entrance is intact; there is another entrance in the adjoining wall. The third floor ceiling is vaulted and there is a half vault at the first floor. A murder-hole just inside the entrance leads from first floor level and a spiral stairway in the corner leads to the higher levels. It was said to be a ruin in 1584.
Web correspondent Derek Ryan (10/9/2012) wrote to clarify that the original "Desmond Castle," the more logical location of the "Áine’s Leap" story, is indicated on OS maps by its absence. See this annotated image from the OS map, in which the green arrow points to the ruined Knockainy Castle depicted on our page, and the red arrow shows the site of the (now lost) Desmond Castle. View the original here.

¹⁴"Angel Wisdom with Sharon Taphorn ~ Goddess Aine Leap of Faith." Sound of Heart Productions. Web. 25 May 2012. <http://soundofheart.org/galacticfreepress/content/angel-wisdom-sharon-taphorn-goddess-aine-leap-faith>.
From this website: "Sometimes we all need to just take that leap of faith. When you are ready call on the Goddess Aine she will help lead your way!! Indecision leads to stagnation and that leads to our souls not perfecting. We all need to keep moving, learning, growing and allowing our soul to perfect and become all that we can be. Take your leap of faith today!!! May the love of the Goddess be with you always!"
A similar "leap of faith" association with Áine’s may be found here.

¹⁵Fitzgerald, David. "Popular Tales of Ireland." Revue Celtique IV (1879-1880): 187-88. This may be read in its entirety here.

¹Gregory, and W. B. Yeats. Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland,. Vol. 1. New York and London: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1920. 3.

²"Knockbrack Court Tomb, County Galway." Prehistoric and Early Ireland @ Megalithomania.com. Web. 14 June 2011. <http://www.megalithomania.com/show/site/1323/knockbrack_court_tomb.htm>.

³Killanin, Michael Morris, and Michael V. Duignan. The Shell Guide to Ireland. London: Ebury P. in Association with George Rainbird, 1967. 154.

⁴"The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Gráinne." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 14 June 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pursuit_of_Diarmuid_and_Gráinne>.

⁵"Cleggan Court Tomb, County Galway." Prehistoric and Early Ireland @ Megalithomania.com. Web. 14 June 2011. <http://www.megalithomania.com/show/site/1324/4283>.

⁶Allcroft, A. H. The Circle and the Cross a Study in Continuity. London: Macmillan, 1927. 15-16.

⁷Wood-Martin, W. G. Pagan Ireland an Archæological Sketch; a Handbook of Irish Pre-Christian Antiquities. London: Longmans, Green, 1895. 263.

⁸Dorson, Richard M. The British Folklorists; a History. [Chicago]: University of Chicago, 1968. 439.

⁹"Augusta, Lady Gregory." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 14 June 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusta,_Lady_Gregory>.

¹⁰Gregory 277.

¹¹Hawkes, Jacquetta. A Guide to the Prehistoric and Roman Monuments in England and Wales. London: Chatto and Windus, 1976. 48.

¹²Robinson, Tim. "Twilight on Old Stones." Field Day Review 3 (2007): 50-51.

¹Harrison, Mary. "Knocknafearbreaga Stones." Personal interview. 16 June 1999.

²Westropp, T.J. "The Cists, Dolmens, and Pillars, in the Eastern Half of the County of Clare." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature 24 (1904): 96-98.

³Wood-Martin, W. G. Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland. Vol. 2. London: Longmans, Green, & Co. 1902. 208-09.

⁴Westropp, Thomas J. "St. Mochulla of Tulla, County Clare: His Legend and the Entrenchments and Remains of His Monastery." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 6th ser. 1.1 (1911): 7.

⁵Westropp, Thomas J. "St. Mochulla of Tulla."

⁶Westropp, T.J. "The Cists, Dolmens, and Pillars, in the Eastern Half of the County of Clare."

⁷Glyn, Daniel. "Megalithic Monuments." Scientific American July 1980: 77-81.

¹Zucchelli, Christine. Stones of Adoration Sacred Stones and Mystic Megaliths of Ireland. Doughcloyne, Wilton, Cork: Collins, 2007. 31.
According to archaeologist Robert Power (personal email 8/1/2012) Zucchelli’s number (300,000) for the amount of executions resulting from three centuries of witch trials would be considered excessive by most researchers in this arena. Power writes, "most common estimates are between 40,000 and 60,000 deaths. Brian Levack (The Witch Hunt in Early Modern Europe) multiplied the number of known European witch trials by the average rate of conviction and execution, to arrive at a figure of around 60,000 deaths. Anne Lewellyn Barstow (Witchcraze) adjusted Levack’s estimate to account for lost records, estimating 100,000 deaths. Ronald Hutton (Triumph of the Moon) argues that Levack’s estimate had already been adjusted for these, and revises the figure to approximately 40,000."

²Wood-Martin, W.G. Pagan Ireland. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1895. 259-60.

³Aubrey, John, and John Fowles. Monumenta Britannica: Or, A Miscellany of British Antiquities. Vol. 2. Sherborne: Dorset Pub., 1980 (1693). 827.
According to Carleton Jones, "[Aubrey's] broad interests…combined with an unwillingness to specialise in any one field of study, seem to have prevented most of his works from being published in his lifetime. Indeed, his major work on archaeology, Monumenta Britanica, is available to us today only after what must be one of the longest time spans between the writing of a manuscript and its publication. Aubrey finished the manuscript in 1693 but it was not until 1980, nearly 300 years later, that it was finally published!" (Jones, Carleton. Temples of Stone: Exploring the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Cork: Collins, 2007. 2-3.)
Aubrey’s 1693 manuscript describes the Labbacallee tomb: "In the county of Cork in the [district] of Fermoy, is this ancient monument which is as much to say, the Hag’s Bed and colle, hag. The form whereof … " ‘Colle’ is in fact the Irish caile, or country-woman, a word better conveyed in the present name; compare cailin, country-girl, and ‘colleen’…In Ireland [cut in manuscript] province of Munster in the barony of [ . . .. ] monument called Labe-colle, which [ .... ] bed. Labe signifyng a bed, [ . . . . ] whereof is thus [sketched].
The cover of this monument is about 24 foot long, and 40 foot broad, six foot deep, is sharp in the middle of the back like a coffin, and not much unlike it in proportion. The stones that support it are a kind of great slates or planks, about four foot and a half high, and four foot broad, and stand very close together unless at the entrance at ‘A ‘. The stones that encircle this monument are broad and flat. The going into this place is something descending, no opening but at ‘A ‘; opposite to which is another stone about seven foot high; and another stone about a quarter of a mile hence at the ford, which the hag, they say, threw at the fellow that came to lie with her." A margin note adds that the sketch comes from a Mr. Gethyng, "who lives near it"; and that Robert Southwell has another copy.

⁴Leask, H.G., Liam Price, C.P. Martin, and K.C. Bailey. "The Labbacallee Megalith, Co. Cork." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature 43 (1936).

⁵Brindley, A.L., J.N. Lanting, and W.G. Mook. "Radiocarbon Dates from Moneen and Labbacallee, County Cork." The Journal of Irish Archaeology 4 (1987/1988): 13-20.
Stone #75, pushed aside to gain entry, probably in the Iron Age, may be noted in the diagram found in the gallery at the bottom of the page.
The triple-walled sides of the Labbacallee tomb are unusual; this feature may indicate the importance of those interred here. The excavators felt that some of the architectural features of the tomb had similarities to such monuments in the Paris region, perhaps suggesting a communication, or even a tribal affiliation between Munster and the north of France. (Leask, H.G., Liam Price, C.P. Martin, and K.C. Bailey. "The Labbacallee Megalith, Co. Cork." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature 43 (1936): 94.)

⁶Leask 78-80.
The excavators, after clearing the debris from the tomb, some of which had supported one of the broken capstones, found it necessary to construct a supporting pillar of stones and mortar. This may be noted in the interior view of the virtual-reality environment.

⁷Leask 78-80.
Carleton Jones speculates that some orthostats at the eastern end of the monument may have been intended as a "sort of false facade." (Jones, Carleton. Temples of Stone: Exploring the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Cork: Collins, 2007. 240-44.)

⁸Leask 83.
The authors report on similar Irish tombs with port holes: "The dolmen in Burren Townland, Co. Cavan, has a partition slab between its two chambers with a port-hole in the bottom edge and, in the Deerpark townland dolmen, Co. Clare, the eastern partition stone has two port-holes: one in the side of the stone and the other at one of the upper corners. The Labbacallee port-hole, at the top northern corner of stone 60- if indeed, it be a port-hole at all, which is by no means certain-bears some resemblance to the Deerpark example."

⁹Leask 88-89.
The authors concluded that the tomb had not been disturbed since the date of its completion.

¹⁰Jones, Carleton. Temples of Stone: Exploring the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Cork: Collins, 2007. 243.
An older text suggests that "reddening skin, which would retain for hours an indentation upon it" was known as "the Seat of the Devil." (Bonwick, James. Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions. London: Griffith, Farran & Co., 1894. 84.)

¹¹Murray, Margaret A. The Witch-Cult in Western Europe. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1921. 20-21.
The author believed that the witches who were tried in the 16th and 17th centuries were the inheritors of the pagan religions extant before Christianity. ""The witch-cult being a survival of an ancient religion, many of the beliefs and rites of these early religions are to be found in it."
However Aubrey Burl wrote that "The fancies of the late Margaret Murray need not detain us. They were justly, if irritably, dismissed by a real scholar as ‘vapid balderdash." Burl was there quoting Hugh Trevor-Roper, The European Witch-craze of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.(Burl, Aubrey. The Stone Circles of the British Isles. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976. 85.) It is probably safe to say that witchcraft preserved some pre-Christian beliefs and practices (although transformed and mutated by the centuries of transmission).

¹²Leask 95-96.
The goddesses of pre-Christian Ireland were often re-cast as "hags" after the arrival of the new religion. According to one interpretation of prehistory, stories of the conflict between the Cailleach Bhéarra and her husband may reflect the spiritual beliefs of that transitional period when the myths of the Bronze Age warrior began to diminish the hegemony of the Neolithic earth goddess. (Zucchelli, Christine. Stones of Adoration Sacred Stones and Mystic Megaliths of Ireland. Doughcloyne, Wilton, Cork: Collins, 2007. 21.)

¹³Croker, Thomas Crofton. Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland. Vol. 3. London: John Murray, 1834. 275-78.
This story may be read in its entirety here.

¹⁴Borlase, William Copeland. The Dolmens of Ireland: Their Distribution, Structural Characteristics, (…). Vol. 2. London: Chapman & Hall, 1897. 553-54.
Quoting a 1660 text by John Picardt, Borlase writes: "also dolmen- mounds, the hollow vaults in the centres of which were, he tells us, ‘according to the general belief, inhabited by White Women, and the memory of some of their deeds was,’ he adds, ‘still fresh in the minds of many old people.’ The natives all agreed in saying that round about these mounds a great deal of witchery had of old been practised, and that mournful cries have been heard in them. Also, that these witches used to be fetched by night and day by women in childbirth, and that they could afford them help when all else had failed. They told fortunes, too, and could indicate the whereabouts of stolen property. Some of the inhabitants said that they had themselves been inside these mounds, and seen and heard incredible things, but that they had promised not to tell them. They (the witches) were swifter than any creature. They always dressed in white, by reason of which they were called Wiite Wyven, or simply DeWitter. ‘A large number of mounds,’ it is added, ‘were called Witten for this same reason, although their colour might be black.’" Borlase also wrote of a woman who lived iin another Co. Cork monument, called "Carrick Cliona." Cliona was known as a "loose woman," who was in the habit of attending the market fairs in the area and enticing off any young man who might please her. The moral people of the area tried to drive her out by cultivating her ground with potatoes but Cliona was heard in her mound "piteously wailing" at the desecration. The people then desisted. (v. III, 832-33).

¹⁵Grinsell, L.V. "Witchcraft at some Prehistoric Sites." in The Witch Figure, Venetia Newall, ed. London and Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978. 73-77.
The author cites some examples from France: ""Some of the prehistoric monuments betray their popular association with the witch cult by their names, such as a menhir at Vaumort (Yonne) called La Pierre du Sabbat or La Pierre aux Sorciers...a dolmen in the province of Nord called La Cuisine des Sorciers where witches are said to have prepared their love potions; a barrow at Wallonie known as Le Lieu du Sabbat where witches are said to have held their sabbats."

¹⁶Zucchelli.
The poem "Lament of the Old Woman of Beare" is discussed within our entry on the Loughcrew Passage Tombs.

¹⁷Holinshed, Raphael, William Harrison, Richard Stanyhurst, John Hooker, Francis Thynne, Abraham Fleming, John Stow, and Henry Ellis. Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Vol. VI: Ireland. London: J. Johnson, 1807. 252.
This section may be read in its entirely here.
William Butler Yeats’ poem "Nineteen Hundred And Nineteen" refers to the burning of Dame Kyteler:
"There lurches past, his great eyes without thought
Under the shadow of stupid straw-pale locks,
That insolent fiend Robert Artisson
To whom the love-lorn Lady Kyteler brought
Bronzed peacock feathers, red combs of her cocks."

¹⁸This story is recounted at the sign at the Labbacallee site. Our essay on Co. Donegal’s Cloghanmore Court Tomb explores in more detail the legends of gold buried at prehistoric sites.

¹Wood-Martin, W. G. Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland. London: Longmans, Green, & Co. 1902.

²O’Riordain, Sean P. Antiquities of the Irish Countryside. London: Methuen, 1971.

³Gray, William. "Cromlechs in Counties of Down and Antrim." The Journal of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland 6.59 (1884): 366.

⁴Gray.

⁵The Legananny Dolmen. 19 June 2001. Information sign at the site. Legananny.

⁶ Mac Labhraí, Seán. "Local Placenames." "Before I Forget…": Journal of the Poyntzpass and District Local History Society 3 (1989): 15-25.

⁷Bonwick, James. Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions. London: Griffith, Farran, 1894. 147.

⁸Bonwick. 215-16.

⁹Tuan, Yi-fu. Space and Place: the Perspective of Experience. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1977. 162-64.
Cited in Voss, Jerom A. "Antiquity Imagined: Cultural Values in Archaeological Folklore." Folklore 98.1 (1987): 84-85.

¹Curren, Patrick, and Thomas Kelly. "Loher Fort." Personal interview. 15 June 2001.

²Loher Stone Fort. 15 June 2001. Information sign at the site. Waterville.
Due to the reconstruction activity ongoing during our visit it was not possible to enter the fort’s interior. A report of the1985 excavation may be read here.

³Hall, Samuel C. Ireland – Its Scenery, Character Etc. Vol. 2. London: How and Parson, 1841. 166.

⁴Loher Stone Fort. 15 June 2001. Information sign at the site. Waterville.

⁵Delargy, J.H. "The Gaelic Story-teller." Proceedings of the British Academy 31 (1945): 8.

¹Borlase, William Copeland. The Dolmens of Ireland Their Distribution, Structural Characteristics, (…). Vol. 3. London: Chapman & Hall, 1897. 837-39.
Borlase is only one of a number of authors who have attributed this poem to Jonathan Swift. However Conwell (1864) suggests that it may have been a different writer: "I have also heard these lines attributed to Miss Brooke, daughter of Henry Brooke (a pupil of Dr. Sheridan’s), who was then living at Mullagh, about two miles from Quilca. As [the verses are] possessing local interest, I submit them; although I suppose they have been corrupted since they were originally written." (Conwell, Eugene A. "On Ancient Sepulchral Cairns on the Loughcrew Hills." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 9 (1864-1866): 357-58). Conwell also quotes John O’Donovan (1836) as writing about the legend, "In giving the jump, she [the Hag] slipped and fell in the townland of Patrickstown, in the parish of Diamor, where she broke her neck. Here she was buried; and her grave was to be seen not many years ago in the field called "[Irish] Cul a mota (i.e. back of the moat), about two hundred perches to the east of the moat in that townland; but it is now destroyed."
A rather amusing notice regarding the legend of the Loughcrew Hag, apparently taken literally by the author, appeared in 1836 in a Dublin magazine:
"In the background are three hills, Corstown, Newtown, and Kearn Of Cairn-bawn, which signifies the white-heap, so called from an immense heap of stones, said by the credulous and ignorant, to have been deposited there in days of other years, by an ancient witch, who, filling her apron, hopped over to Newtown- hill. and there dropped a sufficient quantity to raise another large heap-then taking a second hop to Corstown- hill, she succeeded in emptying her apron, and forming a third conspicuous heap, ‘but unhappily broke her leg; here is shown a large stone, formed like a sofa-bed, which is called the witches-bed or chair, and contained a hole for her pipe. How absurd an idea, as tobacco is rather of modem introduction; yet such are the legends and stories prevalent over the entire country. There is another stone shown which, it is said, marks her burying place-there are circles of stones on one side of the cairn, and similar· circles on the top of Kearn, bawn. I have no doubt but some of the learned of the present time may be able to assign some rational cause for the erection of those rude heaps." (Eastforest, Arab (sic). "Loughcrew, County of Meath." The Dublin Penny Journal 4.192 (1836): 287.)
The full text of the poem, as quoted by Conwell:

"Twelve giant elks, trained to the car, 

Had brought the warlike dame from far
Bengore—where reigned the dreadful war.

When morning dawned, the board was spread 

With cresses, nuts, and berries red; 

And Garvogue left her heather bed.

Black Ramor, Crewe, and glassy Sheel 

Sent up the bream, the brae, and eel, 

At mid-day for her ample meal.

Twelve haunches of the fattest elk, 

Twelve measures of the richest milk, 

Twelve breasts of eagles from the height, 

Composed the meal for eve or night.

Ere Finn and Gall had raised the spear— 

Ere Caolta chased the mountain deer— 

Titanic Garvogue held her sway— 

The feast at night—the chase by day.

Her pack just numbered threescore ten— 

No fleeter ever crossed a glen: 

Ked Spidogue, with her broad, full, chest, 

And Isogue, round ribbed, and the best.

Determined now her tomb to build, 

Her ample skirt with stones she filled, 

And dropped a heap on Carnmore; 


Then stepped one thousand yards, to Loar, 

And dropped another goodly heap; 

Gained Carnbeg; and on its height 

Displayed the wonders of her might.

And when approached death’s awful doom, 

Her chair was placed within the womb 

Of hills whose tops with heather bloom."

²Conwell, Eugene A. "On Ancient Sepulchral Cairns on the Loughcrew Hills." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 9 (1864-1866): 357-58.
This text may be read in its entirety here.

³"Loughcrew | Sliabh na Caillíghe | The Mountains of the Witch." Sacred Island, Guided Tours by Martin Byrne. Web. 04 Oct. 2012. <http://www.carrowkeel.com/sites/loughcrew/loughcrew.html>.
The Irish Cailleach Bhéara is pronounced "Kalyakh Vayra."

⁴Conwell. "On Ancient Sepulchral Cairns on the Loughcrew Hills." 377.
A report here suggests that new archaeological investigative tools have uncovered evidence of additional Loughcrew sites. A 1995 journal article calls the discovery of a ceremonial entranceway, the Loughcrew Cursus, "…an important addition to the monument complex at Loughcrew." (Newman, Conor. "A Cursus at Loughcrew, Co. Meath." Archaeology Ireland 9.4 (1995): 19-21.)
In 1998 we videotaped an interview with Phillip David, then a student in archaeology, as he conducted exploratory fieldwork at Loughcrew with a proton procession magnetometer.

⁵The passage into Cairn T is open, with OPW guides in attendance, daily during the months of June, July, and August from 10:.00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m.. Last admission to Cairn T is 45 minutes before closing. More information here. At other times a key may be borrowed for a €50 deposit and/or a driving license/passport from the tea house at nearby Loughcrew Gardens.

⁶Carnebane West is closed to visitors due to concerns regarding the transmission of agricultural diseases from other locations. Issues regarding the liability of the landowner may also have been a concern.

⁷In his articles and books published after his 1863 visits to the Loughcrew tombs, Eugene Alfred Conwell devised an alphabetic naming system for the monuments. This is still used to reference the tombs today.

⁸The interactive map, only visible when the virtual-reality tour is viewed in full-screen mode, expands the relative size of the Cairn T passage in order to allow the placement of its four different hotspots. Click here to see how this not-to-scale version of the tomb differs from a realistic depiction of the size of the passage.

⁹Apparently William Wakeman wrote a paper on Loughcrew, read at Oxford in 1858. It is unclear if Conwell was aware of this before he read his own paper in 1864. (Hobson, Mary. "The Great Burial Mounds at Loughcrew, County Meath." Journal of the County Louth Archaeological Society 2.3 (1910): 247.)

¹⁰Conwell. "On Ancient Sepulchral Cairns on the Loughcrew Hills." 357-58.
The paper was read by Conwell at the Academy in 1864.
In a later article, developed into a book, Conwell described his first impression of the Loughcrew vista:
"When the sun shines out resplendently over these hills, chasing away the gloom of darkness which occasionally, and often very suddenly, obscures their summits, the gorgeous panorama, displaying a profuse wealth of natural attractions, is seen with great distinctness of outline, and presents a prospect probably one of the most diversified and beautiful in the whole island. Nature seems to have lavished her choicest treasures upon the scene, and the magnificent combination of receding eminences, and distant lakes, and gracefully undulating plains, could not fail to quicken the imagination to a profound sense of solemn grandeur." (Conwell, Eugene A. "On the Identification of the Ancient Cemetery at Loughcrew, Co. Meath; And the Discovery of the Tomb of Ollamh Fodhla." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Polite Literature and Antiquities 1 (1879): 82-3.)

¹¹Conwell, Eugene A. "On the Identification of the Ancient Cemetery at Loughcrew, Co. Meath; And the Discovery of the Tomb of Ollamh Fodhla." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Polite Literature and Antiquities 1 (1879): 73+.
Conwell credits William Fergusson as being the first to suggest the identification of Loughcrew with Tailteann. But he offers that he (Conwell) introduced Fergusson to the site: "The wild legend that a witch had scattered these great heaps of stones out of her apron has been doing duty in this locality, from time immemorial, for the real name and history of the place; and probably would have continued for many a day longer to perpetuate the fanciful story, had not James Fergusson, Esq., D.C.L., F.R.S., &c., on 16th of August, 1870, carefully gone over the hills under our guidance.
This practised explorer, acute observer, and clear-minded author has just published a large volume, entitled "Rude Stone Monuments in all Countries: their Age and Uses"-in our opinion the most sensible, best written, and best arranged book ever published upon the subject of which it treats. In this profusely illustrated Work he has the honour of being the first to suggest, and he deserves the hearty thanks of every Irish Archaeologist for having done so, that these carns must be the remains of the cemetery of Taillten, thus affording the means of restoring a name and history to the great and forgotten "city of the dead" on the heights now called the Loughcrew Hills."
In a 1930 article another author proffers additional evidence to buttress the Conwell and Fergusson arguments: "The next most necessary requirement in searching for Tailtean is to discover a PAGAN CEMETERY. Well, a pagan cemetery or trace of such a cemetery at Teltown there is none. ‘Fifty mounds, the old poem in Leabkar na hUidhre’ says, were on Tailtean. ‘Oh they were there, but have been destroyed,’- say the apologists for Teltown. But vandalism was equally rampant and agricultural reclamation equally active at Brugh na Boinne, and yet they have not wiped away all traces of the pagan cemetery there. Nor would they at Teltown, had such ever existed there. Sliabh na Cailligh, on the other hand, is strewn for 2 miles with the remains of mounds and graves. Conwell in 1863 located and described the remains of thirty such sepulchral mounds or cairns. What a contrast!" (Morris, Henry. "Where Was Aonach Tailtean?" The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Sixth 20.2 (1930): 113-29.)

¹²Conwell. Discovery of the Tomb of Ollamh Fodhla. 26-8.
This book may be read in its entirety here. The site that Conwell describes as "Ollamh Fodhla’s Chair" may be viewed in a photograph on our Loughcrew page and in its virtual-reality environment.

¹³Hutton, Ronald. The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy. Oxford, UK: B. Blackwell, 1991. 55-57.
Hutton also describes a ritual practice deduced from evidence found in a Welsh passage tomb:
"The most peculiar rite detectable in one of these monuments, however, came not from Ireland but from the Welsh passage grave of Barclodiad y Gawres. The builders had made what virtually all who write upon it cannot help but describe as a ‘witches brew’: a stew containing oysters, limpets, a winkle, two fish, an eel, a frog, a snake, a mouse and a shrew. This was poured over the cremated bones of two young people laid in the chamber, which had themselves been mixed with the bones of sheep." (54-5)
Wood-Martin considered (and apparently rejected) astronomical associations for the megalithic rock art: "Another idea was, that these figures were designed to represent astronomical phenomena. This notion was perhaps the most obvious, and the least easily disproved. It harmonizes also with what has been handed down respecting the elemental worship of the Pagan Celts. Nevertheless it seems open to obvious objections. In astronomical diagrams, one could hardly fail to recognize a single symbol conspicuous amongst the rest as denoting the sun or moon, or two such symbols denoting both these bodies. One might also expect to see some delineation—even by the rudest hand—of the phases of the moon. We look in vain for these indications of an astronomical reference in the groups of lines and circles. (Wood-Martin, W. G. Pagan Ireland; an Archaeological Sketch: A Handbook of Irish Pre-Christian Antiquities. London: Longmans, Green, and, 1895. 48.)
An archaeologists’ journal in 1996, humorously suggested that, "’[megalithic art's] function is analogous to graffiti – that it could have been produced mostly by young Homo sapiens males who were luring young females down into this cave and saying: ‘Here, look at those bison I’ve drawn, aren’t they cool?’" ("Spoil Heap." Archaeology Ireland 10.1 (1996): 36.)

¹⁴Jones, Carleton. Temples of Stone: Exploring the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Cork: Collins, 2007. 160.
Jones imagines the rituals associated the passage tombs: "A liminal area is an area that is in between. In a spiritual context, a liminal area can exist between two different levels of consciousness or experience. At Loughcrew, it is likely that the people who built the tombs lived in the surrounding low- lands rather than on the hilltops alongside the tombs and that they regarded the hilltops with their cairns as a liminal area or a threshold between the land of the living and the land of the dead ancestors. It has been postulated, therefore, that rituals may have involved groups of people ascending the hills above the everyday landscape and then processing amongst the tombs and perhaps interacting with the remains of the ancestors before descending again to the familiar everyday world." (209)
Author N. L Thomas postulated his own Neolithic "Rosetta Stone" with his explanation of the megalithic art at Loughcrew and other Irish passage tombs. (Thomas, N. L. Irish Symbols of 3500 BC. Cork: Mercier, 1988. 29-30.)

¹⁵Brennan, Martin. The Stones of Time: Calendars, Sundials, and Stone Chambers of Ancient Ireland. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 1994. 46-8.
Many authors have referred to the decorated stone at Cairn X1 as the "Calendar Stone." This stone may be seen on our webpage in Du Noyer’s illustration. One writer presents the statistics of passage tomb art and astronomical observations: "On a national scale, just 138 known passage tombs (64%) have extant passages, of which sixteen (11%) exhibit evidence for solstice alignment, being equally divided between the summer and the winter solstice. There is a strong association between solar alignments and the location of megalithic art in passage tombs. Approximately 35 (16%) passage tombs are decorated, of which about twelve exhibit kerb art, including five with decorated entrance stones, all in the Boyne Valley: Knowth 1 (both tombs), Knowth 13, Knowth 15, Newgrange and Dowth South. For that reason, artwork on the entrance kerbstone of site Xl at Loughcrew would place this site in exceptional company. It should also be noted that the rayed design featured on the decorated orthostat at site Xl is known elsewhere only at Knowth and Newgrange, occurring a number of times in both complexes, most spectacularly on kerbstone 15 at Knowth.
(O’Sullivan, Muiris, Frank Prendergast, and Geraldine Stout. "An Intriguing Monument." Archaeology Ireland 24.1 (2010): 22.)

¹⁶Du Noyer, G.V., and W. Frazer. "On a Series of Coloured Drawings of Scribed Stones in the Lough Crew Cairns." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 1 (1889-1901): 451-53.
Christine Zucchelli observed that, "Their [Fergusson's and Conwell's] ideas should only occasionally emerge in accounts from the 1930s, which mention that ‘Queen Tailte and Queen Maeve’ sat on the rock to proclaim their laws to the people." (Zucchelli, Christine. Stones of Adoration Sacred Stones and Mystic Megaliths of Ireland. Doughcloyne, Wilton, Cork: Collins, 2007. 23.)

¹⁷Ó Crualaoich, Gearóid. The Book of the Cailleach: Stories of the Wise-woman Healer. Cork: Cork UP, 2003. 48-52.
According to Professor Ó hÓgáin, "The Cailleach Bhéarra was credited with extremely sharp sight, being able to discern from a distance of twenty miles. It is said that she never carried mud on her feet from one place to another, and never threw out dirty water before bringing in clean." (Ó hÓgáin, Dáithí. Myth, Legend, and Romance: An Encyclopedia of the Irish Tradition, Prentice Hall, New York, 1991. 67-8.)

¹⁸Hull, Eleanor. "Legends and Traditions of the Cailleach Bheara or Old Woman (Hag) of Beare." Folklore 38.3 (1927): 229.

¹⁹Ó Crualaoich, Gearóid. "Non-Sovereignty Queen Aspects of the Otherworld Female in Irish Hag Legends: The Case of Cailleach Bhéarra." Béaloideas "Sounds from the Supernatural: Papers Presented at the Nordic-Celtic Legend Symposium" 62-63 (1994-1995): 147-62.
The author writes, "A huge population of the plain people of Ireland was, in those times, effectively beyond the reach of strict pastoral control or orthodox teaching by any church and that population’s continued official and consciously – deliberate overall allegiance to Catholicism impinged to only a limited degree on ancestral loyalties in regard to the forces of the native Otherworld realm. These loyalties include in a pre- eminent way, loyalties to the name and the legends and the authority of the Goddess – and more specifically to her Cailleach / Hag persona – in its benign and nurturative as much as in its destructive and threatening forms."

In his book, Ó Crualaoich quotes Mairin Ni Dhonnchadha in the suggestion "that the author of the lament is an historical female poet, Digdi, who for the purposes of poetic composition, identified herself in the poem with the figure of Cailleach Bhearra." (Ó Crualaoich. The Book of the Cailleach. 48-52.)

²⁰O’Donovan, John, and Michael O’Flanagan. Letters Containing Information Relative to the Antiquities of the County of Meath, Collected during the Progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1836. Bray, 1927. 96.
Of the Cailleach, Ó Crualaoich writes, "This personage is regarded in traditional cosmology as the personification, in divine female form, of the physical landscape within which human life is lived and also of the cosmic forces at work in that landscape. These forces can range from the power of wind and wave – seen at their most dramatic in fierce winter storms – to the pastoral and nurturing fertility forces of plant and animal life-orders within the landscape." (Ó Crualaoich. The Book of the Cailleach. 10-11.)

²¹The two songs excerpted here are "Season of the Witch" (1966) and "There is a Mountain" (1967), both written and performed by the Scottish folksinger Donovan. According to Wikipedia the inspiration for "There is a Mountain" derived from a Buddhist saying describing the effect of Chan (Zen) on perception: "Before… I saw mountains as mountains, and rivers as rivers. When I arrived at a more intimate knowledge, I came to the point where I saw that mountains are not mountains, and rivers are not rivers. But now that I have got its very substance I am at rest. For it’s just that I see mountains once again as mountains, and rivers once again as rivers."
A further explanation of the powers of the Cailleach is provided by Ó Crualaoich: "This personage is regarded in traditional cosmology as the personification, in divine female form, of the physical landscape within which human life is lived and also of the cosmic forces at work in that landscape. These forces can range from the power of wind and wave – seen at their most dramatic in fierce winter storms – to the pastoral and nurturing fertility forces of plant and animal life-orders within the landscape. They can also be the geotectonic forces whose workings have left the physical landscape as it presents itself to human consciousness and to human life." (Ó Crualaoich. The Book of the Cailleach. 10-11.)
Today there continue to be spiritual seekers who may find within the legends of the Cailleach a deeper understand of their own place in the world.

²²Ó Crualaoich, Gearóid. "Continuity and Adaptation in Legends of Cailleach Bhéarra." Béaloideas 56 (1998): 154-57.
In his book, however Ó Crualaoich expands on this theme, explaining that the Wise Woman’s role in opposition to humankind may have been a Christian interpretation intending to raise the role of the priest: "[They were] well-regarded women, always ready to help those who seek their aid. Their powers and their knowledge are clearly shown as grounded in their access to the native otherworld and not, as in the clerical view, to an anti-Christian diabolic order. This mistaken clerical view is portrayed in story after story showing the wise-woman as a mediator (on the community’s behalf), with the native otherworld, rather than with any version of the Christian supernatural. In many stories her power is shown to be equal to or better than that of the priest in respect of the diagnosis and healing of affiiction…" (Ó Crualaoich, Gearóid. The Book of the Cailleach: Stories of the Wise-woman Healer. Cork: Cork UP, 2003. 75-6.)
According to Concannon, some of the other names of the divine hag goddess included
Aoibheal of the O’Brien dynasty of North Munster, Cliodna of the O’Keeffe dynasty of East and North Cork, Síle of the O’Gara dynasty, and Mauveen of the O’Neill Buidhe of Clannaboy. (Concannon, Maureen. The Sacred Whore: Sheela, Goddess of the Celts. Cork: Collins, 2004. 138.)
The dramatic figure of Cathleen ni Houlihan, invented by W.B. Yeats and Lady Gregory in 1901, blends together a beautiful young woman with the ancient Cailleach Bhéara. The fidelity to the legends of the Wise Woman Hag, however, were likely maintained by Lady Gregory, as Yeats’ early version of the Cailleach—in The Celtic Twilight’s story "The Untiring Ones"— was "Clooth-na-Bare," portrayed only as a woman who traveled widely looking for a lake deep enough to drown her faery life. (Merritt, Henry. "Dead Many Times: ‘Cathleen ni Houlihan,’ Yeats, Two Old Women, and a Vampire." The Modern Language Review 96.3 (2001): 644-48.)

²³Ó Crualaoich. The Book of the Cailleach.109.
The author quotes from a story told by a woman in Co. Mayo in 1941: "Isn’t it a great wonder how a child isn’t able to walk as soon as it’s born, along with every other kind of young. Not to compare a child to a calf or a lamb, but neither’ of these is born more than an hour, before it’s able to walk and the child will be two years of age before it’s able to put a foot under itself. They say that it is Cailleach Bhearra who is responsible for that. At a time that a certain child was born – but I don’t know which child – she put her hand to the small of his back and that left children, ever after, unable to walk quickly, when they have come into the world. Cailleach Bhearra left that handicap on them."

²⁴Ó Crualaoich. The Book of the Cailleach. 81-2.
The author states: "The term cailleach, of course, has its own complex etymological history that reflects the way in which it has carried competing cosmological, religious and literary connotations. These have been succinctly outlined and discussed by Miirin Ni Dhonnchadha in an article that convincingly proposes a line of semantic development for the word cailleach that originates with its derivation from the Latin word pallium, meaning ‘veil’. In its primary meaning of ‘veiled one’ cailleach is shown to be a term relating to a Christian categorization of women who were either ‘spoken for’ in marriage or consecrated as nuns and thus ‘spoken for’ in marriage to Christ. In this context cailleach also developed the sense of denoting the married woman who moves (as in widowhood) from human sexual union to embracing the status of consecrated celibacy, as a nun. It is this latter sense of cailleach that is counterpointed (to such moving literary effect) in the ninth-century ‘Lament of the Old Woman of Beare’ with its pre-Christian sovereignty queen personification of territory and landscape. The sense of cailleach as ‘supernatural figure, hag-witch’, develops through its association with manifestations in medieval Irish literature of the terrifying, destructive aspect of the sovereignty queen as death-goddess."
Ó Crualaoich also considers the origins of the Mother Goddess: "The evidence of pre-history and of mythology has been taken to suggest that in the Old European, Neolithic era, before the spread across the ‘European’ world of Indo-European-Ianguage cultures, cults of a mother- goddess type prevailed throughout the continent. Ireland, too, was inhabited for thousands of years before the coming of the Celts, our first Indo-European immigrants, by peoples whose ideology can be understood to have encompassed religious and cosmological sensibility in respect of a divine female agency who was conceived of as the origin of the physical universe itself and of the life forms contained in its landscapes…Neither should it be imagined that in pre-Indo-European ideology a single, monolithic mother-goddess figure – or cult – existed throughout Old Europe and in earliest Ireland. Such a conception is the product of modern and contemporary reconstructions that arise out of both Enlightenment humanism, and the feminist liberation movement and is without any real basis in history or ethnography." (25-6)
A guidebook to sacred sites in Ireland considers the place of the Cailleach in the pantheon of Celtic spiritual figures: "The Cailleach represents death and rebirth, transformation and winter, in contrast to Brigid, Celtic goddess of healing, creative inspiration, eternal flame, and springtime…The Cailleach’s time is often said to begin at Samhain (1 November) and end on Imbolc (1 February), while Brigid rules the rest of the year." (White, Gary C., and Elyn Aviva. Powerful Places in Ireland. Santa Fe, NM: Pilgrims Process, 2011. 89-90.)

²⁵Concannon, Maureen. The Sacred Whore: Sheela, Goddess of the Celts. Cork: Collins, 2004. 55.
The author writes, "The Sheela archetype was brought forward from the vast wisdom incorporated from the goddess religion and integrated by the Druids, initially into the Heroic period and later into Celtic Christianity."
Most archaeologists and writers, such as guidebook author Anthony Weir, maintain a very different point of view on the sheela na gigs, not considering them to be pre-Christian at all.

²⁶Ó Crualaoich. The Book of the Cailleach.150.
A scald-crow is another term for the hooded crow. Crow in Irish is badhbh. But in Irish mythology, the Badhbh was a war goddess, taking the form of a crow, and was thus known as Badb Catha ("battle crow"). It came to mean a witch, fairy, or goddess, represented in folklore by the scald-crow. See Wikipedia.
Ó Crualaoich recounts a story, from Connemara, in which the Cailleach is in opposition to St. Patrick: "As everyone knows this cailleach is supposed to have thousands of years of life. She was there thousands of years before the time of St Patrick and when St Patrick was travelling about the country he happened to meet up with her, himself and his servant. He enquired of the cailleach and how old she was and she told him like this:
‘I buried nine times nine people on nine occasions in nine graves in Tralee’.
‘What gave you that length of life?’ said Patrick.
‘I didn’t ever carry the muddy dirt of one place beyond that of another place without washing my feet’.
‘Have you any other ideas, cailleach, about your age?’
‘No seven years of my life ever passed that I didn’t toss the bones of a slaughtered bullock up onto that loft there and if you like you can go up there and count them.’
Patrick sent up the servant onto the loft and he started to throw down bones for Patrick to count. It wasn’t long before the floor was covered and Patrick asked up to his servant if there was any prospect of their coming to an end. What the servant answered was that he was beginning to make a start on them and that was all. ‘Oh, throw them back up again out of my sight’, said Patrick. The servant did as he was told.
When that much was done, Patrick walked over to the cailleach and told her that she wouldn’t toss up another bone there ever again. He caused her to disappear in a red flash and that was the end of her." (144-45)

²⁷Hull. 226-27.
The author continues, "It would be a remarkable and touching poem wherever it was written. It is of the tenth or eleventh century; but it reminds us of much more recent verses, Beranger’s " Grand’mere " or Villon’s " Regrets de la Belle Heaulmiere ja parvenue avieillesse," as Dr. Kuno Meyer has pointed out. But the Irish poem is more artistically wrought than either of these. From the point of view of folk-motif as applied to poetry, it is a beautiful example of the wide- spread idea that human life is ruled by the flow and ebb of the sea-tide, with the turn of which life will dwindle, as with the on-coming tide it waxes to its full powers and energy. Life should always come in with the flood and go out with the ebb"
The poem is sometimes entitled "The Lament of the Nun of Beare."

Ó Crualaoich comments, "The author of the ninth-century Lament proceeds to exploit ideological ambiguities in inventing the figure and name-form of the aged female who is at once the lingering representative of a profane, native eternity of earthly sovereignty and the Christian nun finally embracing the prospect of an eternity of the heavenly sovereignty of the male Christian god." (Ó Crualaoich. The Book of the Cailleach. 86-7.)

²⁸Hartnett, Michael. Translations. Ed. Peter Fallon. Oldcastle, County Meath, Ireland: Gallery, 2003. 52-55. Originally published in 1969, Dublin: New Writers’ Press.
From the Old Irish (ninth century, anonymous)

The woman of Beare sang this when old:

As to the sea laps low tide
   to me falls fading of age;
   grief for myself at fading,
   greed in the teeth of my days. 

I am Buí, the hag of Beare,
   I wore an eternal gown;
   but I am naked today
   of even a cast·off shroud.

Money was all you loved,
   and not people.
   but we, while we were alive,
   our love was for the people —

for we loved the peopled plains
   we rode, and we loved our hosts;
   hospitable, good, they made
   of no giving a long boast.

Today you claim all, yet you
   grant none nothing: if you give
   you shame the given with great
   boasting of a little gift.

Now my body, bitter, finds
   the corridors of final
   recognition, the gaze of
   God in his own possession.

Now my hands, wrinkled to long
   bones, hang down dead, hands that locked
   kings of this land in loving,
   in the old days, my lost days.

O hands, wrinkled to long bones
   even at my odd hours of lust
   I must tell young men begone
   should they come. I have no love.

The bodies of young women
   bound as rabbits in springtime.
   I only regret. I am
   a barren unloved woman —

for my tongue hides no honey
   and I look to no wedlock;
   white what is left of my hair
   hidden under a hag’s cloak.

Not the old I envy:
   they die; but youth
   and monuments, both assailed
   as I am, and they still hold.

Winter makes war with the waves;
   today no king will come here,
   nor the lowest road-walker.
   I expect no one today.

I know what they are doing,
   liquid horses of the sea;
   spaced far in their maned groups,
   they gallop away from me.

By loving
   I wasted my self to age,
   but beauty leaves me alone:
   I am told, and no lust stays.

When the sun
   beats a haze of hotness from
   the sea, so yet I must go
   clothed. I am spent, and old.

And yet to waste by loving
   is no waste: for I am glad
   I was made old by pleasure,
   I am glad my flesh was glad.

Green to grass comes back each spring;
   I am eternally old.
   Each acorn gives way to earth,
   bright tables fall to bare boards.

Past, in my days of firm breasts,
   wine was my drink and sweet words
   my food, tall men my lovers;
   now curds, sour as my own milk.

Beneath my cloak my skin hides,
   grained with age and unlovely;
   a white hair covers my skin
   like fungus on a dead tree.

Robbed of me my blue right eye,
   lent for land I own forever;
   and robbed of me my left eye
   secures it, mine forever.

The three floods
   in which I would dream to drown:
   a flood of loves, of horses
   and of gentle slim grey hounds.

O birth-wave,
   death-wave, your bore, you broke me;
   you, last, I will know your face
   when you must come to take me.

O death-wave,
   though great, my friends in darkness
   are — yet come and make your use
   of me. I never refuse.

Well for the islands to which
   again the flood-waves come: now
   I, alone on my ebbed beach,
   I know no face nor no house.

‘The Hag of Beare’ by Michael Hartnett from Translations (2003) reproduced by kind permission of the author’s estate and The Gallery Press. www.gallerypress.com

²⁹Jones. 91.
A photograph from this source, showing the decorations on the
underside of the capstone of the western recess of Cairn T, may be viewed here.

³⁰Conwell. "On Ancient Sepulchral Cairns on the Loughcrew Hills." 371-73.

³¹Conwell. "On the Identification of the Ancient Cemetery at Loughcrew. 88-9.
Conwell elaborated: "The apparent cross carved into the centre of the seat, as well as two others on adjoining marginal upright stones, are not to be mistaken for characters of ancient date, as they were cut for trigonometrieal purposes in the year 1836, by the men, then encamped on Sliabh-na Caillighe, and engaged in the triangulation survey of the country under Captain Stotherd and Lieutenants Greatorex and Chaytor, R. E."

In his earlier article Conwell commented, "The ornamentation and inscriptions on this megalithic seat point to its having been formerly used for some important purpose. Probably it has been a coronation or inauguration chair; or, perhaps, a seat round which councils have been held, or from which justice has been administered in far distant ages." (Conwell, Eugene A. "On Ancient Sepulchral Cairns on the Loughcrew Hills." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 9 (1864-1866): 371-73.)

³²Conwell. Discovery of the Tomb of Ollamh Fodhla. 26-8.
The author writes, "At that remote period in the history of man, before the advent of Christianity, it is well known that the sun was an object of worship; and the very fact that the entrances to the interior chambers of the majority of the carns on the Loughcrew Hills point to the east, or the rising sun, bears strong internal evidence that this form of worship prevailed when these tombs or earns were constructed. If such were the case, for we are without any absolute historic evidence on the point, we can well imagine how appropriately a ‘great seat of justice was placed in the north side of the great law-maker’s tomb, from which, with all the solemnity attaching to the place, his laws were administered, say at midday, with the recipients of the adjudication fully confronted with the great luminary, the object of their worship. For these reasons we propose, henceforth, to call this remarkable stone chair, emblazoned as it is, both on front and back, with characters at present perfectly unintelligible to us, ‘Ollamh Fodhla’s Chair.’"

³³Conwell. "On Ancient Sepulchral Cairns on the Loughcrew Hills." 373.

³⁴Conwell. "On Ancient Sepulchral Cairns on the Loughcrew Hills." 374.

³⁵Jones. 247.

³⁶Conwell. "On Ancient Sepulchral Cairns on the Loughcrew Hills." 362-64.

³⁷Tempest, H.G. "Bone Objects from an Irish Burial Cairn." Man 49 (1949): 13-16.
The author describes how Conwell’s finds were lost: "He took a box -of the human bones to London for examination by Professor Owen, leaving them at the Anthropological Society’s rooms there. They were never examined by anyone. When Conwell, in despair of any report, asked for the return of the box, the only result was a statement that it could not be traced!"

³⁸"Loughcrew | Sliabh na Caillíghe | The Mountains of the Witch." Sacred Island, Guided Tours by Martin Byrne. Web. 04 Oct. 2012. <http://www.carrowkeel.com/sites/loughcrew/loughcrew.html>.

³⁹Conwell. "On Ancient Sepulchral Cairns on the Loughcrew Hills." 366-69.

¹Burl, Aubrey. The Stone Circles of the British Isles. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976. 225.

²Dames, Michael. Mythic Ireland. London: Thames and Hudson, 1992. 73.
In his text the author attributes a part of this quotation to an 1879 article by David Fitzgerald (Popular Tales of Ireland).

³Dames 88.
To Dames, Lough Gur’s outline appears to be the body of an ancient fertility goddess about to give birth.

⁴Hall, Samuel C. Ireland – Its Scenery, Character Etc. Vol. 1. London: How and Parson, 1841. 385.

⁵Raftery, Joseph. "An Early Iron Age Sword from Lough Gur, Co. Limerick." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Seventh 9.3 (1939): 170-72.
The author states that the sword belongs to the class of Irish Iron Age swords with straight sides, and suggests a date for it between 75 and 50 BCE. The lake currently has a level of approximately 75 m (247 ft)., but when the area was first surveyed in 1840 the level was 77 m (252 ft), and evidence of a still higher shoreline suggests that at one time the lake was larger. (Mitchell, G.F. "A Pollen-Diagram from Lough Gur, County Limerick." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature 56 (1953-1954): 484.)
In a nearby area, not far from the lake, a Late Bronze Age shield (c. 700 BCE) was found.

⁶Casey, Michael. "The White Horse." Personal interview. 25 June 1979.

⁷Russell, Patrick. (unpublished manuscript). Personal interview with the author’s daughter, Bridey Hines. 25 June 1979.

⁸Vallancey, Charles. An Account of the Ancient Stone Amphitheatre Lately Discovered in the County of Kerry, with Fragments of Irish History Related Thereto, etc. etc. etc. Dublin: Graisberry and Campbell, 1812. 46.

⁹Wood-Martin, W. G. Pagan Ireland an Archæological Sketch; a Handbook of Irish Pre-Christian Antiquities. London: Longmans, Green, 1895. 230-31. 230-31.

¹⁰Evans-Wentz, W. Y. The Fairy-faith in Celtic Countries. London: H. Frowde, 1911. 81. This story may be read in its entirety here.

¹¹Hall 385.
A similar tale was noted from Co. Kildare: [ relating an 'Old Woman's Story" ] "Near the Seat of Morrice Keating, Esq.,, is a Hill called Moly-Mase, where, as they say, one of the Earls of Kildare was carried by Fairies; and though it is perhaps an hundred Years ago, that he is still alive, as well as his Horse, which is shod with silver; but when those Shoes are worn out, the Earl will return with his usual Health and Vigour, and take ample Possession of the noblest Estate in the Kingdom…" (Chetwood, W. R., and Philip Luckombe. A Tour through Ireland in Several Entertaining Letters: Wherein the Present State of That Kingdom Is Consider’d … Interspersed with Observations on the Manners, Customs, Antiquities, Curiosities, and Natural History of That Country. London: Printed for J. Roberts, 1748. 233.)
According to local tradition, stories connecting Gearoid Iarla with Loch Gur may have originated in the "webbing of the toes and fingers that are known to be perculiar to the Fitzgeralds." (Quinlan, Michael, ed. The Lough Gur & District Historical Society Journal: Special Folklore Edition 7 (1991): 5.)

¹²MacNeill, Maire. The Festival of Lughnasa. London: Oxford University Press, 1962. 345-46.
Geároid Iarla was also known as "Gerald the Rhymer." (Killanin, Michael Morris, and Michael V. Duignan. The Shell Guide to Ireland. London: Ebury P. in Association with George Rainbird, 1967. 358-59.)
One of the better known poems attributed to Geároid Iarla is entitled "Speak Not Ill of Womankind." This may be read in its entirety here.

¹³Dames 109.
According to the author, the historical Geároid Iarla did not die at Lough Gur, but actually elsewhere in Co. Limerick, or in Co. Kerry. The author explains these, and other discrepancies thusly: "The magnetism of a sacred centre pulls at what is historically dispersed and gathers further weight thereby. In this case, the historical fact that both the brother and nephew of Geároid were drowned (brother Maurice while crossing the Irish Sea in 1358, and his son Sean, in the River Suir) was pressed into service. These drownings were transferred to Geároid because as a poet, he was required to submerge into the muse of the birth lake, for the benefit of society in general. (In Ireland, poetic truth tends to take precedence over historical fact because the benefits of poetry can be more widely distributed in time and space.)"
A story abut Maurice, Geároid Iarla’s father, that was once heard locally, resonates with the story of "The Green Cloak" as told by Tom McNamara. In this story, Maurice was walking by the shore of Lough Gur when he saw the beautiful enchantress Áine bathing. He seized her cloak, and by so doing magically put her into his power. He then had his way with her. Thus Geároid Iarla was conceived When he was born Áine appeared at the castle of the Earl to present the child to him. (Ó hÓgáin, Dáithí. Myth, Legend, and Romance: An Encyclopaedia of Irish Folk Tradition. New York: Prentice Hall, 1991.)

¹⁴The entire Limerick Leader newspaper obituary for Tom McNamara may be read here. A photograph of Tom and his family in 1979 may be seen here. A video which morphs Tom’s 1979 and 1999 portraits may be viewed here. When we knocked on the McNamara’s door in 1998, nearly 20 years after we last saw one another, we were met by his wife Anne. I explained who I was, and, as she remembered our first visit, she startled my daughter Elana (then 14) by exclaiming, "Go away!" Elana soon realized that "go away" in the Irish vernacular meant something akin to "I don’t believe it." When Tom came to the door, before I could remind him of my name, he greeted me with "Goldburn!" I thought that was close enough, given that we had had but a couple of letters back and forth over the two decades. An early printed source (1878-1879) of some of the Lough Gur stories told by Tom McNamara may be read here. The folkloric tradition at Lough Gur continues with a new generation of storytellers.

¹⁵Dames 69-78.

¹⁶Ó hÓgáin, Dáithí. Myth, Legend, and Romance: An Encyclopaedia of Irish Folk Tradition. New York: Prentice Hall, 1991.

¹⁷Delargy, J.H. "The Gaelic Story-teller." Proceedings of the British Academy 31 (1945): 32.

¹⁸Ó Ríordáin, Seán P. "Lough Gur Excavations: The Great Stone Circle (B) in Grange Townland." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature 54 (1951/1952): 56-57.
According to the author, the reconstructed vessel was the only one for which the completed profile is certain. The fragments were found near Stone 12 (the northern entrance portal). The vessel is 21.2 cm (8.3 in) in height and the diameter at the rim is 14.5 cm (5.7 in).

¹⁹Ó Ríordáin, Seán P. "Lough Gur Excavations: The Great Stone Circle (B) in Grange Townland." 42-44.
At the exact center of the circle the excavations discovered a post-hole 12.7 cm (5 in) in diameter. "Two suggestions have been made regarding the purpose of this posthole–that it carried a central wooden post, a sort of totem-pole, connected with the ritual of the site and that it held the pole from which the builders marked out the circle. The latter practical alternative appears to be the more likely."

²⁰Burl 227-30.

²¹Ó Ríordáin, Seán P. "Lough Gur Excavations: The Great Stone Circle (B) in Grange Townland." Fig. 1. The plan of the excavation may be seen in its full resolution here.

²²Roche, Helen, "The Dating of the Embanked Stone Circle at Grange, Co. Limerick." From Megaliths to Metal: Essays in Honour of George Eogan. Ed. John Bradley, Barry Raftery, John Coles, and Eoin Grogan. Oxford: Oxbow, 2004. 109-16.
The author explains the results of her stratigraphy studies: "The most recent pottery-type, found at a position which would have predated the monument – in this case beneath the bank on the old ground surface – was ‘Class II’ ware. This type, in the light of extensive comparative studies with securely dated material over the years, is now judged to be a Late Bronze Age coarse ware. Therefore the circle, officially designated to have been constructed in the Neolithic, is actually a Late Bronze Age site."

²³McNally, Kenneth. Ireland’s Ancient Stones: A Megalithic Heritage. Belfast: Appletree, 2006. 65-66.

²⁴Damery, Patricia. "The Horned God: A Personal Discovery of Cultural Myth." The San Francisco Jung Institute Library Journal 23.3 (2004): 18-19.

²⁵Zucchelli, Christine. Stones of Adoration Sacred Stones and Mystic Megaliths of Ireland. Doughcloyne, Wilton, Cork: Collins, 2007. 76.
According to the author, there was a local believe that the Crom Dubh stone used to speak as an oracle and provide divinations. Anthony Weir wrote of the legend that the Grange Stone Circle enclosure was dug by Crom Dubh with his two-pronged spear. Michael Dames said that Crom Dubh "was believed to emerge in most parts of Ireland at the start of harvest, on 1st August, midway between summer solstice and autumn equinox. In Co. Limerick the day was called Black Stoop Sunday…That Crom Dubh and Aine were anciently linked together as harvest deities is clear from a mid-nineteenth-century report from Co. Louth, which calls the festival Domhnach Aine agus Chroim Duibh (the Sunday of Aine and Crom Dubh)." (Dames, Michael. Mythic Ireland. London: Thames and Hudson, 1992. 100-105.)

²⁶Ó Ríordáin, Seán P. "Lough Gur Excavations: The Great Stone Circle (B) in Grange Townland." 42.
In another article Ó Ríordáin again warned about accepted J.F. Lynch’s folklore accounts at face value: "It is…difficult to differentiate between genuine local traditions and beliefs based on the writings of the late Rev. J. F. Lynch." (Ó Ríordáin, Seán P. “Mediæval Dwellings at Caherguillamore, Co. Limerick.” The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Seventh 12.2 (1942): 37.)

²⁷MacNeill 346+.
The author, along with Ó Ríordáin, warns "…we are forcibly reminded of the resemblance to the anecdote about a specific stone circle which…was the source of the medieval literary legends of Cenn Croich."

²⁸Ó Ríordáin, Seán P. "Lough Gur Excavations: The Great Stone Circle (B) in Grange Townland." 73-74.
The author deduces that the circle was ceremonial due to " negative evidence:" the absence of signs of habitation or burial. He suggests that the wide bank around the stones might have been "a stand where an audience could observe what was going on within."

^29"Legendary Lough Gur." Lough Gur Development Co-Operative Society. Web. 15 May 2012. <http://www.loughgur.com/>. The entire audio tour may be downloaded here.

^30"Legendary Lough Gur." The entire audio tour may be downloaded here. Information on ordering a copy of Michael Quinlan’s novel, The Sun Temple, may be found here.

³¹McNamara, Tom. "Grange Stone Circle." Personal interview. 25 June 1979.

³²Feehily, Patricia. "Summer Solstice Wonder at Lough Gur Farm." The Limerick Leader 27 June 1998: 1.

³³White, Gary C., and Elyn Aviva. Powerful Places in Ireland. Santa Fe, NM: Pilgrims Process, 2011.
The authors cite other alignments, such from the entry stones to the stones on the opposite side to the midsummer moon. But they caution, "…it is often hard, if not impossible, to know which of the so-called alignments are intentional and which are the result of people with a theory who find stones to match it."

³⁴Windle, Bertram C.A. "On Certain Megalithic Remains Immediately Surrounding Lough Gur, County Limerick." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature 30 (1912/1913): 293-94.
The excavator of the Lough Gur monuments, Professor Ó Ríordáin, believes that early visitors had "Circle B" in mind "as the object of their admiration since it is likely that the cottages which stood in D in the early nineteenth century and the road which cut it in the west, already existed in the previous century to the detriment of the monument." (Ó Ríordáin, Seán P. "Lough Gur Excavations: The Great Stone Circle (B) in Grange Townland." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature 54 (1951/1952): 37.)

^35"Legendary Lough Gur." The entire audio tour may be downloaded here.
The destroyed circle was meant to be 52 m (171 ft) in diameter with 72 stones, larger than the Líos without its wide bank. The most frequently noted legend about Stonehenge and Merlin has him relocating the stone circle from the Curragh of Kildare.

³⁶McNamara, Tom. "Double Stone Circle." Personal interview. 25 June 1979.
A 1988 interview with Lough Gur resident Phil Russell contains a similar story: "The people wouldn’t go near one of the stone circles; they wouldn’t even pull a stick or a weed out of ‘em. And I’ll tell you, my father told me he knew a little boy and he was flying, going round the road like for maybe three or four years. His father went up on the hill lone day with two dogs and the little dogs went hunting rabbits. And he followed the dogs and when he came back, he left the young fellow inside the circle and when he came back he was asleep, and he never was the same young fellow again. He never walked after, I know him. They made out that to go interfering with them circles was dangerous. He was a little young retarded young fellow after . He’s buried twenty or thirty years, I suppose, now. He was always in and out of hospitals after that. He was sick when he woke up on that meadow, he was a different young fellow. The fairies were blamed for it." (Quinlan, Michael, ed. "Phil Russell’s Account." The Lough Gur & District Historical Society Journal: Special Folklore Edition. 7 (1991): 41.)

³⁷Windle 302-303.

³⁸Lynch, J.F. "Antiquarian Remains at Lough Gur." Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society Second 19 (1913): 9. This article may be read in its entirety here. The "Paddock Hill" translation of Ardaghlooda is from the Lynch article. The "High Hill of Lugh" translation was taken from a display at the Lough Gur exhibit kiosk.

³⁹McNamara, Tom. "The Nun and the Pillar Stone." Personal interview. 25 June 1979.

⁴⁰McNamara, Tom. "The Green Cloak." Personal interview. 21 June 1999.
According to C. Austin, writing in The Celtic Connection, "The concept of a divine World Tree or Tree of Life, the mythic bridge between the worlds of god and human, is entwined with the veneration of trees. As an embodiment of the universe, the roots of the World tree inhabit the underground, the deep knowledge of earth. The trunk unites the roots with the upper celestial canopy. The products given by each tree were considered a physical manifestation of divine providence." (Austin, C. "The Wisdom of Trees in the Celtic Landscape." The Celtic Connection. Web. 15 May 2012. <http://merganser.math.gvsu.edu/myth/trees.html>.)
According to Michael Dames, "The stone…may have served as a solid reminder to those in the real world that the phantom tree beneath the lough, the ideal tree, was also substantial, and would be seen again." (Dames, Michael. Mythic Ireland. London: Thames and Hudson, 1992. 78.)

⁴¹Cooney, Gabriel. "In Retrospect: Neolithic Activity at Knockadoon, Lough Gur, Co. Limerick, 50 Years on." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature 107C (2007): 220-22.

⁴²Jones, Carleton. Temples of Stone: Exploring the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Cork: Collins, 2007. 230-231.

⁴³McNamara, Tom. "Women and Children." Personal interview. 25 June 1979.
Regarding the banshee, McNamara added, " I have heard the banshee, not that often, but I have heard it; there’s no doubt about that. It is the most weird soul-searching sound. It starts down in an awful low key — ’tis a wailing and wailing that re-echoes itself around. It always heralds someone about to die. The old people would always bless themselves if they heard it, you know. But I heard it on an occasion or two. I was out late one night and coming home the old way, and I heard it. I’m telling you, you would fairly go home! And you wouldn’t want to memorize it!"

⁴⁴Dames 88.
The "mysterious old man" quotation is from J.F. Lynch. The "beyond the edges of the map" description of Tír na nÓg is from Wikipedia.

⁴⁵Dames 90.
Lough Gur is connected with Fionne Mac Cumhaill in an legendary tale cited by Maire MacNeill. "The presiding prince brought the black horse from his druid grandfather and gave it to Fionn. Fionn and his companions were entertained for three days and three nights in the house described as ‘dun os loch’ (fort above the lake). This episode relating how Fionn became the possessor of the champion black horse is told also in the Acallamh na Senorach, and O’Grady, in his translation, says that the ‘dun os loch’ is the hill of Doon over Lough Gur." (MacNeill, Maire. The Festival of Lughnasa. London: Oxford University Press, 1962. 344-45.)

⁴⁶Monaghan, Patricia. The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore. New York: Facts On File, 2003. 432.
Michael Dames tells the story of a James Cleary, who in the 1870s said that he saw Áine appear at the Housekeeper’s Chair. "”She was every inch a queen’, he told his friends. A few evenings later he was out on the lough in his curragh when it capsized and he was drowned. Her call, they concluded, could not be resisted. Anyone who saw her, it was believed, was driven insane by the spell of her beauty, or died shortly after. (Madness is a voyage to another reality, where ‘normal’ behaviour dies.) [These people] may be said to have enjoyed or suffered a reverse birth into Lough Gur, and a return to the divine as sacrificial victims." (Dames, Michael. Mythic Ireland. London: Thames and Hudson, 1992. 98.)

⁴⁷"Lough Gur." Gentleman’s Magazine 1 (1833): 109.

⁴⁸Ó Ríordáin, Seán P., and Gearóid Ó H-Iceadha. "Lough Gur Excavations: The Megalithic Tomb." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 85.1 (1955): 50.
From the Irish Folklore Commission archives, Michael Dames wrote that "Tom Hamon recalls the I938 archaeological excavation of the Giants’ Grave, a Neolithic tomb, standing close to the south shore: ‘Giants’ Grave: they excavated that. They took the bones, put ‘em in a bag and brought them here to the castle. I worked with them. But I believe, – I’ve been told it by several people, that if every bean si in Ireland were ever clanned together that night, that the greatest keening and crying was heard all around the lake, and through the hills, and even farther on, away even into the bog, the Red Bog, and across even to Knockderc." (Dames, Michael. Mythic Ireland. London: Thames and Hudson, 1992. 80.)

⁴⁹Jones 228.
Michael Dames recounts aspects of the bull in Celtic spiritual practice: "In Munster and Connacht folklore Crom’s bull was believed to be immortal. By trickery St Patrick once killed and ate it, and then ordered the bones to be thrown into the hide, whereupon the animal returned to life. Around Galway Bay at Samain every household skinned and roasted a bull in honour of Crom Dubh, and one may assume that Crom Dubh and the Bull were originally synonymous."
(Dames, Michael. Mythic Ireland. London: Thames and Hudson, 1992. 100-105.)

⁵⁰"The New Church, Lough Gur, Co. Limerick." The Standing Stone. Web. 15 May 2012. <http://www.thestandingstone.ie/2010/03/new-church-lough-gur-co-limerick.html>.

⁵¹Evans-Wentz 81.
The author is here quoting J.F. Lynch. There is more about the poet O’Connellan here.

⁵²"The Grave Of A Bard – 19th June 1948." Ask About Ireland. Web. 15 May 2012. <http://www.askaboutireland.ie/reading-room/history-heritage/pages-in-history/an-mangaire-sugach-the-li/local-historical-events/the-grave-of-a-bard-19th-/>.

¹Bold, Valentina. "’Rude Bard of the North’: James Macpherson and the Folklore of Democracy." The Journal of American Folklore 114.454 (2001): 464.
The quotation is from a letter Jefferson wrote to James Macpherson’s cousin Charles in February, 1773, asking for copies of the original source material in order to study the language.
Jefferson maintained his admiration for Macpherson all his life, even after the author’s deceptions had become widely acknowledged and he had authored papers unfavorable to the cause of American independence. According to one author, Jefferson was intrigued by the "noble savage" in the Ossian tales. congruent with his romanticized vision of the aboriginal Americans. He also appreciated the Homeric and Virgilian resemblances in Ossian. (McLaughlin, Jack. "Jefferson, Poe, and Ossian." Eighteenth-Century Studies 26.4 (1993): 629+.)

²Porter, James. "’Bring Me the Head of James Macpherson’: The Execution of Ossian and the Wellsprings of Folkloristic Discourse." The Journal of American Folklore 114.454 (2001): 398.

³McCraith, Michael. "The Saga of James MacPherson’s Ossian." The Linen Hall Review 8.2/3 (1991): 8.
According to McCraith, when Napoleon was drawing up a list of books to be used in French schools, Ossian was one of the few foreign texts to be included. Shakespeare didn’t make the list.
Fingal was translated into Italian soon after its publication. Gennan, Dutch, Swedish, Russian, Czech, Polish, and Hungarian versions followed later. New translations appear still, with a Japanese translation in 1971. (Porter, James. "’Bring Me the Head of James Macpherson’: The Execution of Ossian and the Wellsprings of Folkloristic Discourse." The Journal of American Folklore 114.454 (2001): 412.)

⁴"Battle of Culloden." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 20 Oct. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Culloden>.
The Battle of Culloden (April 16th, 1746) marked the final, failed effort of the Jacobite forces of Charles Stuart to defeat the Hanoverian forces of the Duke of Cumberland.
According to James Porter, "Macpherson had caught the mood of the age, exploiting a folk tradition that impinged on English consciousness as a result of the Jacobite army’s sudden and terrifying arrival in Derby in 1745, a consciousness that later, despite Culloden and the brutal repression of Highland dress and music, continued to regard Highlanders as "barbaric." With the military threat removed, the poems of Ossian became safe for readers who would formerly have found them not merely politically unacceptable, but menacingly so." (Porter, James. "’Bring Me the Head of James Macpherson’: The Execution of Ossian and the Wellsprings of Folkloristic Discourse." The Journal of American Folklore 114.454 (2001): 405.)

⁵"Gaelic Place Names in the Glens of Antrim (Continued)." Ulster Journal of Archaeology Second 11.4 (1905): 180-89.

⁶Wilson, David A. Ireland a Bicycle and a Tin Whistle. Montréal: McGill-Queen’s UP, 1995. 33.
According to Wilson, "[Oisín] took one look at Scotland and promptly dropped dead."
Michael McGrath quotes Edmund Burke saying that "when Fingal was published all the Irish cried out, ‘We know all these poems, we have always heard them from our infancy.’" (McCraith, Michael. "The Saga of James MacPherson’s Ossian." The Linen Hall Review 8.2/3 (1991): 6.)
There is some evidence that a purported ancient ogham stone, with an inscription to a warrior called Conan, was in fact placed in position in the late eighteenth century "to strike a blow for the Irish provenance of the antecedents of Macpherson’s Ossian." (Ní Chatháin, Próinséas. "Sir Samuel Ferguson and the Ogham Inscriptions." Irish University Review 16.2 (1986): 166.)
In Scotland it is claimed bones were found underneath "Ossian’s Stone." Sir Walter Scott wrote of the spot: "In this still place, remote from men, / Sleeps Ossian in the narrow Glen."

⁷The plaque on Hewitt’s simple stone cairn reads "John Hewitt / 1907-1987 / My Chosen Ground." A photograph of the cairn may be seen in the gallery at the bottom of the Lubitavish page.

⁸Killanin, Michael Morris, and Michael V. Duignan. The Shell Guide to Ireland. London: Ebury P. in Association with George Rainbird, 1967. 165.
Weapons made from stone quarried here were found as far away as the southeast of. England.

⁹"Oisín." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 20 Oct. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ois%C3%ADn>.
In a 1945 article, J.W. Delargy explains that "’Whistling at night or Fianna Focht by day’ were considered unlucky." He also asserted that the telling of these tales was usually restricted to men. (Delargy, H.H. "The Gaelic Story-teller." Proceedings of the British Academy 31 (1945): 7.)

¹⁰Cross, Tom Peete, and Clark Harris Slover. Ancient Irish Tales. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1936. 454-56.

¹¹Ó hÓgáin Dáithí. Fionn Mac Cumhaill: Images of the Gaelic Hero. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1988. 313.
Thomas M. Curley delivers a concise indictment of Macpherson: "To be sure, the Ossian volumes were principally Macpherson’s own contrivance, whether he deceived himself into believing in superhuman editorial powers for restoring a nonexistent primordial corpus of Gaelic literature or deliberately deceived others into accepting this impossibility. Composing Ossian mainly from his imagination and then calling it historically true were bad enough, even if a doubtful hypotheses of overweening self-delusion might serve to mitigate the deed. Equally damaging to his reputation was masterminding an ingenious history of early Scotland lending credibility to the bogus Ossian. This he did in his elaborate, sometimes spurious, critical apparatus accompanying his texts…" (Curley, Thomas M. Samuel Johnson, the Ossian Fraud and the Celtic Revival in Great Britain and Ireland. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2009. 39-40.)

¹²Curley, Thomas M. Samuel Johnson, the Ossian Fraud and the Celtic Revival in Great Britain and Ireland. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2009. 42.
In a 1983 magazine article, Paul Gray wrote, "So ripe were the times for the Ossianic poems that if they had not existed, someone would have had to invent them. And Macpherson chiefly had." (Gray, Paul. "Fakes That Have Skewed History." Time (5/16/1983).)
Other literary works for which their contemporary authors claimed unproven or clearly fraudulent historical sources include the pseudo-medieval verse of Thomas Chatterton in the 1760s, and more infamously, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in the early twentieth century.

¹³Macpherson, James. The Poems of Ossian. Edinburgh: Grant, 1926. 142. This book may be read in its entirely here or here.
Joep Leerssen describes Macpherson’s writing thusly: "Described in the ponderous and sublime diction of prose-poems, Macpherson’s Ossian evoked mountains, dark and stormy nights, tragic heroes and hoary sages sadly strumming the harp – in short, and iconography evoking… sublimity rather than beauty, and harkening back to medieval Romance as well as foreshadowing the onset of Romanticism." (Leerssen, Joep. Remembrance and Imagination: Patterns in the Historical and Literary Representation of Ireland in the Nineteenth Century. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame in Association with Field Day, 1997. 40.)
Macpherson’s publications: Fragments of Ancient Poetry, collected in the Highlands of Scotland, and translated from the Galic or Erse Language (1760); Fingal, an Ancient Epic in Six Books, together with several other poems, composed by Ossian, the son of Fingal, translated from the Galic language (1762); Tem- pora, an Epic in Eight Books (1763); The Complete Works of Ossian, the Son of Fingal (2 v. 1765); The Poems of Ossian (1771).

¹⁴Boswell, James, Georges Birkbeck Norman Hill, and Lawrence Fitzroy Powell. Boswell’s Life of Johnson: Together with Boswell’s Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides and Johnson’s Diary of a Journey into North Wales : in Six Volumes. Oxford: Clarendon, 1975. I: 396.
According to Thomas M. Curley, "…Johnson was the arch-enemy of falsehood in the Ossian business, not only for offending against morality but also for violating authentic history and the simple human trust that makes society possible…truth in literature and life is a perennial human concern inextricably tied to the survival and fulfillment of the race." (Curley, Thomas M. Samuel Johnson, the Ossian Fraud and the Celtic Revival in Great Britain and Ireland. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2009. 42. 2-3.)
Scottish philosopher David Hume was said to have told Boswell that "if fifty bare- arsed highlanders should say that Fingal was an ancient poem, he would not believe them. He said it was not to be believed that a people who were continually concerned to keep themselves from starving or from being hanged, should preserve in their memories a Poem in six books." (Porter, James. "’Bring Me the Head of James Macpherson’: The Execution of Ossian and the Wellsprings of Folkloristic Discourse." The Journal of American Folklore 114.454 (2001): 414-15.)

¹⁵Boswell, Life of Johnson. This particular passage may be read online here.
Johnson continued: "What would you have me retract? I thought your book an imposture; I think it an imposture still. For this opinion I have given my reasons to the publick, which I here dare you to refute. Your rage I defy. Your abilities, since your Homer, are not so formidable; and what I hear of your morals, inclines me to pay regard not to what you shall say, but to what you shall prove. You may print this if you will."

After a trip to Scotland, in part to conduct his own investigation of the Ossian sources, Johnson reported: "t is said, that some men of integrity profess to have heard parts of it, but they all heard them when they were boys; and it was never said that any of them could recite fix lines. They remember names, and perhaps some proverbial sentiments; and, having no distinct ideas, coin a resemblance without an original." (Johnson, Samuel. A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland. London: J. Williams, 1775. 190-91. Read online here.)

¹⁶McKean, Thomas A. "The Fieldwork Legacy of James Macpherson." The Journal of American Folklore 114.454 (2001): 460.
Since 1800 some 135 books and 150 articles on Macpherson, wholly or in part, have been published. (Curley, Thomas M. Samuel Johnson, the Ossian Fraud and the Celtic Revival in Great Britain and Ireland. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2009. 3.)

¹⁷McKean 447.
The author maintains that Macpherson’s putting Ossian in "English dress" has the effect of removing "…the graphic edge of truly ancient Gaelic songs. He draws on first hand experience of them, but skillfully emphasizes elements that would appeal to a non-Gaelic audience. In so doing, incidentally, he contributed to the foundations of mist-laden Celticism exploited so fully by Yeats and his contemporaries, and latterly by today’s music industry in the marketing of misrepresented ‘Celtic’ music."
Thomas M. Curley argues from another position, that Macpherson ought to be appreciated as the original poet that he was: "Overestimating Macpherson’s indebtedness to genuine Gaelic literature not only misstates the case seriously but also robs him of the distinction of authorship…Giving Macpherson his due, by telling the whole truth about Ossian and taking the bitter with the better, would make him more than a bard standing on the shoulders of predecessors merely reworking Fenian conventions. He would emerge more or less as a self-created genius of self-invented myth whose enduring inspiration for Romantics is a matter of historical record." (Curley, Thomas M. Samuel Johnson, the Ossian Fraud and the Celtic Revival in Great Britain and Ireland. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2009. 18.)

¹⁸Murphy, Gerard. The Ossianic Lore and Romantic Tales of Medieval Ireland. Dublin: Three Candles, 1961. 6.

¹⁹Ellmann, Richard. Oscar Wilde. New York: Knopf, 1988. 6-17.

²⁰Porter 406.
The author quotes from Gentleman’s Magazine (1796): "…the hearse ‘was met by 8 gentlemen’s coaches and 6 mourning coaches.’"

²¹Hewitt, John. Collected Poems. Ed. Frank Ormsby. Belfast: Blackstaff, 1991. 94-95.
The reference in the final stanza to a "white horse"
refers to the traditional tale "Oisín in Tir na nÓg,” in which Oisín’s beloved Niamh gives him her white horse, Embarr, and warns him not to dismount on his journey back to his homeland. He forgets her admonition, and then ages 300 years and dies. The line "tinker’s son" may be from a traditional ballad with that title, regarding a poor-born maker of "potcheen" (poitín), the very potent Irish moonshine.

¹Cross, Tom Peete, and Clark Harris Slover. Ancient Irish Tales. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1936. 514-17. Original from Book of Ballymote (Leabhar Bhaile an Mhóta) c. 1391 Royal Irish Academy MS 23 P 12 fol., 7, p,b, col. b.
This tale may be read in its entirety here. The synopsis of this story is: Eochaid, the King of Leinster, escaped from Niall of the Nine Hostages at Tara, where he was being held prisoner. Eochaid fled toward his home country, pursued by Niall. He tried to find refuge in the home of Laidgrinn, a poet. He was refused sanctuary and in revenge burned the man’s house. Niall caught up with him and brought him to his camp at Ath Fadat (Tullow) where he was fastened to the Holed Stone, and subsequently escaped by killing the nine men Niall had sent to execute him.

²Ryan, John. The History and Antiquities of the County of Carlow. Dublin: Richard Moore Tims, 1833. 19. This book may be read in its entirety here.

³O’Donovan, John, and Michael O’Flanagan. Letters Containing Information Relative to the Antiquities of the Counties of Carlow and Monaghan, Collected during the Progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1839. Vol. 2. Bray, 1927. 122-23.
From a letter from Eugene Curry, 8th August, 1839: "…while some labourers were turning up the soil…directly between the above perforated rock and the Ath Fada or Lorgforde on the Slaney, they met with a great number of skeletons at from two to three feet below the surface, and among other things, they met with several curiously formed graves containing urns with burned and unburned bones."

⁴Ryan, John. The History and Antiquities of the County of Carlow. Dublin: Richard Moore Tims, 1833. 338. This account may be read in its entirety here.
Rickets is a disease, now primarily suffered by children in developing countries, caused by a lack of vitamin D, calcium, or phosphate, or other dietary needs. It leads to softening and weakening of the bones.
William Wakeman’s discussion (1903) of the Aghade Holed Stone and similar specimens may be read in its entirety here.

⁵Harbison, Peter. Guide to National and Historic Monuments of Ireland: including a Selection of Other Monuments Not in State Care. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1992. 49.

⁶Jackson, Kenneth Hurstone. The Oldest Irish Tradition: A Window on the Iron Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1964. 44, note 1.
This entire note may be worth repeating: "I should emphasize that what I mean here is the historiasity of persons and events; for instance, Conn and Eoghan, kings of the north and south of Ireland respectively, reputed by the sages to have lived in the second century, are quite obviously legendary and indeed mythological characters, and the events in which they are said to have taken part are clearly bogus. The same is true of still later characters like Cormac mac Airt. It is probably not too much to say that the earliest figure whom we can regard with any confidence as at all historical is Niall of the Nine Hostages. Equally, then, the characters Conchobar and Cu Chulainn, Ailill and Medb and the rest, and the events of the Cattle Raid of Cooley, are themselves entirely legend and purely un-historical. But this does not mean that the traditional background, the setting, in which the Ulster cycle was built up is bogus; the whole of this lecture is intended to show that it is not."

⁷MacCana, Proinsias. Celtic Mythology. London: Hamlyn, 1970. 120.
When Niall asked the crone, " ‘And who art thou?’ ‘Royal Rule am I’ she answered." (Ní Bhrolcháin, Muireann. "Women in Early Irish Myths and Sagas." The Crane Bag: "Images of the Irish Woman" 4.1 (1980): 12.)
In the story, Niall’s descendants will rule unbroken, except for two kings who would descend from Fiachra, the result of his giving the crone a brief kiss of his own.

⁸"Niall of the Nine Hostages." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 06 Nov. 2012. Web. 11 June 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niall_of_the_Nine_Hostages>.
According to this entry, "The sources for the details of Niall’s life are genealogies of historical kings, the "Roll of Kings" section of the Lebor Gabála Érenn, Irish annals such as the Annals of the Four Masters, chronicles such as Geoffrey Keating’s Foras Feasa ar Éirinn, and legendary tales like "The Adventure of the Sons of Eochaid Mugmedon" and "The Death of Niall of the Nine Hostages". These sources date from long after Niall’s time and their value as history is limited at best…the traditional roll of kings and its chronology is now recognised as artificial. The High Kingship did not become a reality until the ninth century, and Niall’s legendary status has been inflated in line with the political importance of the dynasty he founded."

⁹Keating, Geoffrey, John O’Mahony, and Michael Doheny. Foras Feasa Ar Eirinn Do Réir an Athar Seathrun Céiting, Ollamh Ré Diadhachta. The History of Ireland, from the Earliest Period to the English Invasion. New York: P.M. Haverty, 1857. 390.
This account may be read in its entirety here.

¹⁰"Niall of the Nine Hostages." The Larkin Clan. Web. 12 June 2012. <http://www.larkinclan.eu/niall.htm>.

¹¹"Medieval Irish Warlord Boasts Three Million Descendants." The New Scientist. Web. 12 June 2012. <http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn8600-medieval-irish-warlord-boasts-three-million-descendants.html>.
From the story: "The study says the chromosome has also been found in 16.7% of men in western and central Scotland and has turned up in multiple North American population samples, including in 2% of European-American New Yorkers…Though medieval Ireland was Christian, divorce was allowed, people married earlier and concubinage was practised. Illegitimate sons were claimed and their rights protected by law…As in other polygamous societies, the siring of offspring was related to power and prestige…one of the O’Neill dynasty chieftains who died in 1423 had 18 sons with 10 different women and counted 59 grandsons in the male line."
Another scientist, Ugo Perego, a senior DNA researcher at Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation, determined that Mormon prophet Joseph Smith Jr. was definitely descended from Niall (http://www.genealogyblog.com/?p=8663).

¹²Grinsell, L.V. "Some Aspects of the Folklore of Prehistoric Monuments." Folk-lore 48 (1937): 252-53.
An author in 1912 suggested that passing an infant through the aperture in an ancient stone, "…may be an echo of a rite of symbolic rebirth." (Ffrench, J. F. M. Prehistoric Faith and Worship: Glimpses of Ancient Irish Life.. London: D. Nutt, 1912. 25-6.)

¹³Weir, Anthony. "Potency and Sin: Ireland and the Phallic Continuum." Archaeology Ireland 4.2 (1990): 54-55.

In 1895 Wood-Martin wrote, ""The original purpose for which the large apertures were utilized seems to have been a literal as well as a symbolic means whereby an ailment, disease, or sin might be left behind, or got rid of, also as a symbol by which a compact could be ratified, or an oath taken, by a well-known and public act. The postulants, at first, probably crawled through the orifice; then when it, through change in custom, became diminished in size, they probably passed a hand, or, if a compact was to be made, clasped hands through it. The act of a bride passing her finger through her wedding ring may be but a survival of the ceremony when the woman would have had to crawl through an aperture in a sacred stone…" (Wood-Martin, W. G. Pagan Ireland an Archæological Sketch; a Handbook of Irish Pre-Christian Antiquities. London: Longmans, Green, 1895. 308.)

¹⁴"Niall of the Nine Hostages." Wikipedia. The sources disagree as to the which countries supplied each of the nine hostages.

¹⁵Cross.

¹Borlase, William Copeland. The Dolmens of Ireland, Their Distribution, Structural Characteristics, and Affinities in Other Countries; Together with the Folk-lore Attaching to Them; Supplemented by Considerations on the Anthropology, Ethnology, and Traditions of the Irish People. With Four Maps, and Eight Hundred Illustrations, including Two Coloured Plates. Vol. 3. London: Chapman & Hall, Ld., 1897. 767.

²Schorr, F.J. & K.D. "Altar Wedge Tomb." Ancient Ireland. Web. 25 Jan. 2011. <http://www.ancientireland.org/altar/index.htm>.

³O’Brien, William. "Megaliths in a Mythologised Landscape: South-West Ireland in the Iron Age." Monuments and Landscape in Atlantic Europe: Perception and Society during the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. Ed. Christopher Scarre. London: Routledge, 2002. 169-70.

⁴Evans, E. Estyn. Prehistoric and Early Christian Ireland, a Guide. London: B.T. Batsford, Ltd., 1966. 94.

⁵Carnier, Molly, and Sylvia Connell. "The Altar Well." Personal interview. 9 Sept. 1998.

¹O’Brien, Matthew. "Fairy Forts." Personal interview. 1 July 1979.
It is interesting that Mr. O’Brien’s comment about the legendary visibility of one "fairy fort" from another ("If you stand on one there, you can see two more all around you.") is corroborated by the research of Matthew Stout, who found that "The location of ringforts was such that the occupants of one ringfort would have been in visual contact with as many as seventeen of their neighbours." (Stout, Matthew. The Irish Ringfort. Dublin: Four Courts, 1997.19-20.)
Twenty years after we recorded the interview with Matty O’Brien we returned to visit with his family. Mr. O’Brien was deceased, but his grandchildren, who had never heard his voice, were eager to hear the stories play on our laptop. A photograph of this visit may be seen here.

²Stout, Matthew. The Irish Ringfort. Dublin: Four Courts, 1997. 53.
The author states that "there are 45,119 ringforts in Ireland of which 41% have been positively identified as of March 1995." Other terms for ringforts in Ireland include rath, lios (or lis), caiseal (or cashel), cathair (or caher or cahir) and dún (or doon). Rath and lios refer to an earthen ring-fort; caiseal and cathair a stone ring-fort. A dún was any stronghold of importance, which may or may not be ring-shaped.

³Stout 24.
The author states that "…the majority of Ireland’s ringforts and crannogs were occupied and probably constructed during a three hundred year period from the beginning of the seventh-century to the end of the ninth-century AD."
For his evidence he points out that the finds from ringforts usually include items that may be dated from the second half of the first millennium, such as certain pottery types (e.g. "souterrain ware") and ornamental beads and pins. The Garryduff bird is a beautiful example of a dateable find from a ringfort, c. 650 CE.

⁴Danaher, Kevin. Gentle Places and Simple Things: Irish Customs and Beliefs. Dublin: Mercier, 1964. 91-93.

⁵Stout 15.
The author cites information from 11 legal tracts revealing social hierarchies with "degrees of sub-division and complexity." (p. 110)

⁶Stout 11.
Stout explains,
"Because the contemporary law tracts describe a king’s principal dwelling to have been a uivallate ringfort, some notion is obtained of the lofty status of bivallate, and extremely rare trivallate, sites." (p. 18)

⁷Ní Cheallaigh, Máirín. "Going Astray in the Fort Field: Traditional’ Attitudes Towards Ringforts in Nineteenth-Century Ireland." The Journal of Irish Archaeology, 15 (2006): 105
According to Matthew Stout, "Most excavated ringforts have revealed the foundations of a range of buildings within their banks indicated that the surviving monuments were in fact farmsteads which would have enclosed a single farming family and their retainers." (
Stout, Matthew. The Irish Ringfort. Dublin: Four Courts, 1997. 32.) Stout insists on the defensive capabilities of the ringforts by arguing that, "…none of these deficiencies, other than the absence of a palisade, seriously challenges the defensive nature of ringforts and it is unlikely that a population which worked on a daily basis with post and wattle fencing and housing would not have erected a similar structure along the tops of at least some of their enclosures." (pp. 19-20).

⁸Stout 13.

⁹Brenan, Samuel A. "Fairy Folk-Lore, Co. Antrim." The Journal of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland Fourth 9.78 (1889): 59.
It may be that the Tuatha Dé Danann symbolized the pre-Christian deities of the land. See Wikipedia article.

¹⁰Ní Cheallaigh 107-108.

¹¹Ní Cheallaigh 108.
The authors terms the overgrown fairy fort the "wild wood’ of European folklore. She also asserts that some ringforts were used as cilleens, where the bodies of strangers and children who died before being baptized were buried.

¹²Evans-Wentz, W. Y. The Fairy-faith in Celtic Countries. London: H. Frowde, 1911. 32.

¹³Casey, Michael. "The Fairy’s Chicken." Personal interview. 25 June 1979.

¹⁴Correll, Timothy C. "Believers, Sceptics, and Charlatans: Evidential Rhetoric, the Fairies, and Fairy Healers in Irish Oral Narrative and Belief." Folklore 116.1 (2005): 1.

¹⁵Ní Cheallaigh 107.
According to Ni Cheallaigh, "More than most other monuments of the Irish archaeological record, ringforts have lain at the intersection of diverging worlds of symbolic imaginings that encompass a wide variety of interacting social and cultural identities. These overlapping worlds have ranged from the cottages of the rural tenant labourer and farmer to the salons of the antiquarian elite and the excavation trench of the archaeologist. Engagement with the physical remains of ringforts was, and is, articulated through the social structures and belief systems of those who visited, actively avoided or, equally consciously, obliterated them."
The initial quotation is from Bourke, Angela. The Burning of Bridget Cleary: A True Story. New York: Viking, 2000. 48.

¹⁶Cray, Ed, and Francis D. Adams. "Fairy Rath." Western Folklore 17.4 (1958): 282.
Ultimately the government official for the Ministry of Lands (Erskine Childers) made the decision to "bend" the fence to avoid the fairy fort. (Stekert, Ellen. "Fairy Palace." Western Folklore 18.1 (1959): 50.)

¹⁷Harkin, Greg. "Sean Quinn’s Downfall Is Fairies’ Revenge Say Locals in Cavan." Irish Independent [Dublin] 22 Nov. 2011. Read online here.

¹Burl, Aubrey. The Stone Circles of the British Isles. New Haven: Yale UP, 1976. 84-85.

²Hutton, Ronald. The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy. Oxford, UK: B. Blackwell, 1991. 74.

³"Athgreany Stone Circle." Irish Antiquities. Web. 09 Feb. 2011. <http://irishantiquities.bravehost.com/wicklow/athgreany/athgreany.html>.

⁴O’Flanagan, Michael. Letters Containing Information Relative to the Antiquities of the County of Wicklow. Vol. V. Bray, 1927. 114, 350.

⁵Menefee, S.P. "The ‘Merry Maidens’ and the ‘Noce De Pierre’" Folklore 85.1 (Spring, 1974): 38.

⁶Menefee 34-39.

⁷"Athgreany Stone Circle." Megalithic Ireland. Web. 8 Feb. 2011. <http://www.megalithicireland.com/Athgreany home.htm>.

⁸Menefee 27-28.

⁹Menefee 28-30.

¹⁰Kinahan, G.H. "Legends about Stone Circles, Etc." Folklore Journal V (1882): 168-69.

¹¹O’Clery, Helen. Athgreany Stone Circle: the Stones of Time. New York: A. H. Morrison, 1990. 112.

¹²Fitzgerald, Lord Walter. "Pagan Antiquities near Ballymore Eustace." Journal of the County Kildare Archeological Society, 3 (1899-1902): 357.

¹Hawkes, Jacquetta. A Guide to the Prehistoric and Roman Monuments in England and Wales. London: Chatto and Windus, 1976. 43

²Schorr, F.J. and K.D. "Ballina." Ancient Ireland. Web. 27 Jan. 2011. <http://www.ancientireland.org/ballina/index.htm>.

³O’Neill, Noel. "Castlebar – County Mayo – The Dolmen Of The Four Maols." Castlebar – County Mayo – From The West of Ireland. Web. 27 Jan. 2011. <http://www.castlebar.ie/mayo_historical_and_archaeological_society/mhas-20040408.shtml>.

⁴O’Flanagan, Michael. Letters Containing Information Relative to the Antiquities of the County of Mayo. Vol. 18. Bray, 1927. 37, 77-81.

⁵Allcroft, A. H. The Circle and the Cross a Study in Continuity. Vol. 2. London: Macmillan, 1927. 49-56.

⁶Allcroft 23.

¹Wilde, Lady Francesca. Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms & Superstitions of Ireland: with Sketches of the Irish past. London: Chatto & Windus, 1902. 142.

²Wilde 30.

³Waterman, D.M.; Jope, Margaret; Proudfoot, Bruce; Simmons, I. G.; Preston, J. "Excavations at Ballyfounder Rath, Co. Down." Ulster Journal of Archaeology, Third Series, Vol. 21 (1958): 39-61.

⁴Harrison, John. "The Man Who Learn’t Music From the Fairies." From an unpublished paper in the Irish Folklore Collection, Department of Irish Folklore, University College, Dublin (IFC 20:297).

⁵ffrench, J. F. M. Prehistoric Faith and Worship. London: Nutt, 1912. 108-09.

⁶Uí Ógáin, Ríonach. "Music Learned from the Fairies." Béaloideas, Iml. 60/61, Finscealta Agus Litriocht: Paipeir a cuireadh I lathair ag an Siompoisiam Nordach-Ceiltech / Legends and Fiction: Papers Presented at the Nordic-Celtic Legend Symposium (1992/1993). 198, 210.

⁷White, Carolyn H. A History of Irish Fairies. Dublin: Mercier, 1976. 8-9.

⁸"A Pretty Girl Milking Her Cow." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 14 Feb. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Pretty_Girl_Milking_Her_Cow>.

⁹Moffat, Alfred. The Minstrelsy of Ireland: 200 Irish Songs. London: Augener, 1897.

¹⁰Uí Ógáin 197-8.

¹¹Uí Ógáin 201-2.

¹²Uí Ógáin 198.

¹³Croker, Thomas Crofton. Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland. Vol. I. London: Murray, 1826. 18-26.

¹⁴Jacobs, Joseph. More Celtic Fairy Tales. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1902. 158.

¹⁵Hardiman, James. Irish Minstrelsy or Bardic Remains of Ireland. London: Robins, 1831. xlix-1, 15.

¹Gregory, Lady Augusta. "Legends of the Raths, as Narrated to Lady Gregory." Galway Archeological and Historical Society 2 (1902): 116-17.

²Murphy, Barney. "Ballymacdermot Tomb." Personal interview. 26 June 1998.

³Graves, Robert. The White Goddess: a Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1966. 93.

⁴Wilde, W. R. Lough Corrib, Its Shores and Islands: with Notices of Lough Mask. Dublin: McGlashan & Gill, 1867. 92-3.

⁵Ffrench, J. F. M. Prehistoric Faith and Worship Glimpses of Ancient Irish Life. London: D. Nutt, 1912.

⁶ "Fingal." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 25 Mar. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fingal#Vikings_and_Hiberno-Norse>.

⁷Weir, Anthony. "Language Homophony." Message to the author. 24 Mar. 2011. E-mail.

⁸Jones, Carleton. Temples of Stone: Exploring the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Cork: Collins, 2007. 141-43.

⁹Collins, A. E. P., B. C. S. Wilson, and Frederick W. Gay. "The Excavation of a Court Cairn at Ballymacdermot, Co. Armagh." Ulster Journal of Archaeology 27 (1964): 10.
The broken stones have since been repaired.

¹⁰Collins 18-20.

¹¹McGinn, Pat, and Noreen Cunningham. The Gap of the North: The Archaeology & Folklore of Armagh, Down, Louth and Monaghan. Dublin: O’ Brien, 2001. 30.

¹²McGinn 31.

¹³Murphy, Barney.

¹⁴Leerssen, Joep. Remembrance and Imagination: Patterns in the Historical and Literary Representation of Ireland in the Nineteenth Century. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame in Association with Field Day, 1997. 102-3.

¹⁵Ó Súilleabháin, Seán. A Handbook of Irish Folklore. Dublin: Folklore of Ireland Society, 1942. v-vi.

The illustration of pottery sherds and worked flint is taken from:
Collins, A. E. P., B. C. S. Wilson, and Frederick W. Gay. "The Excavation of a Court Cairn at Ballymacdermot, Co. Armagh." Ulster Journal of Archaeology 27 (1964): 16.

¹Doyle, J. B. Tours in Ulster: A Handbook to the Antiquaries and Scenery of the North of Ireland. Dublin: Hodges and Smith, 1854. 98-9.

²Hartwell, Barrie. "The Prehistory of the Giant’s Ring and Ballynahatty Townland." Lisburn.com. 1995. Web. 3 Mar. 2013. <http://www.lisburn.com/books/historical_society/volume9/volume9-1.html>.

³Hartwell, Barrie. "The Ballynahatty Complex." Prehistoric Ritual and Religion: Essays in Honour of Aubrey Burl. Ed. Alex Gibson and Derek Simpson. Glouchestershire: Sutton, 1998. 32-45.
The author writes that, "The first archaeological record of a site in Ballynahatty was that of an ‘ancient sepulchral chamber’ described by members of the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society in 1856 (MacAdam & Getty 1855, 358-65). This account showed that many other sites had been destroyed in the preceding century in the lands surrounding the Ring as it was being developed for agriculture."
Hartwell cites as evidence that the present car park and visitor entrance was the original one for the henge the fact that it is where a causeway might have been constructing over the quarry ditch.

⁴Hartwell, Barrie. "The Prehistory of the Giant’s Ring and Ballynahatty Townland."
In 1872 antiquarian James Fergusson wrote: "What, then was the object of this great earthwork with one solitary dolmen in the centre? Was it simply the converse of such a mound as that at New Grange? Was it that, instead of heaping the earth over the sepulchral chamber, they cleared it away and arranged it round it, so as to give it dignity? Or was it that funereal games or ceremonies were celebrated round the tomb, and that the amphitheatre was prepared to give dignity to their performance? These are questions that can only be answered when more of these circles are known and compared with one another, and the whole subject submitted to a more careful examination than has yet been the case. My impression is that it is the grave of a chief, and of him only, and that it is among the most modern of its class." (Fergusson, James. Rude Stone Monuments in All Countries Their Age and Uses. London: J. Murray, 1872. 229.)

⁵Coyne, Frank. Islands in the Clouds: An Upland Archaeological Study on Mount Brandon and The Paps, County Kerry. Tralee, Co. Kerry: Kerry County Council in Association with Aegis Archaeology Limited, 2006. This book may be read in its entirety here.
R.A.S. MacAlister noted affinities between the Giant’s Ring and Longstone Rath, in Co. Kildare, where the henge is only half the diameter of the Giant’s Ring and the central monument is a 20-ft tall stone set near a later burial cist.

⁶Petrie, George, and D.J.S. O’Malley. "Aspects of George Petrie. V. An Essay on Military Architecture in Ireland Previous to the English Invasion." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature 72 (1972): 236. [Read, 28 April, 1834 Published,18 December, 1972.]

⁷Borlase, William Copeland. The Dolmens of Ireland Their Distribution, Structural Characteristics, (…). Vol. 1. London: Chapman & Hall, 1897. 276+.

⁸Molyneux, Thomas, and Gerard Boate. A Natural History of Ireland in Three Parts. Dublin: George Grierson, 1726. pt. 2, 128.

⁹McComb, William. Guide to Belfast, the Giant’s Causeway, and the Adjoining Districts of the Counties of Antrim and Down, with an Account of the Battle of Ballynahinch, and the Celebrated Mineral Waters of That Neighborhood ... Belfast: Author, 1861. 98-100.
The author alludes to his skepticism regarding the 1744 account: "If we are to rely upon the authority of Harris, who, in his ‘* History of County Down," (1744) states that two ranges of pillars, each consisting of seven, supported the great superincumbent rook ; besides which there were several other stones fixed upright in the ground, at the distance of about four feet. At present, the incumbent stone rests upon only four supporters – that on the South side being also an incumbent stone, resting upon three upright ones, and thus forming a secondary Cromlech.
Borlase however had more faith in the 1744 description of the site: "A writer in the Dublin Penny Journal (1834-35), who gives a picture of the structure, says: ‘This cromlech is either very erroneously described by Mr. Harris, or its appearance has greatly altered since the year 1744. We are informed by him that ‘two ranges of pillars,’ each consisting of seven, support this monstrous rock, beside which there are several other stones fixed upright in the ground at a distance of about 4 feet. Of these latter there remains but one. The upper stone at present rests upon four, and not upon fourteen supporters. The entire number which compose the’ altar’ is only ten; and, though it is probable that several may have fallen down, or in some manner changed their position, it is inconceivable how so great a disproportion as the two accounts present could ever be reconciled.’ In this view, namely that Harris was inaccurate, I disagree, firstly, because the monument he describes is so exactly what I should have expected it to have been from the present ruins, and, secondly, because, in an agricultural country like this, with stones required for gateposts and houses not far off, it is so easy to account for the removal of the outer ring as well as some of the fabric of the vault." (Borlase, William Copeland. The Dolmens of Ireland Their Distribution, Structural Characteristics, (…). Vol. 1. London: Chapman & Hall, 1897. 275-81.)

¹⁰Hartwell, Barrie. "The Ballynahatty Complex."
Hartwell’s map of all the sites within the Ballynahatty Complex may been seen in the gallery at the bottom of our page. The palisaded enclosure is site BNH6.

¹¹Borlase 275-81.

¹²Hartwell, Barrie. "Ballynahatty: A Prehistoric Ceremonial Centre." Archaeology Ireland 5.4 (1991): 12-15.

¹³Gray, William. "Discovery of an Ancient Sepulchre at the Giant’s Ring, Belfast." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 5th 1.2 (1890): 164-65.
Monuments near the Giant’s Ring were not only subjected to the depredations of agriculturalists.
The Giant’s Ring itself may have been deployed as the "bleach-green" for a linen factory. (MacDonald, Philip, and Barrie Hartwell. "Anne Plumptre and The Giant’s Ring, County Down: An Account of a Possible Bleach-Green Watch-Tower." Ulster Journal of Archaeology, 3rd 68 (2009): 152-57.)

¹⁴Hartwell, Barrie. "The Prehistory of the Giant’s Ring and Ballynahatty Townland."

¹⁵Hartwell, Barrie. "The Ballynahatty Complex."

¹Wood-Martin, W. G. Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland. Vol. 1. London: Longmans, Green, & Co. 1902. 323.
The author continues: "It was also a great resort of cripples; a regular array of sticks and crutches was deposited on the tumulus by professional mendicants who pretended to have been cured in order to enhance the reputation of the place, as large crowds upon patron days brought considerable sums into their pockets." This may be read in its entirely here.

²O’Kelly, Michael J. "St Gobnet’s House, Ballyvourney, Co. Cork." Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 57 (1952): 18.
The author states that the many "furnace bottoms" found at the site are lumps of porous, slag-like material, much heavier than the ordinary glassy slag usually found. They form from the hot debris of smelting which falls into and fills the bottom of the furnace. The 57 complete examples from Ballyvourney varied in diameter from 31" to 7". The number from Ballyvourney by far exceeds those recorded from elsewhere.
The excavation revealed numerous post-holes from the primary occupations; the second occupation phase saw the construction of a large circular stone structure, today known as St. Gobnet’s House, with a central post-hole likely supporting a thatch roof.
A glass bead found from the first occupation level is of a type identified with the Roman or Viking periods. None of these objects could be firmly date, since they all were types from the first millennium CE.
In 1750 what is now known as St. Gobnet’s house was described as "a circle of stones about two feet high and about nine feet in diameter, which seems to be the foundation of one of the small round towers placed in churchyards."(Smith, Charles. The Ancient and Present State of the County of Cork. Containing a Natural, Civil, Ecclesiastical, Historical and Topographical Description Thereof. Dublin: Printed for the Author, 1750. 193.)

³The structure is also known as "St. Gobnait’s Kitchen." The Irish Tigh Ghobnatan translates to "Gobnait’s House," but it may be intended to mean "Gobnait’s Church." (Meehan, Cary. The Traveller’s Guide to Sacred Ireland: A Guide to the Sacred Places of Ireland, Her Legends, Folklore and People. Glastonbury: Gothic Image, 2004. 537-40.) Goibniu is, in legend, the smith of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Ronald Hutton compares Ballyvourney’s pre-Christian association in Celtic myth to that of St. Brighid ("almost certainly a goddess"). A reputed pagan "fire temple" near Kildare’s round tower may be a remnant of her devotion. (Hutton, Ronald. The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy. Oxford, UK: B. Blackwell, 1991.285.)

⁴Edith Guest noted in a 1937 journal article: "In the neighbourhood of the mound was once a small stone cross, which had disappeared by the middle of the nineteenth century. Here the image of St. Gobonet used to be set up on 11th February, and on Whit Monday, when the faithful went round it on their knees and tied handkerchiefs about its neck as a preventive of disease. This practice still went on in the eighteenth century, though forbidden by the Bishop of Cloyne." (Guest, Edith M. "Ballyvourney and Its Sheela-na-gig." Folklore 48.4 (1937): 374-84.) Guest also wrote: "A few fields away, "Saint Gobonet’s Stone" still stands. It is 4.5 feet high and on the south face is a Greek cross within a circle of two lines. Above the circle stands the Saint in a long cloak and carrying the Irish pastoral crook in its most primitive form (Fig. 6). On the upper edge of the stone are three hollows, said to have been made by the elbows and chin of the Saint as she leant upon it. We may prefer to think them libation hollows of an earlier cult. At any rate the stone had the reputation, like any pagan menhir, of bringing disaster on whoever tried to move it. Once a heretic, described as a " protestant," or alternatively, a "Scotchman," tried to drag it away by horses: within three months he and his horses were dead." This stone may be seen here. The St. Gobnait’s Turas Stations: 1. At the saint’s statue; 2. St. Gobnait’s House; 3. and 4. Two cross-inscribed stones at St. Gobnait’s Grave; 5. the northwest corner of the church ruins, an older foundation stone; 6. window of the east wall, the site of the old altar; 7. the sheela-na-gig; 8. outside of the south wall; 9. south side of the west wall (St. Gobnait’s Bowl); 10. St. Abbán’s Holy Well.

⁵This well, now called St. Gobnait’s Well, was discovered during the excavation of St. Gobnait’s House in 1951. It was determined to date from the Early Christian secondary use of the site, when the round house was constructed.

⁶"The Family of Lucey in 14th Century Ireland – Published by Norman Lucey." Web. 11 Nov. 2012. <http://homepage.ntlworld.com/rickmansworthherts/webpage65.htm>.

⁷In Irish tradition, St. Abbán provided Gobnait with the land for her monastery. More info.

⁸O’Kelly 36.

⁹Wood-Martin 228.
Another version of this story features the beehive turning into a bronze helmet, and that the O’Herlihys kept the bronze helmet as a source of protection. "M.T. Kelly, writing in the JCHAS , Vol.III No. 25. (1897), p.102 , suggests that Windele had come across accounts of this helmet but that it had been lost somewhere in Kerry. Another version has the beehive turning into a bell which then became Gobnait’s bell." ("St Gobnait." Diocese of Kerry. Web. 12 Nov. 2012. <http://www.dioceseofkerry.ie/page/heritage/saints/st_gobnait/>.)
In his Lives of the Irish Saints, O’Hanlon wrote of the battle, "She is said to have held in her hand, at the time, a square box, or beehive, full of holes at the sides. These were so formed that a bee flying, could go in and out through them. This instrument has been called, in Gaelic, the beachaire, i.e., " something to hold bees." It is supposed to have been soft and elastic. St. Gobnet prayed for some moments, when she saw the invader making towards her. After this, the bees flew out of their hive, and effectually stayed the ravages of the haughty chief." (O’Hanlon, John. Lives of the Irish Saints. Vol. 2. Dublin: Duffy, 1875. 464. Quoted in Harris, Dorothy C. "Saint Gobnet; Abbess of Ballyvourney." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 8.2 (1938): 275.)
Another story of the saint is recounted in a guidebook. It concerns "a robber who arrived in the area and tried to erect a pagan shrine here. Gobnait threw her bowl which demolished it. The bowl is now attached to the west wall of the church and a tradition has grown up of touching it with a personal item for healing [as part of the turas, at the west wall of the old church]. (Meehan, Cary. The Traveller’s Guide to Sacred Ireland: A Guide to the Sacred Places of Ireland, Her Legends, Folklore and People. Glastonbury: Gothic Image, 2004. 537-40.)
Edith Guest further describes this ritual: "Next, the west wall of the church is reached, and here is a small square niche into which the devotee passes his arm almost to its full length. At the extremity he feels a smooth round object and touches it three times: it is Saint Gobonet’s Bowl, and each time he transfers its virtue to himself by crossing himself with the same hand that felt it. Once this object was loose and handed about for its virtues, but the priests thought it led to undesirable practices, and imprisoned it where it now is. The legend attached to this bowl is as follows: A neighbouring chief wished to build a castle close to the Abbey. The Saint made her objection practical by throwing her stone bowl each night at the walls, whereupon what had been built during the day fell down. Since then the bowl has been efficacious for the cure of contusions.
(Guest, Edith M. "Ballyvourney and Its Sheela-na-gig." Folklore 48.4 (1937): 374-84.)

¹⁰Couch, Victor, MD. "The Ancestors of Evelyn Herlihy." History of the Herlihys. Web. 12 Nov. 2012. <http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~maggiesirishkin/herlhist1.html>.
"In recognition of her saintly impact, Pope Clement VIII in 1601 granted ‘a special indulgence of ten years and quarantines to the faithful who would visit the Church of St Gobnait in the Parish of Ballyvourney in the Diocese of Cloyne on her feast day and would pray for peace amongst Christian princes, for the expulsion of heresy and the exaltation of Holy Mother Church.’"
According to Maureen Concannon, "The first convents of the Celtic Christians were run by abbesses, but even at that early date it was recorded that the nuns at Ballyvourney lost their autonomy when a priest was assigned to be chaplain and Gobnait was made subordinate to him."
(Concannon, Maureen. The Sacred Whore: Sheela, Goddess of the Celts. Cork: Collins, 2004. 36-8.)

¹¹February 11 coincides with the Celtic festival of Imbolc, using the Old Style Julian calendar.

¹²"Ireland’s Saintly Women and Their Healing Holy Wells." National Geographic News Watch. Web. 12 Nov. 2012. <http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/02/10/irelands-saintly-women-and-their-healing-holy-wells/>.
A visitor described the 2011 procession on St. Gobnait’s feast day of February 11: "…the landscape at once vibrates with the clicking of rosary beads and the murmur of voices repeating familiar and comforting words. The sounds coalesce like the steady and intent hum of St Gobnait’s bees."
The stations of the turas are always circled in a clockwise directions. It would be considered both unlucky and blasphemous to walk around the stations counter-clockwise; this could bring ill-fortune on the pilgrim or his family.(Geoghegan, Siofra. "Gobnait: Woman of the Bees." Matrifocus: Cross-Quarterly for the Goddess Woman. Imbolc, 2005. Web. 12 Nov. 2012. <http://www.matrifocus.com/IMB05/ireland-gobnait.htm>.)

¹³Harbison, Peter. Pilgrimage in Ireland: the Monuments and the People. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse Univ., 1992. 133-35.
According to a website published by the Diocese of Kerry, the parish of Dunquin on the Dingle Peninsula also has a traditional turas on February 11, St. Gobnait’s feast day. At one time, there was also a secular fair held on the date, "Tradition records that people came from the surrounding parishes and from the Blaskets to the pattern. Micheál Ó Gaoithín recorded that there was formerly a fair on the Pattern day and that the drinking and selling went on for three days but that this finally ended due to clerical opposition. Ó Gaoithín also tells us that one PP was very strongly opposed to the Pattern, this upset the locals who argued with him, he cursed the people of Dunquin and they responded by throwing him over a cliff!" ("St Gobnait." Diocese of Kerry. Web. 12 Nov. 2012. <http://www.dioceseofkerry.ie/page/heritage/saints/st_gobnait/>.)

¹⁴A sign posted in several places along the route of the procession (turas) instructs the pilgrim:

1. Stations are marked No. 1 – No. 10.
2. Stations No. 1, 2, 3 and 4 – you go to these stations twice (2), Station No. 5, you go to this station four (4) times. Stations No. 6, 7, 8 and 9, you go to these stations only once.
3. When finished with station No. 9, proceed to station No. 10 which is the Holy Well. This is where the signs shows (Holy Well) on the roadway as you approached.
4. The Prayers recited at each station are seven (7) Our Fathers, seven (7) Holy Marys and seven (7) Glorys.
5. Stations No. 1 to 4 when walking around the mound say (I believe in God.). When you commence on No. 5 and when walking around the old ruin you say one decad of the rosary each time you go around.
6. When finished with No. 9 you proceed to the Holy Well then say the fifth decad of the rosary.

A mid-nineteenth century observer noted three trees growing inside St. Gobnait’s House which were stripped of their bark every year "for purposes best known to the people." The trees are now gone (as might be expected) and this practice is largely forgotten. (Windele, John. Topography Co. Cork, W and N.E. 1830s-50s. MS 12I10. Royal Irish Academy, 164-68. Quoted in Guest, Edith M. "Ballyvourney and Its Sheela-na-gig." Folklore 48.4 (1937): 376.)

¹⁵Harbison.
Harbison quotes from an 1861article describing the Bacachs at Ballyvourney: "Ardmore, Gougane Barra, Lough Dearg, Shruel, Croagh Patrick, and other places of pilgrimage, are the resorts of the Bacach tribe; but Ballyvourney would appear to have been their ‘Fakeerabad.’ There dwelt the professors. What the precise course of studies might have been, is easier to imagine than to ascertain: they might have comprised instructions as to habits, rules of conduct, and secrecy; but there was one qualification which the ordinary observer could not fail to perceive, and which appears to have been the leading performance of their lives, this was the crónawn or beggar’s chaunt. As the traveller passed through the village of Ballyvourney, he heard from the interior of many houses various repetitions of this strange Oriental-sounding appeal. When the aspirant had acquired a proficiency in all the requisite qualifications, he received his diploma in the shape of a goodly black thorn stick, at the upper end of which were conspicuous a certain number of brass nails: to a thorough proficient, the highest number of nails was given, which was seven; and the great virtue of these nails lay in the supposed fact that each nail indicated the efficacy of the prayers of the professor, which was increased in such ratio, that one prayer of the Bacach with a seven-nailed staff was as efficacious as sixty four prayers from one of the single nail." (Hackett, William, ‘The Irish Bacach, or professional beggar, viewed archaeologically,’ Ulster Journal of Archaeology 9, 1861-2. 256-71.)

¹⁶Harris, Dorothy C. "Saint Gobnet; Abbess of Ballyvourney." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 8.2 (1938): 273-75.
A carved head, known as the "Black Thief,’ is likely the voussoir or keystone from an earlier Romanesque structure. It is installed at the top of the arch leading to the high altar inside the ruined mid-sixteenth century medieval church. This may be noted in the VR tour by rotating the view upwards while inside the church, or seen in more detail here. Local lore says this is a workman who stole his co-worker’s tools. His face was carved in stone to as a punishment. (O’Kelly 36.)

¹⁷Richardson, John, Johann Theodor Jablonski, and John Chamberlayne. The Great Folly, Superstition, and Idolatry, of Pilgrimages in Ireland; Especially of That to St. Patrick’s Purgatory. Together with an Account of the Loss That the Publick Sustaineth Thereby; Truly and Impartially Represented. Dublin: Printed by J. Hyde, and Sold by J. Leathley, 1727. 71.
This text may be read in its entirely here.

¹⁸Harbison.
According to Maureen Concannon, "Women who are unable to conceive rub the genital area of the carving, taking rubbings of the stone in their handkerchiefs and drink them in water." (Concannon, Maureen. The Sacred Whore: Sheela, Goddess of the Celts. Cork: Collins, 2004. 36-8.)

¹⁹Weir, Anthony, and James Jerman. Images of Lust: Sexual Carvings on Medieval Churches. London: B.T. Batsford, 1986. 21.
The authors maintain that "folkloric practices are posterior to the importation of the motifs, and that the important moralising tone of the carvings led not only to the preservation of sheelas but also to a popular misconception that they held magical properties." Barbara Freitag, on the other hand, believes that the sheela-na-gig originates within a folk tradition. (Freitag, Barbara. Sheela-Na-Gigs Unraveling an Enigma. New York: Routledge, 2004. 119.) Weir and Jerman are careful to describe the sheela-na-gig as a sexual, but not an erotic, sculpture, as its grotesque and repulsive nature cannot said to be sexually arousing (p. 11-12).
More than 100 sheela-na-gig figures have been noted in Ireland. (Cherry, Stella. A Guide to Sheela-Na-Gigs. Dublin: National Museum of Ireland, 1992.) The listing from the text is excerpted here.

²⁰Thomas O’Connor, Neagh, 3 October 1840; in John O’Donovan, Letters containing information relative to the Antiquities of the County of Tipperary Collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1840. RIA Dublin, handwritten MS. Quoted in Freitag, Barbara. Sheela-Na-Gigs Unraveling an Enigma. New York: Routledge, 2004. 16-17.
O’Connor thought the figure may have had a pagan origin, since if it had been carved during Christian times "it would owe its origin to the wantonness of some loose mind." Freitag writes, "The lengthy letter which he sent to Dublin is a charming testimony to his baffled confusion. O’Conor admits to being completely mystified as to why this ‘ill excuted [sic] piece of sculpture’, rudely done by an unskillful artist, should be placed at a house of public worship when it so blatantly impresses the ‘grossest idea of immorality and licentiousness … being in its way in direct opposition to the sentiment of . . . people professing the Christian faith’. As it seemed incongruous that the figure had been set up in its present situation for producing any good effect on the minds of a Christian congregation, he could only assume that it was never intended to be placed in the church. He speculated that it must have belonged originally to another building, a castle perhaps, and that it was laid in its present situation ‘by some one [sic] who delighted in inconsistencies’ after the church had been abandoned as a place of worship. If that were not the case, the figure owed its origin ‘to the wantonness of some loose mind.’"
Sadly, the sheela-na-gig O’Connor describes, at Kiltinane Church, Co. Tipperary, was stolen in 1990. A photograph of the sculpture may be seen here.

²¹In her Guide, Stella Cherry lists the Ballyvourney figure as "probably a Sheela-na-gig." (Cherry, Stella. A Guide to Sheela-Na-Gigs. Dublin: National Museum of Ireland, 1992. 4-10.)
Lewis’ Topographical Dictionary in 1837 noted "The ruins of the church are very extensive and interesting; in one of the walls is a head carved in stone, which is regarded with much veneration." (Lewis, Samuel. A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland‬: ‪Comprising the Several Counties, Cities, Boroughs, Corporate, Market, and Post Towns, Parishes, and Villages, with Historical and Statistical Descriptions..., Volume 1. London: Clearfield, 1837. 169.)
A journal article in 1935 described the sculpture as "A small figure known as St. Gobonet, cut in an ovoid depression on a rough lintel over a trefoil window at the east end of the south wall. It shows no definite features of a sheela-na-gig except the pose of the arms, but it seems to be connected with rites of very ancient origin." (Guest, Edith M. "Irish Sheela-na-Gigs in 1935." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 6.1 (1936): 110.)
According to Maureen Concannon, "The presence of all three aspects of the goddess at Ballyvourney – Sheela, Madonna and Hag – makes it the only centre in Ireland and perhaps of all the places where the Sheela now remains, to have preserved the tripartite aspects of the goddess – maiden, mother and crone." (Concannon, Maureen. The Sacred Whore: Sheela, Goddess of the Celts. Cork: Collins, 2004. 36-8.)

²²Andersen, Jørgen. The Witch on the Wall: Medieval Erotic Sculpture in the British Isles. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1977. 14+.
Anderson considers the sheela-na-gig carvings to be Romanesque (c. 1100 CE). Maureen Concannon disagrees, and entertains the possibility that the carvings pre-date the structures on which they are mounted: "Many of the carvings on those buildings are noticeably more worn than the rest of the stone work, indicating that they were probably transferred from the earlier structures to the later churches. This would be in accord with the veneration in which the people would have held those sacred stones and points once again to the conservatism of the country people of Ireland." (Concannon, Maureen. The Sacred Whore: Sheela, Goddess of the Celts. Cork: Collins, 2004. 61-2.)
Thomas Wright (The Worship of the Generative Powers, 1866) wrote that sheela-na-gigs were survivals of a pre-Christian fertility worship. In some ways, the effort to see the sheela-na-gigs as a remnant of pre-Christian Ireland has a parallel in the views, promoted in 1833 by Henry O’Brien, to claim the Irish round towers as the creations of prehistoric Tuatha Dé Danann for their phallic-worshiping religion. See our entry on the Kildare Round Tower. (Leerssen, Joep. Remembrance and Imagination: Patterns in the Historical and Literary Representation of Ireland in the Nineteenth Century. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame in Association with Field Day, 1997. 120.)

²³Concannon, Maureen. The Sacred Whore: Sheela, Goddess of the Celts. Cork: Collins, 2004. 17.
The author adds: "Tracing the Sheela may unravel the spirituality of those of our ancestors who predate the Indo-European by many thousands of years."
In the 1930s Margaret Murray (The God of the Witches) opined that the sculpture generally belonged in the category of mother-goddesses. In 1923 she first wrote that the figures might be the remains of an old fertility cult. (Freitag, Barbara. Sheela-Na-Gigs Unraveling an Enigma. New York: Routledge, 2004. 28.

²⁴Andersen 47+.
The author balances his purely architectural explanation with this statement: "Certainly there is more to the image than the mere display of pudenda; something darkly colouring that medieval carver’s conception. There is some foundation here for involving mythology in the study of sheelas and in their whole application to churches." (p. 111)
A journal article in 1840 suggests that "some [sheela-na-gigs] had been originally used as grave-stones, and probably intended to act as charms to avert the evil eye, or its influence, from the place." (Clibborn, E., Esq. "On an Ancient Stone Image Presented to the Academy by Charles Halpin, M.D." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 2 (1840-1844): 566.)
Anne Ross wrote, "I would like to suggest that, in their earliest iconographic form they do in fact portray the territorial or war-goddess in her hag-like aspect, with all the strongly sexual characteristics which accompany this guise in the tales; and that they are not ‘pornographic’ or ‘erotic’ monuments but have both a fertility and an evil-averting significance. [note: It is a well known and widespread belief that to expose the genitalia of either sex acts as a powerful apotropaic gesture]. This would serve to explain why they are frequently to be found in association with Christian churches. Such figures could hardly have been built into religious buildings of the post-pagan period unless it was to canalise the evil-averting powers they were believed to possess. If they were found on the site of the church their powers could then be used for the benefit of Christians, once they had been purified as it were by Christian rites; and any latent paganism in the area would find a double satisfaction both in the continuing homage offered to this once-powerful deity and in her inclusion in the wider Christian pantheon as a still-vital protectress of the ground over which she was once sovereign." (Ross, Anne. "The Divine Hag of the Pagan Celts." in The Witch Figure, Venetia Newall, ed. London and Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978. 148-49.)

²⁵Freitag, Barbara. Sheela-Na-Gigs Unraveling an Enigma. New York: Routledge, 2004. 43.
The entire list presented by the author is: "…musicians, jugglers, barrel-lifters, misers, tongue-protruders, thorn-pullers, beard-pullers, mermaids, anus-showers, penis-swallowers, exhibiting men, women and devils, megaphallic animals, fomme aux serpens, men and women combating ghoulish creatures, man-eating monsters, grotesquely copulating couples, as well as almost any combination of the foregoing."

²⁶Weir, Anthony, and James Jerman. Images of Lust: Sexual Carvings on Medieval Churches. London: B.T. Batsford, 1986. 151.
If the authors present a credo, it would be: "Sexual exhibitionists developed, like so many other Romanesque motifs, from Classical prototypes at a date not earlier, so far as we have been able to ascertain, than the eleventh century, and that their flourit was during the twelfth century; that they are Christian carvings, part of an iconography aimed at castigating the sins of the flesh, and that in this they were only one element in the attack on lust, luxury and fornication; that their horrible appearance is due to the fact that they portrayed evil in the battle against evil; that, in this role of warring against Luxuria and Concupiscentia, two of the Mortal Sins, they flourished in the sculpture of a well-defined area of western France and northern Spain; that they reached the British Isles by a process we shall describe; that they were supported by a number of carvings which at first sight seem to be unconnected with them, and which are better understood when the connection has been made, and that it is possible that the apotropaic purpose sometimes attributed to them is a later development, stemming from the forcefulness of their imagery and the respect with which they were regarded."

The complete list of quotations presented in the book:

"That carving, Sir? Why, that’s the last man (sic) to be hanged on Hangman’s Hill.
Sexton of Holdgate Church, verbatim, to Colin and Janet Bord, 1980

The majority of sheela-na-gigs were apparently either warnings of immoral behaviour, or Schandbilder, denouncing local women of iII- repute.
Ellen Ettlinger, FOLKLORE 1974

Sheela-na-gig: an obscene female figure of uncertain significance.
Lord Killanin and M.V. Duignan, Shell Guide to Ireland 1967

SheeIa-na-gig: the Irish Goddess of Creation. Barry Cunliffe, The Celtic World 1979

Probably the remains of a fertility cult. Margaret Murray, MAN 1923

Sheela-na-gig: the actual representation of the Great Goddess Earth Mother on English soil.
Brian Branston, The Lost Gods of England 1974

The portrayal of the Celtic goddess of creation and destruction, the sheela-na-gig at Kilpeck offers wordless instruction in the art of self-delivery.
S.C. Stanford, Archaeology of the Welsh Marches, 1980

Sheila-na-gig: fertility figure, usually with legs wide open.
N. Pevsner, Buildings of England, glossary (various dates)

(Sheela-na-gigs) portray the territorial or war- goddess in her hag-like aspect.
Ann Ross, Divine Hag of the Pagan Celts, ed. Newall 1973

Sheela-na-gig: female exhibitionist figure, one of the many representations of Lust in Romansque carving.
A. Weir, Early Ireland, a Field Guide 1980

The defensive nature of the exposed vulva is even clearer in Ireland in the Sheila-na-gig representations of women exposing themselves.
Encyclopedia of World Art, 1966

²⁷Andersen 145.

²⁸Weir 15.
According to Anthony Weir, "The’ gigg/jig’ word (like ‘crack’ or, falsely, ‘craic’) does definitely seem to be English in origin, and, curiously, West African coastal people retained the word jig-a-jig for sexual intercourse; little brass [copulating] figures, now sold to tourists, are/were also called jig-a-jigs. This would suggest, as Barbara Freitag said, a 16th century origin for the word." (Weir, Anthony. "Ballyvourney and Its Sheela." Message to the author. 11 Nov. 2012. E-mail.)

²⁹Zucchelli, Christine. Stones of Adoration Sacred Stones and Mystic Megaliths of Ireland. Doughcloyne, Wilton, Cork: Collins, 2007. 130.
Wikipedia notes other uses of the name: "A ship called Sheela Na Gig in the Royal Navy and a dance called the Sheela na gig from the 18th century. An Irish slip jig, first published as The Irish Pot Stick (c.1758), appears as Shilling a Gig, in Brysson’s A Curious Collection of Favourite Tunes (1791) and Sheela na Gigg in Hime’s 48 Original Irish Dances (c.1795). These are the oldest recorded references to the name, but do not apply to the figures. The name is explained in the Royal Navy’s records as an "Irish female sprite"" " ("Sheela Na Gig." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 11 July 2012. Web. 10 Nov. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheela_na_gig>.)

³⁰Freitag 54.

³¹Concannon 158-65.
Concannon also wrote: "The mockery, destruction and eradication of feminine symbols was documented and celebrated by the Christian hierarchy. The loss of those symbols paralleled the slow erosion of essential feminine values, such as responsibility for life and the preservation of it, the care and nurture of the child, the family and the clan. This was a gradual process and hardly recognised at the time. The image of the Sheela, a symbol of the Divine Hag, had to be excised from the consciousness of the Irish people. Like all the other symbols associated with women and the feminine aspect of God throughout the western world, she was a threat to the authority of the Roman Church and must be eliminated." (p. 114)

³²Keeling, David. "An Unrecorded Exhibitionist Figure (Sheela-na-Gig) from Ardcath, County Meath." Ríocht Na Midhe (Records of the Meath Archaeological and Historical Society) VII.3 (1984): 102-04.
This figure is also known as the Ardcath Sheela after the nearby village. The author describes it: "The figure fills the frame formed by the cut edge of the stone, and although considerably weathered, on closer examination most of the detail is still discernible. The legs are slightly bent and face in the same direction, although the left foot is missing, presumably due to weathering. The arms hang symmetrically across the body and rest on the thighs to touch or indicate the pudenda. The hands have a faint suggestion of fingers. The bent elbows are prominent and the similarity in the position of the arms being mainly responsible for the symmetry. The breasts are only slightly suggested. The figure has a large flat and pear-shaped head with a short neck; the eyes, nose and mouth are prominent. A shallow depression at the left side of the head is probably due to weathering."
Many thanks to Michael Fox for leading us to this site.

³³Heaney, Seamus. Station Island. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1985. 49-50.
The sheela-na-gig at Kilpeck (in England) may be seen here.

¹Cross, Tom Peete, and Clark Harris Slover. Ancient Irish Tales. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1936. 20.

²"Minor Celtic Characters." Timeless Myths. Web. 13 Mar. 2011. <http://www.timelessmyths.com/celtic/minorceltic.html>.

³Lebor Gabála Érenn." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 09 Mar. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebor_Gabála_Érenn>.
It is understood by historians, in all these cases, that the place name was extant, and the person or thing connected to it was invented by the etymologizer.

⁴"Irish Baby Girl Names D – I." Irish Gifts – Irish Jewelry – Celtic Jewelry – Claddagh Rings. Web. 13 Mar. 2011. <http://www.celticbydesign.com/index.cfm/feature/22_140/irish-baby-girl-names-d—i.cfm>.

⁵Leerssen, Joep. Remembrance and Imagination: Patterns in the Historical and Literary Representation of Ireland in the Nineteenth Century. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame in Association with Field Day, 1997. 11-12.

⁶Cross 20.
The original translation of this story may be read here.

⁷Morierty, Michael. "The Baslicon Slab." Interview by Howard Goldbaum. June 20, 1979.

⁸Chatterton, Lady. Rambles in the South of Ireland During the Year 1838. London: Saunders and Otley, 1839. 300-301.
It may be that the author misunderstood her informant.

¹Hobson, Mary. "Some Ulster Souterrains." The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 39 January-June (1909): 226-27.

²The souterrain at Donaghmore, just outside Dundalk, is also accessible. It is listed as a National Monument, although it is on private property. Visitors must provide their own lights. It has been described as, "…an elaborate dry-stone structure with traps, a secret passage and vents, built into a trench dug into boulder clay and, in places, into the underlying Silurian grit. The passages and terminal chamber total some 80 metres long, and they are both corbelled and lintelled."
According to Nancy Edwards, there are "upwards of 1,000 examples" of souterrains in Ireland. (Edwards, Nancy. The Archaeology of Early Medieval Ireland. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1990. 29.)

³Hobson 220.

⁴MacDonogh, Steve. The Dingle Peninsula. Dingle, Co. Kerry, Ireland: Brandon, 2000. 50-51.
In one souterrain what appeared to be a ventilation shaft may have had an additional purpose. Mary Hobson writes, "At Tavenahoney in Glenan I found the only vent or shaft I have seen, though I know of another. I am not sure that it was intended for ventilation, but rather incline to the idea that it is a speaking tube to give warning to those inside; a boy spoke to me through it. It was closed on the outside by a rough stone like thousands scattered over the hillside." (Hobson, Mary. "Some Ulster Souterrains." The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 39 January-June (1909): 223.)
According to NUI Galway Archaeologist Michelle Comber, the evidence suggests that "souterrains served at least two functions – refuge and storage. Features such as constricted passages, chambers on different levels, settings for internal gates or doors were clearly designed to prevent quick/easy access to some souterrains. In addition, some have exits, facilitating underground movement from one place to another (though not over huge distances as many local tales might suggest!). Excavation, however, has also shown that some souterrains, at least, were also used for storage. Their cool interiors were ideal for storing foodstuffs, and the remains of timber barrels have been found." (Comber, Michelle. "Other Purposes of Souterrains." Message to the author. 27 Feb. 2012. E-mail.)

⁵"Binder’s Cove Souterrain (Finnis Souterrain)." Banbridge District Council, Oct. 2008. Web. 24 Feb. 2012. <http://www.banbridge.com/uploads/docs/FinnisSouterrain.pdf>.
A geophysical survey of the area surrounding the souterrain, commissioned by the Council, reported, "… an unusually large number of archaeological features including….a large enclosure complex, or a series of succeeding complexes, to the western side of the survey area appearing to be associated with at least one substantial stone structure, of medieval or post-medieval origin. In the north, the souterrain appears to dominate the landscape with all adjacent archaeological features respecting its limits, with the added possibility of a trackway leading to it. In the east another potential enclosure was identified."

⁶Souterrains are often referred to as "caves." The Irish word for cave is uaimh, pronounced "oo-ov." Conflating uaimh with "cave" results in "cove." (http://www.irishmegaliths.org.uk/down.htm)

⁷"Binder’s Cove: Your Place and Mine." BBC News. BBC, May 2008. Web. 24 Feb. 2012. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/yourplaceandmine/down/A1956017.shtml>.
The local person who first suggested making the souterrain accessible to the public, Oliver Quail, was also the stonemason who worked on the structure’s restoration prior to its opening.
During the winter months when the tunnels are flooded and the gate is locked, the key may be obtained from O’Hare’s garage on the B7 Rathfriland Road, near the local settlement of Finnis/Massford (2004 information).

⁸Macrory, J.M. "Souterrain at Leitrim, Parish of Drumgooland." Ulster Journal of Archaeology Second 12.2 (1907): 70-72.
"This region of South Down, once part of the princely patrimony of the Magennis family, so far as the antiquary is concerned, is almost an untrodden field. Here abound rath and dun, cromleac and cistvaen, sculptured Celtic cross and pillar stone, cashel and crannog, ruined castle and carn, souterrain and ancient burying-place-objects which fire the imagination and gladden the heart of the archaeologist, arousing inspiration for a dreaming of the ‘dim and dateless past.’ Here, amongst a people most obliging and courteous in manner, the belief in the power of blessings and maledictions, in apparitions and banshees, in fairies and witches, in myths and dreams, in spectres and spells, in charms and elf-shooting, and in good and bad luck, still obtains to a greater or less extent. Old faiths and customs or usages die hard in a community which has had an unlimited stock of wonderful traditions, handed down from generation to generation, from the far-off past, whose imagination pictures even natural occurrences, if at all out of the range of comprehension, as the work of some direct supernatural agency. The lover of things and ways of other days must in a large measure regret the passing of that indescribable charm associated with the folk-lore of a highly imaginative, interesting, and romantic people."

⁹Emerson, John. "Passage Connects to Fort." Personal interview. 30 June 1979.

¹⁰O’Looney, Brian. "On Ancient Historic Tales in the Irish Language (XXXVI)." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy Polite Literature and Antiquities 1 (1879): 222-23.
The souterrain at Rathcroghan is also known as the "Cave of the Cats," or "Ireland’s Hell-Gate." In "The Cave of Ainged," after Nera entered the cave
he was taken prisoner by the fairies, put to work, and compelled to marry one of their women. He finally managed to escape, and returned to the king with much information regarding the cave and its contents, enabling the army to break into the treasure house of the sídh and carry off great treasure. This tale may be read in its entirety here.

¹¹Hobson 226-27.

¹Wood-Martin, W. G. Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland. Vol. 1. London: Longmans, Green, & Co. 1902. 351-52.

²Johnson, Howard. "The Giant’s Grave." Personal interview. 30 June 1998.
Wood-Martin recounts a similar story of a megalithic tomb’s origin as the grave of a giant who lost a battle: "Popular tradition asserts that a " giant’s grave" in the townland of Lickerstown, county Kilkenny, about 25 feet long and 12 broad, had been erected over "Ceadach the Great." The legend, preserved in the locality, which accounts for the death and burial of the giant, relates that he had quarreled with another Irish Goliath, named Goll, and they chose this spot to decide their difference in single combat. Two of Goll’s friends accompanied him to the ground, but Ceadach came alone, mounted on an enchanted horse, by means of which he traversed space instantaneously. A tree is shown marking the spot where the wonderful animal stood whilst the champions fought on foot. After a prolonged and desperate encounter Ceadach was victorious; but Goll, in a dying effort, pierced him through the heart with his spear, upon which the magical horse flew away through the air to his master’s palace, conveying the news of his fall. On one of the rocks forming the monument indentations were pointed out, the imprints made by Ceadach as he fell. Goll’s body was removed by his two friends, but Ceadach’s was interred upon the spot." (Wood-Martin, W. G. Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland. Vol. 1. London: Longmans, Green, & Co. 1902. 351-52.)

³Weir, Anthony. "County Cavan – Selected Monuments." Gazetteer of Irish Prehistoric Monuments. Web. 19 Mar. 2013. <http://www.irishmegaliths.org.uk/cavan.htm>.

⁴De Valera, Ruaidhrí, and Seán Ó.Nualláin. Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Vol. III, Counties Galway-Roscommon-Leitrim-Longford-Westmeath-Laoighis-Offaly-Kildare-Caven. Dublin: Stationery Office, 1972. 106-108.
Of the gap at the bottom of the septal stone, the survey authors wrote: "Its edges are flaked but it is not clear whether this is a contrived feature or a fortuitous break along the edge of the stone."

⁵Johnson.

⁶Frankcom, G., and J.H. Musgrave. The Irish Giant. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co., Ltd., 1976. 9-10.
According to Prof. John Waddell, giants have a particular position in Irish tradition: "In many primitive mythologies giants appear to provide an anthropological explanation for the forces of nature, but in Judaeo-Christian thinking they represent the evil result of the abandonment of the law of God. In Irish tradition, however, disparity in size is a sign of belonging to a former age or to another world. It may well be that in early medieval Ireland some megalithic and pagan monuments were seen as the burial places of giants and some may have produced bones that would have seemed to prove the case." (Waddell, John. Foundation Myths: The Beginnings of Irish Archaeology. Bray, Co. Wicklow: Wordwell, 2005. 11.)

⁷Otway, Caesar. Sketches in Erris and Tyrawly, Illustrative of the Scenery, Antiquities, Architectural Remains, and the Manners and Superstitions of the Irish Peasantry. Dublin: T. Connolly, 1850. 38.
Otway continues, comparing the ancient Irish builders of the megalithic monuments with the prehistoric Native Americans: "They were unaccountably exterminated by a far inferior people, just as the existing races of American red men have destroyed the more intelligent people that flourished before them, and who have left incontestable traces of their existence in the remains of their arms and their buildings, as now found along the Ohio, and in other central parts of the North American continent. In the same way the Tuatha Danaan have here left the cromleachs, the giants’ graves, the stone circles, the doons and cassiols, the Cyclopean walls, and the crypts and covered caves, that are to be found under our moats, and raths, and cairns."

⁸Wood-Martin.

⁹Daniel, Glyn. Megaliths in History. London: Thames and Hudson, 1972. 16-18.
According to another source, the monument from which the giant was briefly resurrected was "a cromlech of Fintona." The giant was identified as a "swinherd to King Laogaire." (Bonwick, James. Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions. London: Griffith, Farran & Co., 1894. 218.)

¹⁰Wood-Martin 25.

¹Cross, Tom Peete, and Clark Harris. Slover. Ancient Irish Tales. New York: H. Holt, 1936. 328-32.

²Smith, Charles. The Ancient and Present State of the County of Kerry. Containing a Natural, Civil, Ecclesiastical, Historical and Topographical Description Thereof. Dublin: Printed for the Author, 1756. 156-59.

³Cuppage, Judith. Archaeological Survey of the Dingle Peninsula: a Description of the Field Antiquities of the Barony of Corca Dhuibhne from the Mesolithic Period to the 17th Century A.D. Ballyferriter: Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne, 1986. 81.
The authors report that a stone trough found at the site was apparently removed in the early 19th century and is now located in a house near Killorglin.

⁴Halpin, Andy, and Conor Newman. Ireland: an Oxford Archaeological Guide to Sites from Earliest times to AD 1600. Oxford: Oxford Univ., 2006. 510.

⁵Lynch, P.J. "Caherconree, County Kerry." Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, First Quarter, 1899. 6.

⁶Cross 328.

⁷Yellow Book of Lecan." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 25 Feb. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Book_of_Lecan>.

⁸MacCana, Proinsias. Celtic Mythology. London: Hamlyn, 1970. 100-01.

⁹Horgan, Mathew, John Windle, and Edward Vaughan Kenealy. Cahir Conri a Metrical Legend. Cork: P.J. Crowe, 1860. xxv.

¹⁰Cross 332.

¹¹"Cú Roí." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 25 Feb. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cú_Ro%C3%AD>.

¹²Jackson, Kenneth Hurlstone. A Celtic Miscellany; Translations from the Celtic Literatures. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971. 27-9.

¹³Lynch 16.

¹⁴Lynch, P.J. "A Relic of Caherconree." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Fifth 40.4 (1910): 357-60.
"Through the kindness of Mr. Foley I have been able to examine the stone, and take the photograph which accompanies these notes. It is a trough, cut out of a stone, which measures 4 feet 4 inches by 3 feet 3 inches on the outside, and 1 foot 1 inch in thickness. It has always been known as "Finn Mac Cumhaill’s Saucer." Its history, as far as I could learn, is that it was at Caherconree-where it may be presumed it got its name- up to the year 1830, or about that time, when it was brought down from the mountain by some of the men of this district, and presented to Mr. Michael Foley, of Anglont, who was the grandfather of the present owner…The trough is of the red sandstone of the mountain. The sinking is regularly cut to about 7 inches deep, forming a vessel of that depth, as shown by the sections, and 3 feet 3 inches long by 2 feet 2 inches wide, capable of holding about twenty-five gallons. In later years its earlier associations would appear to have been forgotten, and at one time it was utilized for farm purposes. At this time, Mr. Foley informed me, a hole was formed in one end near the bottom, and an overflow notch cut on the top; otherwise it has suffered little injury."

¹⁵"Caherconree." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 25 Feb. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caherconree>.

¹⁶Horgan 24.

Note: The image of a page from the Yellow Book of Lecan is from the "Irish Script on Screen" (ISOS) project of the School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. The Yellow Book of Lecan is in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, MS 1318. The page shown contains columns 955 and 956. The Tragic Death of Cu Roi MacDaire is actually in column 776, not available at this resource.

¹Ginsberg, Robert. The Aesthetics of Ruins. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2004. 107.

²Cahergal and Leacanabuaile 15 June 2001. Information sign at The Old Barracks Heritage Centre. Caherciveen.
A similar Cahergal legend told of "…an underground passage, supposed to lead through the mountains to Cloc-na-Natin (The Temple of Fire)." (Bean, Kathleen. "Cahergall." Kerry Archaeological Magazine 2 (1912-1914): 155-57.)
According to NUI-Galway archaeologist Michelle Comber, "Most have only one exit/entrance, i.e. are ‘dead-ends’, not leading anywhere. Some do have an exit, e.g. the souterrain at Leacanabuaile cashel…leads from inside one of its internal houses under the cashel and exits through a hole at the rear of the cashel wall, providing a possible escape route. Souterrains do not, however, run for great lengths, and never connect one monument with another – despite this being a favourite local tale in most parts of Ireland!" (Comber, Michelle. "Souterrains." Message to the author. 14 Feb. 2012. E-mail.)

³"Cahergal and Leacanabuaile Forts." – Strollingguides, Information & Photographs. Web. 21 Feb. 2012. <http://www.strollingguides.co.uk/books/kerry/places/cahergal.php>.
While most archaeologists today would date the stone ringforts of Southwestern Ireland to the Early Historical period, others would place them earlier, in the later Iron Age. The sign at the Cahergal site indicates, " It is likely that somebody of importance lived here abut 1,000 years ago."

⁴Lecky, John, and M.J.D. "Notes on Some Kerry Antiquities: Cahergal and Other Fort." Kerry Archaeological Magazine 3.13 (1914): 49-54.
This article states, "Inside the fort are remains of two buildings; at the north side a rectangular building, and in the middle a bee-hive cell. Both are much ruined, and the masonry very much more rough and inferior to that of the fort…"
The focus on Cahergal and Leacanabuaile may be circumstantial, as these types of forts are the most likely to survive. as one author noted, "Elsewhere, as we know from both written and archaeological records, houses were normally of timber or clay, or of both combined. In other words, houses, as we might expect, were built of whatever suitable material came most readily to hand. Unfortunately timber and clay houses seldom leave clearly intelligible traces for the excavator. Hence the accidental prominence achieved by sites like Leacanabuaile…" (Duignan, Michael. "Irish Agriculture in Early Historic Times." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 14.3 (1944): 132-34.)
A partial excavation in 1991concluded, "Very few artefacts were recovered and none that are datable. There was little evidence for activity on the site prior to the construction of the clochán with only a couple of small features clearly predating it." ("Kerry 1991:070 ‘Cahergal’, Kimego West, Stone fort" Excavations.ie. Searchable Database of Irish Excavation Reports. Web. 21 Feb. 2012. <http://www.excavations.ie/Pages/Details.php?Year=&County=Kerry&id=3234>.)

⁵Croker, Thomas Crofton, and Sigerson Clifford. Legends of Kerry. Tralee, Ireland: Geraldine, 1972. 21-22.

⁶Bean, Kathleen. "Cahergall." Kerry Archaeological Magazine 2 (1912-1914): 155-57.

⁷Cahergal and Leacanabuaile 15 June 2001. Information sign at The Old Barracks Heritage Centre. Caherciveen. The direct translation is taken from the sign at the site of the monument. The sign in the Heritage Centre defines the word buaile as "milking ground" and "booleying" as the movement of cows to higher pastures for grazing during the warmer months of the summer. The sign further suggests that Leacanabuaile may have been a habitation site used only in the summer months. However it may also be that the name, with its reference to "booleying" reflects the fort’s usage as a cattle pen centuries after its principal occupation.

⁸O Riordain, S.P., and J.B. Foy. "The Excavation of Leacanabuaile Stone Fort, near Caherciveen, Co. Kerry." Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 46 (1941): 92-97. The article concludes, "The finds from Leacanabuaile are comparatively poor in number and character and are, further, such as give no good chronological data on which the occupation of the fort might be dated. Most are types that have a long archaeological history in this country. The general nature of the finds and particularly the evidence of the bronze ring·headed pin suggests a date in the Early Christian Period. The large flat quern…might be used as an argument for a late date but that such querns were used early in the Christian Period in this country is shown by the finding of one in the large fort at Garranes, Co. Cork the occupation of which is dated to about 500 A.D. The close dating of the Leacanabuaile site is not possible, but it may be noted that the finds correspond to material from sites dated by more significant objects to the ninth and tenth centuries A.D. The poverty of the finds suggests the poverty of the inhabitants."

⁹O Riordain.
From the report, "While the site could, before excavation, be recognised as a stone fort there was little to indicate the nature of the structures subsequently discovered. The walls had fallen and the whole structure was covered with a light earthen sod. The inner wall-face of the enclosing wall was discernible in two places only, and only a few feet showed there." The excavator also noted, regarding the rectangular house in the center of the fort, "This present stage of the dwelling is not original, for earlier there had been no rectangular house, but only three separate clochans, two of which have been removed to make way for the more commodious and convenient rectangular structure."

¹⁰O Riordain.
One visitor reports that, "The original entrance to this souterrain is tiny and a new entrance has been created into the wall-chamber. The gate to this is unlocked, but very stiff. A headlamp would be needed to investigate the passage as no light gets in there. One of the slabs in the wall of the souterrain has carvings on it." ("Kimego West Stone Fort, County Kerry (Leacanabuaile)." Megalithomania. Web. 21 Feb. 2012. <http://megalithomania.com/show/site/2120/leacanabuaile_stone_fort.htm>.)

¹¹Chatterton, Georgiana. Rambles in the South of Ireland during the Year 1838. London: Saunders and Otley, 1839. 301-07.
This book may be read in its entirety here.

¹²Duignan, Michael. "Irish Agriculture in Early Historic Times." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 14.3 (1944): 132-34.

¹³S.M. "Ballycarbery Castle." Kerry Archaeological Magazine 3.16 (1916): 243-59.
The documented dates of the fall of other castles in the area led the author to date the fall of Ballycarbery to a date before June of 1652.
The author adds, "Tradition states that the forces of the Lord Protector battered it with guns from the tide way which flows up to a short distance below it. We are informed that some antiquarians who visited the castle expressed an opinion that the besiegers, after capturing it, must have blown it up from the inside, as was done in the case of Dunboy Castle in 1602. The present writer remembers having, in the days of his youth, seen large blocks of ruined masonry lying about on the southern and eastern sides of the castle, and this would seem to bear out the above opinion."
In a 1597 letter to Queen Elizabeth, she was warned that "…her Majesty ought to have great regard on whom she hestoweth the Castle of Ballycarbrye and the haven of Bealynche [Valencia], which is a very large and fair haven, and in a remote place, dangerous to be in any man’s hands that shall favor any common enemy."

¹⁴S.M.

¹⁵Croker.
Another legend of Ballycarbery Castle describes the rivalry between two O’Connell brothers living in the castle, each of who wish to host the visiting MacCarthy Mór. Since both brothers could not agree which of them would have the honor of hosting the visiting lord, MacCarthy Mór decided that his party would dine with whichever brother had the feast prepared first. "That very night the elder brother, with a view to cutting off from his brother upstairs all supplies of fuel and water, ordered that all doors and passages leading to the upper floor should be locked, and also set a guard to prevent their being opened. This the younger brother coming to know, had no alternative but to have his pots and pans filled with Spanish wine, wherein all his meat was boiled over as many fires of liquorish as were requisite. In this way he succeeded in having dinner ready much earlier than the elder brothel’, and having the honour of entertaining MacCarthy More with his lady and suite." (S.M. "Ballycarbery Castle." Kerry Archaeological Magazine 3.16 (1916): 243-59.)
A modern controversy about the authenticity of the MacCarthy Mór hereditary title may be read here.

¹⁶Lecky 51.
After the complaint about the damage inflicted on the castle wall was printed in the local newspaper in 1910, the property agent wrote, "Immediately on seeing your letter in reference to the fine old Ballycarbery Castle, I went to see the building, and I find that the tenant occupying the farm adjoining has removed about 25 feet of the outer wall at the south side; the wall measured 6 feet by 8 feet high. He has also removed a large quantity of loose stones which were lying around the building. I cautioned the tenant against interfering again with the ruins; and I do not think he will allow any further trespass to be committed." (Cochrane, Robert. "Ballycarbery Castle, County Kerry." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Fifth 40.1 (1910): 56-57.)

¹Croker, Thomas Crofton. Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland. Part II. London: John Murray, 1828. 275-79.

²FitzPatrick, Elizabeth. Royal Inauguration in Gaelic Ireland C. 1100-1600: A Cultural Landscape Study. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: Boydell, 2004. 88.
Directions to hike the trail up to Cairn Thierna may be found here.

³Borlase, William Copeland. The Dolmens of Ireland Their Distribution, Structural Characteristics, (…). Vol. 1. London: Chapman & Hall, 1897. 1-13.
The author writes, "The cist found in Carn Thierna seems to have been of such dimensions as to justify its classification as a dolmen in a cairn." Borlase quotes Windele’s manuscript in which he describes the intact urn found at Cairn Thierna: "The following was the measurement:- Height 5.4 inches; diameter at top 5.75 inches; breadth at base 3 inches;.thickness 3/16th of an inch. It was of a pale reddish colour, of unbaked [?] clay, and rudely carved with lozenges, &c. It had a conical sort of cap." Windele’s engraving of the urn was found in Jewitt, Llewellynn. "Ancient Irish Art. The Fictilia of the Cairns and Crannogs." The Art Journal ns 3 (1877): 327. The engraving is captioned: "A most remarkable urn found at Cairn Thierna, county Cork (engraved in the Archaeological Journal), has its outline totally different from others and is elaborately and delicately ornamented, over almost its entire surface."

⁴Smith, Charles. The Antient and Present State of the County and City of Cork: In Four Books … Vol. 1. Dublin: Printed by A. Reilly for the Author, and Sold by J. Exshaw, 1750. 166-67. This selection may be read here.
A topographical dictionary in 1837 described Cairn Thierna: "The Lords cairn or pile, so named, according to some, from having been the place where the Tierna or chieftain assembled his followers and chose their leaders; or, according to others, from having been a place of pagan worship to the sun." (Lewis, Samuel. "Rathcormac Civil Parish." A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland: Comprising the Several Counties, Cities, Boroughs, Corporate, Market, and Post Towns, Parishes, and Villages, with Historical and Statistical Descriptions. London: Lewis, 1837.)

⁵Doherty, Tony. "Loopy about Fermoy’s Loops." The Irish Times. N.p., 3 Dec. 2011. Web. 06 Aug. 2012. <http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/travel/2011/1203/1224308504733.html>.

⁶Croker. An 1848 treatment of this story, in verse, may be read here.

⁷Croker 302-14.

¹de La Tocnaye, Jacques-Louis. Promenade D’un Français Dans L’Irlande. Dublin: n.p., 1797. 164-66.
The Cabinteely monument of which the author writes may be seen here. The full text of this book may be read here in English and here in the original French.

²Photographs of these structures may be seen here.

³De Valera, Ruaidhrí, and Seán Ó Nualláin. Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Vol. III, Counties Galway-Roscommon-Leitrim-Longford-Westmeath-Laoighis-Offaly-Kildare-Caven. Dublin: Stationery Office, 1972. 108-109.

⁴Lowry-Corry, Dorothy, and Phyllis Richardson. "Megalithic Monuments in the Parish of Killinagh, Co. Cavan. With Notes on Some in the Parish of Killesher, Co. Fermanagh." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 7.2 (1937): 164-65.

⁵Weir, Anthony. "County Cavan – Selected Monuments." Gazetteer of Irish Prehistoric Monuments. Web. 02 Apr. 2013. <http://www.irishmegaliths.org.uk/cavan.htm>.
The author notes the masonry-formed doorway, and writes, "This is reminiscent of the tombs of the French Causses which have been made into shepherd-huts."

⁶De Valera.

⁷"Lough Gur." Gentleman’s Magazine 1 (1833): 109.
"An old woman had resided in it for many years and on her death the covering stones were thrown off and it was left in its present state by ‘money diggers’ who only found some burned bones in an old jug that surely was not worth one brass farthing."

⁸Borlase, William Copeland. The Dolmens of Ireland Their Distribution, Structural Characteristics, (…). Vol. 2. London: Chapman & Hall, 1897. 397.
Evans, E. Estyn. Prehistoric and Early Christian Ireland; a Guide. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1966. 64.

⁹Cooney, Gabriel. "Megalithic Tombs in Their Environmental Setting: A Settlement Perspective." Landscape Archaeology in Ireland. Ed. Terrence Reeves-Smyth and Fred Hamond. Oxford: British Archaeology Reports, 1983. 189.

¹⁰"The Druid’s Alt:" Alt means "height," as used in Co. Tyrone, where a monument also featured in Voices from the Dawn, called St. Patrick’s Chair, is located in Altadaven, or "The Devil’s Height."
In the United States, at approximately the same time, rather than using the Druid nomenclature, tourism in the newly opened Death Valley of California and Nevada was developed using the cachet of the Devil, i.e. Devil’s Golf Course, Devil’s Cornfield, and Devil’s Hole.

¹¹Mortimer, Neil. Stukeley Illustrated: William Stukeley’s Rediscovery of Britain’s Ancient Sites. London: Green Magic, 2003. 11.
A travel journal of 1852 suggested, "Many Irish cromleachs have been subjected to examination, sepulchral urns and even while human skeletons have been found under some of them. Can it be possible that the feeling and usage prevalent still, of burying under Christian altars and supposed holy places, is also a lingering vestige of Druidism?" (Ochille, F. Antiquarian Rambles on the South Coast: A Hand-Book to the ‘Holy Citie of Ardmore’ County of Waterford: Being Rough Sketches of its Antiquities, Legends and Scenery. Youghal: John W. Lindsay, 1852. 63.)

¹²Hadingham, Evan. Circles and Standing Stones. New York: Walker and Co., 1975. 168+.

¹³Professor Michael O’Kelly took such experimentation even further while excavating a fulacht fiadh at Ballyvourney in Co. Cork. Using a 4.5 kg (10 lb) leg of mutton, he tied it inside a bundle of straw to keep out the muddy grit from the water. He then lowered the bundle of meat into the boiling water. (O’Kelly, Michael. "Excavations and Experiments in Ancient Irish Cooking-Places." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 84.2 (1954): 121-22)

¹⁴Waddell, John. Foundation Myths: The Beginnings of Irish Archaeology. Bray, Co. Wicklow: Wordwell, 2005. 187.

¹Hutton, Ronald. The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy. Oxford, UK: B. Blackwell, 1991. 159-60.
The author is here writing specifically of the Turoe Stone.

²"Castlestrange, County Roscommon" Home: Buildings of Ireland: National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. Web. 01 June 2011. <http://www.buildingsofireland.ie/niah/search.jsp?type=record&county=RO&regno=31941001>.

³Coffey, George. "Some Monuments of the La Tène Period Recently Discovered in Ireland." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature 24 (1902-1904): 262-63.

⁴"La Tène Culture" Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 01 June 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Tène_culture>.

⁵Coffey.

⁶"Turoe Stone." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 01 June 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turoe_stone>.
A proposal to preserve the stone in a museum met with local opposition.
Photographs of the Killycluggin Stone in situ c. 1975 may be seen here.

⁷Jackson, Kenneth Hurlstone. The Oldest Irish Tradition; a Window on the Iron Age. Cambridge [Eng.: University, 1964. 6-7.

¹Yeats, W. B. "A Man Young And Old: III. The Mermaid." The Tower. New York: Macmillan, 1928.

²Zucchelli, Christine. Stones of Adoration Sacred Stones and Mystic Megaliths of Ireland. Doughcloyne, Wilton, Cork: Collins, 2007. 30.

³FitzPatrick, Elizabeth. Royal Inauguration in Gaelic Ireland: C.1100-1600 : a Cultural Landscape Study. Woodbridge: Boydell, 2004. 76.

⁴"The Mermaid Stones." Dowd Family Archives. Web. 01 July 2011. <http://www.tonydowd.com/History/mermaid_stones.htm>.
Another genealogical page featuring The Children of the Mermaid story may be found here.

⁵"The Mermaid Rocks." SIP - Schools Integration Project - Projects: Home. Web. 01 July 2011. <http://www.sip.ie/sip005g/videos/mermaid.htm>.
The story used by the schoolchildren, as well as a representation of the Children of the Mermaid scene in Lego blocks, may be viewed in the URL above. Other work from the students, including photographs and paintings of the Mermaid Stones, may be seen here.

⁶Wood-Martin, W.G., The Rude Stone Monuments of Ireland: Co. Sligo and Achill Island. Dublin: Hodges, Figges and Co., 1888. 227-28.
The book may be read in its entirety here.

⁷Wood-Martin, W.G., The Rude Stone Monuments of Ireland: Co. Sligo and Achill Island. Dublin: Hodges, Figges and Co., 1888. 227-28.
The book may be read in its entirety here.

⁸"The Mermaid Rocks." RootsWeb.com Home Page. Web. 01 July 2011. <http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irlsli/mermaid.html>.

⁹Croker, Thomas Crofton. Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland. London: John Murray, 1834. 177-85.
"The Lady of Gollerus" may be read online here.

¹⁰Croker, Thomas Crofton. "Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland." Google Books. Web. 01 July 2011. <http://books.google.com/books?id=g2wWAAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA3&ots=M2Zv7AIwLg&dq=croker%20The%20Lady%20of%20Gollerus&pg=PA14#v=onepage&q&f=false>.

¹¹Zucchelli 29.

¹²Yeats, William Butler., and Benedict Kiely. Fairy and Folk Tales of Ireland. New York: Touchstone Book, 1998. 60.

¹Cronin, Dan. In the Shadow of the Paps. Killarney: Crede, Sliabh Luachra Heritage Group, 2001. 38+.

²0 Giollain, Diarmuid. "Revisiting the Holy Well." Eire-Ireland 40.1&2 (2005): 27-8.
"Victor Turner uses the term 'liminality' to refer to any condition outside, or on the margins of, ordinary life, and which is potentially sacred. A visit to a sacred place at a time outside ordinary profane time, such as a pilgrimage on a feast day, is a particularly liminal occasion."
Carleton Jones defines "liminal" thusly: "A liminal area is an area that is in between. In a spiritual context, a liminal area can exist between two different levels of consciousness or experience. At Loughcrew, it is likely that the people who built the tombs lived in the surrounding low- lands rather than on the hilltops alongside the tombs and that they regarded the hilltops with their cairns as a liminal area or a threshold between the land of the living and the land of the dead ancestors." (Jones, Carleton. Temples of Stone: Exploring the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Cork: Collins, 2007. 209.)

³Weiner, Eric. "Where Heaven and Earth Come Closer." Travel. The New York Times, 8 Mar. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/travel/thin-places-where-we-are-jolted-out-of-old-ways-of-seeing-the-world.html?pagewanted=all>
A "thin place" is defined by Mindie Burgoyne as, "That place where one's spirit is totally whole, at home, with no longing or yearning to be anywhere else. A place of resurrection is not only the place where one's spirit will resurrect from its lifeless body upon death, but also the place where that spirit is most alive inside the living body." ("St. Gobnait, The Spiritual Mother of Ballyvourney - County Cork." Writing the Vision. Web. 28 Dec. 2012. <http://www.writingthevision.com/gobnait.htm>.)

⁴Cathair Crobh Dearg - The City. 6 June 1999. Information sign at the site. Shrone.
Sources differ on the names of the three saints, with some naming St. Laitiaran as one of the trio.
According to the Diocese of Kerry, "This veneration extends to the modern parishes of Rathmore/Knocknagree, Milllstreet/Cullen, Dromtariffe and Ballydesmond. We don't get agreement on the names of her two sister saints in the tradition. Most usually Latiaran of Cullen and Crobhdhearg are found in the tradition but sometimes a saint called Iníon Buí is substituted for either Latiaran or Crobhdhearg." ("St Gobnait." Diocese of Kerry. Web. 12 Nov. 2012. <http://www.dioceseofkerry.ie/page/heritage/saints/st_gobnait/>.)
Frank Coyne notes that "It is significant that three female saints have holy wells, almost equidistant from each other, and have their feast days on three of the quarterly feasts of the old Irish year, with a site referring to the Cailleach perhaps representing Samhain, as a completion of the annual cycle." (Coyne, Frank. Islands in the Clouds: An Upland Archaeological Study on Mount Brandon and The Paps, County Kerry. Tralee, Co. Kerry: Kerry County Council in Association with Aegis Archaeology Limited, 2006. 21.)
Information on the Mórrígan may be found here. There may be an echo of the Mórrígan story in this tale, included by Dan Cronin in his book, as told to him by Own McCarthy: "Long ago there dwelt a beautiful maiden in a famous sidhe, Bergh Elda. On the Eve of Samhain, when nothing could be hidden in the sidhe forts, many of the men of Erin sought her hand in marriage. But the only reward that each one got for his trouble was that one of his party was killed, by whom or what could not be ascertained. However, when a friend to Fionn went to court the maiden and met with a like fate, Fionn sought counsel from an acknowledged champion, Fiacail Mac Conchinn, who advised him to go and take up a position between the two mountain peaks known as the Paps of Dana. While seated there on the side of the little pathway, to this day known as Bóthar á Chích, on Sarnhain Eve, Fionn saw two large mounds that were between the Paps, one on either side of Bóthar á Chích, open, disclosing a huge fire burning inside each of the mounds. Then he heard a general interchange of sounds and commotion being conducted between the mounds. A man emerged from one of the liosanna and he went in the direction of the other. He carried a wooden container, laden with food and some greenery. Fionn poised himself and threw a spear at the apparition. Immediately he heard loud weeping and keening in the rath from which the man had emerged. It has been claimed that Fionn's victim was the destroyer of the suitors followers." (Cronin 24-5.)

⁵Jones, Carleton. Temples of Stone: Exploring the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Cork: Collins, 2007. 21-22.
The author states, "Although we do not know how the Mesolithic people explained them, in later prehistory they were named after Anu/Danu, the principle mother goddess in early Irish mythology (Danu was also worshipped on the Continent). In Medieval texts, the province of Munster (stretching away on all sides of the Paps of Anu), is described as particularly prosperous due to the bounty provided by Anu. Given their form, it seems likely that earlier people would also have made the association between these mountains and a female goddess. At some point in prehistory, cairns were built on both mountain tops, making them resemble breasts even more."

⁶Coyne, Frank. Islands in the Clouds: An Upland Archaeological Study on Mount Brandon and The Paps, County Kerry. Tralee, Co. Kerry: Kerry County Council in Association with Aegis Archaeology Limited, 2006. 12. This book may be read in its entirety here.
Citing Edmonds (1999, 7), Coyne suggests that "people experienced the world physically through a 'technology of memory,' in the way that they interact with certain monuments or landscapes, and that much of what happens in these places is constituted by the past by real or invented tradition and by what is already there. This 'technology of memory' allows people to re-use, re-absorb and re-work the past through their physical encounter with particular monuments or ritual events."
Some photographs of the "brocken-spectre" phenomenon may be viewed here.

⁷Coyne 13-14.

⁸Coyne 21.
The entire 1841 O'Donovan Ordnance Survey Letters quotation, as related by Coyne: "... in the townland of Gortnagowan in the east division of this parish there is a caher or circular stone fort called Caher-Crovderg [sic], the fort of the red-handed. In the west side of it is a holy well at which stations are performed by the peasantry on May Eve; who also drive their cattle into the fort and make them drink of the water of the holy well, which is believed to have virtue to preserve them from all contagious distempers during the ensuing year." (Coyne 47.)

⁹Cronin 41.
The author further identifies this flagstone: "This particular path was, and still is, known as ‘The Bridle Path’. Skirting the edge of Lough Glounafreaghaun…The peculiar signs on the flagstone are still there to be seen and the spot is known as Rian ‘a Daimh. The Bridle Path is no longer used since it was replaced by a roadway, built in the late 1920s, and known as The Slyggudal Pass."

¹⁰Cronin, Dan. "Cromlech Cathair Crobh Dearg." Personal interview. 22 June 1999.

¹¹Coyne 46-50.

¹²Meehan, Cary. The Traveller’s Guide to Sacred Ireland: A Guide to the Sacred Places of Ireland, Her Legends, Folklore and People. Glastonbury: Gothic Image, 2004. 25.

¹³Cronin 41-44.
The author explains, "An idea of the number of pilgrims who visited The City on a given May Day – within living memory – can be had from accurate statistics for the year 1938. On May Day of that year, the ‘deerhough’ or person who attended the well, filling the water into bottles etc., collected for work the sum of £29. Now, in 1938 money was scarce and hard to come by, and that figure of £29 included no paper money. The largest coin in the ‘takings’ was a 6d piece (sixpennies in pre-decimalization days). Then there were threepenny bits, pennies and ha’pennies. From these figures one can gauge the number of pilgrims who visited the Well on that May Day."

¹⁴Coyne 46-50.
The author concludes, "It can be suggested therefore that "The City" may not have always been used for habitation, and that its function also lies in the realm of the ritual and ceremonial, the focus for religious activity."

¹⁵Cronin 27-30.

¹⁶Coyne 46-50.
In comparing The City to the Ballynahatty Giant’s Ring, the author states, "Perhaps a similar sequence may be suggested for ‘The City’- the megalithic structure/tomb enclosed in the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age, and this enclosure substantially remodeled, adapted and added to as the ritual and ceremonial needs of the society itself evolved and changed over time."

¹⁷Coyne 46-50.

¹⁸Cormac, John O’Donovan, and Whitley Stokes. Sanas Chormaic (Cormac’s Glossary). Calcutta: Printed by O.T. Cutter for the Irish Archeological and Celtic Society, 1868. 17. This may be read in its entirety here.
Ronald Hutton put his own gloss on this: "[In the Glossary] she is called the mother of all deities, a further inflation of status from being the founder of her great Tuatha. But another text, Cóir Anman (‘The Fitness of Names’), calls ‘Anu’ the tutelary goddess of the province of Munster, where indeed twin mountains are still said to represent her breasts. If Danu, Ana and Anu are the same then it is possible that a local goddess grew into a generalized one, perhaps aided by the fact that Cormac was a Munster leader. (Hutton, Ronald. The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, Ltd. 1991. 153.)

¹⁹White, Gary C., and Elyn Aviva. Powerful Places in Ireland. Santa Fe, NM: Pilgrims Process, 2011.
See also: Zucchelli, Christine. Stones of Adoration Sacred Stones and Mystic Megaliths of Ireland. Doughcloyne, Wilton, Cork: Collins, 2007. 24.

A thorough discussion of the Anu/Danu relationship may be read here.

²⁰Monaghan, Patricia. The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore. New York: Facts On File, 2003. 20.
In its entry on Danu, the Encyclopedia explains, "Danu’s name has been derived from the Old Celtic dan, meaning "knowledge," and she has been linked to the Welsh mother goddess DÔN. Some texts call her the daughter of the mighty DAGDA, the good god of abundance, a connection that supports the contention that she was an ancient goddess of the land’s fertility." (p. 117)
The Wikipedia entry for Anann adds, "As a goddess of cattle, she is responsible for culling the weak. She is therefore often referred to as ‘Gentle Annie,’ in an effort to avoid offense, a tactic which is similar to referring to the fairies as ‘The Good People.’
Another sources suggests the original name for this Celtic mother-goddess "seems to have been Dánuv, which again is attested by a goddess-name among various Indo-European peoples (Indic Dánu, Greek Danaë)." (Ó hÓgáin, Dáithí. "Patronage and Devotion in Ancient Irish Religion." History Ireland 8.4 (2000): 20-24.)

²¹Some examples of modern devotion to the goddess Anu/Danu may be noted here, and here. An image search yielded these examples.
No proponent of the "goddess-worshipping, woman-centered, peaceful creative Neolithic Balkan civilization, destroyed by savage patriarchal invaders," Ronald Hutton suggests, "there is, of course, a chance that such a being may have been venerated in the Neolithic, but it is beyond doubt that she would not now possess so many followers had not scholars like Professor Daniel proclaimed her existence with such certainly. It is a delicious irony that these establishment figures, themselves no friends to radicals or to ‘alternative’ archaeologists, may unwittingly have been the founders of a new religion." (Hutton 40.)

²²Cronin 27-30.

²³Coyne 20-21.
The author quotes Gimbutas (1999, 185) who suggested that the death goddess, the Neolithic vulture goddess (and tomb goddess) became known in ancient Irish tradition as Anu or Danu.

²⁴Cronin 27-30.
The author writes that offerings were generally placed by a woman, for the health of and fertility of family and livestock.
Archaeologist Frank Coyne added, "Traditions inform us that the Tuatha De Danann expect recognition of their power by little gifts, observance of seasonal rites and respect for their sacred sites, and if this is done, then all will be well and the land will prosper (Duinn 2005, 76). This custom, therefore, of placing gifts on top of The Paps is surely, consciously or otherwise, a continuation of this ritual." (Coyne 13.)

²⁵Cronin 27-30.

²⁶Cronin 244.
The author discusses a "court of poetry" located close to The City: "Indeed it has been known to historians as ‘the literary Capital of Southern Ireland’. I recall being told that the principal annual get-together in these Courts was so arranged as to fall in with some popular local event – an appealing occasion which would bring crowds of people together from widely scattered areas. So the location selected for this particular Court – the spot, to this day, known as the ‘Seana-Chúirt’ – was ideal. It was a short quarter-mile from The City, where vast number assembled on May Day each year. Poet-scholars from the ‘Southern Region," from BalIyvourney and Coolea, were not strangers here. Indeed Eoghan Rua Ó Súilleabháin,  one of the most famous Gaelic poets of that era, was a product of this well-known court. Sadly, this famous ruin has gone."

²⁷Cronin 38-40.

²⁸Cronin 38-40.
Cronin illustrated the conflict between paganism and Christianity by quoting from Oisín’s poem when he returned from Tír na nÓg. "Finding his old pagan world almost vanquished by St. Patrick, he tells the Saint:
‘When Oisín and Fionn lived
They loved the mountains better than the monastery.
Sweet to them the blackbird’s call,
They would have despised the tolling of your bell.’"

²⁹Hutton, Ronald. The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, Ltd. 1991. 156.

³⁰Hutton 103-105.
Hutton says of the Celtic Cross: "In its origins there was nothing Irish, or British, or ‘Celtic’, about it. It developed in the western Carpathian region around 3000 BC, upon pottery. During the next millennium it spread slowly across Europe, being especially popular upon metalwork of the so-called beaker culture. Traditionally it has always been regarded as a sun symbol, and the particular frequency with which it appears upon prehistoric gold objects would perhaps strengthen that supposition. It became virtually a brand-mark for the Irish work…"

³¹Carroll, Michael P. Irish Pilgrimage: Holy Wells and Popular Catholic Devotion. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins UP, 1999. 43.
The author explains that both the laity and the clergy in Ireland made the transition from self-exile as penance to the performance of penitential rounds at domestic sites.
The "penitential rounds" for The City, as told to Dan Cronin by Jim Meirsheen (Cronin 41-44.):

"1. Commencing at the Gap: Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory, said seven times while kneeling.

2. Go around The City, three times on the outside, deiseal (keeping the right hand inside). Say a Rosary on each round, finishing each time at the Gap.

3. At the western Station, near the house, say Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory, five times, kneeling.

4. Go around The City three times inside, clockwise, saying a Rosary each time, always finishing at the Gap.

5. Repeat (3), then make three crosses on the western Station, with a pebble or with your finger, mentioning your intention. If for yourself, rub the dust on your forehead.

6. Repeat (3) again, this time at the northern Station.

7. Go around the central Gallán, clockwise, saying the Rosary.

8. Repeat (5) at the northern Station.

9. Go from northern Station to the Altar at the eastern side, saying a decade of the Rosary.

10. At the Altar say Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory seven times. Repeat crosses as at (5), also circle. Pray to Our Lady for your intentions.

11. Say Our Father, Hall Mary and Glory three times at the Well. Have a drink of the water and take some with you."

³²Cronin 44-48.
The author further explains the early Irish system of Penance: "An arnamchara or soul-friend was utilised to advise the penitent on the extent of the severity of the penance necessary in order to be cleansed before coming into the presence of what they considered holy. The arnamchara was indispensable, because of the fact that he took on the responsibility from the penitent as to what would be enough, not-too much or too little, to placate the god or gods. For, had the penitent decided for himself how much penance he was obliged to do, he figured that he was putting himself in the place of his god in deciding what was suitable. His idea was that a little could in no way be enough, yet, severe (for good measure) would be considered pride or overdoing it. This method was practised in many parts of Ireland, until the Christian clerics converted the rite to Christianity, using it to cleanse the penitent, thus enabling him to receive the Holy Eucharist of Christ. Where the official Church had lesser influence, especially in remote places, the peasant continued the old form of penitential rite – without the anamchara, who, incidentally, had been made redundant by the Christian influence! but remained popular up to the end of the 19th century. They fell out of favour due to ridicule by English Protestants and as people became more educated. Even though the Irish penitential system was severely criticized at first, it eventually got to be accepted as a good thing. The Irish practice of administering bodily punishment came across as a humbling penance, showing a good proof of sorrow for sin confessed. It was also required to compensate victims for wrongs done. The Council of Trent emphasized the sacramental status of Penance, and the use of confessional boxes became customary in places."

³³Cronin 48-49.

³⁴More information on climbing the Paps may be found here, and here.
We made our climb in 2001, starting at The City, with Deidre O’Sullivan, of Tailor Made Tours.

³⁵Coyne 24-21.
Coyne notes that the western Pap is connected figuratively and literally to the eastern Pap "by a series of jagged protruding rocks set on edge, many of which are naturally-occurring, but some undoubtedly erected by hand, and known locally as the Fiacla, or teeth. These form a direct line along the ‘cleavage’ of the two Paps, and may mark a ceremonial route-way between the two peaks."

³⁶O’Sullivan, Muiris, and Liam Downey. "Summit Cairns." Archaeology Ireland 25.3 (2011): 20-23.
The authors count more than 2,000 cairns if modern triangulation specimens are included.
They noted, "The degree of overlap between the positioning of prehistoric cairns/passage tombs and the sites identified by engineers as optimal for the erection of triangulation stations testified to the spatial and technical understanding applied by the societies that erected these monuments so as to ensure their distant visibility, and indeed intervisibility."
Coyne notes, "Certainly the large and immovable man-made structures such as megalithic tombs presented very clear messages of ownership, and the same is applicable to the mountaintop cairns." (Coyne 24-251.)

³⁷Coyne 25-29.
Coyne’s rescue excavation was intended to mitigate the damage done when modern climbers used stones from the cairns to construct their own small cairns at the top of the original monument, or to construct shelters from the weather. The archaeologist wrote of his work at the western cairn, "The modern disturbance was removed, and excavated down to the natural material, which was a compact, grey gravel in a dark peaty matrix. When this modem disturbance was excavated, the exposed section was drawn, and then the cairn material re-installed. No charcoal samples were retained, as the modem burning would have contaminated any charcoal recovered."

³⁸Monaghan, Patricia. The Red-haired Girl from the Bog: The Landscape of Celtic Myth and Spirit. Novato, CA: New World Library, 2003. 209.

¹O’Grady, Standish. The Coming of Cuculain: a Romance of the Heroic Age of Ireland. London: Methuen, 1894. 9.

²Eagleman, David. Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives. New York: Vintage, 2010. 23.
Additional information here.

³"Táin Bó Cúailnge." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 19 July 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Táin_Bó_Cúailnge>.
The "Death of Cúchulainn " is a separate story, not included in the Táin Bó Cúailnge. The latter is considered within the Voices from the Dawn project in the entries on Queen Maeve’s royal base of Rathcroghan, her tomb of Knocknarea, and the Ulstermen’s palace at Emain Macha.

⁴Gregory, Lady Augusta, and W. B. Yeats. Cuchulain of Muirthemne: the Story of the Men of the Red Branch of Ulster. London: J. Murray, 1902. xv.

⁵"Cú Chulainn." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 19 July 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cú_Chulainn>.
There are a number of variations for the spelling of "Cúchulainn" encountered in the different sources used here. To avoid confusion, we’ve normalized the spelling of the hero’s name. He was born with the name "Sétanta," but it was changed to Cúchulainn, meaning "Culann’s Hound," when he was attacked by, and then killed Culann’s guard dog. He offered to train a new dog, and in the meantime serve as the guard dog himself. In tradition, Cúchulainn was also known as "The Hound of Ulster."

⁶"Cu Chulainn " The Ulster Cycle. Web. 19 July 2011. <http://ulstercycle.wordpress.com/cu-chulainn/>.
"The Conception of Cú Chulainn Version 1" The Ulster Cycle. Web. 19 July 2011. <http://ulstercycle.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/the-conception-of-cu-chulainn-version-1/>.

⁷Jackson, Kenneth Hurlstone. The Oldest Irish Tradition; a Window on the Iron Age. Cambridge [Eng.: University, 1964. 24.

⁸Gregory 21.
Lady Gregory's translation demonstrates her method of trying to mimic in English the syntax of the Irish language. In 1969, Thomas Kinsella treats a similar passage quite differently:
"And certainly the youth Cúchulainn mac Sualdaim was handsome as he came to show his form to the armies. You would think he had three distinct heads of hair – brown at the base, blood-red in the middle, and a crown of golden yellow. This hair was settled strikingly into three coils on the cleft at the back of his head. Each long loose-flowing strand hung down in shining splendour over his shoulders, deep-gold and beautiful and fine as a thread of gold. A hundred neat red-gold curls shone darkly on his neck, and his head was covered with a hundred crimson threads matted with gems. He had four dimples in each cheek – yellow, green, crimson and blue – and seven bright pupils, eye-jewels, in each kingly eye. Each foot had seven toes and each hand seven fingers, the nails with the grip of a hawk's claw or a gryphon's clench." (Kinsella, Thomas, and le Brocquy, Louis.. The Tain. Oxford [Eng.: University, 1969. 156-58.)

⁹Jackson 15-16.
The Gáe Bulga was thrown with the foot, not the arm. It was given to
Cúchulainn by his martial arts teacher, the woman warrior Scáthach. More information here.

¹⁰Cross, Tom Peete, and Clark Harris Slover. Ancient Irish Tales. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1936. 151-52.

¹¹Gregory 237-38.

¹²Kinsella, Thomas, and le Brocquy, Louis. The Tain. Oxford [Eng.: University, 1969. 150-51.
An evocative spoken-work performance of "Cúchulainn's Warp-Spasm" may be heard here.

¹³Gregory 336-37.

¹⁴Gregory 339-41.

¹⁵Hull, Eleanor, and Stephen Reid. Cuchulain: the Hound of Ulster. London: Harrap, 1909. 269.

¹⁶O'Grady 152-56.

¹⁷Macalister, Robert Alexander Stewart. Tara, a Pagan Sanctuary of Ancient Ireland. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1931. 70.

¹⁸"Cu Chulainn " The Ulster Cycle.
According to W.B. Yeats, "Arguments of a nature purely philological, based upon the language of the texts, or critical, based upon the relations of the various MSS. to each other, not only allow, but compel us to date the redaction of the principal Cuchulain stones, substantially in the form under which they have survived, back to the seventh to ninth centuries." (Gregory, Lady Augusta, and W. B. Yeats. Cuchulain of Muirthemne: the Story of the Men of the Red Branch of Ulster. London: J. Murray, 1902. 355-56.) On p. 23 in their translation, where Cúchulainn explains how he arrived at the scene, is an excellent example of the "puzzle-language" that presents a clue to the antiquity of the sources: "'Which way did you take after that?' "That is not hard to tell,' he said. 'From the Cover of the Sea, over the Great Secret of the Tuatha De Danaan, and the Foam of the horses of Emain, over the Morrigu's Garden, and the Great Sow's back; over the Valley of the Great Dam, between the God and his Druid; over the Marrow of the Woman, between the Boar and his Dam; over the Washing-place of the horses of Dea; between the King of Ana and his servant, to Mandchuile of the Four Corners of the World; over Great Crime and the Remnants of the Great Feast; between the Vat and the Little Vat, to the Gardens of Lugh, to the daughters of Tethra, the nephew of the King of the Fomor.'"

¹⁹"Cu Chulainn " The Ulster Cycle.
Other translations and interpretations included
Eleanor Hull's The Boys' Cuchulain (1904), and Yeats' plays, On Baile's Strand (1904), The Green Helmet (1910), At the Hawk's Well (1917), The Only Jealousy of Emer (1919) and The Death of Cuchulain (1939).

²⁰"The Death-place of an Irish Hero." Irish Identity. Web. 19 July 2011. <http://www.irishidentity.com/stories/cuchulainn.htm>.

²¹Kinsella xiii.
Pillar stones are frequently used to identify an action with a specific place. These stones, already ancient at the time of the Tain, often are used as a scene of violence. Kinsella presents, as an example, a scene when a court fool and a girl arrive to deceive Cúchulainn (p. 141): "...Cúchulainn went to meet them and knew by the man's speech that he was the camp fool. He shot a sling-stone from his hand and pierced the fool's head and knocked out his brains. Cúchulainn went up to the girl and cut off her two long tresses and thrust a pillar-stone under her cloak and tunic. He thrust another pillar stone up through the fool's middle. Their two standing-stones are there still, Finnabiar's Pillar-Stone and the Fool's Pillar-Stone. Cúchulainn left them like that."

²²Penn, Elan, Richard Marsh, and Frank McCourt. The Legends & Lands of Ireland. New York: Sterling, 2006. 79.

²³Some examples of the diffusion of the Cúchulainn character into popular culture:
The Irish band "The Pogues" have a track called 'The Sick Bed Of Cuchulainn' on their 1985album Rum, Sodomy And The Lash.
Cúchulainn is the protagonist in the 1984 video game Tir Na Nog and its sequel Dun Darach by Gargoyle Games.
A Cúchulainn collectable action-figure may be purchased here.
Louis le Brocquy's illustrations from The Tain may be viewed here.

²⁴Gregory x-xi.

¹Wood-Martin, W. G. Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland. Vol. 1. London: Longmans, Green, & Co. 1902. 188. This passage may be read in its entirety here.
In another of publication, the author wrote, "Fairy Doctors' recommended the sacrifice of a black cat on the tomb, with the object of propitiating the spirit supposed to guard the hoard; and the contents of the urn, if carefully watched till midnight, would, under these circumstances, again assume its real [golden] character." (Wood-Martin, W.G., The Rude Stone Monuments of Ireland: Co. Sligo and Achill Island. Dublin: Hodges, Figges and Co., 1888. 140.)

²Byrne, Patrick. "Digging for Gold at Cloghanmore." Personal interview. 25 July 1980. The individuals in the portrait of Mr. Byrne and his family are: Angela Byrne, Lorraine Byrne, Patrick Byrne, Cathy Byrne, Karen Byrne, Katherine Callahan, Peggy Byrne, John Byrne, Patrick Byrne ("Paddy the Miner"). The baby is Michael Byrne, 4½ months old.

³Ferguson, Samuel. "On Ancient Cemeteries at Rathcroghan and Elsewhere in Ireland (As Affecting the Question of the Site of the Cemetery at Taltin)." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Polite Literature and Antiquities 1 (1879): 121-22.
The author further describes Cloghanmore: "All that now remains is the ground-plan and underworks of what appears to have originally been a tumulus or long barrow. The sepulchral cists have everywhere been stripped of their outward covering, and, in most cases, of their roofing-stones. Enough, however, remains to show the general plan, which was composed of two larger circles, placed side by side, and together forming a long oval, with one smaller circle annexed at the southern end. All the chambers were constructed on the ground surface. The passages leading to them either opened externally on the level of the adjoining land, or branched off from one or two principal adits."

⁴Wakeman, W.F. "Proceedings and Papers." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Fifth 1.4 (1890): 264-65.
The Board of Works is today known as the Office of Public Works (OPW). Wakeman objected strenuously to this restoration, undertaken by the architect Thomas Newingham Deane c .1886. In his report, Deane wrote, "Foundation stones of a further wall to the west have been discovered four feet below the surface of the bog. A careful examination is being made of the interior, and the cells are being cleared out. I propose to further examine the debris at the western end." ( Deane, T.N. "Appendix to the fifty-fifth Report of the Commissioner of Public Works, Ireland." Appendix F, 63. 1886-7.)
Deane was appointed the first Superintendent of National Monuments in 1875, with some controversy regarding his qualifications. An article in the "Irish Builder" (July 15, 1875, 193 ) concludes that "…Mr. Deane is, without doubt, an architect of recognised ability and experience; but it must be allowed that the general Irish public are not aware that our worthy architect has ever made the ancient architecture of Ireland a subject of previous study…"
Wakeman wrote that the Cloghanmore stones, "through the reckless operations of ignorant ‘conservers,’ have been so mutilated that it is no longer possible to form an exact idea of their original peculiarities…Few visitors to the spot will probably be able, without infinite trouble, to recognise this greatest of all the archaic remains of Glen Malin…In the first place, the monument has lately been transformed from a Dumha into a Caiseal. The enclosure has been further lined by a wall of dry stonework, some eight feet, or so, in height, by an average of twelve feet in thickness. Fortunately, this deplorable excrescence was built on the outside; or, rather, its interior face is flush with that of the blocks which form the pristine oval. All the stones used in the construction of this disgraceful sham appear to have belonged to a great carn, or carns, by which the chambers already noticed were anciently surmounted. The entire of the modern work of so-called conservation, here, can only be described as a mockery, a delusion, and a snare, to all unwary archaeological students by whom the site may be visited."
William Borlase wrote in 1897, "In its present condition of restoration by the Board of Works, it is hard to say exactly what its previous appearance was." (Borlase, William Copeland. The Dolmens of Ireland, Their Distribution, Structural Characteristics, and Affinities in Other Countries. Vol. 1. London: Chapman & Hall, Ld., 1897. 240-44.) This selection may be read here.
Kenneth McNally, however, writing in 2006, called the restoration "a perfunctory tidying-up project." (McNally, Kenneth. Ireland’s Ancient Stones; a Megalithic Heritage. Belfast: Appletree, 2006. 102-103.)

⁵Herity, Michael. Gleanncholmcille: A guide to 5,000 years of history in stone. Dublin: Na Clocha Breaca, 1998. 52.
The author mentions tombs similar in appearance to Cloghanmore: "on the shores of Donegal Bay, at Behy near Ballycastle in Co. Mayo."

⁶McNally, Kenneth. Ireland’s Ancient Stones; a Megalithic Heritage. Belfast: Appletree, 2006. 102-103.

⁷When William Wakeman saw the rock art, he wrote, "Some of the work would seem to represent a style of swastika, with one of its members effaced by the action of frost, rain, and so forth. If, indeed, it shall be pronounced by experts an example of that mysterious figure, it is the only one hitherto discovered in Ireland upon a pagan structure."
(Wakeman, W.F. "Proceedings and Papers." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Fifth 1.4 (1890): 264-65.)
Many visitors to Clochanmore in the modern era, even locals who have made the attempt repeatedly, have been unable to see the Neolithic art engraved on the two stones. The extensive multicolored patchwork of lichens, and the natural weathering of the stones since they were dug out of the bog in the nineteenth century, have worked to make the markings indecipherable except in the most advantageous lighting. In order to make the close up photograph of the concentric circles inscribed on the eastern stone, we had first to trim some of the high grasses that had grown over it.
Other photographers have successfully recorded the rock art. See the Megalithomania website’s images here. A photograph of the same concentric circles as shown in our VR environment, shot by Ken Williams (Shadows and Stones) may be viewed here.

⁸An expression of these sentiments is to be found in our interview with Paddy O’Shea, of Co. Kerry, which may be heard here.

⁹McGuire, John. "Keeping the Children Away." Personal interview. 13 July 1979.

¹⁰Danaher, Kevin. Gentle Places and Simple Things: Irish Customs and Beliefs. Dublin: Mercier, 1964. 48.
It would appear that the early church gave its blessing to the looting of prehistoric tombs. Benignus, a disciple of St. Patrick, "…possessed himself of them in company and with the full approval of St. Patrick himself." (Macalister, R.A.S., Ancient Ireland, A Study in the Lessons of Archaeology and History. London: 1935. 35.)

¹¹Grinsell, Leslie V. Folklore of Prehistoric Sites in Britain. London: Newton Abbot, 1976. 66.
The Ardagh Chalice may today to be seen in the National Museum of Ireland.

¹²Gregory, Augusta, and W. B. Yeats. Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland. Vol.1. New York and London: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1920, 41.
Patrick Kennedy relates the story of a Brian Neil, who "was employed one afternoon by Mrs. Rooney. After finishing his work for the day, he related to her his dream of the past three nights, in which he saw in the rath of Knockmor a big grey stone, and an old thorn tree, and a hole in the middle of them containing a crock at its bottom. He told her he would set out to see if there was really anything to be found there. Leaving Mrs. Rooney with a spade and a shovel, he returned three hours later ‘in a very dismantled condition, his hair in moist flakes, his eyes glassy, and his whole appearance betokening one who would drop in pieces if some strong power were not keeping him together.’ He gave an account of his ordeal to Mrs. Rooney, telling of finding the crock, but panicking before opening it. She gave him a drink, and he fell asleep from exhaustion.
In the morning, he decided to return to the rath, only to find the crock missing. He confronted Mrs. Rooney, who was the only one who knew of his quest.
‘Crock!’ said she, ‘what are you talking about? Oh, my poor man, you are raving!’
There was great commotion in the neighbourhood…All that the sharpest neighbour could make out was the absence of the farmer and his wife from their house for about an hour on the evening in question. It all resulted in poor Brian losing his reason, and coming to vituperate Mrs. Rooney about once a week at her own door. She always gave him something to eat or wear. By degrees the farm was improved, and more land taken. Her children were well provided for, and so are such of her grandchildren as are now living. Ill-got money does not in general produce such comfortable results." (Kennedy, Patrick. Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts. London: Macmillan and Co., 1866. 169-71.)

¹³O’Donnell, Janne. "Cloghanmore Megalithic Tomb." A Wee Bit of Ireland. Web. 27 June 2012. <http://www.a-wee-bit-of-ireland.com/eire_jul_2005/cloghanmore_01.html>.

¹Lawlor, H.C. "Some Tentative Deductions Arising from the Study of Three Ancient Monuments in Northern Ireland. 1. The Holestone." The Irish Naturalists’ Journal 3.5 (1930): 107-08.
This author’s prize-winning essay cites as evidence for the Holestone’s ancient importance the fact that the builders of the nearby souterrains did not attempt to use the Holestone in their construction.

²Dexter, T.F.G. The Sacred Stone. Cornwall: New Knowledge, 1929. 24.
A holed stone at Castledermot, Co. Kildare, is known as the Swearing Stone. Two holed stones in the monastic enclosure on Inishmurray have associations with women in childbirth.

³"Doagh Holestone." Irish Antiquities. Web. 29 July 2011. <http://irishantiquities.bravehost.com/antrim/holestone/holestone.html>.

⁴Lawlor 108-09.

⁵"Sketch of a Ramble to Antrim, Taken July 10th, 1808." The Belfast Monthly Magazine 2.11 (1809): 424.

⁶Wood-Martin, W.G. "The Rude Stone Monuments of Ireland (Continued)." The Journal of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland Fourth 8.70 (1887): 78-79.

⁷Zucchelli, Christine. Stones of Adoration Sacred Stones and Mystic Megaliths of Ireland. Doughcloyne, Wilton, Cork: Collins, 2007. 126.
Does the continuing practice cause undue wear on the ancient monument? According to Claire Foley of the Northern Ireland Environment Service, "We wouldn’t discourage the wear because the symbolic use of the stone is very important." (An Irishwoman’s Diary. The Irish Times. 12 February 1996. Quoted in "Spoil Heap," Archaeology Ireland, 10:1 (Spring, 1996) 36.
While researching the Doagh site in July of 2011 I found, in the Wikipedia entry for the town of Doagh, the following purported story of the Holestone: "There is a legend regarding a black horse that inhabits the field in which the holestone is situated. According to this legend a young couple were married at the stone, but the groom committed an act of adultery on their wedding night. For this act he was cursed by the stone to spend eternity as a horse, never dying, and never able to leave that field." Because I did not hear this story when I was doing the media fieldwork in Doagh, and because I’ve not seen this story repeated elsewhere, I sent an email query to the local town council. On August 4th I received this response: "I have asked various members of our local Historical Society and farmers who live in the area around the Holestone and no-one has heard this story. Good luck with your research. (signed) Lindy Reid (Secretary Ballyclare & District Historical Society)." I subsequently edited the Wikipedia page to delete the ersatz bit of folklore lest it be repeated enough to eventually become bound into the authentic lore of the site.

⁸"Doagh Holestone."

⁹Wood-Martin, W. G. Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland. Vol. 2. London: Longmans, Green, & Co. 1902. 237-39.

¹⁰Weir, Anthony. "Potency and Sin: Ireland and the Phallic Continuum." Archaeology Ireland 4.2 (1990): 54-55.
"Doagh Holed Stone." The Megalithic Portal and Megalith Map. Web. 30 July 2011. <http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=6333462>.
Aubrrey Burl cites instances of primitive people affecting the fertility of the land and crop harvest by performing sexual intercourse with animals and each other, within the megalithic enclosures. "Much early religion was naturalistic, concerned with nature and its effects, sometimes requiring a shaman to intercede with nature on behalf of the community, less a witch-doctor than a medium who would dance himself into a drum-beaten ecstasy before passing into a trance." (Burl, Aubrey. The Stone Circles of the British Isles. New Haven: Yale UP, 1976. 87-88.)

¹¹M’S, S., and P. "The Holestone : County of Antrim." The Dublin Penny Journal 20 Apr. 1833: 340-41.

¹²Agnew, Hessie, and Elizabeth Wilson. "Doagh Holestone." Personal interview. 11 June 1998.

¹Wood-Martin, W. G. Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland. Vol. 2. London: Longmans, Green, & Co. 1902. 225.
The fear gorta ("man of hunger") is a phantom resembling an emaciated human. Fear gortach, "hungry grass," a patch of dead grass which appears where someone has died of hunger. Anyone who walks across it gets the same sickness. "According to Yeats’ Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry the fear gorta walks the earth during times of famine, seeking alms from passers-by. In this version the fear gorta can be a potential source of good luck for generous individuals." (Wikipedia)

²Poitín is a traditional Irish alcoholic drink that for centuries was illegal in the country. Traditionally distilled from malted barley grain or potatoes, it is one of the strongest alcoholic beverages in the world, In 1997 it became legal to sell poitín in the Republic of Ireland, and two distilleries produce a far weaker product than its illegally distilled ancestor. (Wikipedia)

³A retired schoolmaster, Seán Burke was interested in antiquarian and folkloric studies. Unfortunately we have no photographs of Burke, nor a recording of our conversation.

⁴Ciortan appears in the Ulster Cycle legend of the Táin Bó Flidhais. Another legend of the area was retold by Rev. Caesar Otway in 1850: A sea-king named Fergus came on a plundering raid to Erris, which was then owned by the giant Donnell Doolwee who lived at Glencastle. Fergus came to Donnell’s castle where he charmed Donnell’s faithless wife, Munhanna. She then found out the secret to Donnell’s invincibility, a ringlet of the hair of the Morrigan tied around his loins.
"Donnell was made drunk – he slept in sottishness – his knot was cut – [his enemy] admitted – he drew his sword, and Doolwee’s head was severed from his body, and sent rolling in all its ghastliness down the steep sides of the Doon; and the morning sun, as it rose over the eastern bill, saw the raven banner of the sea-king floating over the ramparts of Dooncarton." (Otway, Caesar. Sketches in Erris and Tyrawly, Illustrative of the Scenery, Antiquities, Architectural Remains, and the Manners and Superstitions of the Irish Peasantry. Dublin: T. Connolly, 1850. 39-42.)

⁵"Corrib Gas Pipeline: Environmental Impact Statement." Web. 29 Sept. 2011.
The "non-technical summary" of the EIS may be read here.

⁶Otway, Caesar. Sketches in Erris and Tyrawly, Illustrative of the Scenery, Antiquities, Architectural Remains, and the Manners and Superstitions of the Irish Peasantry. Dublin: T. Connolly, 1850. 337-38.
Earlier in his book the author complains about a different monument wantonly destroyed: "The head and foot stones of what has been called a giant’s grave still remain here, near the Doon – it is about forty feet long – also a cromleach–but as this lay in the way of the new road, the iligant [sic] engineer ordered it to be upset, and there the ruin lies and may lie, for stones are cheap, as a monument of a projector’s taste, who would not deflect his road half a perch, in order to preserve it." (pp. 38-9)

¹O’Grady, Standish. Early Bardic Literature. London: Sampson Low, Searle, Marston & Rivington, 1879. 77-78.

²The two tombs within the Dowth mound are not (in 2011) considered secure and are closed to visitors, except for the yearly opening of the south tomb for the winter solstice sunset. A 2006 winter solstice photograph by Clare Tuffy (OPW) shows the people gathered for sunset standing high on the mound to catch the last rays of the setting sun. Information regarding the annual opening of the tomb for the winter solstice sunset may be found here. There was previously access available to the north tomb through the souterrain tunnel, in total darkness. An account of such a visit is available here.

³Herity, Michael. Irish Passage Graves: Neolithic Tomb-builders in Ireland and Britain, 2500 B.C. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1975. 3.
The 1847-48 excavation report estimated the effort required: "When perfect, the cubical content of the whole may be estimated at about 75,000 Cubic Yards, & considering the probable means then available for performing such work, 6 men would be required to collect & place the materials of each Cubic Yard in a day, so that the formation of the Mound itself, without any reference to internal Chambers, would require the labour of nearly half a million of men for a day, when we consider the remote period at which this must have been executed, the limited number of men which could then have been procured for the purpose, the great difficulty of transporting such bulky materials to a distance as those stones surmounting the bank composing the chambers of the Mound, & the consequent great length of time which must have been consumed in the creation of the work, even this apparently rude structure will bear a favourable comparison with some of the more celebrated works of modem times." (O’Kelly, M.J., Claire O’Kelly, V.R. O’Sullivan, and R.H. Frith. "The Tumulus of Dowth, County Meath." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 83C (1983): 1586-88.)

⁴Dowth, Brú na Bóinne. 2 June 2010. Information sign at the site. Dowth.
The "Stone of the Seven Suns" is considered in the context of its "ancient astronomical symbolism" here. Other sources for discussions of the rock art at Dowth include:
Coffey, George. "On Stone Markings (Ship-Figure) Recently Discovered at Dowth, in the County of Meath." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 4 (1889-1901): 586-88.
Coffey, George. "On the Tumuli and Inscribed Stones at New Grange, Dowth, and Knowth." The Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy 30 (1892/1896): 51-67.
O’Kelly, M.J., Claire O’Kelly, V.R. O’Sullivan, and R.H. Frith. "The Tumulus of Dowth, County Meath." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 83C (1983): 158-59.

⁵O’Kelly, M.J., Claire O’Kelly, V.R. O’Sullivan, and R.H. Frith. "The Tumulus of Dowth, County Meath." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 83C (1983): 148-56.
It was the urge to find a major central burial chamber at Dowth that prompted the ill-considered and poorly-executed 1847-48 excavations.

⁶Moroney, Anne-Marie. "Winter Sunsets at Dowth." Archaeology Ireland 13.4 (1999): 29-31.
Photographs taken demonstrating the illumination of the south tomb during the sunset of the Winter Solstice may be seen here and here.

⁷Cooney, Gabriel. "Dowth Passage Tomb." Archaeology Ireland 11.3 (1997): 18.
Coffey reported that "The present chamber roof is of concrete and is noticeably less successful at keeping out the rainwater than the Newgrange roof built about 5000 years ago." (O’Kelly, M.J., Claire O’Kelly, V.R. O’Sullivan, and R.H. Frith. "The Tumulus of Dowth, County Meath." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 83C (1983): 148-56.)

⁸Eogan, George, and Eoin Grogan. "Prehistoric and Early Historic Culture Change at Brugh Na Bóinne." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 91C (1991): 118.

⁹"Part 432 of The Annals of Ulster." UCC Home Page. Web. 29 June 2011. <http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T100001A/text432.html>.

¹⁰O’Kelly 136-41.
Michael Herity has noted, "Passage Graves, probably because they often commanded a good view, seem to have been fairly often chosen as the sites of follies. Professor Ruaidhri de Valera has pointed out to me that the circular structure at the top of Clermont cairn in Co. Louth is probably the remains of one." (Herity, Michael. "From Lhuyd to Coffey: New Information from Unpublished Descriptions of the Boyne Valley Tombs." Studia Hibernica 7 (1967): 142, note 24.)

¹¹O’Kelly 136-41.
Penal Law, in effect at the time, would have made it difficult for Netterville to practice his Catholicism openly.

¹²O’Kelly 41-44.
All the artifacts recovered from Dowth date to its period of use in Early Christian and Norse times. The 1847-48 excavation discovered burned bones, some human, within the chamber of Dowth North. In 1970, Claire. O’Kelly found a human mandible just beneath the surface of the floor in Dowth South.

¹³O’Kelly 141-44.

¹⁴O’Kelly 144.

¹⁵O’Kelly 147-48.

¹⁶Gwynn, Edward, trans. The Metrical Dindshenchas: "Cnogba." Cork: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts, 2004. The Metrical Dindshenchas. University College, Cork. Web. 29 June 2011. <http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T106500C.html>. 45.

¹⁷Gwynn 43-47.

¹Burl, Aubrey. A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland, and Brittany. New Haven: Yale UP, 1995. 218-19.
The quotation is from The Ley Hunter, 90, 1981, 10-11.

²Hickey, John. "Drombeg Stone Circle." Personal interview. 17 June 1979.

³Hickey.
There is an illustration purporting to be the "…correct notation of the wail of the Banshee…" in the gallery at the bottom of the Drombeg page. It was described to the Halls as "…a sound that resembles the melancholy sound of the wind, but having the tone of a human voice, and distinctly audible to a great distance." (Hall, Mr. & Mrs. S.C. Ireland: Its Scenery, Character, etc. 3 vols. London: How and Parsons, 1841. V. 3, p. 106.)

⁴Burl.
A review in The New York Times referred to Burl as "…the leading authority on British Stone circles.” (Johnspon, Paul. "MagicStones: Prehistoric Avebury." The New York Times 21 Sept. 1979, Book Review sec.: 3.)

⁵Zucchelli, Christine. Stones of Adoration Sacred Stones and Mystic Megaliths of Ireland. Doughcloyne, Wilton, Cork: Collins, 2007. 41.

⁶"Drombeg Stone Circle." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 11 July 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drombeg_stone_circle>.
The narrow lane leading to the parking area seems to discourage large coaches, but there will be vehicles entering and leaving all throughout the day. For the best Drombeg experience, plan to arrive early in the morning. The area within the stone circle is now covered with a layer of gravel to protect the wet ground from becoming a muddy morass of all the visitors’ footprints. This crushed-stone platform is actually in harmony with the design of Drombeg’s original architects, who deposited a level layer of stones within the circle. The large-format Zoomify images on our Drombeg page were shot with a 4×5 view camera in 1979, when there was a grassy area inside the circle.

⁷Ó Nualláin, Seán. "The Stone Circle Complex of Cork and Kerry." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 105 (1975): 104-05.

⁸Fahy, E.M. "A Recumbent-stone Circle at Drombeg, Co. Cork." Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 64 (January-June, 1959): 4.
Fahy writes, (pp 14-15) "…we have established by actual observations at the site that…a line joining the centre of the portal gap (between stones no. 1 and 17) and the centre of the circle passes mid way through the recumbent stone. During the excavation vertical rods were set up at these points and photographed from a point on a projection of that line to the east. During mid-winter, 24 December 1957 and again on 23 December 1958, the setting sun was photographed by an independent observer, standing to the east outside the portal stones, and was found to lie slightly south of the point previously established as the axial intersection with the horizon, i.e., a point south of the V-gap in the horizon…"

⁹Fahy 25.

¹⁰Fahy 23-24.

¹¹Ó Nualláin.
Conflicting evidence exists regarding the date of the construction of the stone circle. The Drombeg radiocarbon data (500 BCE – 127 CE for the circle; c. 500 CD for the fulacht fiadh) has varied widely, and is considered suspect by some authors. The pagan nature of the burial mode at the site, Ó Nualláin writes, makes a late date for the circle “highly improbably.” He considers the stylistic evidence of the pottery, the use of quartz stones in the monuments, and the general Bronze Age dating of such stone circles as supporting his argument that Drombeg is of Bronze Age construction. Fahy acknowledges (p. 25) “…we may…allow for the slight possibility that the circle pre-dates the burial and pavement.” But he also asserts (p. 16) that “the burial was a primary feature of the site.

¹²Fahy 9-10.

¹³Fahy 16-17.

¹⁴Burl.

¹⁵Fahy, E.M. "A Hut and Cooking Places at Drombeg, Co. Cork." Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 65 (January-June, 1960): 14-15.
Fahy writes, "While it is unlikely that the site was in use for 500 years it is possible that it was in intermittent use for several decades; but there can be no finality in the matter."

¹⁶O’Kelly, Michael. "Excavations and Experiments in Ancient Irish Cooking-Places." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 84.2 (1954): 138-39.
O’Kelly here translates fulacht fiadh as "cooking-place of deer," "cooking-place of game," or "cooking-place of the wild [outdoors]." His earliest source for this is the Medieval etymology Cormac’s Glossary. There are some  4,500 fulacht fiadh in Ireland, with 2,000 found in Co. Cork. The stone walkway connecting the fulacht fiadh to the conjoined huts would have been required by the marshy landscape.

¹⁷Fahy, E.M. "A Hut and Cooking Places at Drombeg, Co. Cork." 9-10.
O’Kelly added some details: "Clouds of steam billowed up from the trough and the wet peat all around it became hot. This was a remarkable result and showed that our supposed difficulties regarding the cooling effect of the ground and of the cold water seeping in from the peat. were of no consequence! As the stones went in. some water was displaced over the lowest point of the side. but using really well-heated stones. a comparatively small number only were required so that not much water was lost in this way. A stone measuring 30 x 15 x 5 cm put in red-hot kept the water in its vicinity boiling very strongly for 15 minutes and even after it had been in the water for 30 minutes. it was still too hot to handle." (O’Kelly, Michael. "Excavations and Experiments in Ancient Irish Cooking-Places." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 84.2 (1954): 121-22.)

¹⁸O’Kelly 121-22.
One example from the "early Irish literature" might be from Keating’s Foras Feasa ar Éirinn (1723, from Medieval sources): "However, from Bealltaine until Samhain. the Fian were obliged to depend solely on the products of their hunting and of the chase as maintenance and wages from the kings of Ireland; thus, they were to have the flesh for food, and the skins of the wild animals as pay. But they only took one meal in the day-and-night, and that was in the afternoon. And it was their custom to send their attendants about noon with whatever they had killed in the morning’s hunt to an appointed hill, having wood and moorland in the neighbourhood, and to kindle raging fires thereon, and put into them a large number of emery stones; and to dig two pits in the yellow clay of the moorland, and put some of the meat on spits to roast before the fire; and to bind another portion of it with suagans in dry bundles and set it to boil in the larger of the two pits and keep plying them with the stones that were in the fire, making them seethe often until they were cooked. And these fires were so large that their sites are to-day in Ireland burnt to blackness, and these are now called Fulacht Fian by the peasantry."
Poet Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill evokes the image of the Fenian warriors at their Fulacht Fian in this excerpt from her poem "The Lay of Loughadoon:"

"We walked on till we found
a megalithic tomb or burial-mound,
wedge-shaped, with a great capstone, and by it
an ancient cooking-pit.

‘While they hunted,’ I went on to say,
‘Fionn and the Fianna
ate only one meal a day
and that usually in the evening.

Their stewards used to light great fires
and dig two pits, in one of which
Fionn and the Fianna would wash
while their dinner cooked in the other.’"

(Ní Dhomhnaill, Nuala, and Paul Muldoon. The Astrakhan Cloak. Winston-Salem, NC: Wake Forest UP, 1993. 67.)

¹⁹O’Kelly 141.
The author explains the lack of any findings of bones in the all the fulacht fiadh thusly: "In the first place meat bones left strewn about on the surface must have been quickly scavenged by the hunting dogs and by wild animals after the party had left the site; and secondly, if they were thrown on to or buried in the peat bogs, or in the adjacent soil, it is probable that they would have been dissolved away by the acidity of the ground. It is not surprising, therefore, that no bone was found at any of our sites." This line of reasoning has not been persuasive to all observers.

²⁰O’Neill, John. "Just Another ‘Fulachta Fiadh’ Story." Archaeology Ireland 14.2 (2000): 19.
That the fulachta fiadh may be used for brewing beer was a moment of inspiration: "One hungover morning at breakfast, discussing the natural predisposition of all men to seek means to alter our minds, coupled with our innate inquisitiveness (and more mundane preparations for the excavation of a fulacht fiadh), Billy came to a sudden and startling conclusion: fulachta fiadh were Ireland’s earliest breweries!" (Quinn, Billy, and Declan Moore. "Ale, Brewing and ‘Fulachta Fiadh’" Archaeology Ireland 21.3 (2007): 8.)

²¹O’Brien, _____. "Drombeg Stone Circle." Personal interview. 16 June 1979.
Mr. O’Brien may not have been aware that the reason that the bushes would not grow within the stone circle was due to the terrace of flat stones the original builders has placed there.

²²McLiam, Cian (Ken Williams). "Forums | Anyone in Cork to Inspect This Circle?" Stone Circles, Megalithic Remains, Prehistoric Sites | The Modern Antiquarian.com. 8 Oct. 2005. Web. 11 July 2011. <http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/forum/?thread=27271>.
Modern-day visitors also may leave smudge-sticks, melted wax, trash, and, worst of all, carved or painted graffiti.

²³Fahy, E.M. "A Recumbent-stone Circle at Drombeg, Co. Cork." 23-24.

²⁴Hutton, Ronald. The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy. Oxford, UK: B. Blackwell, 1991. 73-74.

²⁵Damery, Patricia. "The Horned God: A Personal Discovery of Cultural Myth." The San Francisco Jung Institute Library Journal 23.3 (2004): 19.

¹Westropp, T.J. "A Study of the Fort of Dun Aengusa in Inishmore, Aran Isles, Galway Bay: Its Plan, Growth, and Records." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature 28 (1910): 32.

²Westropp 34.
He writes, "An unrestored fort is its own record; but, to one who recalls the weird chaos of ruin-heaps in 1878, and contrasts it with the neat, level-topped enclosures left by the restorers six years later, the old descriptions, no matter how rude, assume a great importance, and should be laid before one’s readers." Westropp continues on p. 45: "The unnecessary rebuilding and levelling up of parts of the walls and the "tidy" and new appearance thereby produced, show how desirable it was that the work should have been constantly under the supervision and direction of an antiquary who had studied our ring-walls carefully. Left to non-antiquaries and the natives, the work was of course done unsympathetically, like repairing a fence…"

³Dalton, John P. "Who Built Dun Aengus? (Continued)." Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society 14.3/4 (1929): 110.
The author suggests that King Aengus made a living as a pirate: "…unless they still resorted periodically to sea-raiding and smuggling. Aenghus could have kept up but the very poorest semblance of a royal court at Dun Aengus."
Another possibility, reported by Westropp (quoting Edward Ledwich, 1790) is that Dun Aengusa was named much later, after an entirely different Aenghus, one who was King of Cashel, c. 460 CE.

⁴"Lebor Gabala Pt. 3." AKA Mary Jones. Web. 04 June 2011. <http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/lebor3.html>.
The full text may be read at this web site.

⁵Westropp 12.

⁶Norman, Edward. The Early Development of Irish Society the Evidence of Aerial Photography. Cambridge: University, 1969. 81-82.
Also: Long, Harry, and Etienne Rynne. "Dún Aonghasa." Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society 44 (1992): 21.

⁷Excavations.ie. Searchable Database of Irish Excavation Reports. Web. 05 June 2011.1992 Report. 1993 Report. 1994 Report. 1995 Report.

⁸Long 11.
The authors on p. 17 suggest that Dun Aengus and its chevaux-de-frise play an important role in discussions of the origin of Celtic groups in Ireland. "The question of when and by what routes Celtic-speaking peoples first arrived in Ireland is fraught with controversy and doubt. The stone chevaux-de frise at Dún Aonghasa is seen as evidence of the influx from Iberia of people speaking Q-Celtic in the wake of the Roman conquest of 133 B.C.33. Some philologists, however, associate the Fir Bolg of Ireland with the Belgae of Belgium and France, who may have occupied sites where, earlier, wooded chevaux-de-frise have been found. Dún Aonghasa is thus at the centre of a debate in which the chevaux-de-frise is used to argue two different opinions."
One of the other three examples of chevaux-de-frise is also on the island of Inishmore, at Dun Dúbhchathair, the Black Fort. There is a virtual-reality view of this fort (from a distance) on the Dun Aengus page.

⁹Westropp :21-22.

¹⁰"Dun Aengus." University of Notre Dame. Web. 05 June 2011. <http://www.nd.edu/~ikuijt/Ireland/Sites/acastela/site/index.html>.

¹¹Westropp 34.
In addition to Westropp’s work in 1909, the most significant of the other investigators were:
Roderick O’Flaherty (1684-6) "Ogygia"; Edward Ledwich (1797). "He gives a delusive view…regards the fort as a mandra or monastic enclosure"; John O’Flaherty (1824); George Petrie (1821 and 1857); John O’Donovan (1839); Samuel Ferguson (1853); John Windele (ante 1854); Lady Ferguson (1867). "The Irish before the Conquest"; and Lord Dunraven (ante 1875). He took photographs before the restoration.

¹²Petrie, George, and D. J. S. O’Malley. "Aspects of George Petrie. V. An Essay on Military Architecture in Ireland Previous to the English Invasion." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature 72 (Read, 1834. Published, 1972): 247-48, 266-68.

¹³O’Flaherty, John T. "A Sketch of the History and Antiquities of the Southern Islands of Aran, Lying off the West Coast of Ireland; with Observations on the Religion of the Celtic Nations, Pagan Monuments of the Early Irish, Druidic Rites, &c." The Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy 14 (1825): 97-98.

¹⁴Evans-Wentz, W. Y. The Fairy-faith in Celtic Countries. London: H. Frowde, 1911. 416.
As Petrie noted perspicaciously 77 years earlier: "The Antiquities of Ireland have already attracted the attention of several learned men, but the antiquarian knowledge of those persons was confined to literature—they had no general or accurate acquaintance with the ancient remains of our own and other countries. It was therefore but natural that their labors whether guided by a Spirit of rational enquiry, or led on by visionary national predilection, should have almost equally tended to darken rather than elucidate the subjects of their investigation."

¹⁵Westropp 1-2.
He writes, "Of all the early forts of Ireland we may say that only one has appealed to the imagination, and even to the affection, of the nation, as a building, and become, with most antiquaries, the type and symbol of the countless similar structures, all subordinate to it in interest. At Emania and Tara it is the sentiment and tradition, not the remains, that so appeal ; but at Dun Aengusa the site and the building affect even the coolest mind as no place of mythic or historic association could do."

¹⁶Wakeman, William F. "Aran – Pagan and Christian. Part I." Duffy’s Hibernian Magazine 1. January-June (1862): 470.
This article may be read in its entirety here.

¹⁷Westropp 36.

¹⁸Gannon, J.B. "The Unveiled Aran." The Irish Monthly 73.870 (1945): 519-22.

¹⁹Grover-Rogoff, Jay. "Dun Aengus." The Hudson Review 38.1 (1985): 83.

¹Maley, Willy. "Something Quite Atrocious: English Colonialism Beyond the Pale and the Licence to Violence." Eolas: The Journal of the American Society of Irish Medieval Studies 3 (2009): 82-83.Review of: Edwards, David, Pádraig Lenihan, and Clodagh Tait. Age of Atrocity: Violence and Political Conflict in Early Modern Ireland. Dublin, Ireland: Four Courts, 2007.
The quote is from Thomas Churchyard, A General Rehearsall of Warres (1579), wherein he explains the strategy of Sir Humphrey Gilbert in Ireland. The entire quote follows:
"He further tooke this order infringeble, that when soeuer he made any ostyng, or inrode, into the enemies Countrey, he killed manne, woman, and child, and spoiled, wasted, and burned, by the grounde all that he might: leauyng nothyng of the enemies in saffetie, whiche he could possiblie waste, or consume. And these were his reasons that perswaded hym thereto, as I haue often heard hym saie. Firste the men of warre could not bee maintained, without their Churles, and Calliackes, or women, who milked their Creates, and prouided their victualles, and other necessaries. So that the killyng of theim by the sworde, was the waie to kill the menne of warre by famine, who by flight oftentymes saued them selues from the dinte of the sworde."

²Heaney, Seamus. "Ocean’s Love to Ireland." Irish University Review 4.2 (1974): 199-200.
The lines in the poem, "as gallant and good / Personages as ever were beheld," are quoted by Heaney from what were reported as Lord Grey’s remarks when is he saw the bodies of the 600 slain prisoners “stripped and laid out upon the sands.” (Pope-Hennessy, John. Sir Walter Raleigh in Ireland. London: K. Paul, Trench, &, 1883.) The Heaney poem may be read in its entirety here.

³Cuppage, Judith. Archaeological Survey of the Dingle Peninsula: a Description of the Field Antiquities of the Barony of Corca Dhuibhne from the Mesolithic Period to the 17th Century A.D. Ballyferriter: Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne, 1986. 424-25.

⁴Clodagh, Finn, and Tom Finn. "After the Gold Rush." Archaeology Ireland 16.1 (2002): 24-27.

⁵Snoddy, Oliver. "Dún an Óir." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 102.2 (1972): 247-48.

⁶Westropp 194.

⁷"The Second Desmond Rebellion." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 19 June 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Desmond_Rebellion>.

⁸Westropp 194.

⁹"Arthur Grey, 14th Baron Grey De Wilton." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 19 June 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Grey,_14th_Baron_Grey_of_Wilton>.

¹⁰Westropp 195.
The ships which engaged the fort were the " Swiftsure," the " Tiger," the "Marlyon," and the “Revenge.” The most famous battle of the Revenge was the subject of the Alfred Lord Tennyson poem titled after her.

¹¹Westropp 196.

¹²"Review of "The Massacre at Smerwick" 1937." Ulster Journal of Archaeology 2 (1939): 127-28.

¹³L.P.M. "Review of "The Massacre at Smerwick" 1937." Journal of the County Louth Archaeological Society 9.1 (1037): 64.

¹⁴"Review of "The Massacre at Smerwick" 1937." Ulster Journal of Archaeology 2 (1939): 127-28.
It seems that the English felt that they had no obligation to recognize the sovereignty of the Pope, who financed the expeditionary forces, and the King of Spain did not wish to be implicated in the attack. Thus the Catholic forces were thought of as bandits who were not deserving of the normal treatment specified for prisoners of war.

¹⁵J.R. "Review of "The Massacre at Smerwick." Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, 27.108 (1938): 690-92.

¹⁶J.R.
Another similar account is from a letter from Captain Bingham: "The bande which had the warde of that day, which was Mr. Denny’s, then entered [the fort], but in the meantime there were also entered a number of mariners upon the part next to the sea, which with the soldiers aforesaid, having possessed the place, fell to spoiling and reveling and withal to killing, in which they never ceased while there lived one." {Bingham to Lane, from Smerwick Roades, 11th November, 1580."—"Cotton MSS.," Titus A., xii. 313, Brit. Museum.) Cited in: Hickson, Mary A. "Historic Truth and Sham Legends." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Fifth 8.1 (1898): 65-66.

¹⁷"Dun an Oir." Wikimapia – Let’s Describe the Whole World! Web. 19 June 2011. <http://wikimapia.org/11025172/Dun-an-Oir>.

¹⁸Spenser, Edmund, and Alexander B. Grosart. A Veue of the Present State of Ireland (1633). London: Hazell, Watson and Viney, 1882.
The pamphlet may be read in its entirely here, and its significance considered here.
One author believes that it could not have been Spenser who authored the Veue, as Grey was his patron, she argues, and Spenser would not have deliberately sabotaged his reputation. She insists that Grey was recalled, and fell into disfavor, not because of the Smerwick Massacre but rather because of his alleged financial mismanagement. The brutality at Smerwick, she says, was not condemned, rather it was praised, and even the Spanish hardly protested it. (Canino, Catherine G. "Reconstructing Lord Grey’s Reputation: A New View of the View." The Sixteenth Century Journal 29.1 (1998): 3-18.)
The letter signed by Spenser, the second page of which is included on our Dún An Óir page was written by the poet for Lord Grey nineteen days after the massacre. This letter lists Grey’s activities in the days following, while he worked to strengthen the garrisons of the important fortresses south of Limerick. (Jenkins, Raymond. "Spenser with Lord Grey in Ireland." PMLA 52.2 (1937): 338-53.)

¹⁹J.R.

²⁰Canino, Catherine G. "Reconstructing Lord Grey’s Reputation: A New View of the View." The Sixteenth Century Journal 29.1 (1998): 3.

²¹Maley 89.
The title of the quoted 1581 pamphlet is: The true reporte of the prosperous successe which God gaue unto our English souldiours against the forraine bands of our Romaine enemies lately ariued, (but soone inough to theyr cost) in Ireland, in the yeare 1580.

²²Hickson, Mary A. "Historic Truth and Sham Legends." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Fifth 8.1 (1898): 65-66.
While many sources list Sir Walter Raleigh among the participants in the Smerwick Massacre, this author presents a well-documented argument that he could not have been present the day of the battle.

²³Lister, David. "Massacre Victims from Raleigh’s Time Return to Haunt Irish Shore." The Times | UK News, World News and Opinion. 13 Apr. 2004. Web. 20 June 2011. <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article822086.ece>.

²⁴"Was It Blarney or Not? – Review of Dun An Oir, Dingle, Ireland." Reviews of Hotels, Flights and Vacation Rentals – TripAdvisor. 5 Mar. 2004. Web. 20 June 2011. <http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g211861-d216379-r1709086-Dun_An_Oir-Dingle_Dingle_Peninsula_County_Kerry.html>.
There actually were human bones found on a nearby beach south of Dun an Oir on Smerwick Harbor, with such discoveries dating from the 1980s. There a medieval cemetery of the thirteenth-fifteenth centuries, built close to the shoreline, was subject to erosion. Local residents and tourists alike reported finding bones while walking the nearby beaches. The site, called Teampall Bán, was stabilized by the construction of a sea wall in 1996 and additional work in 2005. (Bennett, Isabel. “Teampall Bán, Caherquin: Archaeological Context and Preliminary Survey/Excavation, Winter 1996/7.” Ed. Michael Connolly. Past Kingdoms: Archaeological Research, Survey and Excavation in County Kerry. Proceedings of the 2005 Archaeological Lecture Series. The Heritage Council (2005): 66-75.)

²⁵Jenkins, Raymond. "Spenser with Lord Grey in Ireland." PMLA 52.2 (1937): 351.

¹Wood-Martin, W. G. Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland. Vol. 1. London: Longmans, Green, & Co. 1902. 352-53. This passage may be read in its entirety here.

²Westropp, Thomas J. "Promontory Forts and Similar Structures in the County Kerry. Part IV. Corcaguiny (The Southern Shore) (Continued)." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 40.4 (1910): 267-274.

³Gregory, Augusta, and W. B. Yeats. Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland. Vol. 1. New York and London: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1920. 207.
"Many of the stories I have gathered tell how those tribes still protect their own; and even today, March 21, 1916, I have read in the Irish Times that ‘a farmer who was summoned by a road contractor for having failed to cut a portion of a hedge on the roadside, told the magistrates at Granard Petty Sessions that he objected to cutting the hedge as it grew in a fort or rath. He however had no objection to the contractor’s men cutting the hedge. The magistrate allowed the case to stand til the next court.’"
On the other hand, in 1898 George du Noyer wrote, "At present there is a passage between the fort and the cliff at this end-formed, no doubt, by the removal of the stones by road contractors, and for building purposes. An old man whom I questioned on this point, informed me that he remembered ‘hundreds of tons of stones’ being taken out of it." (Lynch, P. J. "Notes on Dunbeg Fort, County Kerry, with Special Reference to the Drawings and Description by George V. Du Noyer." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Fifth 8.4 (1898): 325-28.)

⁴Lynch, P. J. "Notes on Dunbeg Fort, County Kerry, with Special Reference to the Drawings and Description by George V. Du Noyer." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Fifth 8.4 (1898): 325-28.

⁵Barry, T.B., S. Diarmond, T.D. Shanley, Maura Scannell, and Edelgard Soergel-Harbison. "Archæological Excavations at Dunbeg Promontory Fort, County Kerry, 1977." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature 81C (1981): 295-329.
The authors address the difficulty of understanding the fort’s original outline: "The stone rampart as it stands to-day is probably the result of both the original builder’s craft and the reconstruction programme undertaken by the Board of Works. Because of the lack of recorded details of this work it is virtually impossible to sort out the original remains from the 1890s reconstructions. The basic difficulty is in deciding whether the rampart was originally straight in plan, as shown by Du Noyer (PI. II) and all other researchers before Deane, or whether its two ends were curved."
T.J. Westropp wrote in 1910, "…something like a panic spread among Irish antiquaries, and the belief was most strongly expressed that the fort had been almost rebuilt, and most of its features altered." (Westropp, Thomas J. "Promontory Forts and Similar Structures in the County Kerry. Part IV. Corcaguiny (The Southern Shore) (Continued)." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 40.4 (1910): 267-274.)

⁶Cuppage, Judith. Archaeological Survey of the Dingle Peninsula: a Description of the Field Antiquities of the Barony of Corca Dhuibhne from the Mesolithic Period to the 17. Century A.D. Ballyferriter: Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne, 1986. 92-94.
The author quotes the fort’s excavator as suggesting that the workmen involved in reconstruction work in the 1890′s may have mistaken the remains of post-medieval field walls as part of the original rampart, and thus reconstructed the rampart accordingly. The scholars who visited the fort in the nineteenth century all reported the rampart wall as extending in a straight line cliff-to-cliff. In his 1875 Notes on Irish Architecture, Lord Dunraven wrote of Dunbeg, "This great Cyclopean work consists of three ramparts and a massive stone wall, which reaches from cliff to cliff, and cuts off the promontory from
all communication with the mainland." (Dunraven, Edwin Windham Wyndham-Quin. Notes on Irish Architecture By Edwin, Third Earl of Dunraven. Ed. Margaret MacNair Stokes. London: George Bell and Sons, York Street, Covent Garden, 1875. 19.)

⁷Barry 311-312. The clochán has an internal diameter of up to 7.5 m. (24.6 ft). The doorway, which faces north-west, has a height of 1.3 m ( (4.3 ft). In the eastern "guard room," the roof is about 2 m (6.5 ft) above floor level, which would allow a man to stand upright.. However the western chamber is only about 1.2 m (4 ft) high so a man of average height inside would need to crouch or lie prone. The Gallarus Oratory, near the town of Dingle, is an evolved example of the more primitive clochán in Dunbeg Fort and the other nearby clochain in the Fahan area. It can be explored in virtual reality here.

⁸Barry 309-11.
The authors write, "The northern end of the souterrain is marked by a semi-circular wall with a possible small ventilation shaft at roof level…On the balance of probability the souterrain, which lacks any chambers or abrupt changes in floor level, would probably have been a place of refuge for the defenders of the fort. It would have been quite a simple matter to seal off its southernmost entrance inside the rampart with one of the smaller floor slabs of the entrance-way. The last defender into the souterrain would have had to fit this capstone in very tightly between its neighbours so that the souterrain underneath would remain undetected even after the fort had been captured."

⁹Morierty, Michael. "Paths Controlled by Ghosts." Personal interview. 20 June 1979.

¹⁰Barry 295-97.
There were fragments of post-medieval pottery, nails, and buttons found during the excavation. There were also a few stray finds dating from the nineteenth century, such as fragments of clay pipes and religious medals.

¹¹MacDonogh, Steve. The Dingle Peninsula. Dingle, Co. Kerry, Ireland: Brandon, 2000. 141-43.

¹²"Dun Mor Celtic Fort Bulldozed." Indymedia Ireland. 12 July 2004. Web. 21 June 2012. <http://www.indymedia.ie/article/65936>.

¹"The Sons of Mil." Mythical Ireland – Newgrange, Ancient Sites, Myths, Mysteries, Tours and Astronomy. Web. 09 Mar. 2011. <http://www.mythicalireland.com/mythology/tain/sonsofmil.html>.
A translation from the original text appears here (Section VIII, "The Sons of Mil." 31, para. 386).
It is understood by historians, in all these cases, that the place name was extant, and the person or thing connected to it was invented by the etymologizer.

²"Eightercua." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 09 Mar. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eightercua>.

³The Biographical Dictionary of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1842. 456-57.

⁴"Lebor Gabála Érenn." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 09 Mar. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebor_Gabála_Érenn>.

⁵"Schools MS #476." Schools’ Folklore Scheme. The Irish Folklore Commission. 1937-38.

⁶Henry, F. "Early Monasteries, Beehive Huts, and Dry-Stone Houses in the Neighbourhood of Caherciveen and Waterville (Co. Kerry)." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C, Vol. 58, (1956/1957). 140-41.

⁷Lynch, P. J. "Some of the Antiquities around Ballinskelligs Bay, County Kerry." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Fifth Series, Vol. 32, No. 4, 1902. 331-33.

⁸Lynch 332-33.

⁹Cross, Tom Peete, and Clark Harris. Slover. Ancient Irish Tales. New York: H. Holt, 1936. 21.

¹⁰Bushe, Paddy. "Scéine’s Reply to Aimherigin." The Poetry Ireland Review, No. 65, Summer, 2000. 8.

¹"Four Knocks: Sun, Moon and Uranus." The Hedge Druid. Web. 02 Apr. 2011. <http://www.hedgedruid.com/2010/06/four-knocks-sun-moon-and-uranus/#more-6271>.

²Tour companies active in this area include Boyne Valley Tours, and Native Spirit Tours.

³Fourknocks Passage Tomb. 31 May 2010. Information sign at the site. Stamullen.

⁴The story of the expulsion of Elcmar from Brú na Bóinne by the "druid-enchantments" of Aenhus is a Celtic myth which in its present form dates from about the time of Christ.
Herity, Michael. Irish Passage Graves: Neolithic Tomb-builders in Ireland and Britain, 2500 B.C. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1975. 1.

⁵"Fourknocks (Passage Grave) | Ireland | The Modern Antiquarian.com." Stone Circles, Megalithic Remains, Prehistoric Sites | The Modern Antiquarian.com. Web. 02 Apr. 2011. <http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/891/fourknocks.html>.
In an email communication 4/1/2011, Mr. Padraig Clancy of the Antiquities Department at the National Museum of Ireland suggested that the specific conversation referenced in the citation above may be contained in a newspaper clipping in the Fourknocks topograpical file.

⁶Hartnett, P. J. "Excavation of a Passage Grave at Fourknocks, Co. Meath." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature 58 (1956/1957): 197-98.

⁷Hartnett 12.
More recently archaeologist Carleton Jones interpreted the evidence to indicate that the wooden beams presumed attached to a central post did indeed support the stones and capstone of a fully-corbelled roof. (Jones, Carleton. Temples of Stone: Exploring the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Cork: Collins, 2007. 94.)

⁸Harbison, Peter. Guide to National and Historic Monuments of Ireland: including a Selection of Other Monuments Not in State Care. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1992. 261.

⁹Hutton, Ronald. The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy. Oxford, UK: B. Blackwell, 1991. 55-57.

¹⁰Archaeologist Carleton Jones suggests that marble-size chalk balls found in the Fourknocks excavation, similar to those found in other tombs, may have been used within a ritual practice of placing the marbles into the cupmarks or other decorations on the stones. "Perhaps they were the ‘eyes’ of spirits or ancestors, which were only opened by performing particular rituals." (Jones, Carleton. Temples of Stone: Exploring the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Cork: Collins, 2007. 100.)
Martin Dier doubts that the megalithic artist intended to create a representation of a face. "When dealing with a culture as clearly sophisticated as is evident from the careful positioning of the massive stones, it is unlikely that they produced a crude face when clearly they could manage much more difficult tasks."
(Dier, Martin. "Fourknocks An Interpretation by Martin Dier." Knowth.com. Web. 2 Apr. 2011. <http://www.knowth.com/fourknocks-mdier.htm>.)

¹¹Hartnett 222.

¹²Thomas, Julian. "Monuments from the Inside: The Case of the Irish Megalithic Tombs." World Archaeology Monuments and the Monumental 22.2 (1990): 175.

¹³Hartnett 241-43.

¹⁴"Carved Stone." National Museum of Ireland. Web. 02 Apr. 2011. <http://www.museum.ie/en/list/artefacts.aspx?article=624061c1-9b53-464e-a1d6-d71a9c77b27c>.

¹⁵Cooney, Gabriel. "A Tale of Two Mounds: Monumental Landscape Design at Fourknocks." Archaeology Ireland 11.2 (Summer, 1997): 18-19.

¹⁶Underwood, Guy. The Pattern of the Past. New York: Abelard-Schuman, Ltd., 1972. 91-2.

¹⁷Dier, Martin. "Fourknocks An Interpretation by Martin Dier." Knowth.com. Web. 2 Apr. 2011. <http://www.knowth.com/fourknocks-mdier.htm>.

The stories preserve the enchanted landscape; the well and other places like it literally hold the stories. Those raised with the stories need only to hear the name of a given place…to rehear the story that is tied to the place…Perhaps it is less a question of whether or not one “believes” the story than of a landscape that has stories in it—stories it can tell you…¹

Lawrence J. Taylor, Occasions of Faith, 1995
 

Paul Cunningham talks about the Turas and demonstrates the rounds at some of the Stations (1998).

At the western end of Co. Donegal’s Slieve League Peninsula, Gleann (as it’s known to locals) was described by John O’Donovan in 1838 as “the extreme brink of the world, far from the civilization of cities, and the lectures of the philosopher.”² Now, with the M3-N3 routes connecting Dublin to Cavan, one can travel from the center of the capital to Gleann Cholm Cille in less than four hours.

The history of the Gleann Cholm Cille (Glencolumcille) Turas is discussed in some detail on our other page devoted to this site. Turas Cholmcille is performed (by its purists) trekking barefoot, starting just after midnight as June 9th begins. Walking for five and a half kilometers (3.5 miles), the pilgrims visit 15 stations and perform specific prayers and devotions at each. The stations are mostly decorated cross-slabs set into rough rock cairns.

These slabs, composed of schist, have crosses and other design elements cut into them. A few of the slabs, at the west end of the valley, have been shaped into rudimentary crosses. The cross-slabs can be divided into two groups, with those in the east, closer to the town, showing more elaborate decorations, some of them similar to that of eighth- or ninth-century metalwork. The slabs found in the stations of the lowland areas and the hills to the west of town have markings that are more rudimentary, cut into the stones as simple outlines.

As the stations are visited in turn, each is circled three times in a “sunwise” direction (deiseal) so that the station is always to the right as the pilgrim makes a clockwise circuit from east to south to west to north around each monument. Until the pilgrim begins the walk down the hill to Station Seven, the only words spoken should be in prayer.

The stáisiúin (stations) of the Turas are presented here in numerical order, which is replicated in the Virtual Turas on this site. In traditional Gleann Cholm Cille community life, however, the stations were referred to by their names, not numbers. And in walking the Turas the villagers would begin at whatever station was closest to their homes. The station numbers that are used in Voices from the Dawn may not always be consistent with signage or with other sources of information. The numbers used here were determined by consulting with authorities in Gleann Cholm Cille who study traditional practices and by seeking out those who carry on the traditions locally.

There was once more than the one Turas in this little valley. There were other journeys up and down the nearby hills to commemorate the lives and works of other local saints. These practices have now been lost forever, fading first into a dim folk memory and then into but a sentence in a dusty book.³ The Turas of St. Colm Cille was the one that survived. We are fortunate that it did, as otherwise we would never have had the opportunity of sloshing through the fields in the pouring rain at midnight on the eve of June 9th, 2001, holding an umbrella in one hand and a night-vision camcorder in the other.

This Turas was not saved by good fortune alone. When Liam Price came here for his research in 1940 he sought the help of local folklorist Seán Ó hEochaidh, who led him to the recollections of an old woman named Peigí Mhór ni Ghadhra. Thus some of the traditional lore was committed to paper.⁴ When Fr. James McDyer encouraged archaeologist Michael Herity to come here to do his field research and then publish his Gleanncholmcille guidebook in 1971, he set in motion a process that today continues with religious, cultural, and archaeological tourism. These have guaranteed a steady stream of visitors eager to walk these sacred ancient paths. Many of them are the enthusiastic Irish-speaking students attending classes at the Oideas Gael Irish language cultural center in town. Like Fr. McDyer’s Folk Village, these students, and all who walk the Turas paths, are part of the living tradition in this sacred landscape of St. Colm Cille.

Man looks with veneration upon every spot that has been hallowed by sincere religion…and feels anxious…to preserve every trace by which the turas of the pilgrim and the progress of the human mind in art, religion, or enthusiasm can be followed.
…
I hope that all these places are carefully set down…The theatre of the solemn pilgrimage of Columbkille which extended for three miles along the Glen should be carefully shown…and all the wells and other footsteps of the Saint and his followers, the pilgrims.⁵

John O’Donovan, 1838

The first station of An Turas is built right into the west retaining wall of the graveyard of St. Columba’s Church (Church of Ireland). It is possible that this church, built in 1828 to replace an earlier Protestant structure, stands on land where there was an early-Christian monastic enclosure.

Turas Station One

The souterrain found when digging a grave in the churchyard in 1832 may date from this period (c. eighth century).⁷

But four thousand years before that, this spot was where a group of Neolithic farmers built a megalithic Court Tomb. This place, therefore, has been considered sacred for thousands of years. It is possible that stones from this 10-meter (33-feet) long monument were quarried and used in the construction of monastery buildings or churches at this site.⁸ At the west side of the ruined tomb is a small place for the pilgrim to kneel.

This station, like all the others, is circled three times by the pilgrim, always walking clockwise around the stones. The prayers to be said here, while kneeling, are the Credo, five Our Fathers, and five Hail Marys. The pilgrim then places his back to the stone and renounces “the World, the Flesh and the Devil.”

The pilgrim then walks two fields to the west, to the next station. While walking between the stations of the Turas, the fifteen decades of the rosary are recited. These prayers must be completed three times before reaching the final station.

Turas Station Two. Click on the image. Then drag to rotate it 360°.

Turas Station Two, from below.

One hundred meters (328 feet) west of Station One there is a 1.85-meter (six-feet) high cross-inscribed schist stone pillar standing at the top of a small but prominent rock outcrop. Beneath the pillar are the remains of a leacht, a dry-stone altar. Probably the best known and most photographed of all the Turas monuments, its two broad faces contain designs including three ornamental panels on the east face and a four-part design on the west face.

Archaeologist Peter Harbison suggested that there is a resemblance in the design to a finger, perhaps intended to depict a metal reliquary containing the finger of St. Colm Cille.⁹

The ornamental panels may be viewed in detail in the virtual-reality object to the left. Click on the image, then drag to rotate the pillar after the new window fully loads.

At one time this stone marked the western limit of An Turas, before the stations up on the mountain—Colm Cille’s Bed (Station Five), and Well (Station Six)—were added.¹⁰ The pilgrim circles three times sunwise, then climbs up to the stone, kneels, and says five Our Fathers, five Hail Marys, five Glorias, and the Creed.
 

Turas Station Three

Station Three (Garveross townland)
Áit na nGlún, “The Place of the Knees”

This small cairn, 1.2 kilometers (.75 mile) north-west of the previous station, measures 2.9 meters by 2.2 meters (9.5 x 7.2 feet).

The Rounded Stone

Formerly there were three rounded stones waiting for the pilgrims. Áit na nGlún refers to the depression in the earth where the pilgrim kneels, just west of the cairn.

Turas Station Four

This stone altar, 400 meters (1,312 feet) north up the hill from Station Three, sits within a circular dry stone wall with a diameter of 10.75 meters (35.3 feet). This may have been the remains of some sort of prehistoric monument.¹¹ Between this Station and the next is a small circular structure, apparently the base of a small hut.

The entrance of the enclosure points to the east. Atop the leacht is a meter- (3.28 feet-) tall rock slab inscribed with a weathered Latin cross. The pilgrim makes the three rounds here, while reciting five Our Fathers, five Hail Marys, five Glorias, and the Creed. The name given for this location, Mullaí na Croise (“Height of the Cross”), encompasses both Stations Four and Five.

Turas Station Five

Station Five (Beefan townland)
Cill Cholm Cille, “Colum Cille’s Chapel”

This station is immediately north of Station Four. The most significant of the structures within this 18-meter (59-feet) circular enclosure is the small roofless mortared building known as Cill Cholm Cille, “Colm Cille’s Chapel.” Being only 6 meters by 3.4 meters (19.7 by 11.2 feet) it was probably not built as a church but rather as a shrine (reliquary-house). It is possible that missionaries from Colm Cille’s monastery in Iona came here with relics of the saint and deposited them in this building. This may explain why the 2-meter (6.6-feet) flagstone top of a cist in the northeast corner of the Chapel is called Leaba Cholmcille, “Colm Cille’s Bed.”

The pilgrim circles the chapel three time, clockwise, while praying. After the third time he enters the building and lies down on Colm Cille’s Bed. He then rotates his body while horizontal, always turning first onto the right side. From underneath the Bed the pilgrim may take a handful of clay, which is supposed to prevent fires in the home and provide a cure for headaches.

In a little recess above the bed there were kept three stones, one with a small incised cross. The pilgrim would make the Sign of the Cross on his eyes using one of these Cloche na Suile, or “Eye Stones.” These may now have gone missing, because there “is hardly a place from here to America to which they are not sent [for cures] …people say that when Columcille used to lie down in the Bed at night he use to lay this stone over his eyes to put him asleep.” Before leaving the chapel, one must pass these three stones three times round the hands, the feet, and the head, in the name of the Father, the son and the Holy Ghost.¹²

There are also three eroded cross-topped cairns inside the circular enclosure. Each of the cairns is thrice circled during An Turas, the pilgrim saying the Creed, five Our Fathers and five Hail Marys.

To the east, just outside the enclosure, a flat boulder with a circled cross inscribed on top is called Leac na hAchainí, the “Flagstone of the Request.” This stone is said to grant the pilgrim’s wish if she walks around it three times, in prayer, and then jumps off of it. It is also known as Leac na mBonn, the “Flagstone of the Soles of the Feet.”

After leaving this stone, the pilgrim is supposed to proceed around the bottom of Mullacb na Croise, keeping the Chapel and the cairns on the right as he proceeds to the next Station.

Turas Station Six

Station Six (Beefan townland)
Tobar Cholm Cille, “Colm Cille’s Well”

To reach Station Six, the pilgrim must climb up a steep hill, carrying with him three stones gathered at the bottom of the hill. Midway up to Colm Cille’s Well there is a natural rock outcrop in the form of a seat. This very logical place to sit and survey the valley panorama below on a fine day is called Colm Cille’s Chair, as the faithful believe that the saint himself once rested here.

Proceeding up to the cairn containing the well, the pilgrim circles it three times, each time depositing on the immense curved 30-meter (100-feet) pile one of the stones carried up the hill, thus doing his part to extend it a bit. While making the rounds, ten Our Fathers, ten Hail Marys, ten Glorias, and the Creed are said.

Afterward, one should kneel at the recess of the well, genuflect, and drink from the water, using one of the cups provided. The pilgrim should first spill three drops from the cup, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

Often some water is carried away in a bottle, either kept by the pilgrim or sent off to someone in need of a cure. In a 1941 report it was noted that, “no stopper should be put into the bottle but one of the grass which is growing round the well.”¹³ Above the well is a 92-centimeter (36-inch) rough stone cross, with incised designs. There is a modern statue of a saint to the side of the well.

Over the years an eclectic collection of personal mementos has been left on the altar above the well by pilgrims seeking a blessing of the saint. It is said that “you must leave something for what you take away.”¹⁴

On the path down the hill to the next Station, pilgrims may talk casually for the first time, as the only voices heard prior to this point should be in prayer. This hill is called Mullaigh na Cainnt, “the Slope of the Conversation.”

Turas Station Seven

Station Seven (Ballard townland)
Garraí an Turais, “The Garden of the Turas,” or
Lios Chaigh, the “Holy Enclosure”

Down the hillside, 400 meters (1,312 feet) from Colm Cille’s Well, there is a D-shaped dry-wall enclosure which contains three cairns, with upright cross-slabs. Pilgrims circle each of the cairns three times, while reciting the Our Father and the Hail Mary each time around. At one of the cairns there was a flat stone which, to cure a sore throat, the pilgrim would raise up to her chin.

The western cairn has a slab set deep within its base, with only 70 centimeters (27.5 inches) visible above the base. There is an outline of a Latin cross incised on its north west face.

The central cairn is a leacht with a rectangular base that is 4.5 meters (18.8 feet) square. It has an entrance passage leading into its center.

The eastern cairn, also a leacht with a rectangular base, has a rudimentary cross that is 85 centimeters (33.5 inches) tall. The left-hand arm of the cross was apparently broken off.

The path to the next Station then enters Abar Dubh (the Black Swamp) for the wet trek forward. There, pilgrims wash their feet in the depression in a boat-shaped stone called Umar Ghlinne, the “Trough of the Glen” (also called St. Colum Cille’s Boat). The water there was said to have curative powers, being especially good at treating warts. In a 1941 account of the stone’s lore, it was said that if war should come to Gleann Cholm Cille the only people who would survive would be the ones standing on this stone, “but if that should occur the stone would burst and submerge the whole glen.”¹⁵

The path through the bog can be inundated at flood tides; an alternative route to the next Station is to backtrack by roads.

Turas Station Eight

Station Eight (Farranmacbride townland)
Cloch an Aonaigh, “The Stone of the Assembly”

Click on the image to see it in high resolution.

After sloshing through Abar Dubh for 1.2 kilometers (.75 miles) the pilgrim approaches Station Eight by the side of a roadway. Just before reaching the Station, however, An Turas passes by a ruined Court Tomb, originally 60 meters (197 feet) in length. Locally known as Mainnear na Mortlaidh (“Enclosure of the Dead”), this monument may have been associated with the traditions of the Turas.¹⁶

Station Eight is a beautifully inscribed cross pillar that is nearly two meters (6.5 feet) tall. It sits in a low cairn, with its decorated face turned to the pilgrims as they emerge from Abar Dubh. The design work includes three circular elements, connected by a vertical line. On the upper panel is a symmetrical cross, contained in a circle, with a perforation at its center. To see all the details, click on the black and white image to the right. Then, in the new window, click the “full screen” button. You can then use the controls to zoom in.

The name of this Station may be derived from the tradition that couples would pledge their engagement by touching their fingers through the hole, from opposite sides of the stone. The ceremony would be watched by an assembly of people, an aonach. A different local tradition holds that the name of the stone is Cloch na Súil, “The Stone of the Eye.”¹⁷

Another legend about the hole in the stone says that the pilgrim who is in a state of grace should be able to look through the aperture and get a glimpse of Heaven. A local informant in 1936 said that the visions of heaven had gone away because “”the people are no longer what they used to be, and the class that’s going around now don’t deserve to see such sights.”¹⁸

The pilgrim circles the cairn three times, saying five Our Fathers, five Hail Marys, five Glorias, and the Creed. Then, placing his back to the stone, renounces the World, the Flesh, and the Devil (Diulfafm don Diabhal, don Saol, agus don Cholainn). In a 1902 account it was reported that barren women would pray for children at this stone.¹⁹

Turas Station Nine

This cairn features a very weathered one meter (3.28 feet) slab of schist, which does not appear to have ever been decorated. From this spot the pilgrim can see St. Columba’s Church in the distance to the south west, the location of the first and the final stations of An Turas. Down the road are the ruins of what is known as the “Spanish Church.”²⁰
 

Turas Station Ten

Turas Station Eleven

 
Station Eleven (Faugher townland)
A cairn by the roadside

A diminutive slab, only 40 centimeters (15.7 inches) high, pokes up from this low cairn. It is either undecorated or so thoroughly weathered that it seems so. This is the most easterly point of An Turas. It is here that the pilgrim turns and begins the walk back west to where she began the journey. Stations 9 – 12 are all found just on the edge of the modern paved road, which, says Michael Herity, would be following “the line of the ancient pilgrim pathway.”²¹

Turas Station Twelve

Within an eroded circular enclosure of approximately 3.7 meters (12.2 feet) in diameter is a flat-topped cross-pillar. This 1.6 meter (5.25 feet) slab retains its ornamentation on both faces. The design on its east side is similar to that on the east face of the cross-pillar at Station Two.

The name of this site, “The Townland of the Demons,” comes from the legendary battle fought here between St. Colm Cille and a band of demons, perhaps an allegory representing the struggle against the remnants of pagan practices in this valley. This story is recounted in our other Gleann Cholm Cille page. In 1941 it was reported that “the old people seldom called the townland Druim Ruadh; Baile na nDeamhan was the name all the old people called it.”²² Nearby is Poll an Chloig, “The hollow of the Bell,” where Colm Cille is said to have thrown his bell at the demons, chasing them into the sea.

The pilgrim here recites five Our Fathers, five Hail Marys, five Glorias and the Creed while circling the cairn.
 

Original, in Folk Museum

Station Thirteen Replica

If there is any one station of An Turas likely to be seen by all visitors to Gleann Cholm Cille it would be this one, as it sits right on the main road, by a junction to one of the routes into town.

The 1.6 meter (5.25 feet) pillar, standing in a small cairn, is a fiberglass reproduction cast from the damaged original stone, which has now been reassembled and is displayed in the village Folk Museum. The decorated side of the pillar faces east, toward the pilgrims as they approach from the Townland of the Demons. At this station the prayers recited are three Our Fathers, three Hail Marys, three Glorias, and the Creed.
 
 
 

Cross the Stream

Turas Station Fourteen

After walking 400 meters (437 yards) south from Station Thirteen, the pilgrim crosses the river Muirlin by stepping stones and then approaches Station Fourteen on a rocky prominence just south of the stream. There is a decorated slab, 1.1 meters (3.5 feet) high, standing on a leacht. It is decorated on its north-east face. The pilgrim recites three Our Fathers, three Hail Marys, three Glorias, and the Creed.

This station may be reached more easily by a path leading from the rear parking area of the housing estate to its south.

Turas Station Fifteen

Pilgrims again cross the river Muirlin and then head up the hill back to St. Columba’s Church where An Turas began. In the Catholic (east) section of the church graveyard there is a now-broken pillar that was 1.8 meters (5.9 feet) tall when it was whole. The knotted-ribbon patterns, and the complex key designs on the top section of the stone are unusual among the cross pillars.

At this station pilgrims recite five Our Fathers, five Hail Marys, five Glorias, and the Creed. Although this is the last station of the Turas, final prayers are said at the first station, the ruined prehistoric tomb at the west wall of the churchyard.²³

Cunningham, Gerard. Turas Cholm Cille – A Pocket Guide. Dublin: Faduca, 2010.

Harbison, Peter. Pilgrimage in Ireland: the Monuments and the People. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse Univ., 1992.

Herity, Michael. Gleanncholmcille: A guide to 5,000 years of history in stone. Dublin: Na Clocha Breaca, 1998.

Price, Liam. “Glencolumbkille, County Donegal, and Its Early Christian Cross-Slabs.” The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Seventh 11.3 (1941): 71-88.

Click here to see all the notes from this page.

During the 30 years that our six visits to Gleann Cholm Cille have spanned, a number of locals have kindly offered their assistance with this project. Paddy Beag Gillespie and Jimmy Carr, who have each been leaders of Turas groups, have been generous with their time. They are the Erenaghs, the inheritors of the traditions of this valley. Séamus McGinley has been a careful reader of the text for this site. Paul Cunningham was most helpful when we walked and videotaped the Turas together in 1998. Other members of the community, now deceased, were very helpful in years past: Paddy Byrne, Bridey Cunningham, and John McGuire. On each visit to Gleann we look forward to visiting Oideas Gael and spending time with its indefatigable founder, Liam O’Cuinneagain. He has provided indispensible guidance and suggestions for both the text and the media for this project, suggestions which have made it better at every station along the way.

Megalithic Ireland

The element of daring embodied in the construction of a dolmen is nowhere displayed more finely than in the superb example at Ballymascanlon in the County of Louth. If the primitive type reminded the builders of a house, and by thinking backward of a cave, design has here progressed some way towards an artist’s dream of a cathedral.¹

Grenville A. J. Cole, F.R.S., Ireland the Outpost, 1921
 

Click to explore the Proleek Dolmen and the gallery grave in virtual reality.

The Proleek Dolmen (portal tomb) and its neighboring wedge tomb may be unique in Ireland as the only pair of megalithic monuments likely to hide a golf ball hit into the rough. They are situated just off the sixth hole at the Ballymascanlon House Hotel golf course.² A paved path leads to the monuments from the hotel’s parking area, but they can also be reached by a shorter footpath from outside the hotel grounds.

The outlandish size of the portal tomb’s nearly 40-ton capstone, its top four meters (13 feet) off the ground, may have been responsible for one of its traditional names, the “Giant’s Load.” Writing in 1897, William Borlase noted that,

…on entering the field from the river side, it presents the exact picture of a man in grey, walking away from you, and stooping beneath the weight of a bulky sack of the same colour, which he bears on his shoulders.³

Click to see in high resolution.

The Proleek Dolmen, dating from c. 3000 BCE, was used for interments in which the cremated remains were placed in the tomb, often accompanied by grave goods, including implements, beads and fragments of pottery. Some have theorized that the tomb may have been aligned so that its portal points toward Slieve Gullion and the setting sun of the summer solstice.⁴

In addition to the three natural pillar stones, the 3.8 x 3.2 meter (12.5 x 10.5 feet) capstone now has additional support provided by an unsightly bracing of stone and concrete. Just 91 meters (100 yards) to the SE is a wedge grave with a 6.7 meter (22 feet) gallery.⁵ The two monuments are twinned both in location and in legend.

The translation of the name of the monument is unclear, with linguists suggesting that it may be “the Death Stones,” or the “Dinner Stones.”⁶ These monuments are located on the fabled Cooley Peninsula, the site of some of the most spectacular battles of the legendary Cattle Raid of Cooley, known in Irish as the Táin Bó Cuailgne, or simply the Táin. A writer in 1908 described the dolmen as “the grave of some fallen chieftain from a battle in the Tain.”⁷ But local lore contributes a much more specific tale.

The story asserts that the dolmen was deposited here “by Fionn Mac Cumhaill and Para buidhe mór Mhac Seoidin,”⁸ and recounts the battle that then ensued between the two giants, one an invader from Scotland, the other the local hero. This battle resulted in the death of the foreigner, supposedly interred in the wedge grave. In fact, a 1758 report describes “several Bones of a monstrous Size they affirm to have been dug up here.”⁹

According to the Co. Louth Ordnance Survey Letters in 1836,

They say it is the grave of Para buidhe mór Mhac Seoidin, a Scotch giant, who came to challenge Fin Mac Coole…Para buidhe mór asked Fin’s wife where he (Fin) used to eat, Fin, she told him, when he was hungry would kill one of those bullocks (pointing to them), roast him and eat him. Para went and did the same; the spot on which he killed, roasted, and ate the bullock, is pointed out yet…When he had eaten he went to the river which runs near the spot, to satisfy his thirst; but Fin threw poison into the river, by which means he dispatched him.¹⁰

Greatly exaggerated Proleek Dolmen, by Robert O'Callaghan Newenham, Picturesque Views of the Antiquities of Ireland, 1830.

The other bit of folklore concerning the Proleek Dolmen, still honored by many of its scores of visitors each day, says that if you are successful in tossing three consecutive pebbles up to the top of the capstone, without any rolling off, you will get a wish. Another version of the legend states that whoever manages the feat will be married within the year.

The small stones on the top of the Ballymascanlon cromlech near Dundalk, locally known a the “Pulleek Stone,” are thrown by the credulous, who believe that if one rests there the thrower will be married before the expiration of the year…¹¹

The role of these pebbles in the folklore of this sepulchral monument may be a remnant of a ancient practice. In 1888 W. G. Wood-Martin recorded that such pebbles were often found in old tombs being excavated. He wrote that it was common for the workmen doing the digging, when coming upon such pebbles, to shout out, “Here are the two stones! — now we will get the bones.”¹²

The Proleek Dolmen holds a special place for us among the hundreds of ancient Irish monuments we’ve visited, as it was the first one we encountered. In April of 1968, while motorcycling around the east coast of Ireland during a holiday from our studies in England, we followed a signpost which led us to walk up a rough path through a field, across a stream and into a wood. It then opened up to a broad meadow, where the Proleek Dolmen appeared in front of us. It was still the dismal end of winter in Ireland, cold and wet. So there was no one else around as we reached out and touched these stones, forging a link between ourselves and those who erected the monument five thousand years earlier. It was only after our next visit, a decade afterwards, that we discovered that the broad meadow at the end of the path was actually the fairway of the Ballymascanlon House Hotel.

The Proleek Dolmen, Co. Louth
Nearest Town: Dundalk
Townland: Proleek
Latitude: 54° 2′ 14.08″ N
Longitude: 6° 20′ 53.86″ W

Mystical Ireland
Ancient Ireland
Megalithic Ireland

It looks like the beginning of the world, somehow: the sea looks older than in other places, the hills and rocks strange, and formed differently from other rocks and hills—as those vast dubious monsters were formed who possessed the earth before man…When the world was moulded and fashioned out of formless chaos, this must have been the bit over—a remnant of chaos!

William Makepeace Thackeray, The Irish Sketch Book of 1842¹
 

An interactive map will appear when you view the virtual-reality environment in full-screen mode. Click to enter. Then click its full-screen button, bottom right. Click here for the tablet version.

Why is the Giant’s Causeway, which all but the most seriously fairy-struck will now agree is a natural and not a manufactured wonder, included here in Voices from the Dawn, a project devoted to Ireland’s ancient monuments? Certainly it is an anomaly on these pages, as much so as Stonehenge, the other outlier of the project, which isn’t even in Ireland. But the Giant’s Causeway, otherworldly rock formations along Co. Antrim’s northeast coast in Northern Ireland, has a rich treasure of folklore to suggest its inclusion here. In legend, it was believed to be man-made. Furthermore, this UNESCO World Heritage Site is an irresistible destination for the panorama photographer.

In the virtual-reality environment (left) you can explore the Giant’s Causeway from five different positions, To use the interactive map, wait until the panorama loads completely, then click its full-screen button at the lower right. This map was adapted from a 1696 engraving by Edwin Sandy. The modern access road will be indicated by a colored line.

Geologists will explain that volcanic activity 50-60 million years ago created an extensive plateau here of molten basalt. Cooling rapidly, the fluid rock contracted horizontally and cracked into the distinctive columnar shapes seen today. Some of the columns are 12 m (39 ft) high, and while most of them are hexagonal, they may have as few as four and as many as eight sides.

Watercolor by Susanna Drury, 1739 (Ulster Museum)

The tops of the columns may be seen in detail in the virtual-reality environment by aiming the viewpoint downward. In the seventeenth century, when the first reports of the Causeway were made, some suggested that these columns must have been human-engineered. By 1768, however, geologists were beginning to understand that it was a natural result of volcanism on a younger earth.² As a guidebook author described a nearby beach in 1813:

[It] exhibits an awful wreck of the terraqueous globe, consisting altogether of immense masses of black lava; so extremely replete with bladder holes and so void of extraneous matter, that it…leaves not the least doubt of its being a volcanic production.³

In the world of legend, these 40,000 interlocking blocks of stone were once but the first segment of a roadway stretching across the sea to Scotland. It was built, the story goes, by Fionn mac Cumhaill so that he might make battle with Benandonner, his rival across the strait in Scotland.

The story has been repeated for many generations, and has a number of variations. Here’s one from a popular magazine of 1729, in which a “rough, ruddy-faced farmer” explains the story to a British businessman after he boasts that a new railroad in England is a more impressive sight than the Giant’s Causeway:

‘Didn’t ould Fin Mc Coul all as one as make that Causeway for the honour and glory of Ireland? And what’s the use o’ talking about your dirty bit o’ a Railway?…”
“And pray, my good fellow, for what purpose did this Fin Mc Coul make the Causeway? Perhaps you can tell us.’
‘With all my heart. You see, Sir, a big Scotch giant, one Benandonner, used to brag that he would lick Fin Mc Coul any day. And he used to go over the Highlands, crowing like a cock on its own dunghill that all he wanted was a fair field and no favour. So, by my souks, Fin went to the King of Ireland—ould Cormac maybe ye’ve heerd o’ him…and he says to his majesty, says he, I want to let Benandonner come over to Ireland widout wetting the sole’ o’ his shoe, and if I don’t lather him as well as ever he was lathered in his life, its not myself that’s in it! So Fin Mc Coul got lave to build the Causeway, and sure he did…to Scotland—and Benandonner came over wid his broad sword and his kilt, and right glad he was to get a dacent excuse for laving his own country. He was bate, of coorse, though he stuck up like a Trojan…’⁴

The basaltic columns continue up into the cliffs.

In what might be the most well-known of the legends, when Benadonner arrived for the big fight, Fionn was startled as he spied the Scottish giant’s bulk. So he asked his wife, Oonagh, to disguise him as a baby. She put him in a outsized baby’s crib, and covered him with a blanket. When Benandonner arrived, Oonagh informed him that Fionn was out hunting and would return soon. She asked him to wait nearby as she fed their baby. As soon as Benandonner noted the size of this “infant,” he assumed that its father, Fionn, must be a giant among giants. So he turned around and fled back to Scotland in terror, destroying the Causeway behind him in case Fionn wanted to follow.⁵

Perhaps the legendary Benandonner lived on the now-uninhabited little Scottish islet of Staffa, directly opposite the Giant’s Causeway, 160 km (100 mi) away. There, basaltic columns identical to those of the Giant’s Causeway (below, right) lead up into Fingal’s Cave in a straight line from the Giant’s Causeway.⁶ Is it possible that this bit of geological trivia was known to the ancient inhabitants of the land and developed into the legend of the causeway extending from Ireland to Scotland?

Prehistoric people, by necessity intimately attuned to the nuances of their environment, would certainly have been aware of these unmistakable wonders of geology. Paradoxically, the Giant’s Causeway was not “discovered” by academe or the media until the seventeenth century. Yet archaeologists believe that nearby Whitepark Bay is one of the sites of Ireland’s settlement 10,000 years ago, after the last ice age.⁷ So there must have been many generations of people living in close proximity to the monument before Robert Redding, a member of the Royal Society, made a visit there in 1688. Unfortunately, the early Irish have left us no record of their thoughts regarding the place.

Redding, however, reported his discovery in a letter to the Society:

There was read Sr. Robert Redding’s Description of ye Giants Causey within 2 miles of Dunluce, to the north thereof, in the County of Antrim in Ireland: where there are a vast quantity of Hexagonall Pillars of stone about 8 Inches side, which stand pitch’t perpendicular as in a Pavement running down obliquely into the Sea. These Columns are so regularly ranged and fitted one to the other that it seems rather the work of art than nature…⁸

A postcard of Fingal's Cave, Scotland, c. 1890

When Redding called it the “Giants Causey,” he may been attempting an English version of the Irish name he found in local folklore, Clochá n na bhFomharaigh, which means “the stepping stones of the Fomorii,” the violent mythological creatures of chaos and violence.⁹ While it may be that the local legends of the stones are what drew Redding to the site, most subsequent accounts tended to ignore the folklore and to instead explore the Causeway in a rational, scientific manner.

In 1694 the journal Philosophical Transactions published a complete description of the Giant’s Causeway, along with the first drawing (see gallery below).¹⁰ A half-century later, an exchange of letters in the same publication explored the geological connections between the Causeway and similar basaltic columns discovered across the sea in Scotland and elsewhere, including those at the aforementioned Fingal’s Cave.¹¹

Dublin artist Susanna Drury’s watercolor of the stones (top, right) won an important award in 1740. Engravings made from the work were then widely published, bringing more public awareness to the site. Soon, guidebooks advising tourists in Ireland—then still a pioneering lot—waxed ecstatic about the Causeway, even if one author expressed his sympathies for those who toiled at the kelp industry nearby:

…a more sublime, imposing, and beautiful scene could not by any possibility be imagined by the most enthusiastic mind, than that which bursts on the sight—an immense and magnificent bay, indented by a number of capes and headlands, which rise around from a height of three hundred and fifty to four hundred feet above the level of the sea, presenting at all points a variety of the most magnificent and interesting views—as if nature and art had united their energies to form one truly grand and splendid picture…To behold women and children toiling up this dreadful ascent, bearing heavy loads, either on their heads or fastened from their necks and shoulders is really painful, even to the least sensitive, unaccustomed to the sight —and yet the natives themselves appear to think nothing whatever of it.¹²

Belfast Naturalists' Field Club, 1868

With worldwide publicity, visitors to the Giant’s Causeway came in such numbers that the owners of the land began charging to view the stones. The Giant’s Causeway Company won a court case in 1897 that gave them legal authority to fence in the stones and charge anyone who wished to view them. There was once a caretaker’s house at the shoreline, where a turnstile admitted ticket holders to walk out to the columns. A Victorian tea room welcomed visitors at the other side of Giant’s Gate, and local villagers sold souvenirs and amenities from their stalls set along the route down to the stones.¹³ All the blatant exploitation was replaced by a single visitor’s center, far removed from the stones, once the National Trust took over the property in the 1960s. Tourists may now choose to walk the .8 kilometer (.5 mile) pavement down to the stones for free, or take the shuttle bus for a small fee.

In the 1840s however, when Thackeray made his visit, tourists would usually engage one of the local boatmen waiting for them on the beach just below the present-day visitors’ center. To properly see the columns of the Causeway they would plough through the breakers (see illustration in gallery) and then row back into the bay for the best view of the Causeway and the nearby shore caves. As Thackeray described the adventure:

…I had nothing for it but to yield myself into the hands of the guide who had seized me, who hurried me down the steep to a little wild bay, flanked on each side by rugged cliffs and rocks, against which the waters came tumbling, frothing, and roaring furiously. Upon some of these black rocks two or three boats were lying: four men seized a boat, pushed it shouting into the water, and ravished me into it. We had slid between two rocks, where the channel came gurgling in: we were up one swelling wave that came in a huge advancing body ten feet above us, and were plunging madly down another…I had leisure to ask myself why the deuce I was in that boat, with four rowers hurrooing and bounding madly from one huge liquid mountain to another…¹⁴

Click here to see all the notes from this page.

The Giant’s Causeway, Co. Antrim
Nearest Town: Portballintrae
Townland: Aird
Latitude: 55° 14’ 53.02” N
Longitude: 6° 29’ 02.99” W

The National Trust
Wikipedia

You can see other smaller [forts], out there. There was the theory that they were all connected by an underground passage; but they never found it…The man whose land it was on, he wouldn’t allow you to play on there, or move the stones. It was supposed to be left as it was. He would not even move one stone. It would be inhabited by the fairies or something…He wouldn’t even take—bad luck— the pebble off it. That’s why, when the place was being excavated, he really would have gone berserk.

Patrick Curran and Thomas Kelly, June, 2001. See video, below right.¹
 

Click to explore Loher Stone Fort in virtual reality.

The folklore that Loher Stone Fort is connected to other forts, or cahers, on nearby hills by a network of underground passages is not unique to this postcard-perfect location overlooking Ballinskelligs Bay. Similar stories are heard throughout the country. One such tale, connecting two of these forts with a nearby medieval stone castle is recounted across the Macgillycuddy’s Reeks on the other side of the Iveragh Peninsula near Cahersiveen. In fact, when Loher Stone Fort, really a fortified farmstead, was excavated it was found to contain beneath one of its houses a short underground passage, or souterrain. This may have been a tunnel of refuge or it might have been—more prosaically—used for cold storage. It has now been closed up. You may enter such a tunnel in virtual reality by visiting our page on the Binder’s Cove Souterrain.

After its excavation and recent reconstruction, the fort’s two stone house foundations—one circular and one rectangular—were found to be constructed on top of the remains of earlier homes made largely of wood.² The enclosing wall, up to 3 m tall and 3 m thick (10 ft) has on its inner face steps that crisscross and lead up to the top of the ramparts of this circular fort, 20 m (65.6 ft) in diameter. This construction is similar to other forts in Co Kerry, and may be noted in detail in the interior panorama of the nearby—and better known—Staigue Fort.

Locals Patrick Curran and Thomas Kelly were not allowed to play near the fort in their youth.

Early antiquarians, using more imagination than scientific method, envisioned these stone forts as circular temples for the worship of the sun. An 1841 account of a fort in Co. Wexford is a good example:

Their use was religious…the worship that of the sun. When anywhere within the outer rampart…we have no view of anything terrestrial; and the depression at the East gave the worshipper in the interior the first view of the Deity in the morning, and that in the West the last view of his departing glory, unmixed with any earthly objects.³

It is likely that a locally important chieftain built the fort in the Early Christian period, perhaps around the 9th century CE.⁴ While there is no history or tradition connecting this homestead to a particular individual, either historic or legendary, it is evident that he had brilliant sense for its strategic location. The fort, protected on three sides by mountains, has fine agricultural land to its west. Perhaps just as importantly, its high vantage point overlooking the narrow entrance of the bay would make it difficult for any ship to enter without being noticed.

Today it may be difficult to find anyone in the vicinity of Loher Stone Fort who still believes in a maze of underground passages connecting it with the other neighboring forts. Archaeologists dispute that there was ever such a network of passages. But as the prominent Irish folklorist J.H. Delargy (Séamus Ó Duilearga) wrote in 1945,

Many of the old story-tellers believed in all the marvels and magic of the typical wonder-tale, and if some forward youth were to inquire if these things could possibly be true, the answer of most would be: Bhiodh draíochta ann sa tseana-shaol! ‘There was magic in old times!’⁵

Loher Stone Fort, Co. Kerry
Nearest Town: Waterville
Townland: Loher
Latitude: 51° 47′ 8.87″ N
Longitude: 10° 9′ 53.92″ W