Earthing the Myths - Daragh Smyth

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(Baile Easa Dara, ‘homestead of the waterfall of the oak’) [25] mentioned above in relation to Moytura has an older meaning, namely, ‘the home of Dara by the waterfall’. Dara was a Fomorian druid who was slain by the Tuatha Dé Danann* chief, Lug of the Long Hand. The Fomorians* are said to have landed in Ballysadare Bay. They were seen as pirates, and as the Vikings had a name for piracy, both groups often became confused in the popular mind.

      The god of the Fomorians* was Balor, and Balor was the god of the Phoenicians who were a trading people; this leads one to speculate that the Phoenicians and the Fomorians were one people. Many statues of Balor stand today in the Lebanon at Tortosa in territory anciently connected with the Phoenicians.

      The plain south of the River Duff and north of Ben Gulban and extending to the sea was known as Magh Cétne na bFomorach [16], possibly ‘the first plain of the Fomorians’. When the Fomorians* were in power, the Nemedians had to bring their taxes of cattle, corn and children to Magh Cétne. A poem by Eochaidh O’Floinn who died in 1004 includes a reference to this:

      To hard Magh Ceitne of weapons,

      To Ess Ruadh of wonderful salmon,

      They deliver it to them every Samhain eve.

      [Translated by R.A.S. Macalister]

      Henry Morris the early twentieth-century antiquarian says that the Fomorians* settled on Dernish Island facing Magh Cétne. Dernish Island extends to 115 acres and at its centre rises to over 100 feet. So, it was to here that the taxes were paid from Magh Cétne, and the Nemedians also paid their taxes to the Fomorians at Magh Itha, which was an older name for the plain of Magh Itha or Magh Ene or Magh Céthne. This place is so old that it has been identified as the Magnata of Ptolemy. This would seem to suggest that Tor Conaing (‘Conaign’s tower’) was located in Dernish and not on Tory Island. Ptolemy’s names refer to the second century, and at that time this stone-built tower presumably would have still been standing.

      The foundations of the Fomorian tower on Dernish Island were dug up in 1910 by the owner of the land, a Peter Mulligan. According to Henry Morris, it was still possible to see the trace of the circle in 1925. The tower was on the highest part of the island which in the early twentieth century was still called Cnoc a’ Dúin, ‘the Hill of the Dún or fortress’. Up until the middle of the nineteenth century there existed the remains of a stone fort which has been compared to the stone fort at Dún Aengus on Inis Mór on the Aran Islands off Co. Galway. The trace of the circle measured thirty-three yards in diameter, and Peter Mulligan found the remains of a fulacht fiadh or ancient cooking place which contained pieces of blackened stone. Mulligan was the first farmer to grow a crop on the spot, and presumably used the stout stones of the remaining tower to build field enclosures.

      Around the site of the tower are immense stone fences, and Morris suggests that the Nemedians built a stone wall near the tower to ‘attack the defenders on equal terms’. As the Nemedians had to give a quarter of their firstborn children and their corn and cattle as a tax to the Fomorians,* it is no wonder that they rose up and attacked their oppressors.

      Dernish has associations with the Spanish Armada; a little rock to the west of the island is named Carrig na Spainneach (‘the Spaniard’s Rock’), commemorating the spot where one of the ships of the Spanish Armada went down. On the north-west of the island is a place named Crochan na gCorp (‘the hillock of the corpses’) where a number of the Spanish were buried. And going back in time 1,000 years we find a well dedicated to St Patrick in a little wood on the south-west side of the island.

      About twenty miles south-east of Dernish is Loch na Súil, now named Lough Nasool [25] or ‘lake of the eye’. This lake is associated with Balor, the god of the Fomorians,* and recalls another appellation for Balor – Balor of the Evil Eye. Balor was the name all subsequent chiefs took, and because of this a confusion can exist between the mythological and the early historical telling of tales. Balor is said to have lost an eye in the Battle of Moytura and tears flowed from it, flooding the valley and forming Loch na Súil. This small lake is all that remains of this watery cataract. In 1933, the waters of the lake disappeared overnight through an opening in its bed known as Balor’s Eye; the phenomenon reoccurred in 1964 and again in 2006.

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      FIGURE 12. The cairn marking the burial spot of Queen Medb on Knocknarea.

      About ten miles west from Knocknarea is Aughris Head [25] or Each Ros, ‘the headland of the horse’. The territory here was traditionally known as Tír Fhiachrach and was a probable inauguration site for the O’Dubhda or the O’Dowds, who were the ruling clan in this area. Elizabeth Fitzpatrick writes in Notes on the Gathering Place of Tír Fhiachrach: ‘The place names of the district and its recorded folklore remain the only ancillary supports to our understanding the field monuments,’ and presumably she also implies the customs, rites and early history as well. With the help of Joe Fenwick, she opens the salient aspects of early Irish society in relation to kingship and its customs.

      The name Each Ros underlines how important the horse was in the culture of the society, and this is further supported by an area south from the headland known as the ‘hoof-mark of Ó’Dubhda’s Horse’, which is a natural indentation in the rock; also, south of here a racecourse is marked, its name in Irish being Ruball na Sionnach, or the ‘clearing area for the foxes’. The horse is remembered in the folklore of the area and was recorded in the Folklore Commission’s collection for 1937. The myth of the king’s mating with a white mare is part of the rite of kingship but is not to my knowledge part of the lore. As in Christianity, miracles are part of the lore, but the myth of resurrection is at the core of Christian mythology.

      The story of the white horse from folklore and told by John Furey from Skreen is as follows:

      Long ago a family named O’Dowds reigned; they were chieftains of Tireagh and lived at Ardglass not far from here and at Ardnaree near Ballina. Of course, they had many horses to convey them from place to place as there was no other means of conveyance at the time. At any rate, they had a white horse that never left his stable. He was about seven or eight years old and was always well fed. One day when his master was away a man who lived nearby said to himself, that it would be great fun to go for a ride on the lovely horse. He went to the stable with a bridle and put it on the horse. Then he took him out and jumped up on him and off with them. He galloped until he came to Dunmoran river and it was no trouble for him to jump across it. Then he turned for Aughris pier along the shore all along the shore and all the way jumped the ditches as lively as another horse would run on level land. He kept on at this rate until he came to Córa Donn. When he saw the deep hole and the water going up under the land he turned on his heel and left a deep mark from his hoof on the solid rock, which is to be seen yet.

      The cavern called Comhra Donn, which follows a deep cut in the cliff, is also mentioned by Máire Mac Neill in The Festival of Lughnasa – ‘wherein there is a flagstone bearing hoof marks. Finally, there is a fort in Kilruiseighter where, people say, the kings used to be crowned and in this fort there are two tracks of feet which always remain an everchanging green’.

      As mentioned above, the white mare was an integral part of some inaugural rites of kings, and a dramatic example of the white horse can be seen at the Vale of the White Horse at

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