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Earthing the Myths. Daragh Smyth
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isbn 9781788551373
Автор произведения Daragh Smyth
Издательство Ingram
Eventually it was acknowledged that the original markings on the Lugnaedon stone were in ogam and later in Gaelic script, presumably from the ogam. So finally, we end up with our old harvest and sun god Lug,* a Celtic deity found throughout Europe and along the coast of North Africa. Thus, we are left with two pre-Christian or pagan deities: namely, Lug or the ‘shining one’ and Aed ‘the fiery one’, both solar deities. The noted antiquarian R.A.S. Macalister suggested that the original ogam inscriptions were cut from the sides of the stone and substituted with what one can see today. According to Rynne, it is generally accepted nowadays that the inscription dates from the sixth century and ‘is probably the oldest extant example of an Irish inscription in Latin characters’. It has also been pointed out that the word gall is an old Irish word for a stone, and that Inchagoill should be translated as ‘The Island of the Stone’, or the ‘Island of Lug’s Stone’.
Lough Corrib was originally known as Loch Orbsen, Orbsen being the proper name of Mannanán mac Lir.* According to legend, when Orbsen’s grave was being dug, the lake burst forth over the land. Keating says:
Mannanán mac Lir ó’n sír sreath, Oirbsean a ainm, iar gcéd gcloth ég adbath.
Manannán son of Lear, from the ‘loch’ he sought the ‘sraith’ [‘sraith’, a level space by a river]. Oirbsean his (own) name, after a hundred conflicts he died the death.
[Translated by David Comyn]
Legend relates that a great fight took place between Orbsen mac Alloid or Manannán mac Lir* and Uillinn, the grandson of Nuadu Argatlám (‘Nuadu of the Silver Hand’, who was a king of Ireland and whose replica, minus his arm, can be seen today in the Anglican cathedral in Armagh).This fight took place on the western shores of Lough Corrib near Moycullen [45], which in Irish is Magh Uillinn or ‘the plain of Uillin’. A standing stone known as Uillin’s stone was said to commemorate this battle but seems to have disappeared by the middle of the twentieth century.
A different origin for the Corrib’s name is given by O’Rahilly who says that it is named after Oirbsiu Már, who was son of Lugaid Conmac, thus providing another connection, beside that on Inchagoill, with Lug.* The Conmaicne were a pre-Gaelic race who worshipped Lug as their sun god.
Kilbennan [39], about ten miles north-east of Lough Corrib, also has an association with Lug,* its pagan name having been Dún Lugaid (‘the fort of Lug’). A monastery was founded there by St Benin, a disciple and successor of St Patrick at Armagh; the land here was given by a local chieftain, Lugaid, who was baptised by Patrick. He followed the tradition of incorporating the local god, the sun god Lug, into his name. The early church of Benin was burnt down in 1114, but there are portions of a round tower still standing there. O’Donovan in the nineteenth century wrote that ‘the present coarb [successor] of St Benin is making every exertion to put a stop to these courses, because he believed that the tower was a pagan fire-temple and that the well was of druidical sanctity, and that St Benin was obliged to transfer them to Christian purposes to please the superstitious natives’. St Benin’s Well (Tobar Chill Bheinín) is about 150 yards north-west from the ruins of the medieval church.
FIGURE 2. The pillar stone on Inchagoill Island, Lough Corrib, associated with the god Lug.
On the last Sunday in July a great pattern was held at ancient Dún Lugaid to commemorate Lug,* a day that was also known as the Feast of Lughnasa and later as Garland Sunday. John O’Donovan visited here in 1838 and found that ‘stations were performed at the well on Domnach Chrom Dubh [the Irish name for Garland Sunday]’. The parish priest at the time, a Father Joyce, wished to put a stop to the practice because of its pagan origins.
A few hundred yards to the east of the round tower is a townland named Ballygaddy (Baile an Gadaighe, ‘the townland of the thief’), and according to O’Donovan there existed here two heaps of stones and a larger monument named Altóir Phádruig, or ‘St Patrick’s Altar’, on which the saint is said to have said mass.
St Benin also has a small church on Inishmore, Aran Islands. The church known as Temple Benan is on the hillside a few hundred yards south-west from the village of Killeany. The internal measurements are about eleven by seven feet, while the gables, rising to about sixteen feet, are quite steep. Why the roof here cannot be restored is a mystery, for the walls are very solid and have remained so for almost a millennium and-a-half. It would be a place of great pilgrimage and memory to the monk who was the first disciple of St Patrick and who practised religion on the ancient site of Dún Lughaid.
Twelve miles east of Lough Corrib is the townland of Coolfowerbeg (Cuil Fobhair, ‘the back of the spring well’) [46] in the parish of Killererin. Here Tigernmas defeated the descendants of Éber, the Milesian or Gaelic chief, according to Keating, but Hogan says that Tigernmas fought and defeated the Érainn here. This vagueness as to who fought whom is indicative of our prehistory. Yet it stands as one of the many battles fought by Tigernmas, High King of Ireland, as recorded in the annals.
To the south-west of Kinvara (Cinn Mhara, ‘head of the sea’) [52] is the Doorus Demesne, the summer home of Comte Florimond de Basterot, and during a visit to the Count there in 1898 Lady Gregory recalled that ‘The Count remembered when on Garland Sunday [last Sunday in July] men used to ride races naked on unsaddled horses out into the sea; but that wild custom has been done away with by decree of the priests.’
The wild custom would appear to have been part of a central ritual during the feast of Lughnasa and reveals the connection between Epona, a Gaulish horse goddess who was the daughter of a man called ‘nature of the sea’ and is also the mother of a horse who returns to the sea, and Lug,* the foster son of Manannán mac Lir,* the Irish and Welsh sea god. Epona’s Irish equivalent is Macha, a horse goddess and a goddess of fertility. The central motif in the ritual horse bathing at harvest time is that the mare goddess is married to the sea and at certain times returns to her lover. In Greek mythology, Demeter, often depicted with a mare’s head, had intercourse with Poseidon, the god of the sea. A central part of this Indo-European rite was expressed with the horse race into the sea at Kinvara.
About ten miles south of Kinvara is the town of Gort [52], and about two miles north-east of here is Ballyconnell, which derives its name from a famous battle known as Cath Carn Conaill or ‘the battle of Carn Conaill’. According to the Annals of Ulster the battle took place in 649 AD, and although firmly placed in the historic period, contains many elements discernible in the older tales. The battle was fought between Duirmuid Ruanaid, a powerful chief of the southern Uí Néill, and Guaire of Aidne, King of Connacht. Aidne comprised the barony of Kiltartan and the dioceses of Kilmacduagh.
Guaire held his court at his castle originally known as Durlas Guaire (‘the strong fort of Guaire’) but now named Dungory just east of Kinvara. A more modern castle stands here now, but in 1914 it was said that the remains of the original castle could be seen. According