Ireland

  • Legendary High Queen Macha Mong Ruad

    Macha is a goddess of ancient Ireland, associated with war, horses, sovereignty. Her name appears a lot in Irish mythology, legend and historical tradition. They are all believed to derive from the same deity. This is just one in a number of legendary stories. Around 400-500 B.C. Áed Rúad, son of Badarn, Díthorba, son of Deman, and Cimbáeth, son of Fintan, three grandsons of Airgetmar, were High Kings of Ireland who ruled in rotation, seven years at a time. They each ruled for three seven-year stints. Áed died at the end of his third rotation, by drowning in a waterfall which was named Eas Ruaid, “the red’s waterfall”. At her…

  • Arthur MacMurrough Kavanagh MP

    Bit of a short post tonight ladies and gentlemen, but an interesting man nonetheless. Arthur MacMurrough Kavanagh was born in County Carlow, Ireland, on March 1831, the third son of Thomas Kavanagh MP, and his second wife, Lady Margaret Le Poer Trench, daughter of the Earl of Clancarty. He was followed by his sister Harriet. Due to an unknown birth defect, many suspecting Lady Margaret’s excessive laudanum habit during her pregnancy, Arthur was born with no limbs; stumps were all he had. His two older brothers Charles and Thomas Jr were not similarly afflicted, as neither was his sister. Despite his profound physical disability, in an age where such an…

  • Celtic Christianity

    Everyone knows that St. Patrick converted Ireland to Christianity in the late 5th and early 6th century.  What most people do not know is the church he left in Ireland was different than the rest of the church in Europe.  The differences are explainable as Ireland was very far from Rome, and travel was not easy.  Ireland had never been part of the Roman Empire, and many of the Roman church’s traditions and hierarchies were based on the bureaucracy of Roman government.  Where the Roman church was more of a retreat from the sins of the world, the Celtic church was more concerned with living in the world and dealing…

  • Brehon Law- Lost Legal System

    The seventh century in Ireland is considered to be a time of enlightenment. Many people flocked to Irish centers of learning from all over Europe. At this time, the laws governing the provinces of Ireland were set down in writing. These were the Laws of Fenechus, or free land tillers. These more popularly became known as Brehon laws from the word for judge, breitheamh. Brehon law is the oldest and most extensive law system of medieval Europe. These surprisingly modern laws set Ireland apart from the rest of Europe. Where the rest of Europe was wrestling with trial by ordeal or trial by combat, Brehon law set out a complex…

  • Banshee

    A Banshee (“woman of the barrows”) is a female spirit in Irish mythology. Traditionally when a person died a woman would wail a lament at the funeral. These women are referred to as “keeners” and legend has it that for great Gaelic families the lament would be sung by a fairy woman; having foresight, she would sing it when a family member died, even if the person had died far away and news of their death had not yet come, so that the wailing of the banshee was the first warning the household had of the death. In later versions, the banshee might appear before the death and warn the…