partly because our history is seen as beginning in 431 AD with the arrival of Christianity. In the case of Cormac mac Airt and his cave, his story fits into the motif of the European hero–king, but this is not to say that it is necessarily borrowed from the tale of Romulus and Remus and it may stand on its own.
Another later story relating to Keshcorran is included in the ‘Lays of Finn’ or the Duanaire Finn compiled in the seventeenth century. This is a story known as ‘The Lay of the Smithy’, in which Finn* and his Fianna* find themselves on Sliabh Luachra in Kerry, where they are approached by Lon mac Liomtha, the chief smith of Norway. He challenges the Fianna to race him, and he leads them all the way to the caves of Keshcorran. Lon makes swords and spears and presents them to Finn and his warriors. He names all the weaponry, Mac an Luin being the name given to Finn’s sword. At sunrise the next day the Fianna wake up to find themselves once again on Sliabh Luachra. Here is an unusual tale where no one dies nor is injured. It possibly has a derivation in an ancient warrior route from Sliabh Luachra to Ard Patrick in Limerick, and from there to Clare and Galway and finally to Keshcorran.
A more famous tale relating to the caves, Bruidhean Chéise Corainn, or ‘The Otherworld Hostel at Keshcorran’, tells of Finn and the Fianna* being trapped here by three cailleacha or hags, the daughters of Conaran mac Imidel of the Tuatha Dé Danann,* and then being rescued by Goll mac Morna, the same Goll who in time rescued Finn in hell from the ‘demons of the blue host’.
The caves were a meeting place for the goddesses or cailleacha, later demoted to hags but still retaining their power. In Mayo folklore, according to Máire Mac Neill, the caves were home to Áine, as were Knockainey in Co. Limerick and the Paps of Anu (the mother of the Irish gods) on the Cork–Kerry border. The Mórrígan (‘great queen’) had a tryst with the Dagda* on the River Unshin, three miles north of Corann Hill. In Old Irish, Uinnius means ‘ash tree’, one of the sacred and venerated trees both in these islands and in Norse mythology, as it was seen as the tree that connected the earth with the Otherworld. The Unshin was a living manifestation of the goddess, in this case the Mórrígan, with nine loosened tresses, who was washing herself, ‘one foot on the south bank the other on the north’. She and the Dagda conversed and then mated over water, this being part of an ancient fertility ritual. The ‘Bed of the Couple’ is the name of this place. Here on this river she prophesied the second battle of Magh Tuiredh, telling the Dagda to summon the skilled men to meet her at the River Unshin. Here the Mórrígan killed Indech, a Fomorian giving handfuls of his blood to the waiting warriors. At a more local level, the Cailín Cennruad or ‘red haired girl’ was one of the cailleachs connected to Keshcorran.
Several ring forts connected to the Fenian saga of Diarmuid* and Gráinne* are just north of Keshcorann at Graniamore (Gráinne Mór) [25]. There are at least five in the townland of Graniamore and one in the townland of Graniaroe. A rath or ring fort at the base of the hill to the north is termed by Máire Mac Neill as Ráth Gráinne, and here she says the two lovers stayed during a lull in the trouble with Finn. This ring fort is at Carnaweeleen at the north base of the hill about a third of a mile north of the megalithic tomb from which Carnaweeleen gets its name. However, as the territory of Corann was part of Gráinne’s dowry given to her by her father, Cormac mac Airt, she was not restricted to any one homestead but had her pick of a large number.
The identification in south Sligo of so many Early Medieval homesteads or ring forts connected with Gráinne gives this story, one of the great tales of early Irish literature, a strong resonance of place, and specific places at that. Many ancient places are named ‘the love beds of Diarmuid* and Gráinne’;* altogether there are said to be 366 of them throughout Ireland. They are mostly associated with dolmens or ring forts.
Perhaps the most significant site associated with this saga is Ben Bulben, or more accurately Ben Gulban [16], an imposing flat-topped plateau with its cliffs formed of limestones. It was on this plateau that Finn and the Fianna* finally caught up with the couple, and in a wild boar hunt Diarmuid* died from wounds received from the swine. Finn let him die unaided and Gráinne returned to Finn and the Fianna. Diarmuid was killed at a place known as Leacht na Muice or the ‘grave of the pig’, identified as Áth Doimhghlais, which may be in the townland of Ardnaglass between Ben Gulban and Grange on the N15. The legend relates that Diarmuid was taken by his guardian god Aengus of the Brú back to the burial place of the gods at Brú na Bóinne along the Boyne Valley in Co. Meath.
Ben Gulban is named after Conall Gulban, whose adventures in eastern lands are described in the sixteenth-century manuscript Eachtra Chonaill Ghulban, as it was here that he was fostered. Conall was a son of Niall of the Nine Hostages, who lived in the fifth century. Tír Conaill Gulban is the Irish version of Donegal, named after Gulban. Conall, together with his brothers Énnae and Eógan, were founders of the northern Úi Néill.
Three miles north-west of Drumcliff is Cooldrumman (Cúl Dremne, ‘the back of the ridge hill’), the ridge hill referred to being Ben Gulban. Cooldrumman [16] is about two miles west of Ben Gulban. Here another O’Neill, namely Colm O’Neill, otherwise known as St Columcille or St Columba, was involved in the first recorded act of plagiarism, which led to the so-called Battle of the Books fought at Cooldrumman in 561 AD.
The origins of this battle go back to a visit by Columcille to St Finnian in Droma Find or Dromyn near Ardee, Co. Louth, to ask him for a loan of his book of the Psalms. Without Finnian’s knowledge he began copying it, and when he was nearing the end Finnian sent someone to ask him for it back. The messenger observed Columcille transcribing the book, and when it was revealed to the saint that he had been observed, he spoke in saintly language to a pet crane he had, saying: ‘It’s all right with me if it’s all right with God for you to pluck out the eye of that youth that came to spy on me without my knowledge.’ The crane dutifully whipped out the eye so that it was left hanging externally on the cheek of the observer. St Finnian did not like this, and he blessed and healed the eye and put it back in its socket. He then approached Columcille and complained about his copying the book of Psalms without his consent. To this, Columcille said: ‘I will need the ruling of the king of Ireland about this.’ The king at the time was Diarmait mac Cerball.
Finnian replied: ‘I will accept that.’
After that, they both went to King Diarmait at Tara for judgement. Finnian said: ‘Columcille copied my book unknown to me and I say that the “son” [copy] of my book is mine.’ To which Columcille replied:
Finnian’s book that I copied from is none the worse for it, and it is not right that the divine words in that book should perish or that I or any other should be hindered from copying or reading them or from spreading them among the people; and further I claim that I was entitled to copy it, for if there was any profit for me in copying it I would want to give that profit to the people, without consequence to Finnian or his book.
Then Diarmait gave his famous judgement: ‘To every cow its little cow, that is its calf, and to every book its little book, that is its copy: and because of that, Columcille, the book you copied is Finnian’s.’
‘That’s a bad judgement,’ said Columcille, ‘and you will be punished for it.’
Around the same time a row broke out between the son of the King of Connacht and a steward during a hurling game, resulting in the prince killing the steward. The prince sought the protection of Columcille, but to no avail –he was taken away and executed. It seems that the execution of the prince while under the protection of the saint was more the cause for the ensuing battle, but the plagiarism has had a greater impact on our scribes and historians. In the battle of Cúil Dremne, the Úi Neill were victorious against Diarmait the King of Ireland. After this victory, Colum left Ireland due to his guilt at instigating this battle with all its loss of life, but he returned on occasion. His departure was not voluntary but in accordance with a ruling by St Molaise of Devenish, whose account of the battle is preserved in the Cathach or ‘Battle Book’, a most precious book in the possession of the Royal
