of the mythology reflects the pagan religious background of prehistoric Ireland, at the centre of which stood the priestly caste known as the druids. Their origins are open to debate, but some have connected them to the Dravidians from the Indus Valley in India. Their idea of an afterlife was similar to the Hindu doctrine of reincarnation and the Pythagorean idea of metempsychosis. Thus, they believed that the spirit at the time of death passed into another body, possibly that of a different species. An early coloniser of Ireland, Partholón, is said to have arrived with three druids called Fios, Eolus and Fochmarc, meaning intelligence, knowledge and inquiry; all druids were said to possess these attributes.
Druidic influence extended from the Indus Valley across Europe to the British Isles and has been recorded by Greek and Roman historians and chroniclers, including Julius Caesar. Stonehenge in England was a noted druidic centre, as was Pentre Ifan between Cardiff and Fishguard, close to the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales; the latter would also, like Tara, have been a centre for initiation.
In Ireland, Tara, Emain Macha and Uisnech were three druidic centres. On the first day of May, the Hill of Uisnech, regarded as being the centre of Ireland, became a gathering place for the druids, who lit the first sacred fire, from which all others were lit. During excavation at Uisnech, an enormous bed of ashes which had turned the earth red to a depth of some inches was found, thus reinforcing the theory of Uisnech as the centre of a fire cult.
In early times, the functions of the druid and the file, or poet, were similar, and both practised magic. One interesting rite was Imbas forasnai, ‘the manifestation that enlightens’, which was used to acquire supernatural knowledge. A tenth-century manuscript by Cormac, the king–bishop of Cashel in Munster, describes it as follows:
Thus it is done: the poet chews a piece of the flesh of a red pig, or dog or cat, and puts it afterwards on the flag behind the door, and pronounces an incantation on it, and offers it to idol gods, and afterwards calls his idols to him … and pronounces incantations on his two palms, and calls again his idols to him that his sleep may not be disturbed, and he lays his two palms on both his cheeks, and in this manner he falls asleep; and he is watched in order that no one may interrupt or disturb him until everything about which he is engaged is revealed to him.
Dreams have been at the centre of aboriginal cultures from Australia to India to Ireland to North America. Another notable dream rite in Ireland was the Tarbfes or the ‘Bull-feast’, in which a druid, after partaking of the meat of a white bull that had just been killed, would sleep for a number of hours while other druids recited incantations over him. When he awoke, he recounted his dreams, and these would determine the kind of man who would be king. The rite was carried out at Tara, Co. Meath, which was, and to an extent still is, the spiritual centre of Ireland. It continued until the coming of St Patrick.
FOUNDATION MYTHS
Ancient Irish culture had its own highly developed foundation myths, as found especially in Lebor Gabála (‘The Book of Invasions’), which cites tribes arriving in Ireland, having set out from the Middle East after the Flood: these tribes included the Nemedians, the Fomorians, the Fir Bolg and apparently the Tuatha Dé Danann and the Milesians. Thus, there is a strong biblical tradition in many of the peoples who arrived here. ‘And the sons of Noah, that went forth were Shem and Ham and Japheth; and Ham is the father of Canann. These are the three sons of Noah and of them the whole earth was overspread’ (Genesis 9: 18, 19). Sharon Paice Macleod, quoting John Carey in his edition of Lebor Gabála, writes: ‘native Irish lore and biblical and medieval traditions were “stitched together” in a pseudo-history which served many purposes.’
Thus Gaedel Glas, the progenitor of the Gaels, can trace his line back to Noah. These myths, obscure yet persistent, introduced two sets of gods; those of light and those of darkness. The gods of darkness found their origin in Ba’al or Balor, and he was worshipped by the Fomorians as a sun god. The gods of light found their god in Lug, and these people are known as the Tuatha Dé Danann. The progeny of Gaedel Glas, or the Milesians, from Egypt and then Galicia in Spain were also associated with the gods of light, while the Picts, or Dal n’Araide were associated with the gods of darkness; the gods of darkness were mostly goddesses, depicting a people unimpressed by the patriarchal godhead from the desert.
The foundation myth of the Irish Republic although acknowledging the Judeo-Christian god also uses the hero Cú Chulainn to symbolise both the warrior spirit and the ancestral rights of a people.
Whatever or not these myths have any relation to historical fact is a moot point, but what we can say with a large degree of certainty is that the first peoples to carry pre-Christian mythology with them to Ireland were Picts, or in Irish Cruithin, the original inhabitants of Britain and Ireland, and named Priteni by Julius Caesar. Due to the Roman invasion they were forced northwards to Scotland, and as the Romans never invaded Ireland, it remained a stronghold for these tribes and for their myths, rites and customs. It also became a haven for one of the last aboriginal tribes of western Europe living in the last habitable island, away from the imperial armies of the Roman Empire and with nothing beyond but the vast and wild Atlantic Ocean. The Picts were so called because they painted their bodies, and the colours they used defined their tribe or status.
Regarding the Milesians, known as ‘the sons of Mil Espaine’, there is another theory to be considered. Eoin Mac Neill said that their invasion was a medieval creation and for O’Rahilly the ‘authoritative’ account in the Lebor Gabála or ‘Book of Invasions’ was a ‘primitive’ story of the invasion. Who was Mil Espaine, ‘the soldier from Spain’? Was he Spanish or was he a Roman soldier in a Spanish division of the Roman army? In an article titled ‘The true origin of the Sons of Mil’ in the 1973 edition of the Louth Archaeological and Historical Journal, Michael Neary writes that the Ninth Legion (Hispana) of the Roman army was stationed in York. This legion apparently disappeared and was never heard of again. Neary contends that they joined with the Brigantes of York and then came to Wexford at Inver Slaney where they joined the Brigantes of that region, after which they proceeded to conquer the other tribes of Ireland. They thus became the Gaels, as legend has it that they originally came from Galicia. The Ninth Legion fought and had victories in Africa and Europe and took the title Hispana after a victory in Spain. If the legion did in fact invade Ireland with the Brigantes, it would have taken place in the early first century AD.
THE CAILLEACH AND KINGSHIP
Of all myths, that of sovereignty stands at the core of Irish mythology. It was known as the banais rigi or banfheiss, meaning ‘woman feast or sleeping feast’ and tells of the power of the goddess or ban dea or cailleach in conferring kingship. Unless the goddess conferred sovereignty, the king was not a proper king; the goddess was sovereignty, and only through her could the king claim legitimacy.
Atbér-sa fritt, a mac mín:
limas fóit na hair-ríg:
is mé ind ingen seta seng,
flaithius Alban is hÉrend.
I will tell you, gentle boy,
with me the high-kings sleep;
I am the graceful slender girl,
the Sovereignty of Scotland and Ireland.
Sleeping with the mother goddess, for example, resulted in Lugaid Mac Con of Munster and Niall of the Nine Hostages of Leinster becoming High Kings of Ireland. Reference to this rite is also found in Roman mythology where the Oracle of Delphi prophesies to the Tarquin brothers that he who first ‘kissed’ his mother would succeed as king prophesied that the conquest of Rome would be achieved by the one who would first ‘kiss’ his mother.
A function of folklore is to reduce such a myth to a common understanding without diminishing the substance of the meaning. The story is told
