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A 3500-year-old Culture Leaves Traces of Bltaine Sun-honouring and an ElaborateRitual Landscape in North Munster, Ireland

*Michael Cerulli Billingsley, M.A. - Research Consultant, Irish Spiritual Heritage Assoc.and Sen Duinn OSB, Ph.D. - Lecturer in Folklore, University of Limerick

ABSTRACT: Beginning at approximately 3800 BCE a farming and livestock-keeping communityevolved around Lough Gur, Co. Limerick, Ireland. One of the most intensely studied andarchaeologically significant areas in Ireland, the farmsteads of Knockadoon have revealed a rich anddiverse life sustained by farming and livestock husbandry. Other older settlements in Ireland (ie. bythe River Bann near Derry) ended for unknown reasons or migrated away. Lough Gur is the oldestcontinuous settlement - up to the present day - in all Ireland.

Patterns of settlement evolved as the community outgrew its limited land base on the lake-surroundedisland. Dispersed in nearby clusters, the residents continued to use the lake increasingly for ritual.Thorough work by archaeological teams from the 1950's onward to the present show that the shift inpopulation patterns if anything strengthened the spiritual importance of the lake and its environs. Adedicated ritual community may have supplanted the farmers at the lake between 2800 and 2000BCE. Wedge tombs, standing stones and stone circles on the east and west ends of the lake areamong the most extensive in Ireland.

The organisational principle which held the region together has been little understood, although acentral hierarchy based on wealth and/or force has been assumed. The present paper examines aseries of new discoveries between 2003 and the present which suggest an elaborate culture using thelake as the centre point or heart (the guiror "warm nest") - with four outlying hills acting as male-female guardians or energy partners - one pair as parental, the other pair perhaps partnered as asanctified couple guardians of the day to day lives of the people. The four hills and their associatedrituals and social references/myths (which survive to the present day) correspond closely to fire-water-air-earth in association, referenced activity and the mythic roles of associated guardian entities.

The primary "divine" pair axis of this ritual landscape/Matrix at Lough Gur is northeast (feminine-Sun)to southwest (masculine-Truth/Lord Donn), whereas the crossing axis and its corporeal entities whoare more usually associated with human form, is northwest (male-Sovereign) to southeast (female-ine). The hilltops - with newly-surveyed habitation and ritual structures including a likely cursus -

were apparently devoted largely to activity specifically associated with each in-dwelling deity or entity.The principle hill-to-hill axis is also the Bltaine-signaling sunrise line, and much of the newly-discovered stonework suggests seasonal communal pagaent devotion to the feminine Sun. Theassociated time period seems to be from approximately 1400 BCE until the Middle-to-Late Bronze Ageboundary of 1150 BCE or so, when hillfort construction and warfare over diminishing resourcesaccompanied a change in social patterns.

Email contact - [email protected]

All places where people seek the Divine become sacred places. 1

Munster owes its prosperity to the worship of Ane.2

LOUGH GUR PREHISTORY: A Survey, and Field Notes 2003-2009

Michael Cerulli Billingsley MA

In no way to I claim ownership of many of the ideas I present here. I am preceded by tremendousscholarship, plus the real devotion and living historical practice of the people of County Limerick,

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County Clare, County Cork and County Kerry, whose particular relation to the land first inspired meto step into this path. This is a country and a countryside with deep roots of genuine gratitude forthe forces nourishing and energising the earth, the sky, the land, other living beings... and ourselves.

Ireland saw human settlement as early as 8500 years BCE with the retreat of the glaciers - followingthe first half of the Holocene and the re-establishment of vegetation and native fauna. We know ofat least of one short-lived settlement near the River Bann going back that far. As the seas had filledby more than 110 metres of glacier-melt before that time and the former land bridge to Britain wasprobably underwater, most likely these settlers arrived by boat. Their early bent-sapling homes, 3probably roofed over with skins, in some ways resembled a corraigh turned on its back.

Later settlements, some of which certainly lasted longer than the first one, nonetheless disappearedeither for unknown reasons or in conjunction with the depletion of resources in the immediatelyaccessible region. The first Irish community to survive... and it is appropriate to say up to thepresent day (as most likely ancestors from this settlement are still somewhere among the Irish insouthwestern Ireland and elsewhere) was the Knockadoon community embraced by Lough Gurand its matrix of surrounding hills, in what is now County Limerick.

There is abundant evidence that almost from the beginning this integrated community had a sharedspiritual practice with a strong ritual component involving: relating to the lake itself as a sacred forceor entity; creating stone circles as seasonal time-markers; constructing (in evolving form) severalkinds of monumental tombs suggesting a reverence for either the dead or for the process ofentering the realm of the dead, and in later times beginning around 1400 BCE; creating largecooking pits, perhaps for some kind of common and perhaps ritual meal. Nonetheless, it has beendifficult to do more than glimpse the spiritual practices of this seminal community except throughconjecture and deduction from the scant but tantalising clues.

The lakes importance is unquestionable. Seemingly the initial temptation to rely upon the naturaldefence given by its surrounding water kept the community mostly inside its natural moat for the

first 500-1000 years after its founding.Although the lakes level was not reliable (sometimes its underground outlet became clogged withdebris, and the surface grew unpredictably high before the obstacle broke free and the lake fell backto its normal elevation, 4 for a long time the only small extensions away from the island world andits narrow peninsula were the building a fewcrannog artificialislets close to the north and northeastshorelines.

Yet its own success and growth led, inevitably, to a pushing-out into the surrounding, increasinglytrustworthy, and civilisable world adjacent to the lake, where rich moist soils favoured agricultureand livestock husbandry.

The guiding process by which this singular community of Knockadoon... protected as it was onalmost all sides by the waters of Lough Gur... became communities-plural has been a bit of aconundrum to archaeologists analysing the expansion patterns following the initial settlement atLough Gur sometime around 3800 BCE.

Between 2,800 and 1,800 BCE the attractive nearby fertile bottom lands... wooded meadowsbetween the Camoge and Morningstar Rivers and immediately adjacent to Lough Gur... becamenewly settled and agriculturised - mimicking the communal pattern of walled fields, round extended-

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family enclosures of approximately 30 people each, and the frequent keeping of small quantities oflivestock (primarily cattle, goats and pigs) that had been the practice at Knockadoon but with onekey distinction. The pattern of settlement, as analysed recently by Eoin Grogan and Sen P. Rordan, clearly included a deliberate setting aside of green space intervals between the family/kinship groups.

Grogan writes, ...it seems that here both the landscape and a historical attachment to it played animportant role in determining the location and disposition of both domestic and ritual sites andparticularly, This suggests that the landscape organisation, and the apparent under-utilised zoneswithin it, is part of an imposed rather than a historic pattern. He concludes, When combined intoa total analysis, however, it is clear that the spatial separation between communities and the observedgaps between them are real and repeated. 5

As for the reason and will-to-accomplish such organisation, Grogan tentatively suggests either theimposition of military force or the focussed will of a resources-rich overlord/chieftain.

Lough Gur itself remained the centre of ritual activity as evidenced by changes in the patterns ofsettlement and use beginning about 1400 BCE as noted by ORiordan, Grogan and others.Although active agriculturists moved further away, although nearby, there continued to be ritual useof lands immediately adjacent to the lake and perhaps even continued residence by persons involvedonly with that. Seemingly the proximity to water, and perhaps even water itself, were at leastfundamental components of the ritual activity.

Waters presence, being, flow, and substance gave something to all life just as it was emblematic oflife, and additionally, was it not within the protective arms of the lake that the community hadthrived since its inception?

The additional function of water as a receiver of gifts and votive objects has been noted by many,and water-offerings seem to have been clustered around certain periods of time as evidenced by

troves of objects retrieved from the lake. These may have either been periods of stronger attentionto ritual activity in general, or such spikes in offerings may have been responses to difficult times...when an urge for propitiation led to multiple offerings of everything considered valuable, toameliorate and end the hard times. 6

Certainly the decade-long climate disaster beginning sometime around 1159 BCE is a good example,and significant castings of valuable objects to the water began and continued during that time. Suchsacrifice or giftings may have also including human or animal offerings but we have no way ofknowing that at present, given the perishability of such remains in water.

This initial central birth-home of the community... surrounded by its protective lake... seemspossibly to be immortalised in the name itself - Guir/g-her(warm nest). 7 This snug middle -

which in the earlier years was the focus of much stone circle building, careful distribution of landresources and the placement of emblematic and standing stones (and around which the evolvingcommunity eventually distributed itself in spaced-apart clusters) - continued to be used for burialand ritual activity up to the late Bronze Age boundary of 1200 BCE. There is no associatedevidence to show if new stone circles were created as late as 1400.

There was a gradual turning to bronze as the cutting edge of choice, replacing flint and chert, andeventually leading to the extremely fine crafted metals which distinguished Irish bronze smelters and

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craftsmen from fairly early on. Stone tools and weapons gave way to copper around 2000 BCE,followed fairly soon by well-smelted bronze demonstrating a high level of skill at about 1700. Theinitial skill level was so high (in terms of extraction and refining methods, and knowledge of theprecise amount of tin to alloy with copper to produce excellent bronze) that some speculation hasoccurred about these early craftsmen - who rather than re-inventing the wheel - may have carriedthis existing skill set to Ireland from east Asia... perhaps Scythia... where it had evolved as early as2300 BCE. 8

In addition to skill with metals, a love and trust of water, and settlement into relatively-smallextended family units living together, the larger culture shared (for a millennium), a fairly fairlysophisticated burial practice involving shared graves in gallery or passage tombs, inclusion ofanimals, special attention to the deaths of children, and inclusion of ritual objects and pottery.These practices, once developed, were relatively stable and were practiced around Lough Gur formore than a 1000 years with no major shifts.Their way of preparing for the afterlife; with animals, water, and sky events; and relationship witheach other through land distribution seem to have become formalised into a comfortable pattern for

the Lough Gur people.Of the many remarkable stone circles that dot the landscape adjacent to Lough Gur, begun earliestwith the smaller more primitive ones directly on Knockadoon (as inventoried by Windle 9), manyshare an orientation to what we now call Samhain sunset, and some to Midsummer sunrise.

Grange Lios, the largest stone circle in Ireland (built near the time of Stonehenge IV, and perhapsunder the supervision of the same team of Beaker ware-using designers as the British alignmentfrom nearly the same time) was adjacent to the east shore of the lake at its former level. It perhapsgives hints to the maturity of this early culture. There is a similar circle (less known) on the oppositeside of the lake and proportionally balanced to it again hinting at the role the lake played in themiddle of a stable, symmetrical universe.

This long-accepted and slow evolution from an original and continuous culture... in keeping with aconservative model going almost back to the communitys origins... could be considered an intrinsicaspect of the Neolithic and Early Bronze community birthed at Lough Gur and slowly spreadingaway from it but with many families keeping nearby, in the fertile central Limerick Basin.

I have sometimes spoken of the Comoge and Morningstar Rivers (between which Lough Gur lies)as the Tigris and Euphrates of Ireland. Many of the fascinating details about this process ofgrowth and diversification can be read in Eoin Grogans exhaustive compendium for The DiscoveryProgramme - The North Munster Project.

A change did come, and while the early edge of its time is a bit soft, it is viewed nonetheless as a

significant change constituting either a new lifestyle regarding the sacred and the sacred, rituallandscape... or perhaps even the presence of a new people who had moved into theneighbourhood, and whose views took ascendency.

The long-established and complex tomb burial practices came inexplicably to an end, for instance, tobe replaced by single, relatively unadorned burials in pits. This time became identified at the MiddleBronze.

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Quoting Kelly - ...following Eogan, the middle bronze age has been tightly defined as the periodfrom 1400 to 1200 B.C., even though it is likely that many of its features continued to a much latertime, perhaps even down to 900 B.C. or later. As I already pointed out, 1200 B.C. is a convenienttermination date for the middle period, as after this certain new influences can be detected. 10

And that ascendency, and some of the specifics associated with it, were relatively short-lived in thatthe originators of that evolution seem to have been subsumed by yet other influences and eventsoccurring at or immediately after the difficult climatic times that descended upon all Europe, indeedalmost all of the northern hemisphere, between 1200 and 1150 BCE. Almost simultaneously tothose hard times, Ireland greeted its new influences - a wave of Celtic emigrs from the Iberianpeninsula. From then forward, a modern pre-history took shape that informs the Irish culture oftoday and which bent, without breaking, to absorb the eventual rise of Christianity.

I say this to very coarsely set the stage. There are many wonderful texts written and entire livesspent ciphering through the remains at Lough Gur. After Newgrange and its neighbouring valley ofthe Boinne I think there is no other prehistoric area of Ireland that has received so much deservedattention from so many dedicated, inquisitive and fascinated men and women in the antiquarian,

archaeological, folkloric and historical community.We have seen many of its archaeological traces, based upon 12 decades of increasingly professionaland attentive burrowing under the surface, plus examination of the more obvious artifacts whichremain upon the surface of the land near the lake - such as the so-called Giants Grave on thesouth-westerly edge of Lough Gur, and the magnificently ordered stones of Grange Lios on theeastern edge, including the forbidding Cromh Dubh as well as the nearby Stone of the Tree.

We are about to learn much more, as it was recently revealed to me that much the landblock willsoon be side-scanned by lidar foliage-penetrating radar, laying bare the hard truth that seasonalvegetation, hedgerows and overgrowing forests have kept many from seeing.

And what kind of truth might that be?First, there is a truly ancient continuum of thanks and kinship with the goddess ine or An, whoseplace - both physically and spiritually - in the heart of Munster goes back to the deepest antiquity.There seems to be no time even well up into the Christianised present when ine does not have hersway in the minds of many residents - from the humblest crop growers and animal caretakers (asshe is the one granter-of-blessings to maintain the health of the fields and the sweetness of themilk) to all those male chiefs and kings who thought to rule southwestern Ireland - almost all ofwhom understood that without ine on his side a man was mere pretender to any sovereignty.

ine, and her hill, principally occupy the southern aspect of lands beyond Lough Gur.

The OKeeffes were self-consciously crowning their generations of kings on the slopes ofKnockainny, the Desmonds had at least one of their castles always at the foot of her hill, and therewas one long-lived tribe centred upon Cnoc ine and named after her who controlled much ofNorth Munster for more than three hundred years up to the time of Brien Boru. King after kingif possible to make it somehow credible... relates how he, by some fashion, seduced or convincedine to accept him as earthly spouse (with the one cautionary exception of Olioll Oluim/Aulm,who notoriously took ine by force and lost his ear, and hence his right to rule, in the process.)

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Lough Gur and nearby County Limerick are the setting for a magnificent horde of semi-believabletales, several of which I believe were deliberately planted in the fertile soil of local imagination -tales which meld the ancient goddess heiros-gamosritual of the banis rwith a more modern aspirationfor the hearts and minds of the local people.

I speak here specifically of 14th century legends of a Fitzgerald outwitting ine and gaining a trystwith her; siring a child by her; relinquishing the child back to ine through the breaking of agais;and finally of that child grown... disappearing back into the invisible world of the sidhe - all talesinitiated by the first Earls of Desmond, - legends (with variants and embellishments) whose holdupon the story-telling imaginations of rural Munster residents persist to this day.

I have encountered a growing body of evidence that the first Earls may have manipulated their ownentry into the folkloric record. Today it is still a certain thing to some traditional people thatGearid Irla, every seven years under the full moon, rises on a white horse and rides upon thesurface of Lough Gur. And it is said he will do so until a prophecy is fulfilled that will lead to afreeing of Irelands people from oppression. Yet despite the deliberate myth-making I amuncovering11 (by the family to link themselves with ine), I am encountering some evidence that the

same 3rd Earl of Desmond personally became a lifelong devote and servant of ine, and perhapsencouraged others to revive the practice of doing so as well.

Although in all likelihood a truly ancient pre-Celtic core goddess aka Anu, Ana or Ane; ine was re-constructed later by the Gaels to be the legendary daughter of Eogabal, according to them springinginto her adolescence endowed with magical powers. She gained her right to choose her ownhusband at will (or not at all) and to forever have that hill in her name as a consequence ofprotecting her father, uncle and brothers from an outnumbered attack by five tribes of Eoghanachts.The aforementioned tribes would place the construction of the story in the vicinity of CE 160.

Her hill, Cnoc ine, was then apportioned into the customary ritual fours - the south going toEogabal and his queen Cacht; the north going to her hot-headed uncle Uanidhe and his wife Emer;

the west to stern (and dwarfish) brother Fr F and his wife Eter; and the east side to ine herselfwho took no husband but who, over immortal time, took form again and again to accept or to claimmortal lovers. According to Lynch, in later legends Lu/Lugh was sometimes substituted forUanidhe; and Fainnine for Fir Fi and Cacht became Bacht. 11

These orientations, around the hill, have also been noted by Thomas Johnson Westropp, a profoundand prolific 12 historian/archaeologist working in Ireland whose investigations of archaeological siteshave generally been driven by strong supportive material from local folklore. His The AncientSanctuaries of Knockainy and Glogher, County Limerick and their Goddesses, (1917) 13 and TheAncient Places of Assembly in the Counties Limerick and Clare (1919) 14 act as a window in time(as do the writings of Lynch) to see the hills of that area when they were even less disturbed byremovals than they are presently.

He agrees with Lynch as to the placement of ines kin, save he puts Fer F in the south, andEogabal in the west.

Westropp, citing the oldest sources, refers to Cnoc ine as both a ceremonial hill and a comelyor pleasant, cool hill. In every epoch of recounted history, whether as the place from whichCuchulain and his charioteer Leg surveys their route of attack to wreck revenge upon Cu Roi; or asa prize in the extended Siege of Knocklong, or in many of the battles (named by Westropp) to

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divide the prized lands of the Limerick basin and Munster, Cnoc ine is either the marker ofterritory or the prize above all prizes to hold and have - and preferably reside - with its admiredstands of hazel, and perhaps more importantly, its in-dwelling goddess.

According to Westropp, the earliest extent mention of her (c. 890-910 BCE) refers to her as of theTuath D Danann.

The archaeological remains on Cnoc ine bear out some measure of the storied importance, withmounds, rings, cairns, standing stones, household rings, at least one royal hall and a newly-identified cursus leading up the northwest slope. 15

Westropp and Condit each, in their respective eras, do extensive (and in Westropps case, exhaustive)inventories of both finds on the ground, and of the localised stories related to the hill (and itsresident entities).

My own first trip to Ireland was ignorant of any of these studies, but was intentionally focussedupon Lough Gur and Cnoc ine - in part after reading about the folklore and former rituals on her

behalf, as recounted by Father Sen Dunn OSB. His Where Three Streams Meet: CelticSpirituality16 had just been given to me by someone who knew I had dowsed that I should lead agroup (eager to explore Ireland) exclusively to the lands between the Camoge and the MorningstarRivers.

Although I had grown up in a rural Irish sensibility of both spiritual culture and taboo, I was not atall familiar with Ireland as a contemporary country or as a geography. So my dowsing (from a maponce owned by the archaeologist Peter Harbison) was more informed by the maps exposure to Irishmonuments and sites than anything I had learned in literature or by association. My only reading upto that time had been The Fairy Faith of the Celtic Countries by W. Evans-Wentz and another textby John and Caitlin Matthews, and those mostly to get a grasp upon a particular experience I hadhad not to find out about Ireland as a present-day country.

As I familiarised myself on the ground with Lough Gur, Cnoc ine and then its neighbour hills, Ibegan to notice some strange and wonderful things, which ultimately I hope to support with muchmore extensive research than the seven years and eight trips over have presently permitted me. Asan independently-supported researcher (relying upon contributions for travel, for instance) I havenot been able to make the kind of extensive surveys I would like to do.

Nonetheless, in the time I have had available, I have been able to come up with some questions thathave not necessarily been part of the standard group of questions asked about Lough Gur and itsevolution - most having to do with one particular era in its evolution as a spiritual community. Andsecondly, I have begun to discover some partial answers - both empirically as archaeological finds inthe field, and through partial reconstruction of a matrix on the landscape that seems to embody the

kind of awe and respect that some older people in the area still carry in their vocabularies andactions.

Starting with ine, she has her hill and her relationship with the people as a blesser of animals andcrops - as well as the female being from the natural/energy world whose love bond will seal the rightof a particular man to be king.

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She lies more or less to the south of Lough Gur, and between her and Lough Gur is Cnoc Derc - aninterestingly-dramatic igneous outcropping of reddish granite not unlike Holyrood in Scotland. Itshould be noted that the bounds of this area I call the matrix of hills is itself somewhat uniquegeologically compared to the rest of this part of Ireland. It is part of a plutonic ring-dyke - whatmight best be described as a low-motion volcano - which has exuded lavas, tephras and igneousrocks of various composition through pipes into a ring-shaped formation that includes almost allthe sacred hills of Limerick.

One of the only sacred hills not in this ring-dyke formation is Cnoc Frinne, which lies almostdirectly west of Lough Gur. Knockfierna, however, is also igneous in origin - being the top ofanother volcanic pipe. The only other exception is Cnoc ine, which is the only one of the ritualhills which is not igneous but rather almost entirely of the regional limestone but that may give aclue about the longevity of ines place there, perhaps pre-dating the others.

And by ritual hills or sacred hills I am adopting a convention that goes back at least to the 19thcentury - and itself a reference to something even earlier. Cory Meehan writes, Cnoc ine, CnocGrne and Cnoc Frinne are known locally as the last 3 fairly strongholds in Munster. 17 but she in

turn may have been referencing... it is all that is left to them of land and heritage, Save CnocFrinne, Cnoc ine and Cnoc Grine. 18 This old poem preserved in the 19th-century is a lament,supposedly voiced by a member of the sidhehimself.

The most unusual and dramatic feature of the landscape there draving my attention after Cnocine was the fearsome aspect of Lord Frinne. Lord or Donn Frinne was, according to mypersonal hosts, a certain harbinger of the coming summer weather. Whatever his face on Bltainemorning - be he scowling dark, or smiling bright - that would predict how the rest of the harvestyear would turn out. This goes hand in hand with Father Sens vivid descriptions of Donn orDonn Frinne as Lord of Storms or Lord of Death.

The common ritual, evidenced by an ancient path worn down deep below the grade of surrounding

pastures up to Frinnes summit, used to be until relatively recently for local people (young andold and especially the farming folk) to go to the summit of Cnoc Frinne at Bltaine sunrise with alarge bouquet of flowers. Having made the pilgrimage to his windy home, the supplicants wouldthen offer the bouquet while asking Donn to please grant rain to the fields, but also not to rage - notto tear the young shoots out; not damage the crops with damaging winds; not to hurt the ripeninggrain with hail. And if pleased - Donn Frinne would show his favour by glowing bright green in theearly morning sun his warmth a clear contrast to the blue-grey scowl of his displeasure.

As Lord of Death, Frinne presided in some fashion over the disposition of souls - I know not how.I do know from what I have learned through anecdote 19 that a somewhat clandestine custom (keptout of the eyes of the presiding parish priest) was for some of the old believers to have the handor foot cut from their own corpse prior to interment, and taken secretly to Cnoc Frinne. Buried

and left to decompose in the soils under his protection, the belief was that ones soul could be safelytransported to its proper destination under his guidance. The decomposition of ones flesh intothe soil of Frinne put ones soul into his caretaking, much as the decomposition of an egg or otherorganic substance could release thepeisoegor agricultural curse in old Munster. 19

Having walked that path with bouquets myself in the company of both visitors and native Irish(after a hiatus that began in 1952) the weather at and around Cnoc Frinne is dramatic and seeminglyvery capable of changing instantly from angry to benevolent, or the reverse.

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From the summit of Cnoc Frinne, one can easily see Lough Gur and its adjacent hills, Knockadoon(once surrounded by the lake), Knockfennel (the former site of the great bi-annual oiesnechsummerfair, and where part of the wood-planked chariot race track has been excavated), and Grange/GranHill upon which I made a number of other significant discoveries.

Exactly beyond Gran Hill/Grange Hill at Lough Gur, and in a direct line of sight beyond it, isGrans Hill/Cnoc Grinne at Pallas Green.

These hills align, on that morning (that is Bltaine morning by one definition of Bltaine) with therising of the sun as well. In that whether one is at the summit of Cnoc Frinne or at the summit ofGrange/Gran Hill the sun rises that day in the notch defined by Cnoc Grinne/Grans Hill andKnockseefin a notch in the ridge between them.

Stories about Cnoc Frinne abound. What about Cnoc Grinne?

No fewer that six sources I found refer to Cnoc Grinne as the hill of the goddess Gran, some

also noting her nine daughters lived in homes calledgriannonor sun houses;20

or, the goddessGran, who dwelt in the sdof Cnoc Grne; 21 or, the home of Gran/Grainne: A sun goddess,her palace was said to be at Cnoc Grine at Pailis Grine; 22, 23 or, even as Lynch says in 1892,Knock Grean or hill of Gran, the sun goddess. 24

The hill itself drew me back to it repeatedly. Like Frinne, it/she seemed to have its own rules. Thetime of approach and gender of those who approached her seemed to be a matter of considerableimportance, and every attempt to visit her and learn the nature of what was there was not alwayssuccessful. One thing did become instantly clear however there were far more ruins and otherremains of activity on and around her hill than are apparent from existing maps and surveys.

Of particular interest to me was the fact that the hill complex - which involves a ridge with two

peaks and a middle rise, is shaped somewhat like a Chinese foretune cookie - facing Lough Gur.And exactly central to that (and exactly on that sighting line from Cnoc Frinne to Cnoc Grine, andnowhere else on that ridge) is a walled spring pool - apparently once quite deep but now silted in -and below it are a series of tiered terraces, also walled. An elaborate construction to both use andperhaps re-pool the water that comes out from below the face of a small volcanic escarpment.

And directly above that, and nearly adjacent, are the remains of a least one large walled dwelling. Toone side and behind a knoll are other smaller, more isolated huts and then, via a series of connectingroads (some of which are shored up by stone foundations to cross gullies), along the ridge top tonorth are the remains of a small community - a walled ringfort... and adjacent and slightly below(also connected by a network of roads)... several household rings, a small flint mine, a dammedspring-pool and other evidence of a year round community.

I think I see the remains of a small centralised hermetic community - seemingly focussed upon acarefully organised set of pools, adjacent to a larger, shared use structure. And then, further on, butnot out of touch perhaps, a small village which may have had some relationship to it perhaps evenservicing it as monastic or same-sex retreat community, if eschewing normal activity, generallyrequired a sustaining source of food and fuel from more ordinary people. Adjacent and acting asvisual markers/guardians? along the ridge are several carefully-spaced egg-stones as large asupturned dories, weighing tonnes.

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Someone of importance lived or did ritual here. These may have been Grans daughters - living intheir sunhouses.

Learning what? Engaged with, or facilitating, what work of Grian?

And below 200 metres below in an area that is, by the way marked occasionally by giganticstone eggs (not standing stones as these are round, and also of volcanic gabbro, one of whichhas inclusions of raw iron) there is a vast, artificially-leveled field. For want of a better term, Irefer to it as Grans Apron. The two sides of the ridge are like a giant pair of legs, and theambiance of the place even more so than at Cnoc ine, is decidedly feminine. So much so that,at times in the company of over-charged men, I have had to turn back. I have gotten the feelingthat entry for lay people is permitted only one or two days of the year - and that this vast leveledfield (raised up a good ten or twelve metres at its lower edge) can accommodate up to 2000 people.

As part of that field, near the entry to it, is a curious dug structure. A large near-square hole hasbeen dug down into the earth about 15 by 15 metres. The bottom is flat, but since it is about three

metres below grade, a ramp has been built to make it possible to get down in. At one side,prominent in view, is a large slab of rock almost horizontal, with a flat upper surface. Ourexperience of this area (which may well be borne out by excavation) is that it was once surroundedby a palisade except for the entry right at the ramp - meaning, one went down in, and once there,exit was blocked on all sides.

My guess is that this was used to hold and slaughter animals - perhaps even very large animals suchas bulls. A bull slaughtered to Gran on Bltaine - perhaps to ensure her continued rulership of thesky for another summer of six warm months - is consistent with even recent folk practice. 25

That the sun rises over Cnoc Grine on that day and can be seen to do so from either Grange Hillor from the summit of Cnoc Frinne can lend, under shared social significance, great importance

to the fact that she does, in fact, then rise at such appointed place at her appointed time.Our next set of discoveries proved to be at Grange Hill itself. For hidden in the woods there, justlike at Cnoc ine, were a set of three linked rings, another pit (which may or may not have been asimilar sacrifice area) and a group of stone foundations for small square huts, not dissimilar in sizeto those on top of Cnoc Grinne. And adjacent to those huts, leading up from the shores ofLough Gur, is a broad 20-metre wide curving cursus that reaches its apex at a curving ridge exactlyon that sighting line, from which one can see the sun rise (from Grans Hill) seven kilometres away,directly over that pool over the notch of Grans Hill/Cnoc Grine at Pallas Green.

Is this a coincidence? Has all this stonework and building been just a random placement withoutbasis? Does it matter that even that at Cnoc ine (the newly-discovered cursus there), when one

reaches the top and looks northeast to the Galtees, ones eyes rest upon an arc in the horizon line ofthose high mountains - an arc that is exactly sun-sized. And that arc, called An Gran or GransThrone, is where the sun rises (when viewed from the top of that cursus) also at Bltaine sunrise?

This will require a lot more investigation, as well as someone perhaps actually putting a spade intothe ground. So far all I have done is take a great many photographs, taken a lot of measurementsand walked with eyes half-closed through a lot of centuries of patterned and re-patterned behaviour.Somebody was once using these hills, over and over, for the same thing they consecrated their

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actions to divine beings of the invisible realms. They asked for assistance, they gave gifts and effortand devotion in return.

It seems as if this may have come into practice with the arrival of new practices around the 1400BCE. There was certainly, a change then. It is likely that somewhere around 1450 or 1400 BCEwas another coinciding event the return to Ireland of the long self-exiled Tuath D Danann, theShining Ones. Their world, their cosmology, their practices of worship and renewal, and theirrituals of earth, sun and water would have been shaped by their tutors - the people of FionnLochlainn (it was to learn those practices that they supposedly left Ireland in the first place).

They wanted access to mysteries that would empower the exhausted Irish in new ways against theirenemies. They may have found such ways. Their old brothers and sisters of the old country ofEru may have kept their goddess ine, but they may have brought back further practices whichperhaps, they felt, unleashed greater forces on their own behalf - Donn Hard Truth/Frinne andgoddess Bright Sun/Gran and her somehow-linked volcanic springs and waters.

These are the gods of the Lough Gur matrix who I sometimes refer to as The Lord and The

Lady in that the line between then - passing through Lough Gurs central hill and crossing point -the Bltaine sunrise line, can be described as the Lord and Lady line.

We can extend that line further westward, to the ocean, through Donn Frinne to continue on(exactly) to Inis Tuiscart in the Blaskets off Dingle once called Donns Island or the Island ofthe Dead. There is rumour that once, a very long time ago, there may have been a monasticcommunity of men there who somehow prepared the souls of the dead as they began theirjourney to the far island of Paradise, across the western sea.

The Soul perhaps - came in through Grans nurturing warmth - came to lifes joys and burdens inthe warm nest of Lough Gur - and then was transported safely away by Lord Frinne, Lord ofDeath.

And finally there is one other quarter missing from our world of five quarters. Nocosmological world in Ireland would be complete without four corners and their centre.

So we have, very likely, Frinne The Truth, balanced across Lough Gur with Gran, The Sunny.Who is to be paired or balanced with ine, the Leaper-Jumper, Shape-Shifter?

We must look at Knockroe near Inch St. Lawrence. Opposed to Cnoc ine and equidistant fromLough Gur, and standing high and magnificent in its own volcanic splendour, is an unmatched set ofcliffy hills crowned by an ancient spring. By that spring, once walled into a pool, is an equallyancient road that Lynch reminds us one could drive three chariots through. 26 At one side ofthe split summit was a huge walled ring fort.

In Lynchs time there was still a living man who could remember when parts of it were still up tothree feet thick, before torn apart for local field walls. Even now the sub-floor basement rocks for itare an impressive feat of engineering. Hundreds of cartloads of rock would have been hauled upto the summit to flatten the once-rounded basalt top, before the dry-stone rock wall was started.

But even earlier than that ringfort, which I think dates in its final construction to around 1150 BCEor so, are the surrounding structures. Turn-out rings for horse, stables, the remains of a great

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winter warriors hall (or kings hall) for at least 80 people, with two doorways, at least two hearths,a raised sleeping platform for the chief or king, and circular storage pits grouped around the backdoor. It is all there along with a very large craftspersons village - itself once enclosed, probably bya wooden palisade fence, all linked together by drystone-supported roads, protected by ditch-and-barrow wallworks extending around the hill, and marked off by huge put-into-place stones markingtwo of the cardinal directions. 27.

This is what our team has been able to find so far. A large area of it is still obscured by a gone-to-wild Christmas tree farm. But according to Lynchs writing from the 1890s, his mining of oldliterature corresponds with my own to point to this being the site of Temair Luachra - Tara of theRushes. So-called (I think) because after the hilltop spring drains out, it goes into a series of smallmarsh-like depressions near the top of the hill (now called Knockroe Mason) where tall reeds growby the end of each summer.

This is a kings residence. A place from which administrative decisions can be effected and fromwhich a small army can be launched. The bright sunny hilltop commands a view of the entirecounty, and all the sacred hills. It is that hill, on one side, from which the king in his domain

could be in balance with his true queen, ine, holding the world in place from her side.So in a sense, the divisions of Aines hill itself become a microcosm of the larger macrocosmsurrounding Lough Gur. Fer Fi to the west is Firinne; to the west of Lough Gur; ine in the east(on her hill) represents her sister, Gran, to the east of Lough Gur; Uanidhe, the bellicose warrior tothe north on the hill is in the larger view the Lugh-like warrior-king on Knockroe, guarding topeople of Lough Gur from his place in the north; and Eaogobal and Cacht, the father/mother inines microcosm hill world to the east, are replaced by ine herself, in her role as protector -blesser (and spouse of the chief) - to the east of the people of Lough Gur.

This Lough Gur matrix holds its people secure and safe, year after year.

Will this investigation prove anything about what were the spiritual practices of the day? Thatremains to be seen. The remaining folklore record near Lough Gur and its neighboring townshipstoday seem to bear the indelible stamp of a strongly held belief, long practised, in the spiritualentities within the hills and their living relationship with the people dear to them. What I can learn,even as these beings perhaps live on, remains to be seen.

NOTES:

1. Meehan, Cory The Travelers Guide to Sacred Ireland , introduction (Gothic Image,Glastonbury, 2002)2. Crowe (?) - quoted by Rev. J.F. Lynch M.A., M.R.S.A.I. The Myths and Monuments of LochGair - Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, Vol. III no. 34-36 Oct.-Dec. 1897

- p.359 (332-360)3. Flanaghan, Laurence, Ireland Before the Celts p.4. and , A Lough Gur Handbook p. 34 (Lough Gur Historical Society1964)5. Grogan, Eoin The North Munster Project vol. 2 (The Discovery Programme/Ar Thir Na Sean,monograph 6, Wordwell, Dublin 2004)6. OKelly, M.J. - A New History of Ireland Chapter 4, p.7. UCC language analysis8. OKelly, M.J., ibid. p. 117

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9. Windle, B.C.A., On Certain Megalithic Remains At Lough Gur, Proceedings of the Royal IrishAcademy30c (1912) p. 6910.OKelly, M.J. - A New History of Ireland, p. 127 - quoting George Eogan from The laterbronze age in the light of recent research inPrehist. Soc. Proc., xxx (1964), pp. 268-35111. Billingsley, M.C. - The Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Geroid Irla Report to theExecutive Archaeologist, Limerick County Council, 17 May 2009

12, Lynch, Rev. J.F. - The Myths and Monuments of Lough Gair p. 344, Journal of the CorkHistorical and Archaeological Society, 1887 vol 113. Fitzgerald, Mairead; Kennedy, Mire; Westropp, Thomas Johnson - Thomas Johnson

Westropp, 1860-1922: An Irish Antiquary (University College, Dublin Dept. of Archaeology,Dublin University College 2006)14. Westropp, Thomas Johnson, The Ancient Sanctuaries of Knockainey and Clogher, CountyLimerick and Their Goddesses (Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Section C, vol. SXXXIV1917-19 London) pgs. 46-67.15. Westropp, Thomas Johnson, The Ancient Places of Assembly in the Counties Limerick andClare (The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 1919, vol XLIV, Part 1)16. Condit, Thomas - Knockainny - An Archaeological Guide Heritage Ireland brochure, 200517. Dunn, Sen OSB - Where Three Streams Meet: Celtic Spirituality (Columba Press, Dublin2002)

18. Meehan, Cory ibid. p. 42219, MacNeill, Mire, The Festival of Lughnassa: A Study of the Celtic Festival of the Beginning ofHarvest, (Oxford University Press, London & New York 1962) p.20. Dunn, Sen, personal communication21. McCoy, Edain22. Smyth, Daragh23. Ellis, Peter Beresford A dictionary of Irish mythology p. 14024, Conway, D.J. p. 22225. Lynch, idid. p. 34326. Dunn, Sen, personal communication (A ritual slaughtering a a bull calf at Bltaine wascarried out in County Cork, in conjunction with one of four cross-quarter pilgrimage sites. Thefamily at that location were called the Laighes or keepers of the calf by hereditaryarrangement.)

27. Lynch, Rev. J.F. ibid. p.28. Billingsley, M.C. Report on Knockroe Mason complex of forts, halls, linked ruins, fieldworks,springs and other archaeological remains. May 2007, County of Limerick Archaeological Surveyand Heritage Ireland.

MYTHOLOGY AND FOLKLORE OF LOUGH GUR: Practices and Stories

Sen Dunn OSB PhD

This paper is a continuation of that given by Michael Billingsley on the three sacred hills of CnocAine, Cnoc Ghreine and Cnoc Firinne in the area of the enchanted lake of Lough Gur in Co.Limerick, Ireland.

This is a major area of ancient monuments from different periods and different peoples who haveall left their distinctive mark on the physical landscape and folklore of the place. Both Gaelicliterature and folklore as well as the archaeological remains testify that this is an area of ancientsanctity.Among the deities and otherworld characters associated with the area are the goddesses Aine, Grianand Rothniamh as well as the gods Donn Firinne, Fionn Mac Cumhaill and Fear Fhi.

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This. then, connected with the goddess Aine, is the native dynasty of the Eoghanacht with its kingAilill Olom and the encroaching Norman family of Mac Gearailt or Fitzgerald.who were intent onforming a new Gaelicised-Norman dynasty by use of the Gaelic Rite of the 'Banais Ri', the 'hierosgamos' or marriage of the king to the local tutelary goddess to ensure the fertility of the land. Inthis way, the marriage of a human, mortal, king to a divine, immortal woman was intended topromote the prosperity of the kingdom.

And here we have the great mystique of early Irish religion in which the divine and human werelinked together in association with the political, economic and cultural life of the country. TheLough Gur area, with its mutiplicity of ancient monuments and wealth of folklore is a fitting settingfor the Old Religion.

Gaelic literary texts such as 'Cath Maighe Tuireadh' 1 and 'Altram Tige da Medar' 2 give an accountof the Tuatha De Danann (Peoples of the goddess Dana) who are the ancient deities of Ireland.They are also called 'Aos Si' (People of the Hollow Hills). The name comes from the great goddessDana who is depicted in her nurturing aspect in the two hills in Kerry called 'Da Chioch Dhanann' -

the two breasts of Dana. Quite recently the people of that area have erected a life-size bronzestatue of her at the foot of the two hills showing that the tradition of the goddess has lasted on tothe present day.

The twelfth century compilation 'Leabhar Gabhala Eireann' (Book of the Invasions of Ireland)describes the Tuatha De Danann as brilliant magicians in the Scandinavian lands. They thenimmigrated to Ireland at Bealtaine - Mayday - in a magic mist and proceeded to take over thecountry. However, their political supremacy was not to last.

A new group arrived from Spain: this was Clann Mhile, -the Milesians or Celts, A battle took placeat Tailteann between the TDD and the human invaders and the TDD were defeated. They retiredunderground into the ancient megalithic monuments and the sacred hollow hills called the 'Si' so

that they are often called the 'Aos Si' or people of the hollow hills and the best known of thesepeople is the 'Bean Si' the goddess of the Si who emerges from the hill to wail on the occasion ofthe death of someone who can trace his lineage back to the Gaelic Aristocracy. But she will notwail for common people.

But why have theAos Si-the old gods and goddesses - retained something of their influence andprestige among the people of Ireland down to the present day?

Ancient tradition explains the matter simply. Even though defeated and forced underground theTDD have a stranglehold on the humans as they control the fertility of the land. It is theseunderground people who make the crops grow, the corn ripen, make the cows milk-productive. Ifthey go on strike, as it were, the humans on the surface of the land may face starvation.

So, it is essential for the human community to respond to the generosity of the TDD/Aos Si bymaking little offerings such a leaving a loaf of bread at the foot of a Sior sacred hill at sacred timessuch as Bealtaine and Samhain. If the humans show their gratitude by little gifts and by respectingthe sacred hills and are careful not to cut down certain trees, etc., then all will be well.

Observing this 'Cycle of Reciprocity' or give and take between the mortal and immortal populationsis essential to the harmony of the world. One sees immediately how over-cropping of land and

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exploitation of natural resources violates this principle. The Old Religion may still have a potentlesson for mankind at the present day,

According to local folklore, Aine is a great and benevolent goddess of the area of Lough Gur andCnoc Aine. She has been seen in the lake combing her hair. She is the most generous of womenwho looks after the needs of the ordinary people.

The ritual associated with Aine is centred on the Summer Solstice, St. John's Eve, 23rd June. Untilfairly recently, and still to some extent in the stone circle at Lough Gur, a great bonfire blazed at thefoot of Cnoc Aine, People gathered together from far and near around the fire; torches called'cliars' made of bundles of straw and hay and mounted on wooden poles were lighted and carried inprocession around the sacred hill or 'Si' of Cnoc Aine, the procession proceeding 'deiseal'(clockwise) in the Celtic manner followiing the course of the sun. When the torches had burntthemselves out they were thrown into the surrounding fields to bring good luck on the crops andherds.

David Fitzgerald, a native of the area, described the rite of the Summer Solstice at Cnoc Aine,

showing clearly that the rite involved more than the human performers:'One Saint John's Night (23rd June) it happened that one of the neighbours lay dead, and on thisaccount the usual 'cliars' were not lit. Not lit, I should say, by the hands of living men; for that nightsuch a procession of 'cliars' marched round Cnoc Aine as never was seen before, and Aine was seenin the front directing and ordering everything.

On another Saint John's Night a number of girls had stayed late on the hill, watching the 'cliars' andjoining in the games. Suddenly Aine appeared among them, 'thanked them for the honour they haddone her' but said that now she wished them to go home, as 'They wanted the hill to themselves'.She let them understand whom she meant by 'they', for, calling some of the girls she made themlook through a ring, and the hill appeared crowded with people before invisible.' 3

In this description of an archaic liturgy in honour of the goddess Aine, it is clear that both humanand supernatural personages join together in the performance of the rite on this time of greatcalendrical significance - the longest day of the year.

This union of divine and human in the performance of a liturgy echoes the idea of angels, saints,and people performing the liturgy in the Catholic and Eastern Rite Churches. The celebration atCnoc Aine took place at the Summer Solstice - a date belonging to the Solar Calendar rather thanthe insular Celtic Calendar. The neighbouring goddess Cliodhna of Co. Cork whose Si is atCarraig Chliodhna, near Mallow, also celebrates at the Summer Solstice.

A curious tradition states that the worshippers when climbing Cnoc Aine should note the position

of the moon, otherwise they will have difficulty returning. A similar connection with the moon, atthe Summer Solstice, was a feature of 'LA PROCESSION DITE DE LA LUNADE' at Tulle inFrance. This was a very elaborate celebration in which bonfires blazed and various confraternitiesin their distinctive dress took part. The priests went to the altar of St. John, kissed it and carried thestatue of the Saint out into the streets and countryside. But the procession was not to begin beforethe rising of the moon. That such a strange coincidence should occur in Tulle and Cnoc Aine maynot be without significance in a feast that was primarily solar. 4

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The lighting of bonfires on St. John's Eve is well known in many parts of Ireland at the present dayand notably in the Gaelic -Speaking Arran Islands. At the Summer Solstice the sun is at the summitof its power, but from that on it begins to decline and the days get shorter. The widespread rite ofthe bonfire may have been a means of encouraging the sun to keep up its strength and ripen thecorn - a rite of simulation for the purpose of stimulation.

While the Irish goddesses are very much in the tutelary, earth-goddess line, it is remarkable that thenames Aine, Grian, Eibhleann, Aoibhinn, carry the idea of sun and fire.

'Aine'probably means ;the fiery driver' while 'Grian' is the ordinary Gaelic word for sun. Eibhleannand Aoibhinn contain the idea of blazing. These very archaic goddesses seem to combine sun andearth. Aine, Niamh (sparkling), Eibhleann, Aoibhinn,and Cliodhna are popular as womens namestoday.The relationship of the goddess Aine with the Eoganacht dynasty appears rather strained. At onestage she is attacked by the king but she cuts off one of his ears so that he is known as 'Ailill Olom'- Ailill of the bare ear.- ever since. Furthermore she is revenged by her brother Fer Fhi. 5

Similarly she is attacked by Muiris Mac Gearailt of the Norman dynasty and the result is the birth ofthe great magician Gearoid Iarla Mac Gearailt who, according to the folklore of Lough Gur still liesin an enchanted sleep beneath the lake.

Legends tell of this highly-Gaelicised Norman Knight of the 13th century sitting by his fireside inhis castle. He is asked by his wife to show her some magic. He says that on no account must shescream. He turns himself into a bird and flies around the room. The cat, lying by the fire, wakesup and springs at the bird. The wife screams.

The bird flies out the window and makes for Lough Gur where he meets the goddess Aine whochanges him back into a man, and along with some Norman Knights confines him to a castle

underneath the lake where, in an enchanted sleep, they wait for 'La na Cinniuna' - the day of destiny.A local farmer, taking his horse to the fair, is met by a stranger and offered a much greater price forthe horse than he would get at the fair. They go into a cave where the farmer sees a group ofknights sound asleep. While Gearoid Iarla is getting the money the farmer notices a bugle hangingon the wall. Out of curiosity he blows the bugle. The knights jump up and shout 'An e an la fos e?'- 'Is it the day?' Gearoid assures them that the day of destiny has not yet arrived and they go backto sleep again.Every seventh year when the moon is full, Gearoid Iarla can be seen riding around the lake on awhite horse. The horse has silver shoes and when the shoes are worn out, then will be the day ofdestiny and Gearoid Iarla and his Norman Knights will wake up from their enchanted sleep, emerge

from their underwater castle and set Ireland free. 6

A few miles from Cnoc Aine lies Cnoc Ghreine - the hill of Grian who in some accounts is thesister of Aine. The folklore of Grian is not as profuse as that of Aine and the best known accountof her describes her turning the five sons of Conaill into badgers. These were five champions andthe hill at that time was called 'Cnoc na gCuradh' - hill of the warriors. These violent men killedGrian's maidservant and tried to destroy her brother's (Fer Fhi) Si. In revenge, she turned theminto badgers. 7

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Leaving Cnoc Ghreine, then, we go to the third sacred hill Cnoc Firinne.

Cnoc Firinne, which commands an extensive view of the surrounding area, is one of severalsanctuaries of the god Donn - the god of the dead. In this site he is referred to as Donn Firinne -'firinne' meaning 'truth' - in view of the local belief that Donn, by arranging the clouds, is aninfallible guide to weather conditions.

This hill is well known by the local people who in recent times have revived the Festival of Lughnasathere at the begininning of harvest in August. A megalithic tomb or carn stands on the hill and it isthe custom to circumambulate this, moving 'deiseal' (clockwise). Then a stone is taken from the fieldand placed carefully and reverently on the carn (heap) while one recites the ritual formula; 'Cloch ardo charn; Siochain ar do anam' (A stone on your burial site; peace to your soul).

Here, there may be a rare remnant of a rite in honour of the Ancestors and the performance ofthe simple, archaic ritual may give a feeling of continuity with them.

A comprehensive study of the cult of Donn in Ireland has been made by Kate Muller-Lisowski andpublished in BEALOIDEAS 18, (1948), 142 -199 under the title: CONTRIBUTIONS TO ASTUDY OF IRISH FOLKLORE; TRADITIONS ABOUT DONN.

One of the collectors of the local folklore of this extraordinary hill remarks: 'The day before oldC------ died, just after the priest had a last interview with him, and as he looked through the lowopen window on Knockfierna, he told me that he would be up there soon, on the whaleback ''BlackHill'', east of the cone where Donn was supposed to marshall his men.'Mr Liam O Danachair, our informant, adds the comment: 'I was struck by the strong hold thisstark paganism still held over minds which after fifty generations of Christian baptism still clung toolder beliefs.' 7 The old man obviously felt that he would be more comfortable in the Otherworld of

Donn than among the Angels in the Christian heaven.Another great and well-known sanctuary of Donn is 'Tech nDoinn' - the house of Donn - a largerock , spectacularly jutting out of the sea on the south-west coast of Kerry. It is also known as 'AnTarbh' - 'the Bull' and it is there that the souls of the dead come to share an eternal banquet withDonn.

A summary of the varying traditions present Donn as a multi-faceted god. He is the gloomy Lordof the Dead - Donn also means brown/dark - the dark one. He is a kind, helpful spirit. He is animposing warrior and a small bearded man. He brings the dead to his Si for an everlasting banquet.He is a weather -oracle and he plays little tricks on people to show his good humour. 9

According to Caesar 'The Gauls (Celts) all assert their descent from Dis Pater (the god of the dead)and say that it is the druidic belief. 10 It is most likely that Donn is the Irish equivalent of Dis Paterso that when the Celts die they return to their great Ancestor, to their father's house. The alternativename 'An Tarbh' - the Bull - is astonishing and gives rise to speculation as to a connection with theGaulish Donnotaurus(Brown Bull) and Donn Chuailnge (the brown bull of Cuailnge) in the story TainBo Chuailnge.

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At any rate, in Leabhar Gabhala Eireann, Donn himself asserts: 'Chughamsa, do mo theach, tiocfaidhsibh uile i ndiaidh bhur mbais' (To me, to my house, you will all come after your death' As regards thecult of Donn at Cnoc Firinne, the people of nearby Ballingarry believed that they had a duty toclimb the hill at least once a year. At Bealtaine and Samhain (May Eve and Halloween) girls laidgarlands on the hill. Offerings of a more serious nature were also made - the burial of eggs andmeat.

Storms denoted that Donn was in an angry mood. During a storm, a local woman Mrs Higginsshouted: 'Eist leis sin, Eist leis sin, sin e e, pus a's puicshuil air. Dia idir sinn agus an t-olc. Ta se ar lasadh lefeirg'(Listen to that, listen to that. That's he with ill-tempered mouth and glowering eye. He's onfire with fury.) 11

Donn, however, was often depicted as a benevolent local tutelary god who had the good of hispeople at heart. Every year, in the Autumn, a ritual hurling match was held between the TuathaDe Danann forces of the goddess Aine of Cnoc Aine and the Tuatha De Danann forces of Donnof Cnoc Firinne. Unlike modern hurling, this was cross-country hurling in which the ball wasthrown in half way between the two sacred hills and whichever side managed to get the ball back to

his own territory had excellent crops that year while the losers had a poor harvest.12

Competitions or battles between different groups ot TDD seem to have been in vogue. A strangetale concerning Pat Mylan in nearby Rathkeale says that one day he got a mysterious blow on theankle which made him lame. Then, he was summoned by a stranger to deliver a letter to Donn atCnoc Firinne; He must not touch Donn's red-haired secretary, he must deliver the letter to Donnhimself and he must make no delay and take no food. He was to knock at a door from which agloomy red light showed. The red-haired girl appeared and led him to Donn.

When Donn had read the letter he exclaimed: 'Bad news. A challenge to battle by the king of theSidhfir (TDD) of the North, and my people of Munster are weakest' . Donn added that he couldnot refuse the challenge since it was delivered by a lame man. On leaving Cnoc Firinne, Pat Mylan

discovered that his limp was gone and he was completely cured. 13Another tale which hints at Donn' connection with agriculture and the land of the dead concerns alocal farmer who pleased Donn by diverting the dirty water from the farm away from the sacred hill.Donn, in the form of a white-haired old man, invited him to his underground castle where he metDonn's small stately wife who wore flowers in her hair. The farmer was taken to a big hall in whicha great number of young lads were 'studying the mysteries of the creation since the stars began toshine'.

Donn asked the farmer if he recognised anybody there and he pointed out his own brother who haddied 9 years before. His brother did not recognise him. Donn gave him back to the farmer. ThenDonn's wife took him to a hall in which a large group of girls were studying 'the virtues and

weaknesses of women since Adam and Eve'. His own sister who had died 12 years before wasthere but did not recognise him. She was given back to the farmer and once they had emerged, thecastle disappeared and both of the young people recognised their brother. This was Donn's gift tothe farmer for his care of the Siof Cnoc Firinne. His farm prospered. 14

Underlying all of this is the belief in two worlds existing parallel to each other - the ordinary humanworld which we know so well and a world of powerful spirits who control the fertility of the land,

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and who can make themselves visible and accessible to humans whenever they like but especially atthe great calendrical feasts of the Solstices and at Bealtaine and Samhain.

It is difficult to know to what extent the TDD can be identified with the Ancestors in the megalithictombs of the area. The Ancestors may have been the heroic founding fathers of the localcommunity who were deified after their death and had gone over to the Otherworld where they hadpower to influence affairs in this world, so that their massive stone tombs became shrines to whichpeople came on pilgrimage to pray for help and protection.

The renowned Egyptologist, R.T. Rundle Clark describes the attitude of ancient peoples to theAncestors: 'The community was not merely composed of the living but of the Ancestors aswell.......The Ancestors, the custodians of the source of life, were the reservoir of power and thevitality, the source whence flowed all the forces of vigour, sustenance and growth. Hence, theywere not only departed souls but still active, the keepers of life and fortune............The sprouting ofthe corn, the increase of the herds, potency in men, success in hunting or war, were allmanifestations of their power and approval. Hence the place where the Ancestors dwelt was themost holy spot in the world. From it flowed the well-being of the group. Without the tomb or

the cemetery, life on earth would be miserable, perhaps impossible.15

Perhaps, then, we can see in the Lough Gur complex a massive ritual landscape designed for themeeting of the the inhabitants of two worlds - the human world and the world of spirits - for theultimate advantage of the humans and the harmony of the cosmos.

Notes:

1; Gray, E., (Ed.); CATH MUIGE TUIRED; The Second Battle of Mag Tuired (Dublin 1982)2. ERIU XI - part II (1932) 184 - 2253, Revue Celtique IV, 189-1904, RC IX, (1888) 438-4405 Eriu XIV (1946) 155

6 O hOgain, D., MYTH, LEGEND AND ROMANCE, (New York 1991) 227ff.7. Stokes, W., (Ed.); THREE IRISH GLOSSARIES (London 1862) XLII - XLIV8. BEALOIDEAS 18, 1439 Beal. 18, 14510. Tierney, J., THE CELTIC ETHNOGRAPHY OF POSIDONIUS (RIA Dublin 1960) 27311. Beal, 18, 15912. Beal. 18, 16013. Beal. 18, 165-16614 Beal. 18, 163-16415. Rundle Clark, R., MYTHS AND SYMBOLS IN ANCIENT EGYPT (London 1959) 119

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