Meet Ruth Egan, one of the seven adult winners of the ÉIRÍ art competition and project. So, join Chris and Ruth as they discuss, art, mthology and the importance of listening to the stories told by your grandmothers. This is one of a series of shorter ‘Stories in the Landscape’ conversations to celebrate the 2023…
Tag: Macha
Circling the Táin 03: The Birth Pangs of Ulster
In this episode, we continue our exploration of the troublesome conceptions and births that stand behind much of the material of the Táin tradition. This time, we examine the births of the doomed Deirdre, the fated Cú Chulainn and re-re-visit the importance of Macha’s story. Join the Story Archaeologists as we attempt to disentangle webs…
More Stories of Macha – Revisited
FROM THE METRICAL DINDSHENCHAS VOL 4 edited by Edward Gwynn translated by Isolde ÓBrolcháin Carmody
Noínden Ulad – The Story of Macha
Edited by Vernam Hull, Celtica 8 (1968), pp 1-42. Translation by Isolde Carmody. Annotated terms are marked in bold, with the notes at the end of the text. §1 Cid dia mboí in ces for Ultaib? Ni ansae From what [cause] was the debility on the Ulstermen? Not hard.
The Mabinogion and the story of Rhiannon
Our podcast Macha – revisited refered to similarities between the tale of Rhiannon and Macha. . You can read the full story of Pwyll, son of Dyved and the story of Rhiannon in a translation by Will Parker, on his ecxcellent site Mabinogi.net. A brief background to these medieval Welsh texts The stories, now known as…
The Story Of Macha ~ revisited
Three and a half years on from our first examinationof Macha, I am still happy with my re-telling even though it id a touch fanciful.Near Armagh is the green mound of mysterious Emain Macha. This is the story of its naming. In my mind I still hear the rhythmic drumming of many hooves, the thrumming…
Revisiting Mythical Women 2 – Revisiting Macha
In the second of our “revisits”, we look back at our discussions on Noinden Ulaid and the Dindshenchas stories of Emain Macha in Co. Armagh. This was the first discussion that we had about cóir, although we were then using the Egyptian term Ma’at, signifying natural order and justice. Reviewing this episode really highlights how…
Origin stories – revisited
Virtually all cultures have creation stories… There are two main types of creation myth: the cosmogenic, which is about the creation of the universe or the world; and those that concern the creation of human beings. The stories of the creation of humans often comes in the same package as that of the creation of…
The Dindshenchas of Carmun
In Dindshenchas; A Magical Mystery Tour, we discussed the poem on Carmun as an example of dindshenchas celebrating a particular geographical place. It describes a major óenach which takes place every three years, and the activities of that fair, as well as the origin-tale of the character Carmun said to be buried there. We discussed…
Beidh Aenach Amárach…
The Fairs of Early Irish Society The óenach, sometimes translated as “Fair”, was an important regular feature of early Irish society. There were several kinds of public gathering, including slógadh, “hosting”, where a lord would gather his able tennants for military activity, and airecht, “court”, which was a gathering of freemen for legal purposes. But…