My Writings. My Thoughts.
Book of Invasions
// July 30th, 2009 // No Comments » // Irish Myths
According to the storytellers, the first ever settlement of Ireland was by a lady called Ceasair and her followers. They came in three ships to escape the Great Flood, but two of the ships were wrecked and only one survived, with fifty women and three men aboard, along with some sheep. Ceasair was the leading woman, and the men were her father Bith, the pilot Ladru, and the wizard Fionntan. They landed in west Kerry, and went overland from there to where the three rivers meet – the Suir, Nore and Barrow. They spread throughout Ireland, but Bith and Ladru soon died, and Fionntan was left alone with all the women, Feeling inadequate, he fled from them, and Ceasair died from a broken heart on account of his absence. She was buried at a place called Cúil Ceasra (Coolcasragh in n County Galway). The other women did not long survive her, and Fionntan alone remained. It is said that Fionntan lived alive for many generations in the mound of Tounthinna, overlooking the Shannon near Portroe in Tipperary.
Battles of Moytura (Maigh Tuireadh)
// July 30th, 2009 // No Comments » // Irish Myths
Ireland was ruled for thirty-seven years by the Fir Bolg, and they prospered. One night, however, their king Eochaidh Mac Eirc had a dream in which he saw a great flock of birds coming from the ocean, and his poet explained to him that this was a fleet of ships carrying a thousand magical heroes. Soon such a fleet arrived, and the warriors came ashore, burned their ships, and encamped on a mountain in Connacht. The Fir Bolg sent the greatest of their own warriors, called Sreang, to parley with them, and the strangers said that they were relatives of theirs, called Tuatha Dé Danann. They had come from the northern world, and their king was Nuadhu. They proposed that Ireland should be shared by the two peoples, but the assembly of the Fir Bolg at Tara refused this. The result was a great battle fought at Maigh Tuireadh (‘the plain of the pillars’) near Cong in County Mayo. King Eochaidh of the Fir Bolg was slain, but Sreang with a sword-stroke severed the right arm of Nuadhu. The tide of battle went against the Fir Bolg, and Nuadhu agreed a treaty with Sreang which allowed the west of Ireland to the Fir Bolg, while the Tuatha Dé took the rest.
Midhir and Etain (Éadaoin)
// July 30th, 2009 // No Comments » // Irish Myths
The great Newgrange tumulus on the bank of the river Boyne is called Brugh na Bóinne. The handome youth called Aonghus was living there, and he was visited by his foster-father Midhir, In the course of his visit, Midhir lost one of his eyes in an accident. The great physician Dian Céacht managed to replace the eye perfectly, but Midhir took the opportunity to demand compensation from Aonghus. He insisted that Aonghus find for him as wife the most beautiful maiden in Ireland, whom he knew to be Éadaoin, daughter of Ailill, the king of Ulster.
The Wonder of Ireland: Exhibition Opening
// June 23rd, 2009 // No Comments » // Events
This Exhibition in Belvedere House, Mullingar, on the great characters of the Irish Myth Cycles was opened on 28th May by Eamon Ryan, the Minister for Communication, Energy and Natural Resources. Minister Ryan said,
“I am very honoured to help launch this new and important exhibition” and then he added, ” I think we are looking for a sense of where our values are as a people, what are our strengths, what is our vision of where we want to go, and I think we first need to go back and have a clear sense of where we’ve come from and that also comes from this exhibition….”
Sandy Dunlop on behalf of the Bard Team paid tribute to Bill Felton whose work we were enjoying both in the posters and the DVD. Sandy congratulated and thanked Bill for the years of support he has given right back to the start of the Bard. He also thanked Bartle D’Arcy for Belvedere and all the support he has given the Bard.
Joe Whelan, Cathaoirleach Westmeath County Council extended a very warm welcome to Minister Ryan and to everyone.
This exhibition is very important. We learn about the past so we can understand the present. Myths represent our true identity as Irish People. I hope it will be an inspiration.
Nine Waves Series
// May 21st, 2009 // No Comments » // Events
This series involves Saturday events in Belvedere House, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath. So far we have run a Winter Series and a Spring Series both involving 3 Saturdays.
The inspiration for the “Nine Waves” is the story of the arrival of Amerghin and the Celts to Ireland. When Amerghin and the Sons of Mil arrived in Ireland the Tuatha de Dannan were not pleased with the choice he gave them to surrender of to fight. On rejection of these two options Amerghin then offered to retreat a distance of nine waves from the shores of Ireland. The Tuatha believed their Druids would hold them out.
Inspired by the suggestion of the late John Moriarty the philosopher and Mythologist, our challenge today is to likewise remove ourselves over nine waves, but to return ‘through’ the nine waves, each wave being a initiation into one of the myths of the Irish tradition.
The Winter series in Belvedere House will cover:
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Myths of Love and Betrayal
Exploring Diarmuid and Grainna
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Myths of Divine
Exploring Pagan and Christian Images – Mananaan, Jesus, Patrick
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Myths of Journey
Exploring the Voyages of Bran
The Wonder of Ireland Exhibition: May – October 2009
// May 21st, 2009 // No Comments » // Events
Exploring Irelands Mythological Heritage
Belvedere House, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath
This is an exhibition of the Myth images that Bill Felton has created for the Bard Summer School since 1996. The images capture the Archetypal characters of the Irish Myths in exciting and provocative ways.
The exhibition is held at Belvedere House, Mullingar which is very near to Uisneach, once the sacred centre if Ireland. It is a wonderful and appropriate venue because in part of its central location. Belvedere House is a centre for Myth and Legend.
children-of-lir
An additional exhibition focusing particularly on the Children of Lir is running simultaneously at the Fore coffee shop, Fore. This is very near to Lake Derravaragh where the Children as swans spent their last 300 years. Fore also has associations with Balor of the Evil Eye.
The Belvedere Exhibition will have three phases.
May – July: The Mythological Cycles
July – September: The Ulster and Fenian Cycles
September – October: The Kings and Saints Cycles.
Nemed-the Warrior
// May 14th, 2009 // No Comments » // Irish Myths
Nemed
The Warrior
It is a revealing fact about a people if one of its first men is a man who arrived in Ireland harrowed and humiliated by a fall from greatness. And so it was with Nemed and his Nemedians, the four married couples and twenty others.
Nemed had led what can only be described as an ancient navy, a navy of thirty two boats and nine hundred and fifty one people. Sailing through the ocean, alerted by a Siren’s song, they came across a tower of gold, way out in the sea.
In spite of every intuitive bone in his body, howling at him to move on, to cover his ears, like Odysseus from his Siren’s song, Nemed and his men could not resist. They were greedy for the gold. Continue Reading
Parthalon- the Entrepreneur
// May 14th, 2009 // No Comments » // Irish Myths
Partholon
The entrepreneur
I arrived in Ireland with a past, a history or what they call “baggage”. My baggage is a great baggage. I carry a triple curse, the curse of fratricide, matricide and patricide. Unlike Oedipus who merely killed his father, unlike Orestes who merely killed his mother, unlike Cain who merely killed his brother, unlike even Medea who carried the awful, awful curse of killing the children whom she brought into the world, unlike even Atreus who killed his brother’s two sons. I carry my baggage. And it’s a great baggage.
It is indeed a ‘hell on earth’ to carry the kind of baggage that no one can ever forgive least of all oneself. Even poverty, failure, illness, divorce, even death of a loved one is not so bad as this. To carry that kind of blood on one’s hands, as with Lady MacBeth, that no amount of washing can make any difference. Continue Reading
Fintan McBóchna
// May 14th, 2009 // No Comments » // Irish Myths
The First Men of Ireland
Fintan MacBochra
the shaman
It says something about a people, so it does, if the first man that bears mention and recollection is a Shaman, a Seer, a man of Magic and Healing. But that is the way it is.
It says something about a people, so it does if this first man is rooted in a tradition, a global tradition, that draws its authority from human experience, from dream and from the kind of insight that comes from altered states of mind, from moments of ecstasy. That is the way of the Shaman. Not the way of some socially, institutionally, religiously defined truth. No, the way of the Shaman is that of human experience. And that’s the way it was. That’s the way it is.
