The Mythology of Tara

There is a vast abundance of mythological material relating to Tara, and it is mentioned in many of the Irish stories, when events often occur at Samhain. The hill is said to be named after Tea, a goddess. The hill is also associated with Queen Maeve, a landscape goddess, probably imported from Connaught during the medieval times.

The hill is said to be a residence of Lugh of the Long Arm, one of the chief deities of the Tuatha De Danann and hero of the Second Battle of Moytura by Lough Arrow in County Sligo. One of the monuments at Tara is a huge ringfort called Rath Lugh, now partially ploughed out and destroyed, is named after Lugh.

Baile in Scáil: The Phantom's Frenzy

One day Conn was in Tara, after overthrowing the kings. Early in the morning he went up onto the royal rampart of Tara, before sunrise, together with his three druids, Mael and Bloc and Bluicne, and his three filid [poets], Ethain and Corb and Cesarn. For that company used to arise every day to keep watch, lest the men of the sídhe [fairies; Tuatha de Dannan] capture Ireland without his noticing. It is onto the rampart that he used always to go; and he chanced upon a stone beneath his feet and trod upon it. The stone cried out beneath his feet, so that it was heard throughout all Tara, and throughout Brega. Then Conn asked his druids why the stone had cried out, what was its name, whence it had come and whither it would go, and why it had come to Tara. The druid said to Conn that he would not name it to him until fifty-three days had passed. When that number was complete, Conn asked the druid again.

Then the druid said: "Fáil [destiny] is the name of the stone. It is the island of Fáil from which it was brought. It is in Tara of the land of Fáil that it has been placed. It is in the land of Tailtiu that it will remain until the Day of Judgment. And it is in that land that there will be a festive assembly for as long as there is kingship in Tara; and the ruler who does not find it [or leave it?] on the last day of the assembly will be a doomed man in that year. Fáil cried out beneath your feet today," said the druid, "and prophesied. The number of cries which the stone uttered is the number of kings that there will be of your race until the Day of Judgment. It is not I who will name them to you," said the druid.

Then they saw a great mist around them, so that they did not know whither they were going because of the greatness of the darkness which had come upon them. They heard the noise of a horseman coming towards them. "Woe is us," said Conn, "if he brings us into an unknown land!" Then the horseman made three spear casts at them, and the last cast came to them more quickly that the first. "He is setting out to wound a king," said the druid, "whoever makes a cast at Conn in Tara!" Then the horseman ceased his casting, and came up to them, and bade Conn welcome, and invited him to come with him to his dwelling.

Then they went on until they came into a plain, and a golden tree was there. There was a house there with a ridge-pole of findruine [a white alloy], thirty feet in length. They went into the house, and saw a young woman there, and a crown of gold was on her head. There was a silver vat with hoops of gold around it, full of red ale. There was a dipper of gold on its lip, and a cup of gold before her. They saw the scál [phantom] himself in the house, before them on his throne. There was never in Tara a man of his size or his beauty, on account of the fairness of his form and the wondrousness of his appearance.

He answered them and said, "I am not a phantom nor a specter. I have come on account of my fame among you, since my death. And I am of the race of Adam: my name is Lugh son of Eithliu son of Tigernmas. This is why I have come: to relate to you the length of your reign, and of every reign which there will be in Tara." And the girl who sat before then in the house was the Sovereignty of Ireland, and it was she who gave Conn his meal: the rib of an ox and the rib of a boar. The ox rib was twenty-four feet long and eight feet between its arch and the ground. When the girl began to distribute drinks she said, "To whom shall this cup be given?"; and the phantom answered her.

When she had named every ruler until the Day of Judgment, they went into the phantom's shadow, so that they saw neither the enclosure nor the house. The vat and the golden dipper and the cup were left with Conn. And hence are the stories "The Phantom's Dream" and "The Adventure and Journey of Conn".

Source.

An episode from the Second Battle of Moytura takes place at Tara, when Lugh, the grandson of Balor of the Evil Eye comes to visit and offers his services in the forthcoming battle to the Tuatha De Danann. To gain entrance he has to undertake a series of challenges and tasks, and eventually bests and defeats every champion in the hall. From this he gets his title, Ildana, or Long Arm, which means Master of All the Arts.Nuada, the High King asks Lugh to lead in his place and take over the directin of the Tuatha de Danann in the coming battle.

Cormac Mac Art, the most famous of the kings of Tara was born by the Caves of Kesh in County Sligo. Cormac, who was raised by wolves, came to Tara as a youth, and became king by ousting his father's killer when he made a fair judgement in a legal case.

A large barrow, Rath Grainne is named after Cormac's daughter Grainne, who was engaged to Fionn MacChmhal, but famously eloped with a handsome young warrior, Diarmuid instead. Outraged, Fionn gave chase resulting in a whole cycle of tales, and many megalithic monuments being called 'Leaba Dairmuid agus Grainne', as the fleeing couple had to sleep in a different place each night.

Fionn, Ireland's famous mythical warrior had one of his first adventures at Tara. Applying for membership of the Fianna, he was given the task of keeping guard over Tara at Samhain. Every year, a maolvolent fire-breathing member of the Tuatha De Danann named Ailill would emerge from the Sidhe mound (presumably the Mound of the Hostages) and burn Tara. Fionn defeats the fire breathing Sidhe-dweller and joins the Fianna, before long becoming its most famous leader.

St Patrick is another figure who looms large in the history and mythology of Tara. The fifth century saint had a stand-off with the High King, Laogharie at Tara in 433. Patrick tried to convert the King, using a shamrock to explain the Trinity (they could have gone to nearby Newgrange and looked at the Entrance stone, the earliest expression of the Trinity on these shores). Patrick bested the Druids of Tara in a series of magical feats (not unlike Lugh before him) had to flee for his life. He further angered the King and broke the law by lighting his Paschal fire on the Hill of Slane before the royal fire at Tara.

Tara was cursed by the christian saints sometime around 650 AD. There was a dispute between the High King Dairmuid and Saint Ruadhan: a messanger of the King had been slain by the chieftain Aedh Guaire, and the King wanted him executed. Saint Ruadhan was protecting the murderer, and in the ensuing stand off a number of Ireland's most famous holy men laid siege to Tara, fasting against the King

Daniel O'Connell, the Liberator, held his largest monster rally at Tara in 1843; attendance numbers vary from 100,000 to one and a half million people, certainly one of the largest gatherings ever held in Ireland.

Between 1898 and 1901 a group called the British Israelites dug into several monuments during their search for the Ark of the Covenant. This caused huge offence to the Irish natonalists, such as Maude Gonne, W. B Yeats, A. E. and Arthur Griffith, who campaigned to have them stopped. They left the Rath of the Synods in the mess we see today. A local tale impshly notes that all the British Israelites found at Tara were coins placed in the trench each night by mischievious locals.

W. Y. Evans-Wentz

John Boylin, born in County Meath about sixty years ago, will be our witness from Kilmessan, a village about two miles from Tara; and he, being one of the men of the vicinity best informed about its folk-lore, is able to offer testimony of very great value:--

The Fairy Tribes.--'There is said to be a whole tribe of little red men living in Glen Odder, between Ringlestown and Tara; and on long evenings in June they have been heard. There are other breeds or castes of fairies; and it seems to me, when I recall our ancient traditions, that some of these fairies are of the Fir Bolgs, some of the Tuatha De Danann, and some of the Milesians. All of them have been seen serenading round the western slope of Tara, dressed in ancient Irish costumes. Unlike the little red men, these fairy races are warlike and given to making invasions. Long processions of them have been seen going round the King's Chair (an earthwork on which the Kings of Tara are said to have been crowned); and they then would appear like soldiers of ancient Ireland in review.'

The Fairy Procession.--'We were told as children, that, as soon as night fell, the fairies from Rath Ringlestown would form in a procession, across Tara road, pass round certain bushes which have not been disturbed for ages, and join the gangkena (?) or host of industrious folk, the red fairies. We were afraid, and our nurses always brought us home before the advent of the fairy procession. One of the passes used by this procession happened to be between two mud-wall houses; and it is said that a man went out of one of these houses at the wrong time, for when found he was dead: the fairies had taken him because he interfered with their procession.' 

Death through Cutting Fairy-Bushes.--'A man named Caffney cut as fuel to boil his pot of potatoes some of these undisturbed bushes round which the fairies pass. When he put the wood under the pot, though it spat fire, and fire-sparkles would come out of it, it would not burn. The man pined away gradually. In six months after cutting the fairy-bushes, he was dead. Just before he died, he told his experiences with the wood to his brother, and his brother told me.'

The Fairies are the Dead.--'According to the local belief, fairies are the spirits of the departed. Tradition says that Hugh O'Neil in the sixteenth century, after his march to the south, encamped his army on the Rath or Fort of Ringlestown, to be assisted by the spirits of the mighty dead who dwelt within this rath. And it is believed that Gerald Fitzgerald has been seen coming out of the Hill of Mollyellen, down in County Louth, leading his horse and dressed in the old Irish costume, with breastplate, spear, and war outfit.'

Fairy Possession.--'Rose Carroll was possessed by a fairy-spirit. It is known that her father held communion with evil spirits, and it appears that they often assisted him. The Carrolls' house was built at the end of a fairy fort, and part of it was scooped out of this fort. Rose grew so peculiar that her folks locked her up. After two years she was able to shake off the fairy possession by being taken to Father Robinson's sisters, and then to an old witch-woman in Drogheda.'