FIGURE 5. Simon O’Dwyer playing a reconstruction of the Loughnashade trumpa at the Technological University Dublin, watched by Etienne Rynne and Helene Conway. In the background are sculptures by John Behan inspired by the Táin.
The Irish Church has many connections with Arainn; at the centre of this is the Community of Enda (Teaghlach Einne), a ninth-century church at the beach end of a large graveyard at Killeany, about a mile south-east of Kilronan. Traditionally the Aran Islands were known as Ara na Naomh (Aran of the Saints), and many of these saints are buried on Inishmore. A half-mile walk uphill from Teaglach Einne to Teampall Bheanain will bring you past the stump of a round tower, several wells, and a Mass rock, and at Teampall Bheanain (St Benin, a disciple of St Patrick) you can see the extent of the monastic settlement. St Enda’s Church and later a Franciscan friary were demolished by Cromwellian forces in the middle of the seventeenth century, and the stones were used to build Arkin Fort, also known as Castle Arkin. These same stones eventually found a new lease of life when local houses were built. A disciple of St Enda, St Ciaran, had his monastery at Mainistir Chiarain. Within the church grounds is a standing stone which has a sundial.
Aran has a fine legacy of poets and writers. Máirtín Ó Direáin, wrote solely in Irish while Liam O’Flaherty wrote both in Irish and English, his notable work in Irish being Duil (‘instinct’) and in English, The Informer and The Famine. A lesser-known but interesting writer is Pat Mullen, whose most noted work is Hero Breed about the fishing community in Killeany in the 1930s. The American director Robert Flaherty made the famous drama documentary Man of Aran in the 1930s, using only local actors.
The writer most associated with Inishmaan is the playwright John Millington Synge. He went there at the behest of Yeats to learn Irish and to establish a literary tradition based on the speech he heard everyday on the island. Synge visited the island between 1898 and 1902 and integrated with the community, attending weddings and funerals, and was also witness to an eviction. Synge’s plays avoided a patronising manner and described life as it was experienced by the islanders. He thus elevated the people from being stage characters to being vivid, recognisable people.
Dún Chonchuir is the largest stone fort on Inishmaan. Synge often came here to smoke and relax. It is a fine, oval stone enclosure possibly dating from early historical times and has several ruined stone huts on the inside. The fort has a dominant view of the island. It measures about 200 feet east–west and over 100 feet north–south, and has two terraces on the inside. It may be named after Conchuir, a brother of Aengus, who probably gave his name to the great fort on Inishmore; according to legend, they were the two sons of Umor, a chief of the Fir Bolg,* and had fled to the Aran Islands after the defeat of the Fir Bolg of Connacht. On the south-east coast of the island is a place named Leaba Chonchuir (‘Conchuir’s bed’), a natural rock bridge. Another fine fort is Dún Fearbai, perhaps similar in age to Dún Chonchuir. It gets its name from the local area, An Fhearbach, meaning abounding in cows.
FIGURE 6. Dún Dúncathair on Inishmore.
LEITRIM (SEE ALSO CAVAN)
Liathdroim, ‘grey ridge’
The Black Pig’s Dyke (Claí na Muice Duibhe), a ‘linear earthwork’, is sometimes seen as the defensive fortification of Ulster. It gets it name from a legend concerning the Black Pig, which is as follows: A druid had a school in Co. Louth, and he had a magic stick which he used for maintaining discipline. When pupils were unruly, he used it to turn them into animals and then chased them through the country. The father of one of these pupils went to the school and struck the master with the wand and changed him into a pig. This pig was chased westward and as he went he made a great trench with his snout, and a blacksmith is said to have shoved a red-hot iron into his mouth and the pig went up in smoke.
Two lakes in Leitrim are steeped in mythology, Lough Allen [26] and Lough Garadice [26, 27A]. To the east of Lough Allen lies Slieve Anierin or Sliabh an Iarainn (‘iron mountain’). Here, Goibniu* the smith (goba) had one of his many forges, and it is close to here that he reputedly forged the weapons for the Second Battle of Magh Tuiredh which was fought between the Tuatha Dé Danann* and the Fomorians* near Lough Arrow (see under Sligo).
The smith played a hugely prominent role in ancient Irish life, underlined by Kuno Meyer in one of his books on ‘Irish Triads’ as follows: ‘There are three renovators in the world – the womb of a woman, a cow’s udder and a smith’s ness.’ This ness was the moulding clay of which the furnace was made from time to time. The word ness was applied to both the shaped furnace and to a bag of moulding clay for making it.
The ore for the Goibniu’s* forge was taken from Sliabh an Iarainn and brought to the townland of Doire na Tuan (‘the ancient oak wood’). Derrynatuan [26] is near the source of the Shannon, and it was here that the ore was smelted, and according to the noted antiquarian John O’Donovan, ‘there has been a forge ever since’. In April 2014, I went in search for this forge and met someone who suggested that I speak to Ted McHugh, a local farmer, who then directed me to what is locally described as the remains of a mill. If this building was once a forge, where the entrance has collapsed and been replaced by concrete blocks. However, it is more likely the remains of an unclassified mill, possibly horizontal in form. The remains of the forge, I was informed, were in the area and close by but very much overgrown, and I could not find it. These remains bear testament to a possible site of the original smith’s forge. The Shannon is within a stone’s throw of the general area and, though here only a stream, would be enough for the Gabha* to take his metal workings.
Derrynatuan is in Cavan, and that is why it is important to consider the two counties together, for both share adjacent places connected to the Goibniu* or Gabha. Derrynatuan is to the north-west and broad end of Glangavlin or Gleann Gaibhleann or ‘the glen of the grey (cow) of the Gabha’. The smith kept the mythic cow here in the glen, where she was famous for her milk yield; according to legend, if she slept in a field, the ‘grass would become luxurious’. Legend also says that the tsumami of milk from her udder formed the mountain pass at Bellavally Gap or Béal a’Bhealaigh (‘the Mouth of the Pass’) [26], three miles east from Glangavlin.
Many verses have been written in praise of Gleann Gaibhleann, and the following is from a late medieval poem written by the fifteenth-century poet Tadhg Óg Ó hUiginn where he addresses the Shannon:
Dúthcha dhuit bheith againne
dá bhféachtha dona fáthaibh:
Gleann Gaibhle as é t’athairsi,
an Bhréifne is í do mháthair.
By nature thou art ours, if sound reasons be regarded: Glen Gavlin is thy father and Brefney is thy mother.
[Translated by Osborn Bergin]
The Gabha* also had ale which preserved the Tuatha Dé Danann* from old age and disease; he was also invoked for a good yield of butter, which was possibly connected to his famous cow. The smith had several names signifying his different roles; as the Gobán Saor he enters folklore and legend as the man who built the round towers and as an all-around artificer, while as the Gabha he is the mighty smith and one who officiates at rites, such as the rite of coming of age and weddings. As the Goibniu,* he is the god of the smiths and holds the Otherworld feast in which no one ages and which presumably never ends.
The River Shannon takes its name from the goddess of the Tuatha Dé Danann,* namely Sinann. The legend of the Shannon’s origin is preserved in a sixteen-stanza poem by the medieval poet Cuan O’Lothchain. The first verse is as follows:
Saer ainm Sinna saighuidh uaim
nadad Loind a lom luaid
ni h-inand a gním sa gléo
dia mbai Sinand co saer beo.
The noble of Sinainn seek ye from me;
Its bare