As when Sinann herself was free and alive.
[Translated by Edward Gwynn]
The source of the Shannon is at a place known as the Shannon Pot [26], the fame of which can be traced back to Finn mac Cumhail* who gained wisdom from the salmon that dwelt there. Legend says that the goddess Síonann, the daughter of Lodan, a son of Manannán mac Lir,* the sea god, came to the Shannon Pot in search of the great Salmon of Wisdom. The salmon was angered at the sight of Síonann and caused the pool to overflow and drown her. Thus, the Shannon Pot, Log na Sionna, was created and bears the name of the goddess to this day. The drowning of a goddess in a river and thus giving her name to it is a common motif in mythologies – for example, Boand, the white cow goddess, drowning in the Boyne.
If one wished to be pernickety, one could claim that the source of the Shannon lies in the western banks of the Cuilcagh Mountains astride Cavan and Fermanagh. But, regardless of argument, the Shannon Pot is one of our sacred pools together with Loughnashade (Loch na séad, or ‘the lake of the jewels’) and the artificial pool known as the ‘King’s Stables’, both of which are at Emain Macha or Navan Fort in Co. Armagh.
MAYO
Magh Eo, ‘plain of the yews’
Around Rathfran Bay, to the south-west of Killala Bay [24], there are a number of megalithic tombs dating from the Neolithic, about 4,000 years ago, which consist of large capstones resting on upright stones. They are generally referred to as ‘cromlechs’, a term that has the same meaning as the Breton word ‘dolmen’.
One distinguished structure lies about four miles from Killala at Mullaghnacross crossroads. It has been termed Baal Tien, or ‘The House of Baal’, though one would think that Baal Teine, or ‘the fire of Baal’, would be more accurate. It was seen by nineteenth-century scholars as a sort of low temple. It has a simple pronaos – the space in front of the body of a temple enclosed by the portico and projecting side walls – formed by four upright stones on each side, which led to an altar. The altar was placed over a deep pit, at each end of which a great stone was fixed to support a large table stone. This table or altar stone has been displaced. It has been suggested that the pit may have been used to receive the blood of victims sacrificed on the altar. Similar pits were used by the Greeks and the Romans when sacrificing to Sol, the sun god. In Italy at the Temple of Serapis at Puzzuoli there is a deep square pit which was used for receiving the blood of those sacrificed. A powerful example of ‘The House of Baal’ is the Temple of Baal at Palmyra in Syria. I was fortunate to walk around this temple but unfortunate not to gain admittance in order to see the fire altars. Many of these precious sites at Palmyra have since been destroyed by militant Islamists.
Baal in Irish mythology is sometimes referred to as Bel, but usually as Balor or Balar. The month of May in Irish (Bealtaine) takes its name from Bel as in Belteine or the fire of Bel or Balor. Balor has never been fully acknowledged as being another name for Bel, but his epithet ‘Balor of the Baleful Eye’ seems to indicate an original sun god. Samain, which continues today as Hallowe’en, was one of the four great festivals of pre-Christian Ireland. In Indian mythology the great feast of fire is held in honour of Baal-Samin—Sahm or Sahman being one of the sacred names of the sun and corresponds to samain in Irish mythology. In India, cakes of flour are spotted with poppy and caraway seeds and stained with saffron. The Irish equivalent at this feast is the spotted cake or Bairin-Breac, the barnbrack or speckled cake. In India, all the devotees at this ceremony stain their bodies with saffron. In Ireland, the saffron-coloured kilt was a sign of royalty.
The fires of Baal were lit upon particular days in Ireland. They fires were said to purify the devotees and preserve them from harm. Cattle in Mayo were driven between blazing fires in order that the smoke might delouse them. This custom continued in Mayo up to the middle of the twentieth century. John Toland in 1747 wrote:
The writer has more than once been a personal witness of the ceremony of driving the cattle of a certain village through the blazing fire; whilst the young people and children followed, and each seizing a lighted brand, formed a sort of irregular winding dance, waving the flaming torches over their heads, and shouting in a sort of rude chorus. Can there be a doubt as to the source of this custom?
Other places associated with sun worship are Carngrainey in Co. Antrim; Altoir na Greine, ‘the altar of the sun’ on Mount Callen, Co. Clare; and Knockainey in Co. Limerick, to name but a few. Although these practices had their origins in the Middle East, they never fully died out in the west and the south-west of Ireland.
Seven miles south-east of Castlebar is another place associated with and named Baal, now known as Balla [31]. St Mochno or Cronan founded a monastery here in 637, of which there remain a round tower and and the ruins of a small church. The tower is nearly fifty feet in height and the church is of similar stone and workmanship. In one of the walls of the church is a monumental inscription of ‘great antiquity’.
According to the nineteenth-century antiquarian L.C. Beaufort, the place was noted for ‘superstitious practices, particularly at one season of the year’. This time could have either been the samain to honour Baal-Samin or in early May for the feast of Belteine. However, both times would have merited ceremonial rites. Dr James McParlan in 1801 described a festival at Balla as follows:
And this Baal is to this day a most extraordinary place of superstitious worship. Here are a couple of small chapels vaulted over a river which runs through the town; and once a year, I think in autumn, immense swarms of people crowd from all parts to perform certain circuits and evolutions on their knees, dropping as they proceed in describing those figures, a certain number of beads to various intentions, and in expiation of various sins; but the day closes most cheerfully in eating and drinking. Mr Lynch who lives just at the town, assured me that not less than three hundred sheep are consumed at this festival.
In the early nineteenth century some English antiquarians believed that round towers such as that at Balla were erected to display the sacred fires of Bel, and were thus not Christian but had been built at a time when sun worship was the prevailing religion. In this they had the support of Charles O’Conor, a noted Irish scholar. One might even say that the prevailing consensus in the nineteenth century was that the round towers had their origin in the Middle East and were brought to to Ireland by the Phoenicians. It was also said that they were astronomical centres for observing the stars, or more mundanely to observe sunrise at important festivals.
These opinions were severly criticised if not dashed by George Petrie in his Inquiry into the Origin and Uses of the Round Towers in Ireland. Petrie systematically refuted all of these scholars and proved their theories to be ‘fallacious’. Petrie saw the event of ‘quadrangular architecture’ in Ireland as contemporaneous with the primitive Irish Church and the round towers as a distinctive expression of ecclesiastical architecture.
Folk customs connected to the sun can be found in Ballinrobe (Bailean Róba, ‘town of the River Róba) [38] on the eve of the feast of St John on 24 June. This night is known as Féile Eoin in Wexford. On this night the summer solstice is celebrated by bonfires or, as they are sometimes called, ‘bonefires’ or tine cnámh, as originally the bones of dead animals were burnt at this time. It was also custom for people to come to the fires carrying bones. After the fires, the remaining coals were thrown into adjoining fields to bring luck to future crop-growing. Burning wood was thrown into the air; these ‘fireballs’ were a way of acknowledging that the sun had achieved its height and that soon the days would be drawing in. These customs were common in Europe as far away Poland and Estonia. Jumping over the fires was another feature of the customs at this time in Ireland and in Spain.
FIGURE 7. Croagh Patrick.
Croagh Patrick (Cruach Phádraig, ‘St Patrick’s Reek or Peak’, commonly referred to as ‘the Reek’) [30, 38] is one of the great assembly points, both in pre-Christian and Christian Ireland. Five miles west of Westport, it rises 2,530 feet above sea level to give a panoramic view across Clew Bay, and from it one can see Inishbofin, Inishturk, Clare Island and the Nephin Beg range of mountains. It was traditionally