Thomas Johnson Westropp

“ What else than the Sun is it? This is the radiance of Lug Lamhfada.” [79] Perhaps it was sung by the druids at the very Lugnasad of Tailltiu. The god was probably the most dangerous opponent of Christ in the days of Patrick, and well might the Apostle of the Irish write: “the Sun shall not reign for ever nor shall its splendours continue, and woe to its unhappy worshippers.” ”

“ Indeed it is probable that pious clerics or chiefs at Tara and Tailltiu emulated Josiah when “he took away the horses of the Sun” at Jerusalem and “burned the chariots of the Sun with fire,” for Lug was inventor of the óenach, or sacred race-course, and the horse rod. [14] and had nine war chariots of his own.
First we may note how many Irish sanctuaries are said to bear the names of women (queens, heroines or goddesses) , and that the place-names, being probably pre-Celtic and so irreducible by Celtic philologists, were thus artificially explained. ”

“ The sanctuary and assembly place of Tailltiu, at Oristown and Telltown, in Co. Meath, has preserved a most illuminating tradition, which it is well to study in some detail.
The pagan Irish had a pantheon formed of divergent and even discordant elements. [2] We have mountain deities like Febra, Echtge, Mís, Clíu and others, and river goddesses like Sinann, Segais and Boand, also the mound gods, viros side, [3] like Oengus of the Brug and Bodb Dearg. Under this term Síd were eventually included a swarm of gods, also, unlike the former classes, adored in Britain and on the continent of Europe. ”

“ After the “Servile Revolt,” [81] probably where the first faint dawn of historic legend begins in Ireland, King Tuathal Techtmhar, in his restoration of the Celtic monarchy and its chief sanctuaries, re-established the fire festival of Lugnasad and its sacred fire at Tailltiu. We may pass over the euhemerist attempt to discredit the Celtic pantheon by “giving gods to the gods” and making the Milesians defeat and slay the gods of the Tuatha Dé (their own gods) MacGreine, MacCuill and MacCethoir at Tailltiu. ”

“ Miracles sometimes, however, become realities; three “aerial ships sailed over Tailltiu óenach” during the visit of Murchad, son of Domnall. A similar sight was there during the War when we were returning from Tailltiu at the time when the enemy’s line was broken in July, 1918; but by that time the wonder had become commonplace! [93]
I will not repeat the many extracts of the Annals [94] telling of the Óenach, but will summarise the principal. It was visited by St. Patrick at the dawn of Christianity, 434, and there was a tale how he promised that no one should be slain at it. ”

“ Public opinion easily condones old abuses and vested nuisances. The ancient ethics of Ireland, though the natives were free from the more revolting forms of vice, were very lax as to what the Church taught as to affinity and the sanctity of marriage. [69] Despite all bowdlerizing by late clerics, connections of parents and children, and brother and sisters, abound in the early tales. [70] Let it suffice to refer to the tales of Fiacha Fermara, son of Oengus of Tara (like Guortighern in Britain) ”

“ In Ireland [6] we find “Lis Loga,” or Naas, “Cro Loga” at Tara, “Long Loga,” a sandbank in Dublin Bay, “Lugmod” or Lowth, “Luglochta Loga,” near Lusk in Co. Dublin, and “Lis Luigdech,” or “Lis Loga,” near Tara. His name was a favourite with his worshippers, though I only find a “Lug,” son of Finn, [7] and another ill-attested “Lug” among the crowd of mythic sons [8] assigned to Oilioll Aulom by tribes striving to affiliate themselves to the great line of the Dergthene princes of Munster. ”

“ Perhaps the marriages were held the same day at Oristown and not at the time of the statutory fair. Wilde, as I said, with personal local knowledge, accepts the tradition of 1836, which he published in 1849; he often witnessed sports in Meath when a boy, but only adds to O’Donovan’s accounts that the man took the woman by the little finger. He, however, places the marriages in the fosse of the great Ring (as Eugene Conwell heard in 1864 and as the modern name implies) , the couples walking south. ”

“ I do not, however, on that account doubt but that there were really ancient legends connected with the places, but only think it probable that its place-name superseded that of a goddess. Local names often supersede personal ones, as titles do surnames at present. [15] The number of alias names of Boand, the Boyne, show that one river goddess, perhaps named Segais, was called after several streams in Ireland, and we know that Lug was called “Dumias” or “Dumiatus” at his great temple on the Puy de Dôme, where stood his huge bronze statue. ”

“ They give the descent “Derg Dergthine, son of Nuada Argetlamh, son of Lug mac Edlenn,” and are confirmed by the early poem on “Mosaulom” (Oilioll Aulom) where Daig Dergthine, son of Nuada Aicnech Luigthine, son of Lug Feidlech,” is given. This contradicts the more usual Irish pedigree of Lug as son of Cian, and corroborates the Welsh by introducing Nuada. As we shall see, the close connection of Lug and Nuada is important to the understanding of the “marriage myth” of Tailltiu.
There are apparently two “foundation legends” fused into the story of Tailltiu. ”

“ He accordingly asserts, without the least reason, that the “fair” had been “moved from Telltown into Oristown.” The latter name is not found in early records; his derivation of Oristown, from Orientstown, i.e. Rath airthir (the “East fort” of the “Lives” of St. Patrick, certainly at Donaghpatrick Church) , is absurd, being really from the Bermingham or “Oris” (mac Feorais, i.e. mac Peirce) family, [65] as other Meath and Dublin names, Monasteroris, Carrickoris, and Ballycoruss, should have shown him.
He heard that the Telltown marriages were celebrated in the Luganeany hollow in Pagan times ”

“ In 1538 Patrick Plunkett of Gibbstown held Tallyton [104] and Mary Cruys (posthumous daughter of Christopher Lord Rathmore and heroine of a romantic tradition) , about 1550, made a poem, which alludes to “the coursers of Tailltiu” [105] and implies that the races still continued. “Oriestone” is first named in 1571, a certain harper, Brian Mahon, resided there: [106] another interesting “survival,” the last recorded successor of the harper Lug. In 1651 the Down Survey marks Telltowne and Oristowne, showing a pillar, or rock, in the latter, perhaps a relic of the óenach, if not the Fál itself. ”

“ It is much injured to the east, and a gravel pit is cut into it at the S.W. It lies in Telltown, near the river. (2-4) Three marshy hollows, possibly artificial, called “the Blind Lochs,” the middle one being the serpent-haunted “Dubh Loch.” [114] I saw no hut sites, tracks, or traces of earthworks between Rathduff and the Great Ring. The three hollows are also in Telltown. (5) The Great Ring, in Oristown, is the traditional grave of Tailltiu. A segment about 150′ long remains. ”

“ The “Dagda’s Stone” was a wonder of Ireland (Irish Triads, ed. Meyer Todd, Lect. Ser. xiii. p. 33) . It was in Connacht; another “Dagda’s Stone” is still at Ardmore and was an object of “aphrodisiac rites.” ↑ Oengus mac ind oc was son of the Dagda and Boand, the sister of Elemair. They, like Lug, had mounds in Brugh. Rhys wavers, Hib. Lect. iv. p. 414, Brit. Acad. 1909, p. 238. I incline to his former view that Lug mac Ethlenn and Lug Scimaig are a “doublet.” He thinks from the stone Fál remaining at Tailltiu that Tara had lost power and that the Ultonians had retired to its rival ”

“ The Tain bo Cualnge tells how a great-grandson of Conall Cernach (Iliach or Amairgen) drives certain warriors over it northward. [84] The “Will of Cathaoir mór” says that his son Fiacha shall enlarge Tailltiu. [85] The High King Dathi [86] about A.D. 422 celebrated the Tailltiu óenach with unusual splendour in a vain attempt to propitiate the gods before his raid into Gaul. St. Patrick, after his visit to Tara, purified the Oenach Tailltinn “Taltenam ubi fit agon regale.” [87] He won over the sons of Nial and built Donaghpatrick Church in a fort near Tailltiu. ”

“ This was the spot at which marriages were celebrated according to the odd manner following—A number of young men went into the hollow to the North side of the wall, and an equal number of young women to the South side of the wall, which was so high as to prevent them from seeing the men. ”

“ The second [29] compromises between the gods of the hostile races and shows the simpler story in the course of transformation. Eochaid Garb clears a place for his wife Tailltiu’s grave at Chaille Chuan that her games might be held there, and her foster son Lug, “son of Seal Balb,” made her guba (lamentations) and her nasad (funeral rites, but see later) , whence the Lugnasad festival on, or rather round, Aug. 1st, [30] in which month it should be remembered the festival was held at Lug’s sanctuary of Lugdunum Convenorum (St. Bertrand de Commingcs) , which all Gaul attended. ”

“ The Óenach Tailltinn.
We can only very briefly abstract all that shows what other rites were celebrated at this great Celtic and pre-Celtic sanctuary. As we saw, the real centre of the ceremonies is the god Lug and his marriage with Eriu. The allegation that children were sacrificed at Tailltiu, it is true, rests on a mistranslation of a corrupt text, [76] “burning of the first fruits, or chief descendants,” being really “burnings of empty steadings.” Prof. ”

“ Patrick and other Christian clerics expurgated them—we find statements apparently allowing connections for a year like the “Telltown marriages.” A woman when put away was entitled to a share of what she had made ”

“ J. Dunn, p. 303. The strange name “Diabul Ard” is a place, like “Diabul Muscraige” (Onomasticon Goedelicum, p. 344) . ↑ Táin, p. 293-5. ↑ “Rennes Dind. S.” Rev. Celt. xvi. p. 51, there called “Dun na n Giall.” ”