By E. Terry

When I visited Ireland, I wasn’t expecting over 5000+ years of folklore and experience. Before the 11th century, the land of Ireland was primarily a Celtic society with culture and religion revolving around harvests, the season, and their own society’s solstices. A lot of their culture is unknown due to the simple belief that the Celtics had, which was that if you wrote something down, it would be forgotten. When Christianity was introduced to Ireland, these stories were written down for the first time in the early medieval era by scribes of the church who attempted to Christianize them to some extent. Over the years, Irish folklore has reappeared in Irish history, often as many counties folklore do as pieces of propaganda for whatever is going on at the time. In this short essay, I want to outline the basis of Irish folklore, my own experience with it in Ireland, and briefly touch on how it has been used in media.

                   Irish Celtic mythology can be broken down into four cycles: The mythological cycle, the Ulster cycle, the Fenian cycle, and the Historical cycle. However, predating all that and setting the stage for most of Irish mythology is the Book of Invasions, which was penned in the 11th century by an unnamed Christian scribe. This text references the history of invading peoples who came to Ireland. While the text is still super important to our understanding of mythology, it was heavily Christianized, so the first people, Cessair and her people, were fleeing the great flood. The Tuatha De Danann, who are the Celtic Irish gods, were described as invaders; however, they were those who were worshiped pre-Christianity. The Tuatha De Danann and the Milesians, who were another group of invaders and are said to be the ancestors of modern-day Irish people, were at war. To my understanding, this is what makes up a chunk of the Mythology cycle. The war ended with the Milesians and the Tuatha De Danann making a deal that they could have half the island; however, a clever Milesian said they wouldn’t surrender the top to them, making it so the Tuatha De Danann had to flee to the underworld, and so they did. My research says they fled sidhe mounds like Newgrange; however, my bus driver, Johnathan (I know the most trusted source of information), said Tuatha De Danann marched all themselves to the cliffs of Moher, and it is said they all rode white horses and plunged themselves off the edge taking them to the underworld that way, it’s said that the white tops of the waves that crash there are the horses galloping.

                  The Ulster Cycle is next; this cycle is more focused on the heroes and stories of the cycle. One of the biggest ones being Queen Mayve, who was mentioned on our trip to Howth. Culainn’s Hound, or Cu Chulainn, was the focus of many stories during this cycle. He got his name from when he was a boy, he ran away from home to live with his uncle who was a king. After some impressive feats, just as a boy, he accidentally killed the king’s dog, which was let out during a festival. After killing the dog, he vowed to be Ulster’s hound until the king could find another dog, which he never did. Most of this cycle is summed up by battles. Specifically, the battle of The Táin Bó Cúailnge or The Cattle Raid of Cooley, which was a battle between Queen Medb and the warriors of Ulster, led by Cú Chulainn, over the great bull Donn Cúailnge, mostly because the bull was very fertile.

                  The Fenian cycle is in reference to Fionn mac Cumhaill and his warriors. Who started as bandits living in the woods. Most of this cycle is just stories about his escapades, him joining the high court, trials he passed, him killing a goblin king whom rained terror with his harp throughout. So Fionn killed the goblin by throwing a spear through his heart, stuff like that. We didn’t touch on this cycle much in my time in Ireland, however, I’d like to learn more. He feels very Robin Hood-like.

                  Last is the Cycle is the Historical cycle or the Cycle of Kings. This cycle details an exceptionally extensive list of kings of Ireland in the 1-6th centuries. Many of these stories are documented events in Irish medieval history with folklore elements mixed in. Many of these tales are/were retold by songs or bards during that time period. The Dublinina sort of touched on this with its authentic telling of medieval history, but that museum was mostly focused on the way of living during the later years of medieval history.

                  To wrap up, I wanted to talk about how, like many other countries, Irish folklore and fairytales have been used as propaganda. The first instance I found was Bulmer Hobson, who used Irish stories to argue for home rule. Many authors published similar anecdotes, according to the tour guide I talked to on our Dublin tour. While not being propaganda itself, the heavy Christian tone of Irish folklore is interesting to me. As Ireland is such a major Christian nation, I wonder how much the Christianization of these legends shaped Irish culture as we know it today. How much did retelling shape what we learned? In my opinion, Irish folklore is a tale of media. Who wrote, who controls it, and who shapes it?

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