All is Motion

Tag: mythology

  • Why Sligo Needs a World Class Museum

    Image: Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto | Architect Daniel Libeskind Berlin

    4,049 words, 21 minutes read time.

    📖 4,049 words
    ⏱️ 21 minute read
    Written by
    Dylan Foley
    Archaeologist & Historian
    📅 Published: [Date]
    🏷️ Category: Archaeology
    📍 Focus: Sligo Heritage
    Cite as: Foley, Dylan. “Why Sligo Needs a World Class Museum.” All Is Motion, [Date]. https://allismotion.org/why-sligo-needs-a-world-class-museum/

    In 2016, after 65 years in the town of Sligo, the Nobel medal of WB Yeats was removed from the little proto-museum attached to the library in Sligo town. This medal had been donated by William Butler Yeats son, Michael, and it is presumably the case that he knew that his father would have wanted the medal to be on display in Sligo. The medal was removed because Sligo does not have an accredited museum to store such artefacts.

    In 2015 nine rare bronze 16th century cannons from as far away as Barcelona and Dubrovnik in the east Meditarranean were lifted from the seabed off Streedagh. They could not be conserved here and had to be sent to Dublin where they remain. They will never come back here without a suitable museum. In fact the list of artefacts from all eras of Irish history and all types that are held elsewhere and cannot be brought back is very long, and continues to get longer.

    Sligos missing museum results in an incalculable loss both economically and culturally to the entire region. But it also seems to be the case that this is not well understood. There are currently proposals to build a Yeats Interpretive Centre, and of course all ideas to develop heritage are to be welcomed. But there is a problem. A museum is basic cultural infrastructure, and without it. the development and updating and accessibility of Sligo heritage is severely restricted.

    The difference between a museum and an interpretive centre is fundamental. One is infrastructure, the other is an amenity. They are not interchangeable. Its worth comparing the definitions of the two words just to be very clear.

    INFRASTRUCTURE – The basic physical and organizational structures and facilities (e.g. buildings, roads, power supplies) needed for the operation of a society or enterprise. “the social and economic infrastructure of a country”. —— From Latin infra ‘below, and structure to build. So that which underlies our systems and facilities.

    AMENITY – a desirable or useful feature or facility of a building or place. “the property is situated in a convenient location, close to all local amenities” —— late Middle English: from Old French amenite or Latin amoenitas, from amoenus ‘ pleasant

    So before you can build swimming pools or shopping centres you must put in roads and power. A museum represents the roads and power for the cultural sector. The reason for this is it is an accredited archaeological repository. This means it can hold, conserve, acquire and display real historical artefacts, something no other facility can do. A museum contains the conservation laboratories that allow the conservation and treatment of archaeological artefacts from the past, both those we have now and those yet to be found. As cultural infrastructure a museum actually supports and allows the creation of other cultural enterprises by providing the basic facilities and expertise they need to operate successfully. In other words, all projects, including interpretive centres are possible after a museum is in place, but to build them before it will not work.

    Due to these different functions interpretive centres cannot replace the role and expertise of a museum, and therefore they cannot have the financial and cultural impact of a museum. The reason for this is they are not licensed to hold real historical and archaeological artefacts, and without that ability they are restricted in scope.  

    The museum on planned for Connaughton Rd. that was abandoned at the end of the Celtic Tiger in 2007.

    Sligo’s Missing Museum

    Leaving aside the Model Arts centres original granting as a museum, Sligo almost had a museum built 14 years ago. A museum foundations lie behind the hoardings that stand to this day at the top of the Connaughton Road. Dating to the time of the Celtic Tiger, the project was begun and abandoned in 2007, with the Global Financial Crash, Sligo County Council also sank without trace, failing to return any accounts to central government for two whole years and becoming the most indebted council in the history of the Irish state. A grant for the museum of 2.9 million euro was switched to the Model Arts centre at this time, while it was claimed there was “no money” for a museum. At the same time Sligos new library was also shelved.

    Of course this means there is still no accredited archaeological facility in the northwest, (the Museum of County Life in May deals with 19th century folk collections only) which means, as our history covers thousands of years outside this, that like the Yeats Nobel medal mentioned above, we continue to lose more and more of our heritage every year.

    other projects cannot be supported

    This loss of a museum has been negative for all heritage projects in the region. Projects on the Greenfort, where the nature of the remains is not conducive to on-site development are held up by the lack of a museum to hold exhibitions. The Armada project in Grange, while looking for their own display space, would find it a lot easier if there was a museum to back up with loan of artefacts and expertise. The recent closure (June 2021) of the degree course in archaeology in Sligo IT can in part be traced to this failure to have a museum facility in Sligo.

    The spin off from having the artefacts in Sligo is not just in having a tourism facility in the heart of the town. These artefacts inspire the arts, they are paths into the history for children in education, they provide material for scientists to learn and practice techniques and develop world class expertise in. 

    Sligos archaeological and cultural heritage is enormous, spanning 8, 000 years, but the loss of the material remains has also been enormous. The ravages of colonialism have taken there toll and much of Sligos material history is scattered all over the UK and Ireland. Much of it of course is in Dublin, most of course is not on display, and never will be, as the National Museum just doesnt have the space.

    To get an idea, and its just an idea, of the broad historical themes a museum in Sligo will have to engage with and the amazing artefacts that come from this region but are held elsewhere, the following is a selection.

    Stone and Bronze Ages

    Early Bronze Age bowl burial with axe and disc found in a rath near Collooney, Dolmen 13, Carrowmore, Beads and pendants from Carrowkeel megalithic cemetery made of semi precious stones such as carnelian and jasper, 3300-2800 BC.

    Sligo comprises only 2.5% of the land area of Ireland, yet it contains 15% of all known megalithic structures, perhaps the highest density anywhere in Britain or Ireland. 12% of all court tombs, 6.3% of all portal tombs, 7.5% of all wedge tombs, and an amazing 40% of all the passage tombs known in Ireland.

    Sligo is the only place in Ireland where all types of monument occur together. There are multiple sites on Knocknarea which are laid out in a similar fashion to Newgrange

    Carrowmore has the oldest form of passage graves known in Ireland, and is therefore unique, there is no other site like it. Also, of the four major passage tomb complexes in Ireland, two are in Co. Sligo. At Magheraboy the oldest known Causewayed enclosure in Britain or Ireland was found during road excavations, dating to 4100 BC. Sligos Neolithic archaeology alone would warrant a museum to itself.

    The four great Passage grave cemeteries, two of which are in Co. Sligo, the Distribution of Court tombs showing concentration on Sligo, The distribution of ringforts showing high densities in the northwest.

    The area was densely enough settled to be known to Greek and Roman trading vessels being marked on Ptolemy‘s co-ordinate map of the 2nd century AD, where it is entered as the town of Nagnata. This is the only settlement marked on the west coast of Ireland by Ptolemy. It is possible traders were attracted by the silver and lead mines on the coast at Ballysadare.

    Bronze Age gold twisted torc, and Lunulae from Co. Sligo. Bronze Age artefacts many of which are in the National museums in Dublin and in London.

    Gaelic Sligo

    St Molaise Bell and Crozier, Inishmurray, “Kilmainham” brooch prob from Co. Sligo, The Fiacail Padraig, The Shrine of St Patricks Tooth from Killaspugbrone, Strandhill.


    The local Irish tuath, or territory, was called Cairbre Drom Cliabh or Críoch Cairbre. Another, older name, according to Acallamh na Sénorach, the “Dialogue of the Ancients” was Críoch an Cosnámha (The District of Battles). Its age is unknown, but it appears to have acquired the name Cairbre in the 5th or 6th century AD.

    Ringforts, raths and monasteries abound in the landscape and the names of the territories and landforms are gateways into the mythology which is rich.

    The two great Gaelic poets from Sligo Muireadach Albanach O Dalaigh and Tadhg Dall O Huiginn, masters of Dan Direach (Direct Verse) are both of international importance in their time, the 13th and 16th centuries respectively.

    The Moylough Belt Shrine

    The Manuscripts

    The Medieval Gaelic town of Sligo is highly unusual in being the seat of an urban Gaelic culture throughout the Middle Ages. This is unique in Ireland. It is because of this unique situation that many manuscripts were written and collected in this region before the fall of Gaelic civilisation in the 17th Century. Here the O Connors, the Orourkes, the MacDonaghs the O Haras the Ogaras, the ODowds and Mac Sweeneys all played their part in shaping the story of medieval Sligo.

    A large amount of Irelands ancient literature is preserved in books written in the northwest of Ireland, particularly in the Sligo region. In some cases the only surviving copy of some texts. The scholar Dubhaltaigh Mac Fhirbisigh of Lackan in west Sligo set about saving much of the ancient lore about the time of the Cromwellian wars, writing in the Book of Genealogies (a compilation of Irish genealogical lore relating to the principal Gaelic and Anglo-Norman families of Ireland and covering the period from pre-Christian times to the mid-17th century)

    “If there is anything in it deserving of censure apart from that, I ask him who can to amend it, until God give us another opportunity (more peaceful than this time) to rewrite it.”

    Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbisigh 1650

    He wrote the above words on the 28 December 1650, just as English parliamentary forces, completing the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, crossed the Shannon. Half the population did not survive this war.

    • The Great Book of Lecan,
    • The Yellow Book of Lecan,
    • The Book of Ballymote,
    • The Great Book of Genealogies,
    • The Poem-book of the OHara,
    • The Annals of the Four Masters,

    Not one of these books are now in this region.

    If even a portion of them was to be returned it would place Sligo as a centre for Gaelic scholarship for the future, as it had been in the Middle Ages.

    Medieval Gaelic books written in Sligo, Book of Ballymote, Great Book of Genealogies, Great Book of Lecan.

    The Yeats Family

    Sligo has many famous connections, from Charlottes Stokers inspirational account of the Cholera epidemic, to Harry Clarkes mother who also grew up in Sligo. But the family most associated in the modern era is that of Yeats.

    All the Yeats family were artists and contributed to Irelands nascent Arts & Crafts movement, their importance to the entire history of the new state cannot be overstated. . The sisters Elizabeth and Susan who were well ahead of their time running the printing presses in Dublin on which many of their brothers books were printed. Jack Yeats, in hos own right is an artist of international reknown, and lesser known but no less important is his role in the development of the modern comic. W B provides an unparalleled link between Sligo and the worlds literature, as well as the complex history of colonialism and nationalism, and we are lucky to have an institution that examines these things in the long running Yeats Summer School. The Yeats Society is housed in a building associated with the Pollexfen family.

    However, even as we recognise WBs contribution to world literature, we must recognise something he himself would have insisted on, it is drawn on Sligo. A place that his mother always assumed to be the most beautiful in the world. It would be a mistake to celebrate Yeats and not the heritage that he himself drew on and all his life sought to highlight.

    The Armada Wreck-Site

    The Armada wreck site is so extensive it warrants its own post, but it must be known that this is probably the most important 16th century military wreck site in the world. Three ships fully equipped for the conquest of Britain were buried in the sandbanks of Streedagh beach. Much of the wreck site appears to survive, and looting and recovery did not happen at the time as the war agains Queen Elizabeth and Dublin raged for 15 years after their loss preventing recovery.

    Cannon and gun carriage on the sea bed 2015 – Carrack, 1551 ship type like that in Streedagh

    All were large transports laden with material for the marine invasion of England, carrying soldiers, their equipment, and material for the siege and capture of London . Spain fielded the most advanced and best equipped army of its day. The three ships that were grounded here we know quite a bit about.

    • La Lavia  (25 guns). 728 tons 71 sailors 271 soldiers 355-568 tons Carrack Venetian merchantman from Naples. Vice-flagship of the squadron.

    • La Santa Maria de Vison de y Biscione)  (18 guns).70 sailors 236 soldiers 350-560 tons Ragusan (now called Dubrovnik) merchantman. 666 tons.. Armada medical supplies were transferred to her from the Casa de Paz which was condemned as unseaworthy during the voyage.

    • The Juliana (32 guns) 860 tons Built in 1570, she had 65 crew 290 soldiers estimated 325-520 tons burthen Catalan Barcelona merchantman., this ship was perhaps carrying siege train parts ie tools and potentially heavy guns for use against fortifications. hence cannon recovered with the Matrona of Barcelona Genoese gunfounder Gioardi Dorino II

    These details allow us to estimate what was wrecked on that day in September 1588. We can count 807 soldiers and 206 sailors, for a total of 1013 personnel altogether. But, the Santa Maria de Vison was acting as a hospital ship, we remember, which means the likely number of soldiers on board is probably higher and most of these would have been unable to escape. The total weight of the three ships displacement is 2254 tons of cargo and structural timber. This is equivalent to 112 modern steel shipping containers.

    As a rough comparison, Henry VIIIs flagship the Mary Rose, recovered from the Solent in 1984, was also a carrack albeit a big one. Only one third of this ship survived on the seabed and yet archaeologists recovered 26,000 objects and pieces of timber from this site. At the wreck site at Streedagh we have three ships of roughly 700 to 800 tons each. The site is orders of magnitude larger than the Mary Rose.

    “Though similar vessels have been excavated, the initial investigations hint at an unparalleled level of preservation not only in organic remains but in articulated hull structure”Unlike most Armada wreck sites they are accessible. .

    Why a museum is not a matter of choice

    But there is a serious reason that we must plan our cultural infrastructure now or face losing this resource to the rest of the world forever. With most sites in the state they are stable, being buried on land, or even in deep water at sea. But in this case its in a very active area, the coastline.

    The site being full onto the Atlantic is unstable, disturbed by storms most years. Every so often material is exposed. Every time the site is threatened it must be excavated by the state archaeology sector as it is a protected site. The law requires archaeological intervention to prevent the loss or destruction of archaeological material. This means that as time goes on, the site has to be excavated. There is no choice or option in this.

    And so we must plan to recover, conserve and display the artefacts and perhaps even the ships hulls that will likely have to be recovered in future from this site in the future. Good quality storage facilities, with appropriate environmental conditions and sufficient space are essential to protect the condition of the collections. If we dont we will be in breach of the National Monuments Acts if material is lost, and even if material is recovered every single bit of it will leave Sligo forever if we do not plan ahead.

    No County museum we envisage right now will be big enough to display the Armada material alone, or store it. So I would suggest that a site is reserved in Sligos docklands which has the space to handle ships timbers of large size. The site must be beside landing facilities at the quay in Sligo, and requires storage facilities that have access to salt water and are large enough to contain, in theory, three full scale Armada transports each with a 100 foot long keel. Another advantage of this location is access to the rail head allowing the transport of large and heavy artefacts in and out of Sligo as required, a likely scenario as a project on this scale is inevitably an international affair involving the Spanish government.

    This will require us to start building the expertise and facilities needed to deal with this over the next century. Sligo must develop expertise in marine archaeology dive teams, submersibles, scanning technology, the ships that can recover large objects from the ocean. Objects recovered are likley to be all sorts of material from the 16th century, all of which will require expert conservation. Expertise in scientific appllications in archaeology can be developed through Sligo IT archaeology department, with the museum collections providing the material on which to develop world class expertise.

    Regenerating Sligo Docklands?

    A site should be acquired on the quays whether or not its decided to place a museum there. The current plan envisages a museum alongside the new library between Stephen street and Connaughton road. Placing them beside each other has advantages, not least the eventual return of Sligos manuscripts should also be planned for, and with ancient books the line between museum and library is blurred and they may benefit through being integrated.. No matter what it is decided on to build first, its important to think in the long term when it comes to heritage and cultural infrastructure. The making available of funds for the building of a museum and library is a welcome development.

    The workers on the docks, the women workers in the textile factories on the Per mill Rd. and Market Yard. The story of the Dock Strike in Sligo where the workers won an important victory against the owners and that inspired the subsequent Lockout strikes in Dublin. Here we come full circle as one of the major owners was Pollexfens of the Sligo Steam Navigation Company, Yeats maternal family. The history of the town in the 19th century and the 20th century. the industrial area of the docks Sligo town is a neglected but important one to tell.

    Museums Create Cities

    Museum of Liverpool is “challeng[ing] preconceptions of the city, breaking down prejudice and feeding into regeneration strategies, to raise community aspirations and promote positive citizenship”

    NML, 2008

    Museums are economically transformative to the cities in which they are placed, having a large if indirect economic benefit. There are many examples of the regeneration of cities through the building of flagship museums The Guggenheim in Bilbao is a famous example that was intended, and succeeded in regenerating the city starting with its neglected docklands.

    Museums have the ability to present the stories of those traditionally left out of the narrative. Current exhibtions in the Museum of Country Life document the stories of women migrants currently living in Mayo, and importantly, are able to do so with a historical context often missing in other forms of presentation.

    Understanding the history of Ireland is also central to breaking down barriers with the Traveller community and creating a balanced narrative of the past, something that has been lacking in modern Irish history.

    “The traditional mission of a museum is essentially cultural. However, it is not like this for all museums. There are a minority, although universally famous museums, like the Tate Liverpool, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, the Tate Modern London, or the new forthcoming Louvre-Lens (France), Pompidou-Metz (France), Guggenheim-Hermitage (Lithuania) and Guggenheim-Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), whose principal aim is the re-activation (and/or diversification) of the economy of their cities.”

    So, I want to pose the question of what the city museum can do as a part of the ongoing creative process of a city that is forever changing and being re-created. How can the museum of the city join the design energies and the political energies and the bureaucratic energies and the private sector energies and the people in a city as a civic lens to contribute to the form and personality and quality of that city – not just as an observer but as an actual player?

    If Sligo wishes to be a city it needs to engage with its past and its future and begin a conversation now on how to integrate the two. The effects of the destruction and dislocation of culture under imperial occupation, and as a border area are still keenly felt in the region, and result in a lack of ownership and sense of possibility of what Sligo and the northwest could be.

    It has a unique heritage that if understood can have a transformative effect, not just on Sligo, but on the northwest and the country. It is not intended to set out one right way to do things, but to lay out the magnitude and opportunity the past represents to Sligo, a past that if engaged with can be transformative to its fortunes. To do so will require thinking on a scale that, after a difficult few centuries is hard to envisage. But we used to think this way, and we can do so again.

    Royal Ontario Museum, integrating new and old.

    The Royal Ontario museum pictured above is designed to reflect its environment. In this case reflecting an ice crystal, and also integrated with the cities past architecture. As an example of the type of thinking that may be required, a concept has been put forward by architect Darragh Murphy for a museum to reflect Sligos mythology and inspired by the shape of the dolmens at Carrowmore, with the capstone on basal pillars.

    Updated concept for a flagship museum and urban development of Sligo Docklands submitted by Darragh Murphy in 2017.

    It is hoped this article gives some idea of the scale and scope of Sligos historical heritage, and stimulates a discussion on how best to plan to protect, recover and present that heritage to the world.

    Masterplan

    Links

    The City as Museum and the Museum as City –

    https://omnimuseum.org/the-city-as-museum-and-the-museum-as-city.html

    Bilbao as global leader in culture led regeneration –

    Bilbao City- A Global Leader in Culture Led Urban Regeneration

    Museums as economic drivers –

    New National Data Reveals the Economic Impact of Museums Is More than Double Previous Estimates

    Appendix

    Council objectives, yet to be implemented, as laid out in Sligo County Council documents.

    • ‘Establish County Museum with curator and support staff”
    • “Appoint full time County Archaeologist with support staff””
    • Appoint full time Conservation Officer with support staff””
    • Carry out a survey and establish a database of Sligo’s archaeological objects”
    • Integrate heritage appraisal into planning sections
    • Geographical Information System (GIS)”
    • Carry out a survey of buildings in Sligo associated with the Yeats family
    • Promote heritage awareness through appropriate media”
    • Establish County local history publication unit””
    • Promote and develop the use of management plans for Sligo’s archaeological landscapes particularly Carrowkeel”

    Tate modern regenerates London district

    And in Rotterdam, Netherlands, the City Museum is working with the city and its communities as its ‘muse’.

  • Queen Medb and Lakshmi, Irish Kingship and the Feminine Power

    “for ’tis I that exacted a singular vow, such as no woman before me had ever required of a man of the men of Erin, namely, a husband without avarice, without jealousy, without fear. For should he be mean, the man with whom I should live, we were ill-matched together, in as much as I am great in largess and gift-giving, and it would be a disgrace for my husband if I should be better at spending than he, and for it to be said that I was superior in wealth and treasures to him, while no disgrace would it be were one as great as the other. Were my husband a coward,’twere as unfit for us to be mated, for I by myself and alone break battles and fights and combats, and ‘twould be a reproach for my husband should his wife be more full of life than himself, and no reproach our being equally bold. should he be jealous, the husband with whom I should live, that too would not suit me, for there never was a time that I had one man in the shadow of another.’

    Medb speaks during the Pillow Talk, the opening chapter of the Táin Bó Cúailnge.

    Queen Medb (Maeve in English), the legendary Queen of Connacht in Irelands great epic the Tain Bo Cuailnge (The Cattle Raid of Cooley) is one of Irelands best known goddesses. The archetype of the warrior Queen, she looms large in the mythology of Ireland, and especially Connacht. She was said to have cohabited with nine kings of Ireland. Medb demanded her husband satisfy her three criteria—that he be without fear, meanness, or jealousy, and we will see later what these demands really mean.

    The Tain of course begins with the story known as the Pillow Talk between Medb and her husband Aillil, in which upon comparing their respective wealth she discovered her possessions were not entirely equal to her husband. Discovering that she had no bull to match that of her husbands white bull Finnbheannach (white horned), she set out to get the only one in Ireland that could match it, the Brown Bull of Cooley, for she could not be anything other than equal to her husband in wealth. When it was refused to her, she launched the invasion of Ulster to acquire it. And so the tale begins.

    What is perhaps less known though are the deeper origins of her name and connection to rituals of kingship, wealth, sovereignty and the female energy in nature,  not only in Ireland, but also in India, the easternmost part of Indo- European culture.

    The Tain is set traditionally around the time of Christ in western calendars, but it is evident that in her guise as a goddess she is far, far older than that.

    Medb as we Know Her

    The spelling in Old Irish is Medb, a name derived from an ancient Indo-European word Medhu, meaning mead, the alcoholic drink made from honey. “She who intoxicates” would be a fair translation of the meaning of her name. And indeed in the tales she is not averse to using her sexuality to get what she wants, offering many heroes her “friendly thighs” on top of other rewards in exchange for fighting Cuchulainn, a deal that almost always resulted in their death.

    A ritual drink was given to Irish kings when they were inaugurated. This ceremony was conceived as a marriage between the king and his territory. For example in the Annals of Loch Ce, it says that in 1310 Feidhlim son of Aedh “married the province of Connacht”. Similarly, it was part of every marriage ceremony for the bride to offer a drink to the husband to symbolise their consent to the union.

    In this way Medb symbolised the land and a kings sovereignty over it. Many stories involve meeting a hag who is transformed into a beautiful woman through a kiss or sexual union. Niall of the Nine Hostages was said to have acquired the kingship this way as he was the only one to kiss (and indeed lay down with!) a hag guarding a well, upon which she turned into a beautiful woman and revealed herself as the Sovereignty of Tara, and that Niall and his descendants would have it forever. This hag is likely an incarnation of Medb, and is known as Flaith, a word meaning “power”. 

    Medb, the goddess of sovereignty at Tara was known as Medb Lethderg, meaning Maeve of the Red Side and it is liokely that she is the goddess in this story. Rath Medb is a large enclosure (750 feet across) to the south of the hill of Tara associated with her, however it is much neglected..

    Once a king had accepted marriage to the goddess, he was bound to respect the land as his wife. Therefore to spoil or defile it meant that the Goddess would break that bond and remove her protection, a fearsome injunction indeed.

    As the Tain unfolds many places acquire names from notable events involving Medb, such as where her pet stoat is killed by Cuchulain and the incident is commemorated by naming the p[lace after it. In this way many landforms are associated with her, which, as a goddess representing the land, makes sense.

    She is associated in Connacht with Rathcroghan, a vast ritual complex near Tulsk in Co. Roscommon where the kingship of Connacht was based from ancient times until the 17th century. Here, her name appears in an Ogham inscription at the entrance to the cave Uaimhe na gCait, the Cave of the Cats, reputed to be an entrance to the underworld. In some stories she incarnates as a fawn.

    Ireland or Erin was, and is, divided into five provinces, hence the name in Irish coiced, or fifths. Each province was ruled by a king or provincial king and the over-king was the ruler of the central province, Mide (Meath).

    Due to the Christianisation of Irish mythology and the old religion, the divine aspects of Medb were downplayed, and she was pictured more as a queen in the human sense. However, enough survives in the stories for us to reconstruct what she must have originally represented, and when we compare them to her counterparts in Indian mythology we can see that there is much more to Medb than meets the eye.

    Lakshmi, Madhavi and Medb

    The Indian Mahabharat is one of the great epics of ancient Indian culture. Written in Sanskrit, the story in its present form goes back to the 4rth or 5th century BC, but contains material that is much older, dating back to the time of the Vedas the oldest layer of Indo-Eropean literature to survive in the world, dating back three or four thousand years ago.

    Shri Lakshmi Goddess of Wealth and Sovereignty

    Medbs counterpart in Indian mythology is found in the story of Madhavi, a name that also derives from Medhu meaning mead. She is an earth goddess in Indian mythology, and this name is also one of the names of the goddess Lakshmi the goddess of wealth, fortune and prosperity. In the ancient scriptures of India, all women are declared to be embodiments of Lakshmi. She is the consort of Vishnu and the marriage and relationship between Lakshmi and Vishnu as wife and husband is the paradigm for rituals and ceremonies for the bride and groom in Hindu weddings. In an early form Sri (later combined with Lakshmi), the wife of Indra, offers him a drink of soma, a fermented drink of the gods. So here we have an echo of the connection between Irish kingship rituals as a marriage to the goddess Medb, and Irish weddings and the importance of ritualised drinks.

    Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth, fortune, power, luxury, beauty, fertility, and auspiciousness. When worshipped as Maha-Lakshmi, Lakshmi is visualised as a warrior-goddess riding a lion. Lakshmi is associated with horses and cattle, both symbols of wealth and it is in this guise as the bestower of wealth, power and sovereignty that we may recognise the very same elements in the character of Medb. The reason we know they are connected is in the survival of this remarkable ancient story in the Mahabharat about Madhavi, a lesser known version of Lakshmi in Indian culture.

    For a relevant article on Lakshmi link here

    Madhavi and Medb

    In this very ancient story a sage called Galavi asks his guru repeatedly for his price for teaching him, the guru responds in irritation that he will take 800 white horses, each with one black ear. A seemingly impossible request! So Galavi goes to the greatest king at that time Yayati, who says he does not have the horses, but gives him his daughter Madhavi instead. Her beauty was so striking that any king would gladly give up his kingdom for her, and they are described as lusting after her. She has the ability to have a child and become a virgin again afterward and she tells Galavi that this is how she can solve his problem. So Galavi goes in turn to three kings who are childless and gets 200 horses from each one in exchange for them having a son with Madhavi. He then returns to his guru with the 600 horses and offs him Madhavi in exchange for the final 200 horses that he is short. She has a fourth son with the guru. the sons become the founders of dynasties, and the land is divided up amongst them.

    The story is very old, its principle characters come from the distant Pre-Vedic or early Vedic times. The parallels to the Irish Medb are striking. In both cases there is a theme of procuring rare and precious animals, both are embodiments of female sexual power and use their sexuality to attain a goal, both marry kings repeatedly, and are evidently seen also as the embodiment of sovereignty. Madhavi is not sovereign herself; but sovereignty passes through her to her four sons who grow up to become great kings whose deeds are celebrated in the Puranas. In Medbs case, it is her demands of a husband that tell us the qualities that an Irish king must have. To be without fear, to be generous, and to be without jealousy are the qualities required to marry her, in other words to become a king. And hence men who compete for the kingship are seen to be vieing with each other to marry her, and their qualities or lack of them determine the outcome, with many of them dying in the process. The balance that is aimed for is the combination of the female energy of the land married to the male energy of the king. When these are in balance, then the rule will be harmonious. 

    Furthermore, Madhavis father, Yayati, divided his kingdom (which was the earth) among his five sons: to Tuvasha he gave the south-east; to Druhyu the west; to Yadu the south and west; to Anu the north; and to Puru the centre . Purus ruled as the Supreme Kings of earth. This has obvious echoes of the five divisions of Ireland into north, south, east, west and centre, with the centre being the location of the supreme king.

    The similarity in stories from the extreme east and west of the Indo-European world is fascinating and shows the age of the concepts underlying these tales goes back to the beginning of the cultures emergence. The Tain is therefore built around themes that go back at least to the Bronze Age, and perhaps further, certainly to the first arrival of Indo-European speaking people in Ireland. The provinces must be similarly ancient, based as they are on an idealised ritual version of how the universe and land should be organised which is shared in India. We cannot date it exactly, but the time of last contact between Indian and Irish populations may go back to the 4th or 5th millenium BC, and arrival in Ireland in the 3rd or 2nd millenium BC,  which shows the depth of time we are talking about in these tales.

    Does a Goddess Ever Die?

    In so far as goddesses can die, Medb of the Tain was said to have been killed on an island called Inis Cloithreann (Clothru seems to be a synonym for Medb) in Lough Ree near Knockcroghery while bathing. She was killed by Furbaide in revenge of his mothers death by a piece of cheese fired from a sling. It is likely though that the story of her death is a later concept, when her divine nature was less popular and the stories had become secular in meaning. No longer worshipped as a goddess directly, she now became known only as the warrior queen of Connacht, which was more acceptable to the Christian world.

    While she is associated with many sites in Connacht, she is generally believed to have been buried in the great cairn on Knocknarea in Co. Sligo. The cairn is called Miosgain Medb, meaning Maeves butter pat, from its resemblance to the shape of a traditional pat of butter. That she is reputed to be interred here is interesting as her association with kingship may mean that this is a burial place for kings, and there is reason to believe that the west is where the souls of the dead journeyed to the underworld. However, there is no mention of her association with the cairn in ancient Irish texts and therefore it may be a later folk belief or comes from the habit of naming landforms after her.

    Nowadays, interest in her has been revived in Ireland with the rise of neo-pagan religions and particularly in relation to female sexuality. Irish and Irish-American poets have explored Medb as an image of woman’s power and sexuality, as in “Labhrann Medb” (“Medb Speaks”) by Irish-language poet Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill. Appropriate in a time where women are only now achieving equality comparable to that which had been the norm in Ireland in times past. However, when we look at the full depth and range of associations that Medb has with ancient concepts of the land, fertility, wealth, authority and so on across the world, we can see that she is a very important key in recovering lost aspects of Irelands heritage, especially when it comes to womens story on this island. The old scholars may have Christianised much of Irelands ancient literature but, uniquely in western Europe, they preserved it in its essence also, which gives us something precious, a window into the sophistication, colour and drama of ancient Irish culture, comparable to anywhere in the world.

    Postscript

    Perhaps it would also be no harm if the principles of kingship and the contract between rulers and the land that Medb represented for so long were also revived, considering the poor state of modern Irish political leadership and its sad disconnection from both the land, and the high principles that were once expected of, and enforced, upon Irish leaders by the goddess herself, Medb. 

     

    Notes

    M L West, Indo European Poetry and Myth.

    A prayer fragment on Lakshmi showing the three aspects of female life that Medb also sometimes appeared in.

    “Every woman is an embodiment of you.
    You exist as little girls in their childhood,
    As young women in their youth
    And as elderly women in their old age.”

    — Sri Kamala Stotram

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  • Why Reinstating Access to Maeves Cairn May be the Only Way to Preserve It

    An updated version of an article that first appeared in Sligo Weekender in September 2014.
    The images above are of multiple new paths developing on the north side of the cairn which was traditionally pristine and unused for ascending or descending when the old path up from the south was still in use.It is particularly vulnerable to slippage as it was never bedded in by use.

    Back in 2007, it was suggested in a local newspaper article that the cairn on Knocknarea was suffering wear and tear due to people climbing up it as they had done for centuries.  The well worn path that people had traditionally used is on the south side of the cairn, here the stones are well bedded in and are not prone to fall. The groove that this path forms up the face of the cairn was mistaken for recent damage by the writer. This led to the erection of a sign forbidding people to climb the cairn. But the cairn had in fact not altered in centuries.

    In the 1990s the cairn was surveyed by archaeologist Stefan Bergh of NUIGalway and the measurements were compared to earlier ones by antiquaries more than 2 centuries ago, he concluded the cairn was the same size and shape and that no substantial collapse or alteration had happened in the meantime. It is often true that well meaning attempts to make things better, often lead to results the exact opposite of those intended. Since the erection of the sign, the cairn is now being damaged at an unprecedented rate.

    The fact that only on top of the cairn is a 360 degree view of the surroundings available means the temptation to ascend the cairn is strong. Now, of course, human nature being what it is, some obey the sign and some do not. But the tendency amongst those who do climb the cairn is now to go round to the north side of the cairn out of view of the sign and ascend from there. This side of the cairn was never bedded in, and consists of loose stone. As the photos show, a new path has developed where there was formerly none, and the loose stone is falling and threatening to cover the north marker stone. This is not the only new path forming, just the worst one.

    To interfere with peoples ancient pattern of movement is always a dangerous idea. When all were allowed up, a kind of rough equilibrium was established between those who brought stones and those who took them away. Now,  a new pile of stones almost 6 feet high is developing on top of the cairn which should be a shallow dish shape. Also the tradition of bringing a stone up the cairn is no longer functioning as these were traditionally cast on the sides, maintaining the general profile of the cairn.

    I’m afraid that if this takes its usual course, damage caused by an ill advised and unnecessary interference in the first place, will lead eventually to a call for no access to the cairn at all in the future. An outcome which I think is totally unnecessary and draconian, as well as denying people the wonderful experience of the view from the top.

    The solution is obvious. Access should be reinstated strictly on the traditional path, which should perhaps even be subtly reinforced. It should of course be made clear that only that path is to be used both to ascend and descend, and the rest of the cairn may then be roped off.

    A monument such as this is a dynamic thing, it relies on the interaction of people to preserve it, and it is extremely ironic that it is through well intentioned efforts to “preserve” it that the cairns equilibrium is now threatened. Pressure has been mounting through increased access to the mountain and increased tourism on the Wild Atlantic Way. The future status of this monument needs to be thought about very carefully, and state instincts to block access are not necessarily in the best interests of the cairn or tourism.

    The cairn survived five thousand years under the original arrangement, the people of Sligo had looked after it successfully for all that time, and if we want it to survive another five thousand I hope this is done as soon as possible.

    Contact: [email protected]

    Background

    Here is a link to a cached version of the original article in Sligo Weekender that caused the erection of signs prohibiting access for the first time in 2007. No study had taken place on whether damage was occurring, or what would be the best method to ensure the preservation of the cairn. The action was taken merely on the opinion of a single individual.   Damage to Cairn

    On September 4th 2014, the detrimental effect and threat of the access ban to the physical integrity of the cairn was noted in a letter to the Weekender by myself, of which the article above is an updated version. It was predicted at that time that the damage would get rapidly worse, as the dynamic equilibrium established under local tradition was upset by an ill advised intervention by the OPW, working off well intentioned, but incorrect, assumptions. Unfortunately this has turned out to be true. Compared to the ease of erecting signs prohibiting something, and the tendency to assume this is “doing something” it may seem counter-intuitive, but it is necessary to grasp that access to the cairn actually ensures its preservation as a living monument, whereas blocking this access ensures the exact opposite, its destruction and eventual sequestering as a ruined monument.

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