Knockfierna, where Donn of the Dead rides out ....

In these short, dark days of the dying year the figure of Donn Fírinne haunts my imagination.

Donn, Lord of the Dead and Fairy King, rides out from his Otherworld palace beneath Knockfierna 

on his white horse, roaming the landscape of Limerick and beyond.

Knockfierna, Cnoc Fírinne, ‘Truthful Hill’ served as a local weather guide with predictions 

based on the appearance of the summit in the morning. 

In the past the Hill was known as Knock Dhoinn Ferinne, ‘mountain of Donn of Truth’.
Also called ‘The Black Hill’, it only rises to 949 feet but is visible from almost all areas of Limerick and from parts of Kerry, Cork, Tipperary and Clare.

Donn, once known locally as Donn Ainech, ‘the dark face’, had his palace, Brugh na Bruidhne, beneath the hill, entered through a deep hole in the hillside, Poll na Bruinne. 

There were dire consequences for anyone looking to investigate this entrance to the Otherworld.

Local stories tell of the Surveyor, Ahern, who, attempting to measure the depth of the hole, 

was pulled into it by his own plumb-line, never to be seen again. 

And there was Carroll Ó Daly who tried to “knock at the spirits’ door” by throwing a stone into 

Poll na Bruinne and had his nose broken when the stone was returned.

Untimely deaths were often attributed to Donn and to see him could portend a death or a momentous happening. 

He was also responsible for stealing children, leaving a changeling in their place. 

To others who saw his benevolence, he was as "quick to reward as to punish". 

A farmer was allowed into the palace to meet his brother and sister who had died many years previously and

 “both were restored to the farmer as a reward for his good service to Donn in preventing the dirty water from his yard over-running Donn’s palace grounds.”

The summit and remains of a cairn are now dominated by a 36ft cross erected in 1950.

Locals believed they would enter his palace after death and there are reports of several people meeting with Donn on the evening before they died.

Folklore also explains that they would be taken to the hill as they approached the end of their lives to enter the palace of Donn. 

This journey was known as the path of truth - "tá sé tá sí imithear shlí na fírinne", ‘he / she has set out on the path of truth’.

Beneath the summit of the hill lies Glownanérha, ‘the glen of broth’, which was known to be plentiful as Donn ensured that his people never hungered in the Otherworld.

View the complete painting of Donn HERE

Traditionally Donn Fírinne appears to mortals seated on a white horse and when the weather turned stormy at night locals would say "Donn is galloping in the clouds tonight”.

However, his excursions were not confined to Knockfierna. 

In Co. Clare he resided on Cnoc an tSodair, ‘Hill of the Trotting’,

as well as on the west coast, where as Donn na Duimhche, ‘Donn of the Dune’, he was seen riding a white horse across 

the sands at Dunbeg.

Looking towards Dunbeg dunes, where Donn rides with his fairy host.

Here Donn was known for his generosity; giving a gift of pipes, tobacco and matches to seaweed gatherers and a fistful of silver coins to a starving widow and her family.

The punishment for refusing his gifts was death.

As Fairy King, he was described as beautiful “like the blossom of flowers”, 

as “Lord of the grey and mossy rock, smooth hill and pleasant bower” and in the area surrounding Knockfierna it was customary to visit the hill at least once a year and place a stone upon the cairn at the summit, known as the Stricín, in honour of Donn.

At Bealtaine and Samhain offerings included eggs buried in hay and corn and parts of dead animals.

In particular a cock, ritually slaughtered, was bestowed upon Donn.

At Lughnasadh flowers and FRAOCHANS were offered.

My own pilgrimage to honour Donn took place at Bealtaine this year when Knockfierna 

was clad in gold and green. 

Unable to climb the hill my offerings were left in a field below the Stricín.

Sunset at Knockfierna - photo courtesy of Derek Ryan Bawn at The Tipperary Antiquarian

Now that winter is here I imagine the hill, silhouetted by the sinking sun,
resounding with hoofbeats as Donn Fírinne rides out.

LOUGH GUR - “a personality loved, but also feared.”

The land surrounding Loch Goir, Lough Gur in Co. Limerick 

has been inhabited continually for 6,000 years.  

Early Bronze Age wedge tomb on the shore of the Lough.

Pics: loughgur.com & ancientireland.org

The bronze Lough Gur Shield, known as the ‘Sun Shield’, dates to 700 BCE 

and appears on the beautifully designed information boards adjoining the lake.

Stone circles, standing stones, tombs, barrows and hill forts dot the landscape 

and there is a wealth of folklore. 

Map from visitballyhoura.com

However, the heart of this sacred landscape is the Lough. 

Although it was a spring day when I visited, the water was still and silent, holding mysteries 

dimly remembered in folk tales. 

“ Lough Gur dominates the scene. It was to us a personality loved, but also feared.
Every seven years, so it is said, Gur demands the heart of a human being.”

It is believed that Lough Gur was originally a circular lake belonging to Fer Fi, 

leader of the Tuatha Dé Danann and brother of the Goddess Áine, who has her palace beneath 

the waters.
As Bean Fhionn, the White Lady, it is Áine who summons a victim to the lake every seven years and takes them to her realm below. 

“Called the Enchanted Lake; some say that in ancient days there was a city where the lake is now.”

Áine is described in folklore as a fairy Bean-tige, housekeeper to Gearóid Iarla, the enchanted son of one of the Earls of Desmond.
Gearóid, banished to the lake, is doomed to return every seven years and gallop over its’ surface seated on a milk white horse shod with silver shoes.

Knockadoon © michaeldebarra.com

The hill of Knockadoon, once an island, has on its’ shore a rock formation 

known as the Suideachan Bean-tige, the Housekeeper’s Chair, 

which is the seat of the goddess Áine. 

Pic © Derek Ryan Bawn - more information The Tipperary Antiquarian

Also known as Áine’s birthing chair and the Old Hag’s Chair, 

no mortal may sit on this stone without losing their wits.

© 2015 National Folklore Collection, UCD. 

Across the Lough from Knockadooon stands Knockfennel, named for Áine’s sister. 

It is understood that this hill too is hollow and within resides Fer Fi, the king of the fairies. 

Knockfennel

His realm is entered through a cave which has a small opening at the back.

“It was said anyone who had the courage to squeeze through the hole would find himself in the hollow heart of the hill.”

Entrance to the Otherworld courtesy of The Standing Stone.

More photos of the cave can be found on The Standing Stone.ie  

In the distant past on Samhain night, when the bonfire was lit on Knockfennell and on the sixth night of every moon, the sick were brought out into the moonlight to be healed. 

This night was known as ‘All-Heal’.

If the patient did not recover by the eighth or ninth night of the moon they would hear the ceolsidhe, the fairy music which Áine brings to comfort the dying. 

The music itself, the Suantraighe, is sleep music played by Fer Fi on his harp .

“They say the Suantraighe is the sweetest tune of all, 

and that anyone who hears it falls into a trance with its beauty. 

But ‘tis a sleep from which no mortal man or woman will ever awake.”

Words of the late Tom McNamara, local seanchaí, storyteller. 

Lough Gur Heritage Centre - loughgur.com

The design of the centre is based upon the ancient lake-dwellings.

Today Lough Gur is a wildlife sanctuary, popular with local people and tourists yet there is a feeling of stepping into a landscape still alive with the old stories. 

And once the visitors have departed and the Lough settles into night

Moonlight over Lough Gur © Michael de Barra.

The Shining Ones race in their boats across the water whilst Áine’s enchantment remains irresistible 

to those who hear her call. 

‘The Enchanted Lake’ Video - Nicky Fennell, produced by Mike McNamara.

To hear more stories about the Lough from the late Tom McNamara 

please visit Voices From The Dawn.

The Dagda’s harp brings in the greening.

There is a gentle green that hovers like mist about the trees.

Leaf buds prepare to burst forth, birdsong fills the air and Ireland has awakened.

In Irish mythology the land, its’ sovereignty and fertility, were the province of the Goddesses 

but The Dagda, the Good God, also played his part in providing for the people.

AN DAGDHA - more HERE.

We are told that he possessed two great treasures; a magical harp and the cauldron, Undry, which contained endless bounty "from which none returned unfulfilled".

'The Cauldron of the Dagda' by Paula O’Sullivan 

which stands in Tralee’s Sculpture Garden of the Senses. 

As leader of the Tuatha Dé Danann, he used his strength to clear twelve plains overnight, then created twelve rivers, to provide fertile, agricultural land and streams which brought “produce from the sea to tribes and kindreds.” 

A symbol of his virility was described by the antiquarian John Garvin in 1940’s as Bod a'Daghda,  the Dagdha's Penis.

The phallic Dagda's Stone, known by some as ‘the Dagda’s Dick, 

in the Bricklieve Mountains.

Photo © Martin Byrne courtesy of Carrowkeel.com

In Ardmore, Co. Waterford was the Cloch Daha, a stone which may also have been associated with the Good God. 

It was described as having a trough-like shape with a oval hole at the centre. 

Drawing of the Cloch Daha. 

The folklore of Ardmore tells of a tradition where the young unmarried men of the village inserted a pole into the hole of the Cloch-Daha then fixed a rope onto the top. 

Local single women would dance around the stone holding the rope so that the pole spun around. 

The custom ended with the young men pulling the women through the village seated on logs of wood. Owing to the sexual overtones these rites were stopped, the stone removed by the clergy then buried in the last century. 

The Cloch-Daha is thought to have been found and sits in the grounds 

of Monea House, Ardmore.

Only a few symbols of male fertility can be seen in the landscape.

Maghera, Co. Down.

Pic courtesy of Beyond the Pale

The Ballygilbert stone, Co. Antrim. 

Pic courtesy of Megalithamania

Male exhibitionist figure known as the Sean-na-Gig part of a gatepost, 

Ballycloughduff, Co. Westmeath.

However, The Dagda, it is believed controls the crops and harvest from his Otherworld home. 

Whilst, unheard by mortal ears, his magical harp plays on, calling forth the greening of the year.

Information about Ireland’s phallic stones can be found HERE and male exhibitionist carvings HERE 

The Homeplace

 ‘The Homeplace’.

When returning home through night dark lanes there is no greater pleasure than seeing a welcoming light in the window and turf smoke drifting like mist across the fields.

In rural Ireland it is said that “there was once a house to every field”, now many lie cold and empty.

Empty cottage in Glenbarrow.

Famine, eviction and enforced migration meant that homes were left to fall and today this continues as young people and families emigrate seeking employment. 

Home to a local dowser and once a well known ‘rambling’ house where neighbours would gather 

of an evening to chat and exchange news.

Another empty family home which never knew electricity, 

lit only by oil lamps & candles.

Few live now in the musical or rambling houses, where you were once welcomed to the hearth, especially if you could share a tune or tell a tale.

An abandoned cart and tractor speak of lives lived close to the land. 

In places, where walls stood, all that remains are stones.

Many are green ghosts of their former selves.

The remains of  Biddy Early's house. 

Others are marked annually by flowering bulbs, once planted by the Woman of the House, or by a rambling rose which still guards a gateway.

Reminders of old beliefs also remain.

Small pieces of iron, horseshoes, tobacco, whiskey and Christian medals have been discovered in the foundations of old homes, thought to be offerings to the spirit of the place.

A donkey or horse shoe placed above the door was common and understood to bring good luck 

and deflect the attentions of the Good People. 

The house itself could not be built where it would disrupt Otherworld inhabitants or hinder the movement of 

the Good People on their fairy paths.

Whilst folk traditions ensured that the homeplace and family remained safe.

House leek grown in a thatched roof to guard against fire in Co. Limerick. 

Growing house leeks was probably a form of sympathetic magic as the plant resembles small flames. 

Photo © Barry O’Reilly.

Traditionally the use of white quartz, materials from sacred sites and ruins were taboo when building, as was red oak. 

To ensure protection, a Brigid’s cross was made annually and hung above the door, the hearth or placed in the thatch. 

Even in town houses and pubs the Brigid’s cross gave protection.

Of the many folk practices one of the most extensive seems to be the prohibition against extending

the home westwards.

Donn, the god of the dead, had his house off the west coast. 

It was thought that ‘only a man stronger than God would extend his house to the west’.

This tradition appears to stem from the belief that the place of the setting sun was the place where the dead went and in some areas the west room was used for laying out the deceased. By building on westwards it was understood that a death would occur in the family soon after the new room was completed.

***

The Homeplace in my painting once stood across from my own home. 

Only stones remain to tell the tale.

Although the people have long gone, I sometimes imagine that I catch voices and a drifting tune on the air and I’m not alone in having glimpsed a glow of light where the old homeplace once stood.

Despite the changes in the country neighbours do still gather over a cup of tea to exchange news and there are modern day kitchen sessions.

This one in Lisdoonvara shows Sean Nós dancing on the flags by the fire with Brigid’s Crosses hanging in the background. 

Sean Nós Dancer Stephanie Kane, session hosted by Joe Kelleher with the accordion player Bobby Gardiner.

‘Raths and Fairies’ - tales of what can happen when you cross the Good People by Michael Fortune, from his Co. Wexford folklore collection.