Rathcroghan, about two miles from Tulsk, in the county Roscommon, is one
of the most celebrated places in Irish history, legend, and song. It was
there that Queen Mab, spelt Medb in old Irish, and Meave at present, had
her palace, and it was there she was buried. That she was a real historic
personage, and not a myth or a fairy, there can be no doubt at all, and
that she was a very extraordinary woman cannot be doubted either. She was
Queen of Connacht, and was cotemporary with Cleopatra; but if the Egyptian
queen is mentioned in history she is forgotten in legend, while Mab has
lived in legend for more than eighteen centuries. It is remarkable that
the myths and legends about her should have been more prevalent during the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in England than in Ireland. There are
few legends about her in Ireland; she is simply an historic personage
there, but in England she became a fairy. There is hardly a popular
English writer of the two centuries referred to that has not said
something about Queen Mab; and it is very probable that none of them knew
that she was a reality in Irish history. Shakespeare, Spenser, Drayton,
and other English writers contemporary with them, speak of her as a fairy,
and even Shelley considers her a sprite; but she is rarely, if ever,
mentioned as such by the Gaelic writers of any epoch. Why legends about
Queen Mab, or, as we call her at present, Meave, should be so rare in
Ireland is probably owing to the fact that she belongs to what is known as
the Cuchulainn cycle of Irish history and legend. That cycle is almost
forgotten by the people, and has been for many centuries. It has been
eclipsed by the greater popularity of the Finn cycle, which is some
centuries more recent. For the one legend existing in the most
Gaelic-speaking parts of Ireland and Scotland about Cuchulainn or his
cycle there are a score about Finn, Oisin, Caoilte, and others of their
contemporaries. It may have been that the introduction of Christianity had
much to do in stereotyping the legends of the Finn cycle in the memories
of the masses, for Finn is said to have lived so long that he saw St
Patrick, and held converse with him. One of the most remarkable literary
productions in Irish, the "Dialogue of the Sages," consists of converse
between the Saint and Finn, and others belonging to the same cycle.
There could hardly be a stronger proof of the high civilisation that
existed in Ireland in ancient times as compared with that which existed in
England than the fact that the remembrance of Irish historic personages
continued widely spread in England in spite of so many changes, not only
in government, but in race and language. There is no traditional
remembrance in Ireland of any English historic personage contemporary with
Queen Meave, or of any such that lived for many centuries after her time.
That a knowledge of her and Lir, the Lear of Shakespeare, should have
existed among the ancient Britons is not to be wondered at, for they were
kin to the Irish, and must have spoken the same, or nearly the same,
language; but that this remembrance of Irish historic personages should
have continued to exist in England under Roman, Saxon, Dane, and
Frenchman, is very remarkable. If it was knowledge obtained through books
it would be less to be wondered at; it was knowledge transmitted by
legend, and like all legendary knowledge, it had a tendency to go astray.
The legends that existed in England about Meave and Lir did go astray, for
they made a little fairy of the one and a King of Britain of the other.
But Meave was not a little fairy, but a very fine woman of flesh and
blood; and Lir was not King of Britain, but an Irish pirate whose
principal stronghold appears to have been the Isle of Man. It is called
after him, for his full name was Mananan Mac Lir. It seems more than
probable that both Dunleer and Liverpool are also called after him, for
the latter place is written "Lyrpul" in the earliest known document in
which the name occurs, and it is Lyrpul still in Welsh. It is probable
that Lir had possessions in England as well as in Ireland and the Isle of
Man.
Medb or Meave, Queen of Connacht, was daughter to Eochy Fayloch, over-king
of Ireland. She lived about half a century before the Christian era.
Keating says, in his "History of Ireland," that she reigned ninety-eight
years. This very long reign is doubted by some Irish historians, but it is
generally admitted by them that her reign, as well as her life, was
remarkably long. She had more husbands than even the woman of Samaria is
credited with. It was evidently her extraordinary long life and reign that
caused her to be ultimately believed to be something supernatural, and to
be regarded as a fairy. She was, however, no fairy, but a bold, bad, and
warlike woman. She, even more than Cuchulainn, is the central figure of
the greatest prose epic in the Irish language, the _Tain Bo Chuailgne_, or
Cattle Raid of Cooley. By lies and bribes she persuaded the other
provincial rulers to join her in a totally unjustifiable war on Ulster, so
that she was able to invade that province with a great army of fifty-four
thousand men. She carried off a great prey from Ulster, but not without
suffering some defeats and losing some of her bravest warriors. It is said
that Mr Ernest Windisch is engaged in translating this great epic into
German, but it seems not yet finished. Meave, like most of the prominent
people of her day, met with a violent death. She had many enemies,
especially in Ulster. One of them, a son to the king of that province,
killed her by a cast from a sling as she was about taking a cold water
bath in Iniscloran, an island in Loch Ree. She must have been considerably
over a hundred years old when she was killed, but she appears, even at
that great age, to have been the admiration of every one that saw her on
account of the great beauty of her face and figure. Perhaps it was her
cold water baths that were the chief means of preserving her youth and
good looks, for we are told in the "Book of Leinster" that she was under
_geis_, or bonds, not to let any morning pass by without taking a bath.
It is no wonder that such a person should have in the long run passed into
the realm of fairie, and have been thought something supernatural. It is,
however, a wonder that the Four Masters do not mention the name of Meave,
although they do mention the name of her father; but there are many
similar strange omissions in their annals. Meave is, however, mentioned in
the Annals of Clonmacnoise, in which many hard things are said of her.
The fort, as it is generally called, of Rathcroghan, upon which Queen
Meave's palace must have stood, is unlike any other place of its kind
known to the writer. Strictly speaking, it is not a fort at all, and it is
impossible to conceive how it ever could have been used for purposes of
defence, or for any purpose other than to build some sort of habitation
on. It is nothing but a raised circular elevation, an English acre in
area, in a perfectly level field, without a vestige of the fosse or
rampart that usually surrounds the ruined strongholds of Celtic chiefs and
kings. Long ago as it is since Rathcroghan was the seat of kings or queens
of Connacht, some traces of the surrounding ramparts would almost
certainly be yet visible had they ever existed. Queen Meave seems to have
depended more on her soldiers to defend her than on ramparts of stone or
earth. She seems to have relied on "castles of bones" rather than on
castles of stones; for her palace, so far as can be judged from existing
remains, seems to have been without defending ramparts of any kind. There
are many references in old Gaelic manuscripts to the splendour of Queen
Meave's palace. It is said to have been built of pine and yew, and to have
contained beds enough to accommodate a small army. It was probably an
immense round wigwam that covered all or nearly all of the raised platform
that still remains. That platform is about eight or nine feet above the
level of the field on which it stands, and has two entrances into it, one
exactly opposite the other. If the vast circular wooden building that
stood on it was roofed, as it almost certainly was, the walls would have
to be fifty feet or more in height to give it anything of an imposing
appearance. It may have been that the entire raised platform was not
covered by the wooden structure, but the descriptions of its great size
given in old books would lead one to think that it was.
Rathcroghan does not appear to have been a place of residence of any of
the rulers of Connacht since the time of the celebrated Queen Meave. If it
was, the writer has not been able to find trustworthy evidence of the
fact. It may, however, have been used as a place for assemblies in
comparatively recent times. _Relig na Riogh_, or the cemetery of kings, at
Rathcroghan, was one of the great burial places of the Pagan Irish Kings.
It is a circular enclosure, about half a mile from the platform on which
Queen Meave's palace stood. It bears all the marks of extreme antiquity,
and has suffered much from the ravages of time. It covers between two and
three acres, and at first sight appears nothing more than a piece of
ground of very broken surface, for the mounds that marked the graves of
kings and chiefs have become nearly obliterated. But it was here that many
of the kings and heroes of ancient Ireland were buried, and it is here
that the bones of Queen Meave rest, that is, if we are to believe the most
trustworthy records of Irish history. It is thought by some that she was
buried under the vast cairn of stones that crowns the summit of
Knocknarea, near Sligo, for it is called to this day _Moisgan Meabha_,
literally Meave's butter-dish; but by extension it probably means Meave's
heap or cairn. There is no historic evidence to prove that she was
interred under the cairn on Knocknarea, however it came to be called by
its present Irish name; and according to the late Sir Samuel Ferguson, her
name, or a name closely resembling it, has been found written in Ogam
characters on a stone in _Reilig na Riogh_.
That there was such a person as Queen Meave there cannot be any doubt
whatever. History and legend never yet existed about a fabulous personage,
and Meave figures in both. Whatever impossible things may be related about
her in legend, history says nothing about her that cannot be easily
believed, her great age and length of reign excepted. It must, however, be
remembered that the ancient Irish were a very long-lived people. This fact
is so apparent in so many places in ancient Gaelic literature that it has
to be believed. We have as strong proof as can be afforded by history that
in comparatively modern times Henry Jenkins lived to be over a hundred and
sixty, and Old Parr to be over a hundred and fifty years old, and why
could not Queen Meave have lived to as great or even a greater age? She
was an extraordinary woman, and her name sheds a halo of romance round the
place where she lived, and where her remains rest in peace after her long
and stormy career. It was also in _Reilig na Riogh_ that Dathi, the last
pagan Irish Chief King, was buried. His mound is marked by a pillar stone,
and O'Donovan, one of the most cautious and least impulsive investigators
of Irish history and antiquities, saw no reason to doubt that the pillar
stone marks his grave.
It may be said that no proof has been given that the Connacht Queen Medb
or Meave was the prototype of the Mab of Shakespeare, Drayton, Spenser,
and other English poets. True, no absolute proof has been given, and
probably never will; but there is that which may be called negative proof,
which in such a case is very strong. The negative proof, if it can be
called such, that the Connacht queen was the prototype of the Queen Mab of
English poets and English legend, is found in the complete silence of
history and of tradition as to how else the legend of Queen Mab
originated, for it must have originated somewhere and from some one. We
are, then, and in a great measure by the total lack of any other way to
account for the origin of the legend of Queen Mab being queen of the
fairies, forced to come to the conclusion that the Connacht queen is the
only person known to history who furnishes the prototype for her. But
there is something more. It has been stated that the old Irish form of the
name was _Medb_. It is well known to Celtic savants that what is now
called "aspiration," or the change in sound, and sometimes the entire
suppression of certain consonants in pronunciation, did not take place
nearly so often in old Irish as in the modern language; so that the name
_Medb_ would in ancient times be pronounced _Mab_, or something very like
it. It is curious that in Drayton's poem, "The Nymphadia," Queen Mab,
though a fairy, is remarkable for those things for which her Irish
prototype was also remarkable--namely, her chariots, her amours, and her
beauty.
A very strong proof that Queen Meave was an historic personage and not a
myth is to be found in the name of the island in Loch Ree where she was
killed. It is usually pronounced and written Iniscloran; but Inis Clothran
is how it ought to be spelled, and how it is invariably spelled in the
"Annals of the Four Masters" where the name frequently occurs, the island
having been the seat of more than one church in early Christian times, and
therefore often mentioned in annals. Meave had a sister named Clothru who
lived in Iniscloran, and who was Queen of Connacht before Meave. Here is a
translation from the "Book of Leinster," page 124: "It was there that
Clothru used to explain the laws of Connacht in Inis Clothran in Loch
Ree." The island was evidently called after Clothru (Clothran in the
genitive), sister to Meave. This preservation of a place name connected
with the name of an historic personage for two thousand years is most
remarkable, and shows that Irish history is more truthful than is
generally supposed. It is thought that Meave had Clothru killed, in order
that she herself might become Queen of Connacht.
The country around Rathcroghan abounds in antiquities of far-back ages.
Sepulchral mounds, ruined raths, tortuous caves, and weather-worn
cromlechs are to be found on almost every side. It is a spot where the
antiquarian might revel for weeks and find something every day to interest
him. It is a beautiful country also, not a plain, in the strict sense of
the word, and yet not hills, but what an American would call "rolling,"
and a Frenchman "accidente." It is the "Magh Aoi" of Queen Meave's time,
and "Machaire Chonnacht," or plain of Connacht, of later days. It is part
of the celebrated Plains of Boyle, and is considered to contain some of
the best grass land in Ireland. No fairer spot could be found in Connacht
for the dwelling of a potentate who dealt largely in cattle than the green
eminence on which Queen Meave had her palace, and both history and legend
say that her flocks and herds were well-nigh innumerable. She made her
home in the centre of the fairest and richest part of the province she
ruled; and long as that home has been desolate, it has not been forgotten
in history or in song, for that noble melody which Moore has made
immortal--"Avenging and Bright Fall the Swift Sword of Erin"--was first
known as "Croghan na Veena," or "Croghan of the Heroes"; and the incident
to which it refers--the murder of the children of Uisneach--occurred when
Queen Meave was at the height of her splendour, when Rathcroghan was in
its glory, and when it was really the dwelling-place of heroes.
There are many mentions of Rathcroghan in ancient Gaelic writings, and all
of them speak of it as one of the most important places in Ireland in
Pagan times. Oengus, the Culdee, whose poem has been already referred to,
says of it--
"Rathcroghan hath vanished
With Ailill, offspring of victory;
A fair sovranty above Kingdoms
Is in Cluain's city."
The Ailill mentioned was one of Queen Meave's many husbands, and "Cluain's
City" means Clonmacnois.
The nearest railway station to Rathcroghan is Castlerea, from which it is
about eight miles distant. Its long distance from a railway and the want
of good accommodation for tourists in its vicinity have helped to cause
this celebrated place to be so neglected and forgotten.