An Chraobh Airgid

Being of the sídhe

The Brown Bull of Cúailnge

Donn Cúailnge

The great bull of Cooley, for whom Medb went to war.

Open it on the full site There every name opens, and a web shows who is kin to whom.

He belonged to Dáire mac Fiachna in Cúailnge. Fifty boys played on his back every evening, a hundred warriors sheltered in his shadow, and no goblin or sprite of the glen dared come into the same district as him. When Dáire refused to lend him, Medb went to war for him in the Táin; carried to Cruachan, he killed Finnbennach, went home to Cúailnge, and died there, when his heart broke “even as a nut breaks” (Joseph Dunn, 1914). He comes into The Adventure of Nera too.

Kin and bonds

In the tales

  • The Cattle Raid of Cooley An argument in bed over who is richer ends in a war for a brown bull, and one young man holding a ford against all Ireland.
  • The Adventure of Nera On Samhain night a man goes out in the dark to tie a withe round a hanged man’s foot, and follows the host of the sídhe into the cave of Cruachan.

See also

  • Cúailnge The Cooley peninsula. The home of the Brown Bull, between Carlingford Lough and Dundalk Bay.
  • Medb Queen of Connacht, who went to war for the Brown Bull of Cúailnge.
  • The Morrígan Goddess of battle and prophecy.
  • Ráth Cruachan Rathcroghan and Oweynagat. Queen Medb’s royal seat, and a cave called the gate of hell.

Sources

Medieval manuscript. Written down by Irish scholars between the eighth and seventeenth centuries.

Each tale above lists the sources it is retold from. Every source the site draws on is listed on the full site.