An Chraobh Airgid

Being of the sídhe

Macha

Macha

The woman whose curse fell on the men of Ulster.

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

The wife of Crunniuc, who walked into his house one day and stayed. Forced to race the king’s horses while heavy with child, she won, and bore twins at the finish, a son and a daughter. Then she cursed the men of Ulster: whenever a time of oppression came on them, they would be as weak as a woman in childbirth, for five days and four nights, to the ninth generation. Emain Macha, the Twins of Macha, is named for her twins. The Dindshenchas makes her the daughter of Midir of Brí Léith, also called Grian, and says she died after the race and was buried on Ard Macha, Armagh. It remembers other Machas too, among them Macha daughter of Aed the Red, “by whom Emain was marked out”.

Kin and bonds

In the tales

  • The Boyhood Deeds of Cú Chulainn A small boy walks alone to Emain Macha, kills a smith’s hound and takes its place, and on a day of prophecy chooses fame over a long life.
  • The Debility of the Ulstermen A woman walks into a lonely man’s house and stays, so long as he never speaks of her at the assembly. Then he boasts she can outrun the king’s horses.
  • 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.

See also

  • Brí Léith Ardagh Hill (Slieve Golry). Midir’s síd, which Eochaid Airem dug open to win back his queen.
  • Cú Chulainn The Hound of Culann: the great hero of the Ulster tales.
  • Emain Macha Navan Fort. Royal seat of the Ulstermen, named for Macha’s twins.

Sources

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

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