Person

Oonagh

Úna

Say it: OO-nuh /ˈuːnˠə/

Fionn’s wife in the folk tale, and the cleverest person in it.

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

In Carleton’s telling she outwits the giant Cucullin with a charm of nine coloured threads, twenty-one griddles and a cradle. Fionn’s wives in the medieval tales are other women; Oonagh belongs to the fireside.

Kin and bonds

Married to Fionn mac Cumhaill
At odds with Cucullin

In the tales

Fionn and the Giant’s Causeway The strongest giant in Ireland is coming for Fionn. Fionn’s wife has a plan, a cradle and twenty-one iron griddles.

Sources

Folk tale in print. An oral tale set down by a nineteenth-century writer, with his own flourishes.

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