A Folklore Survey of County Clare

COUNTY CLARE from the fourth century of our era was united politically with North Munster, Tuath Mumhain, or Thomond, though separated from it by the broad waters of the Shannon.Standing thus by itself, " isolated by the Sea, the River, and the enmity of Connaught," it might be expected that it would preserve until modern times an unbroken tradition from the prehistoric past, and that a survey of its folklore would show many traces of ancient beliefs still surviving.The battle goddess Catabodva, worshipped in antique Gaul, appears as the Bodbh of battle (cath) in the wars fought by the Princes of Clare in 1014 and 13171 and the spirit that washed the bloodstained clothes and limbs of the then living combatants still, I was told three years ago, foretells calamity by washing clothes in the same waters. 2Mists or water snakes,-emblems, perhaps, of pagan islanders or devour ing seas and lakes,-abound in the legends of a very early date, and are still reputed to seize the cattle, and even human beings, drowned in the lakes of Clare.The place names con sidered below will show to what an extent our present nomen clature records the mythology and sagas of early days, and I propose in the remainder of this first paper to deal with the ban shee, the death coach, and the fairies.The bulk of the traditions I. Place Names and Legends of Places.Were we assured of the date of their origin, place names would be our most authentic, and perhaps our earliest, evidence of traditional beliefs and superstitions, but their first records only give a minimum date.To take a few examples:-if we may accept explanations earlier than A.D. 800, the name of Iniscatha, traceable from about 550, embodies the name of a monster, (probably the "god or demon of the flood"), dispossessed by St. Senan, the missionary of the Corcavaskin district 8 Again, Craganeevul near Killaloe recalls the belief in Aibhill, or Aibhinn, "the beautiful," the tutelary spirit of the ruling house of the Dalcassians, the later O'Briens.If the " Life of St. Maccreiche " be early, it bears out a later belief that the cave of Poulnabruckee, in Inchiquin, commemorates no ordinary badger, but the formid able " demon-badger," killer of cattle and men.*Following certain topographical lines I give the names as they occur, rather than as grouped according to beliefs.I must also premise that the Dalcassian tribes virtually covered the eastern Baronies of Bunratty andTulla, with part of Inchiquin, from about A the Corca Modruad, (the royal line of the mythical Queen Maeve and Fergus mac Roigh), were in Burren and Corcomroe from still earlier times, beyond the range of even historical tradition 5 ; while a third great independent line, the Corca-•Colgan, "Vita S. Senani," ActctS.S. Hib.(March 8).4 This I suspect to have been really a belated bear, as that formidable beast, whose bones so abound in Clare caverns, perished at an unknown date, leaving his name "Mathgamhan," or Mahon, to his human enemies, and his remains as his only monument.Certain MacMahons, however, affected to believe that they were Normans originally named Fitz Urse, in the same way as the MacNamaras were supposed to be Mortimers (de Mortuo Mart) by Spenser and others in the time of Elizabeth

Archaeology · Folklore · Geography · Historical Studies of British Isles · History

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