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What of Áine – Fairy Woman, ‘Celtic’ Goddess, and Queen of the Sidhe in Limerick?
It is impossible to discuss places in Ireland without discussing the stories attached to those places, and in the same way we cannot talk about the various Irish Gods and Goddesses without stories of places associated with those deities.
The two concepts – land and spirits – are too firmly intertwined to ever be separated. One especially beautiful example of this Áine, a figure who looms large over Limerick, and whose stories are still strongly anchored in the same place they have been for millennia… although the details may have changed over time.
✨A Guest Post by Morgan Daimler
Originally a sovereignty goddess of Munster, Áine was considered one of the Tuatha Dé Danann, sometimes said to be the daughter of Manannán mac Lir and other times the daughter of his druid, Eoghabal [Yew-branch].
In medieval tales we are told that Eoghabal wanted property in Ireland to settle, but was unable to obtain it, until Áine herself fought for the territory after being promised it would be named for her. She won and the place was called Cnoc Áine, Áine’s Hill, afterwards and stood as a symbol of her sovereignty over the area.
Áine and the Sidhe
In later stories she would be understood not as a Goddess or member of the Tuatha Dé, but rather as a Queen of the Sidhe, and in the late 19th and 20th century would further devolve in folk memory into a human woman taken by the Good Folk; but through each of these incarnations she remained a powerful force attached to Cnoc Áine.
She is particularly associated with the Eoghanacht family, and was understood as one of their ancestors as well as a member of the Tuatha Dé Danann; indeed, several Irish families trace their ancestry back to members of the Tuatha Dé.
In later folklore Áine would also come to be associated with the Fitzgerald family in the same way, after stories claimed she took the third earl of Desmond as her lover and bore him a son, the fourth earl. The fourth earl would, according to folklore, be taken into the Otherworld by his mother, and can still be seen sometimes riding his horse beneath Lough Gur, a lake near Cnoc Áine which is also strongly associated with Áine, who is also said to sometimes circumnavigate the lake herself in the form of a red horse.
20th century folklore describes Áine sitting besides the lake combing out her long hair, and sometimes puts her in the role of a bean sidhe (banshee), a female Otherworldly spirit who watches over specific families and forewarns of deaths.
Áine and the Summer Solstice
Áine’s name means lustre or brilliance, and she is a being often associated with the light and joy of the sun and summer. She is especially celebrated at midsummer on Cnoc Áine, a hill in Limerick which is known as her sidhe [Otherworldly hill] and on which people claim to have uncanny experiences.
On Midsummer (the Summer Solstice) up through the 20th century there were nighttime processions on or around the solstice in honour of Áine, with celebrations held on the hill; in at least one local tale a woman looked through a natural hole in a stone and saw Áine and her aos sidhe celebrating alongside the humans who had gathered.
It is likely that these modern celebrations reflect older pagan rituals in honour of the goddess which have been maintained across the years under a different guise.
Áine and Lúghnasadh
Áine is also associated with the harvest holiday of Lúnasa (Lughnasadh), particularly with the last Sunday in July which is also connected to the entropic figure of Crom Dubh.
While her connections to midsummer seem to focus more on joy and celebration, her association with the harvest is somewhat darker, with an emphasis on the need to win or trick the harvest away from forces of entropy which wish to steal it, often personified as Crom.
Áine in this role can be likened to the oppressive heat of late summer which ripens the grains for harvest… but also risks destroying them if they cannot be gathered in the right time. In this we see two sides of the same being, symbolized by the heat of the sun, both the gentle and the cruel.
Goddess and Queen
Áine is a complex being who has been understood in various ways across time, from Goddess to Queen of the Sidhe, but she is always found anchored firmly in the earth and water of Limerick, from the height of Cnoc Áine to the depths of Lough Gur.
These things do not limit or define her but offer us a place to begin understanding who and what she is, a place to tangibly connect to this ancient presence.
Áine of the Whisps, Áine of the Hill, awaits in both the land and the stories, the two working together to bring us to her.
Further Reading:
- The Lore of Ireland by Dáithí Ó hÓgáin
- Ireland’s Immortals by Mark Williams
- Gods and Goddesses of Ireland: A Guide to Irish Deities by Morgan Daimler
- Irish Customs and Rituals: How Our Ancestors Celebrated Life and the Seasons by Marion McGarry
- The Festival of Lughnasa – A Study of the Survival of the Celtic Festival of the Beginning of Harvest, by Máire MacNeill [out of print]
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