Don't mess with a Horse Goddess
(And come to the Tuatha De Danann Arts Festival 27-29 May, Fermoy)
Who was she, anyway? Macha. Ever heard of her? My friend Michael Morris told me that he went up to Stormont (the Parliament of Northern Ireland) and told them there that if they didn’t address Macha, they were all doomed. Macha. I don’t know if what Michael Morris told me he did was true, but it does say something about her power over Ulster. She was a sídhe, a being of the Tuatha De Danaan, who a chap from Ulster called Cruinnchu took a fancy to, on a hillside one afternoon. Or another version goes that she just appeared in his house and acted as his wife, without announcing herself. She got pregnant, and Cruinnchu’s wealth grew. Just as happens when you wed a faery woman. She makes him swear, as the faery wife does, not to tell the King of Ulster, or anyone about her existence.
But at a chariot race, Cruinnchu boasts that his Macha can run faster than the King’s horses and yet, she is heavily pregnant. And yet, he gave Macha his word he would not tell a soul of her existence. And here he is tell the King of Ulster that Macha can run faster than horses. Macha is forced on Cruinnchu’s pain of death to perform. She cursed the men of Ulster after she would give birth to the Emain Macha, Macha’s twins. The curse would last five days and nine generations, but we know it lasted much longer than that and that the weakness was only overcome by Cuchulainn, who had Macha’s blessing. The myth shows how the rule of a bad king brings disaster, a thing we know well in Ireland.
So Macha is in the third Canto of my Quartet of poems about the Tuatha De Danaan, to be performed with Harpist Maebh McKenna at the Tuatha De Danann festival in Fermoy on 27th May.
III
Macha
Macha was a sovereignty goddess associated with Ulster, especially Navan Fort (Eamhain Mhacha) and Armagh (Ard Mhacha) which are named after her,. Several figures called Macha appear in Irish mythology and folklore, all believed to derive from the same goddess. She is said to be one of three sisters known as ‘the three Morrigna’. Like other sovereignty goddesses, Macha is associated with the land, fertility, kingship, war and horses.
The Three Machas are: Macha wife of Nemed, Queen Macha wife of Cimbáeth, and Macha wife of Cruinnchu who caused the debility of the Ulstermen. In this poem, after I read John Moriarty’s prompt, I write about the breaking of Macha by her husband Cruinnchu and the curse she put on the men of Ulster.
John Moriarty appeared to me in a dream, by a pile of stones in Ireland. I asked him, how can I find the Gods? He said, pointing over ‘there’, “That way.” He has always pointed me to the Gods. I find him a custodian of the Gods, a man who dedicated his life to walking the land, and conversing with the Gods of that land. In an Irish Dreamtime. With each poem in the Quartet for the Tuatha De Danann Arts Festival, I start with an invitation from John Moriarty.
The invitation (From Dreamtime, John Moriarty)
A horse, and she not broken, standing shoulder deep
In his door every morning
A horse, and she not broken, standing hip deep
In his door every evening.
The response:
Macha is a fury that riots
She revels among the slain.
Cruinnchu she met on the high moors,
By the standing stone.
Macha is my name, she said.
Walking the high moors by the standing stone.
He stared at her.
He promised not to bridle the horses, not to break them.
They are Macha and they, unbroken, belong to her.
He promised.
Macha is a fury,
A thing that can’t be broken.
She revels among the slain.
Her head never bridled.
Her hooves never tethered.
No saddle strapped on her back.
For Macha I leave my door open.
Because Macha is a fury, a thing that can’t be broken
She revels among the slain.
Because Cruinnchu tethered her,
Because he boasted of her speed,
And pushed her to a wild race
She cursed him.
She cursed the men of Ulster,
They’d fight each other,
Brother against brother
On the battlefield.
She cursed them.
And she left Cruinnchu
And when he heard the horses neighing on the high moors
He knew it was Macha.
Macha is a fury, a thing that can’t be broken
She revels among the slain.
Siofra O’Donovan © 2023
To hear the full Quartet, accompanied by Meabha McKenna on the harp, please come along to the Tuatha De Danann Arts Festival which runs from 27-29 May in Fermoy.
Book here https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/tuatha-de-danann-tickets-567878920137
Don't mess with a Horse Goddess
Wonderful read !❤️
Loved your story about Macha! I've been studying Celtic goddesses with the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids and it seems like I am destined to keep chancing upon this topic.