11 Chapter Eleven: The Rock of Cashel
Smyth, Daragh. Earthing the Myths: The Myths, Legends and Early History of Ireland. Irish Academic P, 2021.
Less than twenty miles north-east of Slievenamuck is the town of Cashel, from caiseal or ‘stone fort’. There are up to eighty caiseals in Ireland, mostly in the west and north-west. Of these forts, Cashel in Tipperary is by far the most important. It is known both as Caiseal Mumhan, ‘Cashel of Munster’ and as Caiseal na Ríogh, ‘Cashel of the Kings’, as it was the royal seat of the Kings of Munster. A local name is Carraig Phádraig or ‘St Patrick’s Rock’. Legend states that St Patrick in clearing out satanic practices threw part of the mountain known as the Devil’s Bit as far as Cashel, thus forming the Rock of Cashel. A gold vessel of the Hallstatt type was found on the Devil’s Bit in 1692; the Celts brought the Hallstatt culture to Ireland in the third century BC, and the gold vessel may have been used for ceremonial purposes and eventually buried with a noted king or queen.
The origin legend of the kingship of Cashel claimed that Cashel was founded by Conall Corc, son of a British mother and distant relation of Eógan of the Eóganacht.
During the fifth century St Patrick converted Aengus son of Nadfraoch while he was king and baptised him at Cashel. A story much told about the initiation of Aengus into Christianity is included in the following verse from Keating’s History of Ireland:
Tré bhonn Aonghuis anba an bhroid, Do chuaidh rinn bhaichle bPádroig; Gur líon an t-urlár da fhuil, An gníomh ní cómhrádh coguir.
Through the foot of Aengus, great the discomfort, Went the point of Patrick’s crozier; So that the floor was covered with his blood, The deed is no whispered gossip. [Translated by P.S. Dinneen]
It is generally thought now that the above injury was an error, and that Aengus remained quiet as he thought it was part of the ritual.
That Cashel was the inaugural centre for the kings of Munster is evidenced by its possession of an inaugural stone.
Cormac’s chapel, built in the early twelfth century, is regarded as the most interesting Romanesque church in Ireland; it has an arch of stone heads over the altar, reminiscent of the cult of the head [think of the Corleck Head and “The Feast of Briciu”] and the pre-Christian veneration of the head over the heart. In early Christian times, the Kings of Cashel were also bishops so that they possessed both a temporal and a spiritual role.
Slievenamon (Sliabh na mBan, ‘mountain of the women’) is a mountain 2,364 feet above sea level, seven miles north-east of Clonmel. Its early literary spelling was Sliab na mban finn or ‘the mountain of the white women’, who were presumably goddesses. Unlike Croagh Patrick, the mountain has preserved its prehistoric sanctity to the present day.
A folktale referring to Slievenamon tells of a race from the base to the summit by a number of women. . . . From amongst the numerous princesses and beautiful young women to whom Finn mac Cumhail had paid attention both in Ireland and foreign nations, he selected twenty-one women, either for their superior personal attractions or for the influence of family connexion, from which to choose his wife, and they were thus to compete for his hand: On an appointed day the twenty-one young women were to stand in a row at the foot of Sliabh na mBan, and upon a given signal to run up the mountain, the first who should arrive at Mullach- Mullach-suide-Finn [the present cairn at the top of the mountain], to become the wife of the king of the Fenians. Finn stood at the summit of the mountain and having blown a loud blast upon his trumpet, the racers set off at full speed. The above is the essence of the story, but the race was not entirely fair as Finn favoured Gráinne, and Gráinne won the race. Unfortunately, a local man named Diarmuid Uí Duibhne had a ball searc or ‘love spot’ on his breast, and having seen this Gráinne was smitten. This resulted in their famous elopement.
Slievenamon is where the great lovers Midir and Étaín flew in the form of swans. Diarmuid* and Gráinne* also spent time here, and its original function may have been as a fertility centre as well as a centre for poetry and illumination. It is an Otherworld dwelling and an epicentre of our pre-Christian culture.
Burials at Rock of Cashel-1 : Look at burials on page 172.
The OPW Website for the Rock of Cashel
