Latiaran or Lateerin is a legendary Irish saint, associated with a sacred well in the county of Cork, and usually described as one of three sisters. She appears in local folklore but not in any official calendar of saints, and may be influenced by pre-Christian mythology. [1] [2] [lower-alpha 1]
The meaning of Latiaran's name is unknown. "Latiaran Day," celebrated on or around July 25, is associated with the beginning of harvest. [4]
Latiaran's sacred well is located in Cullen in County Cork, next to a ruined church. Next to the well is a whitethorn tree supposedly planted by Latiaran. A heart-shaped stone in the graveyard is supposed to be either the site of a legend or her gravestone. Latiaran Day involved festivities around the well. [1]
According to legend, Latiaran was the youngest of three sisters, all nuns. Some variants of the legend claim that they came from another country, England or France. The names of her sisters vary by location.
According to Duhallow legend, Latiaran's sisters were Lasair (Flame) and Inghean Bhuidhe (the Yellow-haired Girl). Lasair lived in Kilmeen, Inghean Bhuide at Dromtarriff. As Latiaran's feast day was considered the beginning of harvest and Inghean Bhuide's feast day on May 6 was the beginning of summer, Máire MacNeill suggests that Lasair was associated with the beginning of springtime and that they were originally nuns whose legends gained elements of pagan myths.
Some stories also include brothers, Saint John of Mushera or Saint Berihert of Tullylease.
In stories from Kerry, one of the sisters is instead named Crobh Dearg (Red Claw). Her well was located near the Paps of Anu. A legend runs that the three sisters – Latiaran at Cullen, Crobh Dearg at the City Well, and a third sister at Dromtarriff – all vanished into the ground, causing wells to spring up at the sites of their disappearance.
Saint Gobnait is also sometimes attributed as one of the three sisters, sometimes under the name Abby. Some scholars have compared the three sisters to triple deities. [1] [5]
Legends claim that Latiaran and her sisters and brothers began living at Cullen, but the others traveled away to other locations. In one story, after moving away, the sisters were unable to visit often because of the thick forest between them, so angels made a road for them. [1]
Latiaran's main legend is that every day she would leave her cell to fetch a seed of fire from the blacksmith and carry it back in her apron. One day the blacksmith complimented her feet. As she admired her own feet, her apron caught fire, but it did not burn her. According to Máire MacNeill, there are several alternate endings. In one, Latiaran was punished for her vanity by sinking into the ground where the heart-shaped stone is, and reemerged in her cell. She never came out again in order to avoid causing anyone sin. In other versions, she cursed the blacksmith and no forge has worked in the village ever since. [6] [7] A poem version, "The Romance of Lateeran," is attributed to the Irish poet James Clarence Mangan, although its authorship is debated. [8] [9]
According to one source collected by the Irish Folklore Commission from Raheen in County Kerry, both "Lotearan" and "Crobh-Dhearg" had the power to carry live coals of fire in their aprons for long distances without burning anything. [10]
Imbolc or Imbolg, also called Saint Brigid's Day, is a Gaelic traditional festival. It marks the beginning of spring, and for Christians, it is the feast day of Saint Brigid, Ireland's patroness saint. It is held on 1 February, which is about halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. Historically, its traditions were widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. Imbolc is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals, along with: Bealtaine, Lughnasadh and Samhain.
The Dagda is an important god in Irish mythology. One of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the Dagda is portrayed as a father-figure, king, and druid. He is associated with fertility, agriculture, manliness and strength, as well as magic, druidry and wisdom. He can control life and death, the weather and crops, as well as time and the seasons.
Lughnasadh or Lughnasa is an official Irish holiday and Gaelic festival marking the beginning of the harvest season. Historically, it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. In Modern Irish it is called Lúnasa, in Scottish Gaelic: Lùnastal, and in Manx: Luanistyn. Traditionally it is held on 1 August, or about halfway between the summer solstice and autumn equinox. In recent centuries some of the celebrations have been shifted to the Sunday nearest this date.
Manannán or Manann, also known as Manannán mac Lir, is a warrior and king of the Otherworld in Irish and Manx mythology who is associated with the sea and often interpreted as a sea god, usually as a member of the Tuatha Dé Danann.
In Gaelic myth, the Cailleach is a divine hag and ancestor, associated with the creation of the landscape and with the weather, especially storms and winter. The word literally means 'old woman, hag', and is found with this meaning in modern Irish and Scottish Gaelic, and has been applied to numerous mythological and folkloric figures in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man. In modern Irish folklore studies, she is sometimes known as The Hag of Beara, while in Scotland she is known as Beira, Queen of Winter.
Saint Brigid of Kildare or Saint Brigid of Ireland is the patroness saint of Ireland, and one of its three national saints along with Patrick and Columba. According to medieval Irish hagiographies, she was an abbess who founded the important abbey of Kildare, as well as several other convents of nuns. There are few historical facts about her, and her hagiographies are mainly anecdotes and miracle tales, some of which are rooted in pagan folklore. They say Brigid was the daughter of a chieftain and a slave woman, and was raised in a druid's household before becoming a consecrated virgin. She is patroness of many things, including poetry, learning, healing, protection, blacksmithing, livestock and dairy production. In her honour, a perpetual fire was kept burning at Kildare for centuries.
Finvarra, also called Finvara, Finn Bheara, Finbeara or Fionnbharr, is the king of the Daoine Sidhe of western Ireland in Irish folklore. In some legends, he is also the ruler of the dead. Finvarra is a benevolent figure, associated with horses, who ensures good harvests and rewards mortals with riches.
Aughagower or Aghagower is a small village in rural County Mayo in western Ireland. It is located about 6 km from Westport. Aughagower has around 40 houses, 1 pub and a shop, with a clear view of Croagh Patrick from Reek View. It also forms the centre of a parish of the same name which covers an area of 86.1 square miles. The village is known for its links to Saint Patrick and Tóchar Phádraig, the pilgrimage route from Ballintubber Abbey to Croagh Patrick.
Maire O'Neill was an Irish actress of stage and film. She holds a place in theatre history as the first actress to interpret the lead character of Pegeen Mike Flaherty in John Millington Synge's controversial masterpiece The Playboy of the Western World (1907).
The Oilliphéist is a sea serpent-like monster in Irish mythology and folklore.
The Ó Dálaigh were a learned Irish bardic family who first came to prominence early in the 12th century, when Cú Connacht Ó Dálaigh was described as "The first Ollamh of poetry in all Ireland".
The Red Hand of Ulster, also known as the Red Hand Uí Néill, is a symbol used in heraldry to denote the Irish province of Ulster and the Northern Uí Néill in particular. However, it has also been used by other Irish clans across the island, including the Connachta, the ruling families of western Connacht and the Southern Uí Néill, chiefs of the Midlands.
Saint Gobnait, also known as Gobnat or Mo Gobnat or Abigail or Deborah, is the name of a medieval, female Irish saint whose church was Móin Mór, later Bairnech, in the village of Ballyvourney, County Cork in Ireland. She was associated with the Múscraige and her church and convent lay on the borders between the Múscraige Mittine and Eóganacht Locha Léin. Her feast day is February 11.
Crimthann mac Énnai was a King of Leinster from the Uí Cheinnselaig sept of the Laigin. He was the son of Énnae Cennsalach, the ancestor of this dynasty.
The Kingdom of Munster was a kingdom of Gaelic Ireland which existed in the south-west of the island from at least the 1st century BC until 1118. According to traditional Irish history found in the Annals of the Four Masters, the kingdom originated as the territory of the Clanna Dedad, an Érainn tribe of Irish Gaels. Some of the early kings were prominent in the Red Branch Cycle such as Cú Roí and Conaire Mór. For a few centuries they were competitors for the High Kingship or Ireland, but ultimately lost out to the Connachta, descendants of Conn Cétchathach. The kingdom had different borders and internal divisions at different times during its history.
The Uí Liatháin (IPA:[ˈiːˈlʲiəhaːnʲ]) were an early kingdom of Munster in southern Ireland. They belonged the same kindred as the Uí Fidgenti, and the two are considered together in the earliest sources, for example The Expulsion of the Déisi (incidentally). The two have been given various origins among both the early or proto-Eóganachta and among the Érainn or Dáirine by different scholars working in a number of traditions, with no agreement ever reached or appearing reachable. It is entirely possible that they were the product of a combination of lineages from both these royal kindreds, or alternatively of another origin entirely.
Saint Cuimín is an Irish saint associated with the parish of Kilcummin in the barony of Tirawley, County Mayo. Kilcummin, a headland to the west of Killala Bay, preserves the remains of a religious site, with a church of early date and a graveyard.
The Paps of Anu are a pair of breast-shaped mountains near Killarney in County Kerry, Ireland. The eastern summit, The Paps East, is 694 metres (2,277 ft) high and the western top, The Paps West is 690 metres (2,260 ft) high.
St. Berrihert's Kyle is an ecclesiastical enclosure and National Monument containing cross slabs, wheel crosses, high crosses and a cursing stone located in County Tipperary, Ireland.
Bríd Mahon was an Irish folklorist and writer. She began her career as a child, writing a radio script on the history and music of County Cork for Radio Éireann. Hired to work as a typist for the Irish Folklore Commission, she would remain at the commission until 1970. During her time at the commission, she developed a second career as a journalist, serving as a theatre critic and writing the women's page for The Sunday Press. Her juvenile fiction, The Search for the Tinker Chief, was optioned by Disney, after becoming a bestseller and though she was discouraged from publishing information collected on Irish folklore, she conducted research and published non-fiction works on Irish clothing and food. When the Commission was disbanded in 1970, Mahon worked as a folklorist and lecturer at University College Dublin and later taught at the University of California.