Beauties and Antiquities of Ireland: Being a Tourist's Guide to Its Most Beautiful Scenery & an Archæologist's Manual for Its Most Interesting RuinsRussell, Thomas O'Neill
History
Beauties and Antiquities of Ireland: Being a Tourist's Guide to Its Most Beautiful Scenery & an Archæologist's Manual for Its Most Interesting Ruins
Russell, Thomas O'Neill
Ireland -- Antiquities; Ireland -- Description and travel
Rathcroghan does not appear to have been a place of residence of any of
the rulers of Connacht since the time of the celebrated Queen Meave. If it
was, the writer has not been able to find trustworthy evidence of the
fact. It may, however, have been used as a place for assemblies in
comparatively recent times. _Relig na Riogh_, or the cemetery of kings, at
Rathcroghan, was one of the great burial places of the Pagan Irish Kings.
It is a circular enclosure, about half a mile from the platform on which
Queen Meave's palace stood. It bears all the marks of extreme antiquity,
and has suffered much from the ravages of time. It covers between two and
three acres, and at first sight appears nothing more than a piece of
ground of very broken surface, for the mounds that marked the graves of
kings and chiefs have become nearly obliterated. But it was here that many
of the kings and heroes of ancient Ireland were buried, and it is here
that the bones of Queen Meave rest, that is, if we are to believe the most
trustworthy records of Irish history. It is thought by some that she was
buried under the vast cairn of stones that crowns the summit of
Knocknarea, near Sligo, for it is called to this day _Moisgan Meabha_,
literally Meave's butter-dish; but by extension it probably means Meave's
heap or cairn. There is no historic evidence to prove that she was
interred under the cairn on Knocknarea, however it came to be called by
its present Irish name; and according to the late Sir Samuel Ferguson, her
name, or a name closely resembling it, has been found written in Ogam
characters on a stone in _Reilig na Riogh_.
That there was such a person as Queen Meave there cannot be any doubt
whatever. History and legend never yet existed about a fabulous personage,
and Meave figures in both. Whatever impossible things may be related about
her in legend, history says nothing about her that cannot be easily
believed, her great age and length of reign excepted. It must, however, be
remembered that the ancient Irish were a very long-lived people. This fact
is so apparent in so many places in ancient Gaelic literature that it has
to be believed. We have as strong proof as can be afforded by history that
in comparatively modern times Henry Jenkins lived to be over a hundred and
sixty, and Old Parr to be over a hundred and fifty years old, and why
could not Queen Meave have lived to as great or even a greater age? She
was an extraordinary woman, and her name sheds a halo of romance round the
place where she lived, and where her remains rest in peace after her long
and stormy career. It was also in _Reilig na Riogh_ that Dathi, the last
pagan Irish Chief King, was buried. His mound is marked by a pillar stone,
and O'Donovan, one of the most cautious and least impulsive investigators
of Irish history and antiquities, saw no reason to doubt that the pillar
stone marks his grave.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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