Uisnech
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Uisnech Hill is considered the omphalos (mystical navel) of Éire, the country known by the English name Ireland, whereupon rests a great stone (Ail na Mírenn, which means “stone of divisions”) marked with lines indicating the provincial borders of Connacht, Leinster, Ulster and Munster. Tradition tells that Uisnech was a site favored for Beltane fires and Druidical ceremonies, in fact being considered second only to Emain Macha. In the poetic history Lebor Gabála (“Book of Invasions”), the Nemedian Druid Mide lit the first fire there.
According to a popular passage from the same record, Ériu, a tutelary goddess sometimes considered the personification of Éire, meets the invading Milesians at Uisnech hill, where after some conversation and drama the Milesian poet Amairgin promises to give the country her name. Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain) claims a common belief that Stonehenge was transported to Britain from Uisnech. St. Brigid of Christian legend, who is also notably connected with fire, took the veil at this sacred locus.
[edit] References
- MacKillop, James (1998). Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. New York, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-869157-2.
- Jestice, Phyllis G. (2000). Encyclopedia of Irish Spirituality. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, Inc.. ISBN 1-57607-146-4.
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