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In their own conquest of Ireland, the Tuatha Dé Danaan had ousted two groups of earlier
occupants – the Fir Bholg and the Fomorians. After their defeat the Fir Bholg, a race of pre-Celtic
humans, were banished to the Aran Islands in Galway Bay. Unfortunately, the Leabhar Gabhála
does not say where the Fir Bholg had come from. The implication is that they had been there all the
time. In this respect, the Fir Bholg resemble myths in other parts of the Isles about a race of
aboriginal inhabitants, usually described as being short and dark, who were subsumed by later
‘waves’ of Celtic arrivals.
The Fomorians, being divine like the Tuatha Dé Danaan, were altogether more difficult to
defeat. Led by the terrifying Balor of the Baleful Eye, whose gaze alone caused instant death, the
Fomorians were a race of demons. Balor’s one weakness was the prophecy that one day he would
be slain by his own grandson. Despite hiding himself away on Tory Island off the Donegal coast
and keeping his daughter away from men, she nonetheless became pregnant and bore triplets. Balor
threw all three of his grandchildren into the sea, but one, called Lugh, survived. He grew up to lead
the Tuatha Dé Danaan against the Fomorians and, in fulfilment of the prophecy, killed his
grandfather Balor with a slingshot through his one, baleful, eye.
Lugh went on to feature in the best-known myths of the Ulster Cycle, which records the
continual struggles of the Ulaid, the Ulstermen, against the neighbouring province of Connacht. He
becomes one of the many suitors of the notoriously promiscuous Queen Medb. No man could rule
in Tara without first mating with Queen Medb. Fiercely competitive, as well as promiscuous,
Medb’s rivalry with one of her many consorts, the King of Connacht, leads into the most famous of
all Irish myths, the Taín Bó Cúalnge, the Cattle Raid of Cooley. At first sight, cattle raiding might
appear to be too prosaic a topic for a major myth, but remember that cattle were as much a badge
of prestige as gold or jewels. Cattle raiding was an endemic occupation in Ireland as elsewhere in
the Isles – and it was a failed cattle raid which led indirectly to the defeat of the giant Albion by
Hercules.
The Taín Bó Cúalnge begins as Medb and the King of Connacht, in bed one night, decide to
compare their material assets to resolve which of them is the richer. One matches the other until
only a single item separates them. Ailill, King of Connacht, is the owner of a magnificent whitehorned
bull Findbennach, something that Medb does not possess. In vain she searches her own
lands for a beast of comparable magnificence. Then she hears of a great brown bull, Donn, and
arranges to borrow it from its owner. Things start to go wrong when her soldiers brag that they
could have seized the bull with or without the consent of the owner, who, overhearing their
boasting, cancels the arrangement and hides the bull. Queen Medb decides on a disproportionate
response and invades Ulster, precipitating a lengthy war between Connacht and Ulster. To escape
the fighting, the great bull Donn is sent to Connacht for safety but, unwisely, bellows loudly as he
arrives in his new home. His bellows disturb Findbennach, and he challenges Donn to a duel to the
death. Their fight takes them all over Ireland until Donn eventually manages to impale his rival on
his horns. Though he wins the contest, Donn does not survive to enjoy his victory and dies from
exhaustion.
Forgive me for relating the Taín Bó Cúalnge at such length. It portrays the intense feuding and
futile rivalry between the rulers of the different parts of Ireland more vividly than any purely
historical account. And these are rivalries that might just have a genetic effect. The Taín also
involves another super-hero of Irish myth, Cú Chulainn. The son of Lugh, slayer of Balor of the