Sneachta!

It absolutely lashed down all night but as we lay in bed having our morning cuppa we watched in amazement as the downpour turned to sleet and then thick fat snow! A conundrum for I had two morning appointments across the mountain in Schull - the first a coffee rendezvous with Finola and then on get my hair sorted. We lingered  humming and haaing about whether to risk the roads then decided to go for it. I can confirm that the Sheepshead had the wetter night and there was flooding all over the place, but the MIzen had had more snow and there were some interesting moments going up and down Mt Gabriel where it was pretty slushy. The main is the view before I turned off down the small road that leads to Schull. All fine though and we had good coffee and scones and somehow the talk got round to the northern diver/alias loon. Would you like to hear my loon impression? inquired Finola? Yes please. Well she was magnificent and most convincing! Apparently she had impressed Robert when they went to Canada by luring a loon in to the shore so entranced was it by her call.

Hair duly attended to, by the time I came out the temperature had risen one degree to 2C and the sun was shining!  The extra is a view out to Bantry Bay and the Beara which always gets more rugged weather.  Another cold day for tomorrow and then Storm Bert (wtf) is roaring in with gales and more torrential rain.

Last night's mythology course was riveting and we started The Tain, or the Cattle Raid of Cooley. This story can go on for days and I'm not sure if we actually started the main story or just the warm up. The Tain starts with Queen Maebh and her bloke Ailill enjoying a bit of post conjugal bliss with some pillow talk and all is going well until they decide to see who is the wealthiest. They each list everything they own and are found to be equal except- Ailill is the owner of an incredibly huge and fertile white bull who once belonged to Maebh but which refused to belong to a herd owned by a woman and transferred to Ailill;  Infuriated, Maebh decides she needs her own mighty bull and a suitable one is found in Cooley, a small peninsula in County Louth. Negotiations are made and all goes well until ....... To be continued.

We also had a warm up tale (Macha) and a distracting tale (Deirdre of the Sorrows). The story of Macha is complex and horrifying. Get a cuppa while I tell you.  Macha is an Irish war goddess, a member of the Sidhe (fairies) and one of the Tuatha de Danaan. At one point she rocks up into the home of an Ulster farmer, Cruinniuc, and lives with his as his wife. All is well until Cruinniuc, goes off to some important games, Macha having declined to go with him. The last race is when all the winners of the pervious races compete together. Having had a drink of two Cruinniuc boasts that his wife could outrun everyone. The King is infuriated and insists Macha be brought to them, She is duly brought before them and made to compete in the race. At this point she is 9 months pregnant with twins. She has no option but to run and run she does and easily wins. But on completing the race goes into labour, delivers two stillborn babies and then dies but not before issuing a terrible curse, condemning the men of Ulster to 9 days of excruciating labour/birthpangs when they are in the hour of their greatest need. This is a curse that really comes back and bites them - to be continued. What a story though, what does it all mean?  And I won't even begin the tale of poor Deirdre. 


What I love about this is the humans are so human with all their hope and excesses and frailties and the women are actually pretty powerful. Running parallel to this are weird and wonderful supernatural events, the Tuatha de Danaan still plying their magic, and occasionally the two worlds collide and glimpse each other. There is shape shifting and magic galore galore as humans try to avoid their fates, wrestle with the complexities of honour {men) and the burden of beauty ( women -mostly ). And we haven't even met Cuchulain yet!