''Tara is not just a hill!''

"Sweet Tara, may your heart preserve thee":

Oh sacred soul of Eriu's glades
holy hill with wisdom sage
sweet prophetess on the pilgrim's way -
Royal Meath's sweet repose.

Oh Tara beloved maiden -
still shine in eternal splendour!
Hill suffused in healing ministry -
its halo a fountain of love

Of the consciousness of the Gael
you are the true portal;
your mounds and boughs and barrows
heaving treasures of earth's arrows.

Hill adorned with green bastions
her fertile riches the temple of Danu;
beloved Tara whose glory confounds
as India's laws of Manu!
You're ageless like Fodhla's fruits -
the pantheon of High Hings' classical.

Sacred Schrine in the House of Royals
the mother Goddess at love's zenith.
Oh Hill of Tara! Oh holy Tara!
your mounds and barrows blest!

Psychic spirit resting mo chara -
a time tablet of Eriu's smiles
Oh motherland of nature's pilgrims
Sweet Tara! may your heart preserve thee!

The Mound of the Hostages, Tara Hill - second oldest astronomical observatory in the world

Footnote: Tara, County Meath, is the socalled ancient capital of Ireland. But alas the Tara Landscape, i.e. the Tara/Skyrne Valley, has been destroyed and plundered to make way for a two tolled motorway!! (http://www.savetara.com/      http://www.tarawatch.org/) Over 70 major archaeological sites were destroyed - 40 of which were new including the site of Lismullen astronomical Henge (one of the top ten discoveries in the world in 2007!); a gala complex of souterrains at Roestown, about which or its purpose, we'll never know now, Collierstown - very possibly and probably the burial grave of the Na Fianna Warriors killed at the Battle of Gabhra in 280; Baronstown ceremonial grave - the probable feasting ground and meeting place for the Harpists of Ireland, according to the Dindseanchas; and the gallows site of 1798 - Soldier's Hill, which is now the interchange; the searing of the outer extremity of the remarkable promontory fort, Rath Lugh etc

Further footnotes:
Tara Hill - which is the centre of this landscape - is where 142 High Kings of Ireland were inaugurated.
Danu is ancient Ireland's most famous Goddess and was the principal deity of the Tuatha De Danaan, the mythical people of ancient Ireland.
Fodhla (representing justice) is one of the triple Goddesses of the Tuatha De Danaan: Eriu, Banba accompany Fodhla, who it's believed welcomed the Milesians (the Gaelic people) when they arrived here.

The Gabhra River and lovely quaint bridge - about the only pristine part left of the Tara/Skryne Valley

www.skryne.com 

''The wisdom of ancient Irish Pagan sites!''

The many hues of Brigid

From the bowels of mother earth, the Goddess Brigid, is restless as a ship at sea. Her birthplace at Faughart, Co Louth, where her well is believed to be, and her last place of abode, Cill Dara, are like lost children in a land cut from its roots. Brigid the great initiator of the re-birth and awakening of nature, the great shepherdess reaping the seeds of fruitfulness, of bounty, of bliss, of maternity, of fertility, of harvest time, the foundress of the fountain of everlasting life, when Spring rises up from the caverns of winter, is bewailing the sad plight of Eireann's heritage and its vernal, vibrant, verdant swathes, all abused by man's brutal, ruthless avarice; stamped and trod upon by the tyrannical ploughshare of modern man's heretical ways. Her face is now lined and cracked, weary from lamentation - a silhouette of the earth's stricken sphere being eaten up by the licentious Leviathan. Brigid the great patron of the Arts, whose great foundry could smelt the driest and weakest iron into action; into a charger of creativity, of miraclulous wonders, of prodigious plenty; whose forge was the source, the provenance of all that was good, beneficient in its loving kindness, the positive protectress, the benevolent particle of truth, is waiting patiently in the shadows, in the underbrush, in the chasms of the underworld for our call, our deepest supplication for her to light our way again; to ignite the fires of wisdom, enlightenment, clarity, and clasp us in her loving embrace. Brigid the silversmith in the effulgent freshness of sweet creation, her anvil - the anvil of infinite creativity, a spark for the beauteous saga of Gaelic Ireland, a time when Eireann was in its prime; the halcyon horizon was in her smile - her vivacious being. The sweet silversmith of holiness; her mind cleaving to the highest murmurings of life, creation and mystery - her great and auspicious time - is nearing and fast approaching! Will we welcome the great Brigid again and bow to her chaste and noble sublimity, like honourable knights of old; hear her lament in the wilds of Connemara, in the winds of Antrim's Glens, in the shrill bellowings of the great Atlantic Ocean and the Irish Sea like Manannan of old, demanding that we respect the mother, the great nurturer and stop her wanton violation now? Time is of the essence; if we don't heed her lament now, dear mother earth and the once, pristine kaleidoscope of Eireann's green baize, will be interminably damaged and Brigid will become dumb and mute in the crazed cacophony of modern man.. Footnote: not only does Brigid have associations with Faughart - as the previous blog - but Kildare and Kildare town, in particular as well!