Mesca Ulad

Oíche Shamhna shona daoibh! The console ports of The Séance of Blake Manor have been released just in time for Halloween and my flatmate has been playing it. This reminded of a fun little bit of Irish mythology that’s mentioned in the game that I wanted to share, and second one related to the first. Both are from Mesca Ulad, known in English as The Intoxication of the Ulstermen, i.e., that time all the heroes of Ulster got really hammered.

But first, to set up some background: Leabhar Gabhála Éireann, or The Book of Invasions, is a medieval manuscript that synthesises many myths into a chronicle of various peoples arriving in Ireland. For the purpose of this story the two important ones are the Tuatha Dé Danann, a tribe of gods who conquered the Fir Bolg for control of Ireland, and the Milesians, named for their ancestor Míl Espáine, who sailed to Ireland from Iberia and are the ancestors of the people of Ireland today (so we’re all actually Spanish, apparently).¹

The Tuatha Dé Danann were recognised and worshipped as gods, and really still are, even by Christians. Bríd, many of whose aspects were syncretised with Saint Brigid of Kildare, was a member of the Tuatha Dé Danann, which gives the Gaelic peoples the interesting mythology of having gone to war with, and then tricked, their own gods. The Milesians and Tuatha Dé Danann fought a vicious war over the land, until finally the Milesians manage to come out on top (quite literally) as rulers of Ireland. You see, Mesca Ulad, gives us the detail that after fighting to a truce, the Tuatha Dé Danann and Milesians were to divide up Ireland between them, and that the Milesian poet Amhairghin Glúngheal was the one who got to decide how to divide the island. Amhairghin, being a smart arse, decreed that the sons of Míl were going to take the top half, banishing the Tuatha Dé Danann to the underworld—as in, literally underground. Fairy forts and fairy mounds (sidhe, the remains of megalithic tombs) were seen as portals to the underworld where the fairies, the descendants of the Tuatha Dé Danann, resided.

The other funny thing about Mesca Ulad is simply the story itself: There is a bit of a political squabble between Conchobar, king of Ulster, and the hero and demigod Cú Chulainn, who each want to hold competing Halloween parties. A compromise is reached whereby everyone will go to Conchobar’s banquet first, then once that’s winding down they’ll all head to Cú Chulainn’s feast. The problem being that everyone gets utterly pissed at Conchobar’s and drunk-drive their chariots the wrong way across all of Ireland and end up in enemy territory in Kerry. They are tricked and almost killed, but manage to escape back home, presumably while nursing massive hangovers.