Poulnabrone Dolmen: In The Story of Ireland by Neil Hegarty, we learn that, “humans settled on Ireland 10,000 years ago. Some of the oldest evidence is from Mount Sandel on the banks of the River Bann… dating back to 7000 BCE.” Dianne Ebert Beeaff writes in Spirit Stones that, “the Neolithic was a lengthy period in which agriculture dominated the economy and stone was used for warfare, industry, and survival. The Neolithic grew out of a Mesolithic culture of semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers that blossomed at the end of the Ice Age. Sea levels rose and people living in Ireland and Britain became isolated from the rest of Europe.” The first farming in Ireland dates to 4000 BCE. People began making pottery and by 3000 BCE, they were creating an ornamental style we call Grooved Ware. Beeaff writes that, “the Neolithic period of great communal tomb buildings ranges from 5000 to 3200 BCE.”  In the Roots of Religion, John Hale tells us that, Neolithic farmers, “began a tradition of getting enormous slabs of stone, sometimes weighing tons, and erecting them for religious purposes. This is the megalithic movement, the first big stone architecture in history.” There are menhirs (a single standing stone), cromlechs (a circle of menhirs/standing stones), dolmens (a table of stones perhaps built to act as an artificial cave), and different kinds of tombs. Poulnabrone is the most famous dolmen in Ireland. People were buried in the chamber between 4200 and 2900 BCE. People stopped constructing giant megalithic tombs around 3000 BCE, but over a thousand years later, during the Bronze Age, an infant baby was buried just outside the entrance to the chamber.

Newgrange: the biggest Neolithic megalithic monument in Ireland, built around 3200 BCE, Newgrange is one of the first temples of the world. According to World History Encyclopedia, when the Celts entered Ireland they developed the legend that Tuatha de Danaan, or children of the goddess Danu, built the structure. In Myth in Human History, Grant Voth tells us that, “some hypothesize that during the Paleolithic and into the Neolithic, humans worshipped a powerful goddess. The ‘Great Goddess hypothesis’ is based on small figurines of carvings of the female form found in many parts of Europe. The original inhabitants of Ireland called themselves the people of the goddess Danu; Newgrange is thought to be her place. All life is said to have sprung from Danu’s womb. People moved from hunting and gathering into agrarian communities. During this shift, the authority of goddess seems to be undermined. Later, all the populated parts of the world were going to be overrun by nomadic invaders—the Middle East by Semitic invaders, Europe by Indo-Europeans, India by the Aryans. All of these new people brought sky gods with them and when they conquered, they imposed their sky-gods on these cultures.” Around 2000 BCE, the first metallurgists arrived in Ireland. The Iron Age began around 500 BCE and lasted until 400 CE. Hegarty writes that, “when Caesar invaded Britain in 55 BCE, they called the island Hibernia or ‘land of winter.’ Trade ensued between the Romans and the Irish. There was never enough at stake to make a Roman invasion of Ireland worthwhile.”

Cliffs of Moher and the Burren: According to this website, “This otherworldly landscape is famous for its unique rock formations and wildflowers, but it’s also believed to be a place where fairies dwell.” In the 1961 work Celtic Heritage, Alwyn and Brinley Rees write that, “the dead of night is felt to be nearer to the Other World than is the light of day. A person born during the night can see ghosts and phantoms which are invisible to the children of day (83). Midday and midnight, like sunrise and sunset, were moments when the veil between this world and the unseen world was very thin. Fairy funerals were to be seen at noon, and it was an auspicious moment for banishing fairy ‘changelings’ (92)”. Norreys Jephson O’Conor writes in The Early Irish Fairies and Fairyland that, “the fairies of ancient Ireland belonged to a race known as Tuatha De Danaan, People of the God whose Mother was Dana. They came to Ireland from the northern isles of the world, where they had been learning lore and magic and druidism and wizardry and cunning until they surpassed the sages of the arts of heathendom. They were overcome by the Milesians, a mythical race said to be the ancestors of modern Irishmen.” O’Conor tells us of how fairies sometimes took mortals to the land of immortality, Tír na nÓg, but that they always paid a penalty. “Sometimes they found that Time in Fairyland had passed far more swiftly than by mortal reckoning and that an absence of a year in the other world had been actually the passing of a century.” There are “fairy forts” around Ireland. Hawthorn trees are also associated with fairies. You can see many hawthorns in County Wicklow, including at Athgreany Stone Circle, a Bronze Age site that dates between 2000 and 1000 BCE.

Hill of Slane: Hegarty writes, “according to legend, Christianity first arrived in Ireland in the spring of 433 CE. The King Laoghaire ascended the Hill of Tara to light the sacred fire of Beltane, to usher in summer. On the nearby hill of Slane, a flame flared in the darkness. Here they found Patrick and an epic battle of magic followed. Laoghaire saw the truth and said, ‘it is better that I should believe than die’ so he converted to Christianity. Irish pagans worshipped gods in groups of three, so the concept of the Holy Trinity was not so far removed. Human sacrifice was still practiced, so the image of the crucified Christ resonated.” Today, on the Hill of Slane, you can see the ruins of a Christian abbey.

Glendalough: In The Story of Ireland Neil Hegarty tells us of Ireland’s Neolithic pre-historic past and into the island’s written history with the coming of Christianity. He writes, “in the 5th century, the Western Roman Empire imploded. Libraries began to decay and literacy declined. In Ireland, however, oral tradition began to give way to the written word. From the beginning of the 6th century, a network of monasteries began to develop.” The monastic complex in the Wicklow mountains named Glendalough was founded by St. Kevin—an ascetic and a hermit, around 600 CE. Hegarty tells us of another Irish saint, Columbanus, who founded a monastic rule, which was “more austere than the Benedictine model… built around fasting, obedience, corporal punishment, and confession.”

Rock of Cashel: At the Rock of Cashel you can visit Cormac’s Chapel, a small church that dates to the 1100s, pre-dating the Norman invasion of Ireland as well as the entrance of European monks to Ireland. The Rock of Cashel also boasts a 12^th century Irish round tower and a 13^th century Gothic Cathedral. In the 17^th century, the site was sacked by Cromwellian forces and began to fall into ruin in the 19^th century before its careful restoration.

Muckross Abbey: According to Monastic Ireland, “between 1130 and 1540 roughly 400 new abbeys, priories and friaries were established across Ireland. These accommodated men and women who lived communally according to particular rules, the origins of which lay in Continental Europe.” Muckross Abbey was built in the mid-15^th century under the direction of an Irish Franciscan monk. 200-years later, the forces of Oliver Cromwell destroyed the monastery. Some sources say it was then rebuilt, so I’m not sure when it stopped being used as a monastery.

Kilkenny and Blarney Castle: The Vikings first attacked Ireland in 795. They settled and built up Dublin. In the 1014 Battle of Clontarf, Viking power in Ireland was broken. The Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland began in the 1100s. The Irish Times calls it “one of the most significant events in Irish history… the start of what has become known as the ‘800 years of oppression’ and counting.” Trim Castle, built in the late 12^th century, is the largest and best-preserved Anglo-Norman castle in Ireland, but unfortunately I was unable to visit. Kilkenny Castle was also first built in the late 12^th century, but was remodeled in the 17^th century as a modern chateau. It was inhabited until 1935 and finally ‘sold’ to the city in the 1960s, at which time it was restored and turned into a museum. The current structure of Blarney Castle dates to the 15^th century and is most famous for the Blarney Stone, which tourists can kiss to receive the gift of gab.