The Hag of Beara
Mythic Irish goddess and narrator of a medieval lament.
The Hag of Beara (Irish: Cailleach Bhéarra), also known as The Cailleach or The Old Woman of Dingle, is a mythic Irish goddess. She is a Cailleach—a divine hag, crone, or creator deity—whose name primarily means 'hag' or 'old woman.' She is associated with the Beara Peninsula in County Cork, Ireland, and was thought to bring winter. She is best known as the narrator of the medieval Irish poem 'The Lament of the Hag of Beara,' in which she bitterly laments the passing of her youth and her decrepit old age.
- Born
- Dingle, County Kerry, at Teach Mor (the Great House), identified as Tivore on the Dingle peninsula
- Field
- Mythic Irish goddess, Cailleach
- Nationality
- Irish
- Known for
- Narrator of 'The Lament of the Hag of Beara'; associated with winter; mother or foster mother to ancestors of Corca Dhuibhne and Corca Loighdhe clans
Lore & Background
The Hag of Beara is said to have been born in Dingle, County Kerry, at 'Teach Mor' or the Great House, described as 'the house farthest west in Ireland,' and today identified as Tivore on the Dingle peninsula. Along with County Kerry, she is closely associated with County Cork. She is said to have been a mother or foster mother to the ancestors of a number of prominent clans in the region, including the Corca Dhuibhne and Corca Loighdhe. In some tellings, she lived several lives, or had several successive periods of youth, during which she birthed the ancestors of these clans.
Reader's Guide
The Hag of Beara appears in the late 11th–early 12th century satire 'Vision of Mac Conglinne,' listed among eight people about whom lays are sung, as Caillech Bérre bán 'a white nun, of Beare.' The untitled Middle Irish medieval poem of 35 verses, 'The Lament of the Hag of Beara,' has been described by folklorist Eleanor Hull as 'a beautiful example of the wide-spread idea that human life is ruled by the flow and ebb of the sea-tide.' The narrator remembers her youth spent 'with kings, drinking mead and wine,' but now lives in 'the gloom of an oratory' among 'shrivelled old hags.' The introductory text before the poem gives her name as Digdi and states she had seven periods of youth, outliving every man that lived with her, so that her descendants were tribes and races. For a hundred years she wore the veil blessed by Cuimine, after which old age and infirmity came to her. Hull suggests this blessed veil is a Christian appropriation of her hood, 'for, as in many other cases, the pagan goddess reappears in later days as a Christian nun.' A number of pre-historic archaeological and geographical features in Munster are associated with her, including the 'Hag of Beara' rock chair in Kilcatherine, County Cork, said to be either her fossilized remains or the chair where she waits for Manannán mac Lir, the god of the sea, variously described as her husband or father. She is sometimes associated with the Hag's Head rock formation on the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare.
Did You Know?
- She is said to have had seven periods of youth, one after the other, outliving every man that lived with her.
- Her name is given as Digdi in the introductory text before 'The Lament of the Hag of Beara.'
- The 'Hag of Beara' rock chair in Kilcatherine, County Cork, is said to be either her fossilized remains or a place where she rests.
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