Oisín and the land of Tír na nÓg

Listen to Farewell My Own Dear Native Land

The Legend of Oisín and Niamh and the land of Tír na nÓg.

Oisín (pronounced Osheen) was the son of the legendary giant Finn McCool (who lies buried on the mountains in front of our house - see my post about Finn here).   One day he was out hunting with his father and in the distance he saw the most beautiful woman he had ever seen sitting on a magnificent white horse and immediately fell in love with her.

An Irish stamp depicting Oisin and Niamh

She said her name was Niamh (pronounced Neeve) and she was the daughter of the king of Tír na nÓg - (pronounced Teer-nah-nogue, it  means land of the ever young in Irish) a mystical, magical land across the seas, where time stood still, no-one ever grew old and everyone was happy.



Niamh said she had heard about this brave warrior, Oisín and asked him come with her and although he was torn to leave Ireland and his father and family, he had fallen in love with the beautiful woman and agreed to go with her.

Legends are used widely as images in Ireland

They were very happy together for many years, but deep down Oisín had a longing to see his family and home again.   Niamh told him he couldn't go back but eventually she agreed, if he would take her horse and make sure never to step on the ground because if he did he would never be able to return and although only a few years had passed in Tír na nÓg, back in Ireland more than 300 years had gone by.

Many publishers have stories
for children of these legends

When Oisín arrived back across the seas to Ireland everything had changed, the castle where he had lived was falling down and the Fianna (pronounced Fe-anna) no longer hunted in the woods.  (The Fianna were a group of elite warriors who protected the High King.)   He saw some old men who were trying to move a rock and rode up to them and asked about Finn MacCool but was told that they were long since passed away.  He leaned from his horse to help the old men, but slipped and fell to the ground and in an instant he aged the 300 years that had gone.   Oisin died very soon afterwards brokenhearted, but not before passing on the stories of Finn, the Fianna and Tír na nÓg.  And these are the stories that we still know to be true.


There are many great sites with legends of Ireland - I think Ireland of the Welcomes is lovely and has great information.

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Cloughmór and Finn McCool

Clough Mór means big stone in Irish ... and the Big Stone dominates the local landscape here in Rostrevor .... It lies at the top of Slieve Meen in the Mourne Mountains about 1000ft above the village.

At the Big Stone

 But legend says it was thrown by the giant Finn McCool - who threw most of the big stones that are littered across the North of Ireland - he liked throwing things did Finn!  He was also responsible for creating the Giants Causeway, the Isle of Man and Lough Neagh and he gives his name to the mountains across the Lough - the Cooley mountains - where he sleeps on top of them.

Looking across the Carlingford Lough to the Cooley Mountains from CloughMor

The story goes that while Finn was out hunting boar one day, a huge shadow fell across the Lough and another giant stood there - as big as he himself was.
This giant was called Ruscaire, the giant of Snow and Ice.   He challenged Finn who was the giant of Summer, to a fight and both giants drew their swords each with a foot in Carlingford Lough and their other foot astride the mountains on either side.  They fought all day with swords and the second day with clubs.   On the third morning Ruscaire arose and stole Finn's sword while he still slept, although honour stopped him killing him.   But when Finn awoke and found that his sword was missing and that Ruscaire had taken it, he started throwing rocks and stones at him and a battle ensued that shook the mountains to the core. The Cloughmor Stone was beside him - it weighed 50 tons and with great effort Finn put his giant arms around it and hurled it at his enemy, burying him under the weight of it, where he melted away like ice into the mountain.

Finn McCool asleep on the mountain

Finn was so exhausted after the effort that he lay down and never wakened.   Some people say that the little people covered him stones when they couldn't waken him and others say that over the years he simply turned to stone.   We'll never know the truth but his image can still be seen there to this day.

Can you see him?

For more myths and legends about Finn, Queen Maeve, Cuthulainn and the little folk in and around Carlingford and Mourne, there's a great website - http://www.carlingfordandmourne.com

This blog is also posted at my website - www.filcampbell.com

I'm taking part in Effy's Blogalong Challenge and really enjoying posting a blog each day for the month of August.