The Tipperary Antiquarian

Following on from potential centres of Ireland. Here is the mythological centre of Ireland at the Catstone on Uisneach in Westmeath. You know your getting old when the last time you visited it was 15 years ago. For more info on this amazing site or to get a tour follow Uisneach or see here http://uisneach.ie/history/ It is the reputed burial site of the Tuatha De Danann god Lugh whose festival you could argue is being celebrated today as Reek Sunday. One of the Irish Earth Goddesses Eriu is also supposed to have been buried at Uisneach (under the Catstone). Similar to the Birr Stone - The Cat Stone is thought to be the 'Umbilicus Hiberniae’, ‘Axis Mundi’, or ‘the Naval of Ireland’. The god Dagda is also thought to have resided here and is linked in mythology to two souterrains that were excavated in the 1920s by MacAllister. It is probably best known as the location of a fire cult from where the Beltaine fire ushering in Summer was lit. Legend says that the first Beltaine f...

So where was the centre of Ireland? Not far North of Tipperary according to Geraldus Cambrensis in the 12th Century. The stone which was probably originally located in the townland of Seefin just on the edge of Birr is reputed by oral tradition to have marked a meeting place of the Fianna. It was taken from Birr in 1828 by Thomas Steele to his residence Cullaun House, Co. Clare, to honour Daniel O'Connell and used as a Mass rock at that site. It was returned to Birr Urban Council in June 1974 by the Department of Lands. The stone itself of local origin. It was probably part of a megalithic monument located at Seffin, the exact site of which now unknown. It is reputed to have various markings on it including the cross that you can clearly see in the photo. In the IFC it states "This stone was a huge mass of limestone, marked with a number of incisions in the shape of fantastic crosses and other curious symbols. The people accounted for the number and shape of these cav...

Introduction Fig. 1 Knockcurraghbola Commons TN039-009 by Derek Ryan This essay will investigate the construction of wedge tombs during the Chalcolithic period c. 2500 – 2000 BC. It will examine possible reasons for this resurgence in building. It will compare and contrast the location and size of the wedge tombs at Roughan Hill, Co. Clare & this essay study area; the Kilcommon group of Co. Tipperary. Wedge tombs are simple stone tombs which consist of a narrow gallery with a characteristic narrowing and lowering at the back. The gallery can be divided by a septal-stone into a short front chamber known as a portico. They have a consistent orientation on the western and south-western horizon and they seem to be orientated to where the sun sets in the colder and darker months of winter. Jones (2007, 223) postulates that they are aligned in this direction to “incorporate the symbolic dichotomy of light and life versus darkness and death” and towards a possible land of t...