Where is the Sidh or Fairy Palace of Bove Derg near Lough Derg?
The Sidh of Bove
Derg connects Lough Derg to the well known story of the Children of Lir. Sidh
Buidhbh being a location where part of the story takes place and also one of
the residences of Bove Derg, one of the Tuath De Danann.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodb_Derg
I have looked for
references to its exact location a number of times and discussed it with a
number of fellow researchers.
One of the earliest
clear mentions that I could find is in PW Joyce's 1869 "Irish Names of
Places" vol. 1 (p. 182), where he refers to the "Tale of
Curchóg" It says, "Sidh Buidhbh [Boov], with Bove Derg for its chief,
was on the shore of Lough Derg, somewhere near Portumna." It seems to get
this reference from the Book of Fermoy.
Hogan's Onomasticon
Goedelicum records the following - p2523
"Síd boidb
*síd buidb* 2 on brink of Loch Derg, above Killaloe, Atlantis, iv 116; Síd
Buidb, at Loch
Deirgert, S of Portumna, c. Galway, Atlantis, iii 385, MacFirbis,
Genealogies, 182;
Síd Buidhbh Dheirg, over Lough Derg, nr Killaloe, !?Lir. 7; in
Munster, BLis 222;
Síd Buidb Deirg meic in Dagda, in S of Ireland., Acallam (ed.
Stokes) 3350"
These are all
references to mentions of it in other literature.
Scholar Ronald
Hicks has researched these references and the one that he didn't have access to
at the time was in MacFirbis's Book of Genealogies. So if anyone happens to
have access to a copy it would be interesting to see what it says / does it
give any further information that might help identify its location?
However all in all
it seems that there was some kind of Sidh or Fairy Palace in the vicinity of
Lough Derg (maybe near Portumna) of which the location is no longer known. It
is unusual for such a location to completely fall out of local knowledge, so
perhaps someone will have some record of it.
So if anyone knows
of any other references to the location of Sidh Buidbh, it would be exciting to
find it.
Thanks to Paul
Dillon from Portumna whose blog and Facebook page is where I initially read
about Sidh Boidh.
