Hill of Tara

The Hill of Tara is an ancient Neolithic Age site in County Meath, Ireland. It was known as the seat of the High Kings of Ireland, the site of coronations, a place of assembly for the enacting and reading of laws, and for religious festivals.

The oldest monument at the site is the Mound of the Hostages, a Neolithic passage tomb, dating from c. 3000 BCE. The ring forts and evidence of other enclosures, such as the Banquet Hall, date from a later period. The Lia Fail (stone of destiny), by which the ancient kings were inaugurated, still stands on the hill. The site is also associated with the Tuatha De Danaan, the pre-Celtic peoples of Ireland and with the mystical elements they came to embody.

The great sabbats of pagan Ireland were announced by a bonfire on the hill which, at an elevation of 646 feet (197 m), would have been seen for many miles in every direction. It is said that St. Patrick announced the arrival of Christianity in Ireland by lighting his own large bonfire across from Tara at the Hill of Slane before going there to preach before King Laoghaire in 432/433 CE. The name comes from the Gaelic Cnoc na Teamhrach, which is often translated as “place of great prospect”, though it has also been argued it comes from a corruption of Tea-Mur or Teamhair, burial place of the ancient queen Tea.

The Hill of Tara plays a key role in the 11th/12th century CE work The Book of Invasions, considered today a mythical construct of Ireland’s early history by Christian scribes, who attempted to link Ireland’s past with biblical narratives and Greek and Roman history. It tells the story of early colonization by descendants of the biblical Noah and then a series of invasions culminating in the coming of the Milesians from Spain. Although the work is regarded as folklore and myth today, it was understood as history by its original audience and for centuries afterward.

The Milesians defeated the people known as the Tuatha De Danaan (the children of the goddess Dana) and, according to one version of the legend in the Book of Leinster, the Milesian poet and judge, Amergin, was given the task of deciding which race would hold what land.

He divided Ireland between the two by giving his own people all the land above ground and the Tuatha De Danaan everything underground. This legend explains the homes of the ‘fairy folk’ of Ireland who live in caves, under the ground in holes, and in the nooks and crevices of rocks.

Two Milesian brothers, leaders of their people, divided the land between them with Eremon taking the northern half and Eber the south. With the land divided, the brothers then divided their armies equally and then the craftsmen and the cooks and so on with men and women of all the arts until there remained only two left: a harpist and a poet. The writer Seumas MacManus relates the rest of the tale: “Drawing lots for these, the harper fell to Eremon and the poet to Eber - which explains why, ever since, the North of Ireland has been celebrated for music, and the South for song” (11). The brothers, with everything equally divided, then settled down to a long peace.

World History