The Tara Skryne (Gabhra) Valley in Early Irish Literature
by - Dr. Muireann Ní Bhrolcháin

The area known as the Gowra (Gabhra) Valley lies between the Hills of Tara and Skryne, the precise area threatened by the proposed tolled M3 motorway. The valley is criss-crossed by little brooks fed by the springs around Tara and the Gabhra is one of these streams.

Conor Newman describes it thus:

"A small stream, known today as Gabhra, feeds into the River Skane at Dowdstown Bridge to the north-west of the Hill of Tara. The Gabhra owes its origin in part to two notable springs on the eastern flank of the Hill of Tara, which served as wells from antiquity into modern times. The first of these, known locally as St. Patrick's Well (possibly Liaig), is still in use today and can be found to the east of Ráith na Ríg, protected by a small masonry vault (Pl. 16). The second spring, possibly Nemnach (by reputation the site of the first mill in Ireland; Petrie 1839, 163), is located at the south end of the field containing Ráith Lóegaire. Both of these sources eventually feed into a small lake, which is part of the formal garden of Tara Hall (now demolished), and thence flow as a stream down a deep, narrow gorge (which was landscaped into a cascading watercourse during the last century) due east of Tara. The stream issues from the gorge into the valley between Tara and Skreen and turns northwards on its journey towards the Skane at Dowdstown Bridge. In 1993, the ornamental lake and watercourses beside Tara Hall were extensively bulldozed and filled. Another pond (32:55; Pl.2), drawn as a square on the first-edition OS map sheet 32, lying further to the east of Tara Hall, adjacent to a field boundary, was also being partially filled with rubble at this time. Finally, the River Hurley, a tributary of the River Nanny, drains an extensive area of land south and west of Skreen".²

The word survives in the genitive case Gabhra (Gabhra Valley), and the common usage in modern Irish is gabhar (goat). However, the Dictionary of the Irish Language has two relevant entries (i) gabor, “goat” and it mentions, for example, gaborchind “goat headed”. But there is a second meaning to the word (ii) “horse, esp. white one, mare,” which would indicate the meaning “horse-headed”.
It is important that we listen to the stories that our place names relate. They form part of our identity in the same way as personal names and surnames. The gradual loss of the Irish language alienates people from this age-old identity and new place names, such as those used in some modern housing estates, often bear no relationship to the environment upon which they are imposed. The unprecedented development taking place in Ireland over recent years is altering the landscape irrevocably and the disappearance of such features as a rath (enclosure) or a muilleann (mill) can leave an area divorced from its traditional place name containing that particular element.
In his exposition of the essential status of landscape among the Western Apache, Keith H. Basso dramatically illuminates the quintessential position of places within human culture. All Apache place names have stories that baptised the landscape. He says:

"Thus performed and dramatized, Western Apache place-making becomes a form of narrative art, a type of historical theatre in which the “pastness” of the past is summarily stripped away and long-elapsed events are made to unfold as if before one's eyes. It is history given largely in the active present tense …"³

This could also describe many of our Old and Middle Irish texts where the present tense is often used. Also these Irish texts frequently end by highlighting the importance of the places mentioned, emphasising how they are named and the significance of the their survival into the future.
The word gabor is incorporated in many others place names. For example, it appears in a number of instances in the text that tells of famous place names in Ireland, the Metrical Dinnshenchas (The lore of famous places). One of the first poems in the text, Temair V, is simply a list of place names from all over the country, but it includes both Loch nGabur (this is Loch da Gabar, Lagore) and a Ráth Gabra – both included in a long list of place names, most of them unidentified.
The poet finishes with the stanzas:

"The strongholds of Erin after these
I have left – I say without shame -
to someone else that shall be wiser,
who may traverse them unto Temair. Though there be over imperial Banba
famous kings – high their mirth!
no kingly authority is binding on them
save from the king that possesses Temair. Maelsechlaind, branch of bright fortune,
spreads peace about the ancient plain,
free from mortal pain beyond all generations, may he be in the kingship of Temair".

Ráth Gabra remains unidentified in this list of place names. Is it possible that this could refer to the present day Rath Lugh (sic) which remains unidentified in earlier sources?
A further occurrence of the word Gabra is in the poem Brug na Bóinde ii in the place name Lecht Gabra. This poem discusses Newgrange and various stories and events connected with it. It says:

"Know ye the Grave of the Horse (Lecht Gabra) of the king
Cinaed free from rigour of need?
he bore off victory from fleet ones of the bridle
at the will of the son of noble Írgalach".

The place name Gabra is also found in another poem Bend Étair ii in a description of the journey that Conaire, king of Tara, makes as he attempts to escape his murderers.

"This was their road from Long Laga,
along far-stretching Tond Uairbeoil,
to Glenn da Gruad across Gabair
across Suan and across Sencharaid".

A prose section at the end of the Metrical Dinnshenchas mentions Gabar in an explanation of the name Glaisse Bulga and says:

"Glaisse Bulga, whence the name? Not hard to say. Glass, daughter of Deg mac Dedad, reared Oscar, son of Oisín, son of Finn. Cairpre son of Cormac ua Cuinn slew Oscar in the battle of Gabair: and Glass came from Luachair Dedad in the west to keen over her nursling at his father's house. When she saw the house at a distance with Oscar's family and foster-brothers round him, she fell backwards and expired, so that all said: Glass lies here prone like a sack, and it is her name that shall cleave to this land till doomsday. Hence it was said: Glass-ben, daughter of Derg son of Deda reared Oscar – a notable honour: her heart broke, in sooth, on the slope at Glaisse Bulga".

Here is the association between the death of Oscar, Cairpre Lifechair, and the Battle of Gabair that is known throughout Fiannaíocht literature as is shown below. According to this saga cycle, the Fianna “are brought to an end in the cataclysmic Battle of Gabair for the forces of the new king of Ireland – Cormac's son and successor Cairpre, who dies in the struggle along with the great young Fenian hero Oscar and most of the other fénnidi.” It was here that the Fianna were finally decimated and it seems clear that the location of this battle is the present-day Gabhra Valley. The four saga cycles of early Irish literature, Mythological, Ulster, Fiannaíocht and Cycle of the Kings, intersect in the lore of the Gabhra Valley as befits the most important landscape in the country. As well as the destruction of the Fianna, their enemy in the battle, Cairpre Lifechair, was killed in the same battle. He was the son of Cormac mac Airt, the most famous of the prehistoric, legendary kings of Tara.
Significantly, the battle is mentioned at the beginning and at the end of the longest and most significant Fiannaíocht text Agallam na Senórach. The text has been recently translated again under the title Tales of the Elders of Ireland and this is the translation used below. The battle is mentioned along with the two others, Cath Chomair and Cath Ollarba, and at the end of the text the principal characters meet with the sixth-century king, Diarmait mac Cearbhaill, at Tara.

The text states at the beginning:

"After the battles of Commar, Gabair, and Ollarba, the Fían was destroyed. The survivors scattered, in small bands, across Ireland and, by the time our story begins, only two of the nobles of this ancient Fían were still alive: Oisín, the son of Finn mac Cumaill 'the son of Cumall', and Caílte, the son of Crundchú, son of Rónán". (p 2)

A short while later the text describes their meeting with Cáma, an old guardian of Fionn mac Cumhaill and says:

"she spoke with them of the Fían … the Battle of Gabair and other matters". (p 2)

Slightly later on, the text says:

"It was then that Patrick asked Caílte,
“What caused the destruction of all your Fían?”
“The two battles that we fought at the end,” said Caílte, “the battle of Gabair and the Battle of Ollarba. We came in our three battalions to give battle at the Estuary of Ollarba, and only six hundred us came away. Until then Finn had always had confidence in the Fían, whether in battle or combat, but on this occasion he was struck by the loss of the chiefs, lords, and champions, and the soldiers and retainers that fell in these battles". (p 35)

At the very end of the saga, the two remaining noble warriors end their journey in Tara and tell the incumbent king, Diarmaid Mac Cearbhaill, of the demise of the Fianna at the Battle of Gabair.

"Caílte and Oisín went then to Tara, and told much knowledge and true lore in the presence of the men of Ireland, and all that they said was preserved by the ollaves of Ireland". (p 220)

The text continues:

"The King of Ireland then asked them: “Who killed Cairbre Lifechair, son of Cormac, in the Battle of Gabair?”
“Oscar, son of Oisín, killed him,” said Caílte.
“A noble deed,” said Oisín.
“Who else did he kill?” asked the king.
“Orlám, the king of the Fothairt (Forth) in the south,” said Oisín, “a beloved warrior that was with me and with my father before me.”
Oisín recited these lines:
“Orlám, the King of Fotharta's son, not a gentle man.
Brother of Brónach, Cairbre Lifechair's bane.”
“And Oscar then, who killed him?” asked the king of Ireland. “A single cast of Cairbre Lifechair, son of Cormac, killed him.”
“And Mac Lugach, who killed him in the battle?” asked Diarmait, son of Cerball.
“Bresal, son of Éirge, the son of the king of the Irish Vikings who had come here, and he was the leader of the household of the king of Ireland.”
That was the last evening of the Feast of Tara, and they spent that evening in drinking and pleasure. The hosts arose in the morning and the men of Ireland went off to their own territories and provinces and places of origin. The king of Ireland went off early in the morning to the Stone of the Druids to the north-east of Tara with his wife, Bé Binn, the daughter of the king of Scotland, Alasc, son of Aengus.
“I desire,” he said to his wife, “to go on the noble circuit of Ireland, and wish you to stay in Tara to attend the elders, so that no reproach or rebuke may come to me from the men of Ireland". (pp 221-2)

There are further references to the battle in a poem in the Book of Leinster. The introduction says: “Ossin sang – At the Battle of Gabair Oscur was killed and Cairpre Lifechair.” The poem describes how Cairpre and Oscar killed each other and continues:

"I was in the battle myself
On the south side of green Gabair
I killed twice fifty warriors
I killed them with my own hand". (baiss)

The battle is also mentioned in the Book of Leinster genealogies where Cairpre Lifechair's death is recorded. It says: “Cairpre Lifechair 18 years or 26 years until he fell in the Battle of Gabair by Senioth mac Cirb of the Fotharta.”
The Annals of Tigernach uses a slightly different and much more pointed place name, stating that Cairpre Lifechair fell by Seniach mac Fir Chirb do Fothartaib. It says:

"Coirpre Lifeochair cecidit a Cath Gabhra Aithle la Seniach mac Fir Chirb do Fothartaib". iiiim.cel.viiii. (“Cairbre Lifechair fell in the Battle of Gabair Aithle by Seniach son of Fer Cirb of the Fothairt.”)

In the translation the editor says that Aithle should read Aichle. Achall, of course, is the old name for Skryne and this reference firmly links the two places together. Achall belongs to the Ulster Cycle and she is a daughter of Cairpre Nia Fer and of Feidlem Noíchrothach, wife of Glan son of Carbad. Her brother was Erc son of Cairpre Nia Fer and she died of grief when he was killed. There is a poem on Achall in the Metrical Dinnshenchas that explains how the place was named and linking it to Tara:

"Achall over against Temair,/ the youths from Emain loved her;/ she was mourned when she died,/ the white bride of Glan, son of Carbad.
The daughter of Cairpri perished,/ the daughter of Fedelm Noichruthach,/ from grief of Erc, (provinces were filled with it),/ who was slain in vengeance from Cú Chulainn.
Conall Cernach brought the head of Erc/ to Temair about the hour of three;/ sad was the deed was done by him,/ the breaking of the cold heart of Achall".

The poet ends:

"Amlaib of Ath Cliath the hundred-strong,/ who gained the kingship in Bend Etair;/ I bore off from him as price of my song/ a horse of the horses of Achall. There came to Temair of the kings/ Colum Cille free from sorrow;/ by him a church is founded there/ on the hill where Achall was buried".

In the later period, in the collection of Fenian lays, Duanaire Finn (The Book of the Poems of Finn), the poem beginning A Oisín cía in feart dona (Oisín what sad mound is this?) is entitled by the editor Gerard Murphy, 'The battle of Gabair'. Patrick discusses the graves of the Fianna with Oisín. It begins:

"Oisín, what sad mound is this/ that holds the long grave?/ Tell us, blameless old man, what grave-mound,/ it is which is thus greater than the rest. (stanza 1) I have a tale for thee Patrick,/ for whom bells are rung,/ concerning the guileless host of Tara/ and the beautiful Fiana of Ireland". (stanza 10)

The poem explains that Cairpre Lifechair, son of Cormac mac Airt's son, asked Fionn for the hunting of Ireland and that it was refused. The Fianna send messengers to Cairpre in Tara giving notice of battle. Cairpre asks for his allies to join him, including another Oscar, the son of Garaidh.

"Osgar, son of glad Garaidh
advanced to Tara.
When he found not the king of Tara there
he went to Gabhair. (stanza 35) On the dread plain of Gabhair,
chaste cleric,
we set a fence of shields and sharp ungentle point
around the lord of Ireland and Oisín. (stanza 51) Many a shield was in fragments
on the hateful plain of Gabhair,
and many a body too lay wounded from the deeds
we did on one another". (stanza 54)

The poet tells of all the dead, explaining that the Fianna are wiped out and that Cairpre Lifechair, king of Tara dies. He has watched over their graves:

"Long have I been reckoning them up,
son of Calphrann, cleric,
watching their beautiful graves
on the many-fielded plain of Gabhair". (stanza 78)

The notes on the poem tell more:

"This poem on the Battle of Gabhair, of which the first line is A Oisín, cía in feart dona, differs from the poem on the same subject of which the first line is Mór anocht mo chumha féin, two quatrains from which are quoted by Keating in TBG2 5584sq., and also from the other poem on the same subject of which the first line is Innis dúinn, a Oisín. A composite poem composed of these other two poems on the Battle of Gabhair has been published by N. O'Kearney, Oss.Soc. 1 p. 68. The first line of this composite poem is Truagh liom Tulach na Féinne: the line Innis <sin> dúinn, a Oisín, occurs on p. 72; the line As mór anocht mo chumha féin on p. 110".

Duanaire Finn also contains a further poem, beginning A Lía Thulcha Tuaithe shuas (O stone above on Tualach Tuaithe) giving an account of the standing stones erected by the Fianna over the graves of various famous people:

"O stone of Gabhair of fierce horror,
planted by Caoilte son of Rónán
beneath whom lie two men of fierce courage, i. Mac Lughach and Osgar – (stanza 88) O stone here on Gabhair in the north
whom Fionn of the hard blades raised,
Cairbre Liffeachair, who was no weakling, lies beneath thee, along with his good son.(stanza 90) O stone here at the south on the steep hill,
raised by Oisín of the angry weapons,
the two sons of the king of Lochlainn beyond the sea
- beneath thee are those two men of might".

Kearney's book, as may be expected in the nineteenth-century, treats the battle as factual history and this is the case with most of the other authors he quotes as well. He also identifies the site of the battle as possibly being Garristown, Co. Dublin. The book contains the composite poem along with a folklore-based prose version, and another poem called 'War ode of Oscur in the battle of Gabhra'.
The composite poem is a dialogue between Patrick and Oisín, describing a slightly different scenario, and the location of the battle is not clear from the context. It says:

"Patrick: Narrate to us, O Oisín,
in honor of the spirits of the Fenians;
which of you were the strongest
in the battle of Gabhra of the strokes? Oisín: We were but few in number,
opposed to the provinces of Ireland:
Fionn and his people
were on their way to Rome. We numbered thirty sons
of the tribe of Fionn of the Fenians;
who bore shield and sword,
in front of conflict and battle. When we marched from Binn Eadair,
this was the number of our whole force;
ten hundred valiant Fenians,
in the bands of each man. The bands of the Fians of Alba,
and the supreme King of Britain,
belonging to the order of the Fian of Alba,
joined us in that battle. The Fians of Lochlin were powerful,
from the chief to the leader of nine men;
they mustered along with us,
to share in the struggle. There was Cairpre Liffeachair,
and the great hosts of Erin;
opposed to our power,
in the Battle of Gabhra of the strokes. There was Oscur, son of Garraidh,
and ten hundred active warriors;
augmenting the forces in that battle, in opposition to my son".

It continues by enumerating in detail the heroes killed in the battle particularly those who fell victim to Oscar himself. Oisín then describes how Oscar died in his arms and goes on to describe how they buried the dead:

"Great was the calamity to us then,
that he died in our arms! From that day of the Battle of Gabhra,
we did not speak boldly;
and we passed not either night or day
that we did not breathe deep heavy sighs. We buried Oscur of the red weapons,
on the north side of the great Gabhra;
together with Oscur son of Garraidh of renown -
and Oscur, son of the king of Lochlann. … The graves of the Oscurs, narrow dwellings of clay,
the graves of the sons of Garraidh and Oisín;
and the whole extent of the great Rath,
was the grave of the great Oscur of Baoisgne".

One of the physical features in the area of the Gabhra Valley that they could have imagined as being the “great Rath” and commemorative mound of the dead Fianna is the present-day Rath Lugh.
O'Donovan also mentions the Gabhra:

"Gabhra: I then asked him (informant) where the following places are situated according to the tradition amongst the ancient people viz. … 4. Gabhra … Gabhra: here a most tremendous [sic] battle was fought between Fin Mac Cooil and his militia and Carbry the son of Cormac Mac Airt, in which the former were cut off with dreadful slaughter, and their power finally destroyed. In this battle the most heroic Oscar, the son of Issin fell by the sword of King Carbry. Tradition says that the Gabhra (Goura) retains its name to this day and lies not far to the north of Tara. It is a valley through which a river, or large stream of the same name flows. If O'Connor does not ascertain the situations and present names of these places, I must visit them and it is more than probable that he will not as the traditions are forgotten in that side of the country.” (line 82) “Gabhra and Gabhra Aichil near Tara, Haliday says in a MS. of his, now in my possession, that Gabhra, the site of the battle in which the Fingallians were finally suppressed, is the present Garistown in the County of Meath, but he is most unquestionably wrong".

Daithí Ó hÓgáin also discusses the battle of Gabhra in his book on Fionn. He says:

"The other [battle] was the battle of Gowra, a fatal clash after the death of Cormac between the forces of Cairbre Lifeachair and the Fianna. It is therefore a final resolution in lore of the long-repressed rivalry between the interests of Fionn and those of the Uí Néill kingship; and it is significant that the surviving scion of the Morna clan, Oscar mac Garaidh, is put on the side of the Uí Néill in the fighting … The day was won, but the Fianna themselves were decimated. This was the battle which, according to the Colloquy, Oisín and Caoilte survived, thus giving the text the framework on which to hang its anthology of lore and legend".

Thus, Tara and the Gabhra Valley, is the point where our four story cycles unite in the juxtaposition of the deaths, burials and inaugurations of kings and heroes. Apart from the decimation of the Fianna, Tara, the Gabhra and Achall (Skryne) is where Cormac mac Airt lived and died, building Achall for himself in his old age, when due to the loss of an eye, he could no longer live in Tara, as blemished kings cannot reign. Lug, the most revered of early Celtic Gods and known throughout Continental Europe, is made king of the Tuatha Dé Danann in the Banqueting Hall on top of the Hill of Tara.
Finally and significantly, the hero of the Ulster Cycle is connected with the Gabhra Valley as Cú Chulainn's severed head is buried in Tara, although he is killed in his native place - Mag Muirthemne in Co. Louth. This is related in the twelfth-century Book of Leinster version of the tale:

"Cú Chulainn's right hand was struck off in vengeance. The hosts set out, and they took Cú Chulainn's head and his right hand with them until they reached Tara. That is the burial site of Cú Chulainn's head and his right hand and the whole panel of his gold shield".

It continues with a poem that says:

"His head is far from him
a firm fighter in Tara's hill.
His head is joined to Coirpre Nia Fer's trunk".

This is also mentioned in the text describing the place names of Tara:

"The triple rampart of Nessa, Conchobar's mother at the north-eastern end opposite the north-eastern end of Long na mBan to the north-east. Ráith Chonhobair meic Nessa beside the triple rampart to the north with its door in the east opposite Méide Con Culainn.
The site of Scéith cona Thuil is opposite the Méide to the north-east. Thus is this rath: level on the ground with a small hill in its middle, it hollow full of clay".

The Metrical Dindshenchas also mentions the burial of his head:

"The Measure of the Head of grim Cú Chulainn
lies north-east from Rath Conchobair;
the dimension of his Shield under its Boss
is wonderful and huge".

It is patently obvious that the Gabhra Valley itself, along with Tara and Achall at each end of the valley, was a theatre of significant action in all four of the main cycles of saga literature in early Ireland. This is also a landscape of significance from a historical and most particularly from a traditional point of view. The proposed motorway would obliterate all its commemorative importance, dividing Tara from Achall, Tara from Rath Lugh and dissecting the Gabhra Valley – the site of the last battle of the Fianna and the resting place of Oscar son of Oisín and of Cairpre Lifechair king of Tara. Effectively, the very core of early Irish mythological literature would disappear forever under a motorway's concrete and the concomitant development that will undoubtedly follow.