Irish Goddesses
Aine
Goddess of love and fertility. She
was later known as an Irish Fairy queen.
Airmid
A healing goddess. She has responsibility
for medicinal plants.
She is the keeper of the spring that brings the dead back to life.
Brigit (also Bridget, Brighid,
Brigindo, Bride)
Goddess of healing and fertility, patroness
of smiths, poets and doctors.
Often symbolized by a white swan, or cow with read horns, she was though to be the
daughter of Dagda.
Her festival is that of Imbolc.
She shares attributes with the ancient Greek triple goddess,
Hectate.
The pre-Christian Brigantes, from whom her name derives, honoured her as identical to Juno, the Roman queen of
heaven.
Boann
Goddess of bounty and fertility, whose totem
was the sacred white cow.
She was the wife of Nechtan, a water deity.
One story is that the father of
her son was Dagda. Boann and Dagda made the sun stand still for nine months, so that their son was conceived and born
on the same day. This, they did, to hide their union from Nechtan.
Danu
(also Don in Welsh)
Danu probably existed earlier, as Anu, the
universal mother.
She is said to be the mother of Dagda, God of the Tuatha De Danaan.
Morrigan
Goddess of war and death.
Married
to Dagda, she is linked with negative femininity and the more fearsome characteristics of the triple goddess.
She
could transform into a crow or raven.
Sidhe
Ancient hill people, believed to be the spirits
of the dead.
Often referred to as Spirits of Nature.
Tuatha De Danaan
('People
of the goddess Danu')
Members of an ancient tree race, who inhabited
Ireland, before Danu made Dagda, her son, their god.
They perfected the use of magic and are credited with the possession
of magical powers and great wisdom.
The plough, the hazel and the sun, were sacred to them.
