According to legend, Ireland was conquered by multiple ‘invasions’ in pre-history, the latest being the conquest by the Goidels or Milesians from Northern Spain, a Gaelic tribe credited with introducing the Irish language. These fictional conquests were first compiled in the 11th/12th C. Lebor Gabála Érenn (Book of Invasions of Ireland) - the prime source for many later interpretations. However, the Milesian invasion is regarded as medieval pseudo-history by modern scholars - myth, rather than fact - in order to legitimise Irish genealogy within a biblical context. The series of events in which the Milesians take Ireland eventually culminates in the ‘Battle of Geashill’ between two brothers, Éremón and Éber (later anglicised to Hermon an Heber).  

Cruinne 

The sculptures take inspiration from mythology, the legendary battle and its fictional dating in the Bronze Age. Five galláin or standing stones commemorate some of the protagonists in the legend: Amergin, Éber and Éremón, sons of Míl as well as the Éremon’s wife Tea. The fifth is dedicated to Geashill itself, a place rich in heritage, history and mythology. Inserted into the stone are low-relief plaques inspired by Bronze Age shields, circular disks and a lunula, each interpreting the personas, attributes and topographical features associated with the individual. To reflect the subject matter, the metal is shaped by the ancient repoussé process, a process of alternating annealing/softening and beating the metal into shape. The ‘hoard’ references folklore accounts of local archaeology and consists of objects modelled by the local community, cast using Bronze Age methods. The name Cruinne refers to circularity, but also suggests the earth and the universe.  

The artwork was commissioned by Offaly County Council was funded by the Department of Rural and Community Development and Offaly County Council under the Town and Village Renewal Scheme and Creative Ireland

The Milesian Invasion 

After Íth spotted Ireland from a Tower in Galicia, the Milesians made two attempts to conquer Ireland. The second was led by the poet and law-maker Amergin and his seven brothers, the sons of Míl Espáne and Scota, who made landfall with thirty boats at Inber Scéne - Ballinskelligs Bay, Co. Kerry. Uttering the first words in the Gaelic language, he claimed Ireland with the ‘Song of Amergin’. At the battle of Tailtinn in Meath, the invaders then challenged and defeated the established supernatural race of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the tribe of the goddess Danu, and banished them to the otherworld. 

The Battle of Geashill 

Amergin established a new rule of kingship, dividing Ireland between two brothers: the Northern half along a Poet was granted to Éremón, while Éber Finn received the Southern half together with a Harper. This ruling, however, caused discontent later on and it was the ownership of three prominent hills in the centre of Ireland in particular which subsequently led to a battle between the two ruling brothers and their armies in which Éber, Éremon’s son Palap and three of his chieftains fell. Magh Dumhach, a plain in the neighbourhood of Geashill is often identified as the battlesite and local folklore associates a hill to the east with the gravemound of Éber and the slain chieftains. The dates for the events vary widely from an ambiguous ‘Fourth Age of the World’, sometime in the 1st to 5th centuries BCE. to the precise year 1,699 BCE in The Annals of the Four Masters. The latter, however, is based on arbitrary computation of reigns of kings in a 11th C. poem by Gilla Cóemáin. 

Amergin Glúingel

I am wind on sea
I am ocean’s voice

Amergin, son of Míl, was the poet and lawmaker of the Milesians. Together with his seven brothers, seven wives, forty chieftains and twenty-four servants he crossed in thirty boats from Galicia in Spain. On landfall, he claimed Ireland with the first poem in the Irish language. His judgement, of dividing Ireland between his brothers Éber and Éremón would prove contentious and culminated in The Battle of Geashill. A year later, he himself was killed by Éremon’s warriors at Bile Tened, now Moynalty, Co. Meath and buried at Millmount in Drogheda.

The shield representing Amergin is based on a 7th C. BCE bronze shield found at Lough Gur, Co. Limerick. Waves are spiralling towards the centre boss, symbolising his role in the voyage of the Milesians and his claiming of Ireland on landfall. The amount of bosses reflect the number of chieftains, boats, waves crossed and brothers respectively.

Éber Finn

Éber Finn, king of the south,
slain at the Battle of Geashill

Éber Finn, son of Míl and older brother of Éremón was granted the reign of Ireland’s Southern half by Amergin. Eber received a harper and stewardship of music, so that ‘from the South there ever cometh tunefulness of music”. Dissatisfied with the division of three prominent hills, he challenged Éremón in battle and was slain at the Battle of Geashill. He was “interred beneath that grassy mound, which eastwards lies of Geashill’s royal road on which now heavy oxen feed”

Éber’s shield combines prime number symbolism with Iron Age La Têne decoration which was found on one of the most spectacular musical instruments discovered in Ireland: the Loughnashade Trumpa found near Armagh City. The decoration is often interpreted as a Lotus flower.

Éremón

Éremón himself was then king
of all the kingdoms alone.

Éremón, the seventh son of Míl and younger brother of Eber was granted the reign of Ireland’s northern half by Amergin. Eremon also received a poet, together with two of three contested hills for which Éber would challenge him at the Battle of Geashill. Palap, his son was killed there by Éber’s son. After Éber’s death, Éremón became high-king and built a rath at Airgetros, above the River Nore, where he was buried after seventeen years of kingship.

The La Têne decoration on Éremon’s shield derives from the triskelion design on a 2,000 years old bronze disk found in the River Bann near Coleraine, Co. Derry. Here, complex spiral patterns emerge from three hills and terminate in a single peak - a metaphor for Éremon’s singular kingship evolving from the battle for three hills.

Tea

Tea got a fortress built for herself
which is now called Teamhair

Tea, daughter of Lugaid, son of Íth, who first discovered Ireland on the horizon, was the second wife of Éremón. She chose Druim Chain, the hill of Tara, as part of her dowry, which, according to legend, was named after her: Teamair - the walls of Tea. She died in the year before the Battle of Geashill and was interred at her royal rath in Tara.

Tea is represented by a sculpture that is inspired by a Bronze Age lunula, a type of gold neck jewellery unique to Ireland of the time. Instead of the typical herringbone decoration, the topography of the Iron Age earthworks of Ráth na Ríoch on the Hill of Tara: Teach Chormaic and the Forradh.

Geashill

Plain and Bog. Bog and Wood,
Wood and Bog, Bog and Plain.

The town land of Ballytogher is the site associated with the battle. It is a landscape of bogs, plains, ancient woodlands, and an esker ridge, provided an elevated causeway to the ancient site of Tara. A togher - a prehistoric trackway - provided passage through the extensive boglands of Offaly. While the root of the name Geashill is uncertain, it has been translated as ‘Place of Swans’, and ‘The Land of Wondrous Deeds’, but it may be one of a few Irish placenames of pre-Celtic origin.

A unique object in European archaeology is used to represent the place and to explain the world view of the 17th C. BCE in which the battle allegedly took place: the sky disk of Nebra, East Germany. It represents a full and sickle moon and the constellation of Pleiades and a total of 32 stars and is understood as a means to calculate celestial and solar calendars - incidentally some researchers have calculated the celestial arrangement on the disk to the 12 April 1,699 BCE…