Knock Knock, Open Wide

by Neil Sharpson

It didn’t matter that neither Feidhlim nor his neighbors could remember the details of his great-grandfather’s transgression. Memory was ephemeral. Hatred was a rock.

In Denmark, they call the static “myrekrig,” he remembered. A war of ants.

That is the purpose of Na Daoine Maithe. The awful and arbitrary cruelty of life, reduced to something that can be bargained with, reasoned, or outwitted. A face, put upon that which cannot be faced.”

She simply grabbed hold of an iron beam and slid down to ground level like a fireman.

I suspend disbelief for a lot of things, but this is over the line.

After all, that was the night that “With or Without You” had started playing and two women in the club had launched into a perfectly choreographed dance number.

Come tf on! Does any of this progress the plot?

And then they roared. Whoops of mighty approval. Feet stamping. Hands applauding.

They all clapped

“Well, you see, she was a triple-goddess. Three aspects to her,” the jeweler explained. “The sisters Badbh, Macha, and Neimhann (or Anand depending on who you ask). Each one represented one of the three pillars of the ancient Irish world. Badbh represented the filí.” “The poets?” Patricia asked. “Bards.” The jeweler nodded. “Keepers of song and story in the time before the written word. Very influential. Very powerful. Even the kings feared them, for they could destroy a reputation with a satirical verse or slanderous tale. Your ancestors, you might say?”

This one here, you see, is a Badbh ring. Silver. You also had Macha rings, in gold. And Neimhann rings in bronze. It was a tradition to give one to a young man or woman embarking on a new career. The Badbh rings were usually given to people entering into higher education or, say, a young woman becoming a schoolteacher. Anything to do with the written word, really. She represents the bards, you see. The Badbh. Macha was the goddess of the king, so Macha rings were given to those entering the civil service.” “And the bronze rings?” “Neimhann. Neimhann represented the druids. The priestly class. Naturally, the Neimhann rings were given to those beginning a life in the church.”

Neimhann. Badbh. Macha. Three as one. The Mór-Ríoghan. Goddess of slaughter and sovereignty. Phantom Queen.

To any reader who wishes to learn more about the incredibly rich, bafflingly under-exposed world of Irish mythology I would recommend The Irish Storyteller by George Denis Zimmerman, The Lore of Ireland by my former tutor the late, great Professor Dáithí Ó hÓgáin, Over Nine Waves by Marie Heaney, and, if you can lay hands on them, the works of Seán Ó Súilleabháin (unfortunately out of print).

is my personal opinion that if her presence on the curriculum had consisted less of accounts of the bleakness of Irish peasant life at the turn of the century and more farmers’ wives cuckolding their husbands with corpses possessed by the devil, the Irish language would be in rude and glowing health today. Ah well. The century is still young.