Dáire/Dagda (Deity)

The attested bynames of the Dagda may then be outlined as follows.

Dagda: “Good God, Capable God”.

Eochaid: “the Horseman”.

Eochaid Feidleach: “the Eternal Horseman”.

Eochaich Salbudi: “the Horseman of the Yellow Brine”.

Eochaid Ollathair: “All-Father, the Horseman”.

Eocach maic Dhaíre: “the Horseman, the Son of Bulling”.

Dáire mac Fiachnai (Fiachrach): “He who Bulls, the Son of Vigor”.

Aedh Ruaid: “Mighty Fire”.

Aed Abaid Essa Ruaid : “the Lustful Fire (of) Mighty Flowing Streams”.

Rosa Ruaid: “of Great and Mighty (Flowing Streams) (or Knowledge).

Ruaid Rofhessa: “Mighty One of Great Knowledge”.

At Corbridge the bearded and helmeted god is portrayed with a wheel, a shield, and a crooked club (Ross 1968: pl. 65a). This portrayal with the crooked club and the wheel fits descriptions of Dagda contained in early Irish sources. In the Cath Maige Tuired, Dagda is described as having “behind him a forked branch with a wheel (gabol gicca rothach) which required eight men (to pull it)” (Stokes 1891: 87). A portrayal from Vienne (Esp.: 829) gives another depiction of this deity with the wheel, here standing by a bull.

Again this portrayal fits Irish Dagda, who under his byname Dáire is the owner of the bull Donn Cuailnge. When he accompanies Mórrígan to drive a cow to be bulled by Donn Cuailnge, he carries his wheeled club with him.

Old Irish fragment edited by Bergin (1927: 402) from YBL (fol. 176) gives several different bynames for the Irish god known as Dagda. The text states the following.

I am Aed Abaid Essa Ruaid; i.e., the Good God of druidic wisdom of the Túatha dé Danann, the Mighty One of Great Knowledge, and Eochaid All-father are my three (other) names.

the Dagda, is the father of Macha.

It is interesting to note that Roech, like Medb and her sisters Clothra (a byname for Ness, mother of Conchobar) and Eithne (a byname for Mumain), is descendent from a man called Echach (v. Eocach, Eochaid) (as in Cath Boinde). This character Eochach mac Dáire can be identified with Eochaid Ollather, Eochaid “the Great Father” or “the All-father”, otherwise known as the Dagda “Good God”. As we shall see, Roech “Great Horse” is simply an alternative name for Macha. Thus all three, Fergus, Roech-Macha, and Ailill were sired by Eochaid-Dagda.

Dáire accompanies Mórrígan in taking Nera’s cow to be bulled by Donn Cuailnge.

“a great man beside her (Mórrígan) in the chariot, a cropped tunic about him and forked club of hazel on his back, driving the cow before her”. This cropped tunic and the forked club (gabal-lorg) are the hall-marks of the Dagda. In the Cath Maige Tuired, Dagda is described in the following fashion.

The daughter of Indech (of the Fomoire) hurls this satirical rosc at the Dagda and his huge belly (full of porridge) as he is attempting intercourse with her. I provide a tentative translation of these difficult poetic lines only to clarify the nature of this text.

Large-bellied prong man, …

… excrement who lies with a bag,

cackle of a hen …

of licentious appearance, feeder of spells

the three corruptions of many-fold virtue,

cut off by a king, denied (even) a ?cow?,

quarreled (with) by a king, … who seems penalty-prone.

To obtain Ailill’s daughter Étáin for Midir in Tochmarc Étáine, the Dagda clears twelve plains (as Poseidōn builds Troy). Thus like Macha, the Dagda has a hand in bringing the land to its full agricultural potential.

Clipped from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A1ire\_mac\_Fiachna

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In the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology, Dáire mac Fiachna was an Ulster cattle-lord and owner of Donn Cuailnge, the Brown Bull of Cooley, over which the Táin Bó Cuailnge (Cattle Raid of Cooley) was fought.

Queen Medb of Connacht had discovered that her husband, Ailill, was richer than her to the tune of one extremely fertile stud bull, and resolved to even the account by possessing Dáire's great bull. She sent messengers to Dáire with an extremely generous offer of land and treasure, and if necessary sexual favours, if he would loan the bull to her for a year. Dáire agreed. However the messengers got drunk, and one boasted that if he had not agreed Medb would have taken the bull by force. When Dáire heard that he backed out of the deal, and Medb did indeed take the bull by force.

Following the medieval Irish genealogies, Dáire appears to have been a paternal relative of Conchobar mac Nessa.

Dáire mac Fiachna appears in the Táin Bó Regamon in a ghastly chariot alongside the Morrígan. He is described as a great man wrapped in a red cloak with a forked hazel staff at his back. The Morrígan first introduces him as h-Uar-gaeth-sceo-luachair-sceo before later revealing that he is Dáire mac Fiachna and the owner of the Donn Cuailnge.[1]

See also

Dáire

References

unknown. "The Cattle-Raid of Regaman". Celtic Literature Collective. Mary Jones. Retrieved 7 December 2019.

Cecile O'Rahilly (ed & trans), Táin Bó Cúalnge from the Book of Leinster, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1967, pp. 138–141

**Appears In**

**Family**

[[https://imgur.com/a/SsJjkks]]

Son: Bodb Derg

Daughters (Goddesses/Demi-Gods) as Eochaid-Dagda

* Macha

Daughter

* Ainge

Sons (Gods/Demi-Gods)

* Fergus
* Aillil
* Cermait

Are Fergus and Aillil Demi-Gods then?

**Timeline of Actions**