COOLEY: A SELF ENCLOSED KINGDOM?

A new book that ‘explores Ireland’s most enchanted places’ features the Land of Legends - Louth - with particular emphasis on Cooley and the Boyne Valley.

‘Legendary Ireland - Myths and Legends of Ireland’ has just been published by The O’Brien Press and author Eithne Massey says writing the book was a labour of love and ‘a product of a lifelong attachment to the places and stories of my native Ireland’.

The book is divided into the provinces and The Cattle Raid of Cooley features prominently.

Massey writes: ‘ The Cooley peninsula carries resonances of past battles and ancient divisions. From the time of the great epic of the Tain Bo Cuailigne, it marked the borderland between Ulster and Leinster, north and south.

‘ To the north of the peninsula lies Newry; to the south lies Dundalk. Yet it is, to an extent, a self-enclosed world of its own; the physical action of travelling from the urban sprawl of either town to the misty beauty of the hills gives the impression of leaving one world and entering another.

‘It is very east to imagine it as a self-enclosed kingdom. The town of Carlingford with its lovely harbour provides a pleasant base for time spent exploring the area. Once an important defensive town, Carlingford is of Norse origin and has preserved its ancient buildings to a degree that is unusual in Irish towns.

Massey goes on to say the peninsula is ‘ideal for the hill-walker’ and points to a number of other sites including the Long Woman’s Grave and Proleek Dolmen.

She also notes: ‘ This part of the county is very different from the area around prosperous Ardee, but the people still speak with the same slow musical accent, and still seem to take a long time in considering a basic question such as a request for directions.

‘Perhaps such hesitation is a result of having been so long a people of the borderlands, between North and South, between Celt and Norman, between a world of quiet farms and lovely hill, and one of great heroism and tragic battles’.

Legendary Ireland is available to buy in hardback priced €16.99