• Explore powerful feminine figures in Irish mythology including Warrior Queen Medbh, sovereignty Goddess Ériu, and the Cailleach (Wise Old Woman), revealing their roles in shaping Ireland’s landscape, culture, and seasons
• Trace Ireland’s foundational respect for the divine feminine from ancient Celtic traditions where kings married the land Goddess at coronation, through colonial repression, to modern reclamation with Saint Brigid becoming a national holiday in 2023
• Connect mythological sites to NextTribe’s 2026 Ireland itinerary highlighting Goddess energy in the west coast counties of Galway, Clare, and Kerry, including the Burren’s Cailleach-shaped landscape and the Beara Peninsula’s sacred resting place

There’s no more delicious moment in Irish Mythology than when Warrior Queen Medbh (pronounced Mayve) lays waste to her enemy’s army by inflicting the pain of childbirth upon them. It’s hard not to relish the thought of military manly men laid low by a phenomenon generally dismissed as kinda girly.

But then, there’s nothing girly about the fierce feminine figures of Irish mythology. Mere eye candy they will never be. They are, instead, forces of nature–powerful, indomitable and never-to-be-dissed.  

NextTribe takes small groups of women ages 45+ on fun, transformational trips. We’ll be heading to the Western Coast of Ireland in May 2026, with author Maria O’Loughlin as our guide. Learn more here.

In my country’s creation myth, respect for the divine feminine is foundational. Ireland was named for and by the sovereignty Goddess, Ériu. The Gaelic word for our country is  Éireann and it means “land of Ériu”. Back in the day, the Goddess only allowed my ancestors, the Gaels, to set foot on her soil after testing their worthiness with giant, magic Atlantic waves. She also insisted that this island would always bear her name. Thousands of years later, it still does.

Exuding Max Goddess Vibes

For many of those years (up until the Christian era), when a King was crowned, he literally married the Goddess as part of his inauguration ceremony. If things subsequently went out of balance in nature –bad harvest, sick animals, weird weather – everyone figured that the King must have disrespected the land Goddess in some way. If things continued to go badly over time, the People sometimes even concluded that their only reasonable option was to sacrifice him to her. The Goddess was to be partnered, never dominated or dissed!

For us Irish, the West is where the Goddess energy remains at its most potent.

So, while no men folk will be harmed in the making of NextTribe’s 2026 Ireland trip, the wild beauty of Ériu’s Atlantic west coast is guaranteed. For us Irish, the West is where the Goddess energy remains at its most potent. This part of the country succumbed least to “civilization” by our various colonial masters over the centuries. So, the wild, wind-swept, sea-sprayed counties of Galway, Clare and Kerry on the NextTribe itinerary exude max Goddess vibes!

The OG Bad-Ass

The goddess Medbh, looking every bit like the Warrior Queen she is.

And no Goddess dominates the West quite like Medbh, the Warrior Goddess Queen whose stomping ground included Galway and the whole western province of Connacht. One of Ireland’s most celebrated and re-told myths, the Táin Bó Cúailnge (The Cattle Raid of Cooley) starts with Medbh engaging in competitive pillow talk with her husband Ailill Mac Máta.

As the pair compare their wealth, she discovers, to her horror, that things are not quite as equal between them as she thought. Turns out he’s got one of the coolest cows in the country and it’s bumped his balance sheet beyond hers. Cows? Just go with it–they were the main currency in Ireland before the Vikings introduced coins in the 9^th Century.

The message of the myth is clear–war will rage if the feminine element is not equal to the masculine.

So, Medbh hears about an even cooler cow up north in Cooley and goes to war with the Northern Province of Ulster to get it so she can re-establish equality with her husband. Okay, so she was a bit of a hot head and it all got a bit out of hand, but the message of the myth is clear–war will rage if the feminine element is not equal to the masculine. They must be perfectly balanced for peace to reign!

Medbh might be imperfect and impulsive, but she’s always unapologetically ambitious and powerful. She inspires women to expect respect and to be brave in every aspect of their lives – personal, professional and creative. Very NextTribe!

She Who Made The Landscapes

The unique landscape is said to be made by the goddess flinging rocks from her giant apron.

Another force of nature who bestrides the landscape of the Southwest Coast is the mythical figure known as the Cailleach (pronounced Kyle-yack). In modern Irish, her name translates as “the witch,” but in older iterations, it means “Wise Old Woman” or “Veiled One”. It’s thought that she shaped the mountains, hills, and craggy coastal features in the Burren region of County Clare by flinging rocks from her giant apron.

But the Cailleach didn’t just shape the land here, she also controls the seasons and rules the dark months of the year, in particular. As the bringer of Winter, her arrival is celebrated at the start of November with the festival of Samhain (pronounced Sa-wayne) which also heralds the start of the Celtic New Year.

This may sound counter-intuitive, but the Celts didn’t dismiss winter as a mere dead season. Instead, they saw it as the crucible of life. Seeds need darkness and cold to germinate and so the Cailleach brings long nights, frost, and rest to assist them. Fun fact: when the Irish brought this tradition to America in the mid 19^th Century, it eventually became the inspiration for Halloween!

From the Burren to the Beara Peninsula

You can truly feel the energy of the Irish goddesses in the western part of the island.

Two areas especially associated with the Cailleach feature on NextTribe’s Ireland 2026 itinerary. The first is the Burren (meaning Rocky Place). Like the Cailleach herself, it appears “barren” but is, in fact, bursting with life. Its unique cracked limestone landscape may have inspired JRR Tolkien’s Middle Earth in Lord of the Rings, but it boasts such a biodiverse bounty of wildflowers, orchids, butterflies and pollinators that it’s been declared a UNESCO geopark. It is so unique that visitors and researchers flock from across the globe to marvel at it. Thanks, Cailleach!

Beara is the perfect place to tap into the goddess’s wild woman wisdom and Irish people sometimes come here to honor and commune with her.

There may even be an opportunity to thank the Cailleach in person on NextTribe’s next stop associated with her. The unspoilt, sea-scaped Beara Peninsula is home to the Cailleach’s current resting place.

It is here that she awaits the foretold return of her consort, Manannan Mac Lir, the Mythical God of the Sea. Beara is the perfect place to tap into her wild woman wisdom and Irish people sometimes come here to honor and commune with her. Known as the “Hag of Beara”, her age is considered not a curse, but a bright blessing.

Reclaiming the Goddess Mantle

On the Beara Peninsula: No country has progressed as far or as fast as Ireland in terms of women’s rights.

For all this reverence, I’ve often wondered why the feminine was so repressed in Ireland throughout the 19^th and 20^th Centuries. Personally, I’m convinced it was because the Goddess was always so powerfully present here, it must have felt like a threat.

I’m glad to say, though, that in recent decades, no western country has progressed as far or as fast as Ireland in terms of women’s rights (and rights generally). It’s a different country to the one I grew up – a complete 180!

These days, we seem to be reclaiming Goddess power as a nation. Literally. When the government here recently decided to introduce a new national holiday after the hardship of the COVID years, there was unanimous agreement that it should honour the Goddess Brigid (or her Christian version, Saint Brigid).

We too are birthing something new by reclaiming our kickass feminine deities and all they stand for.

Of course, everyone has heard of Saint Patrick, our Patron Saint, but our Matron Saint Brigid (who developed from the Goddess) was left languishing in the shadows while he got all the glory. Celebrated on 1st February, her day was finally declared a national holiday in 2023. It marks the beginning of spring and the Celtic Festival of Imbolc (which means “in the belly”). As a country, we too are birthing something new by reclaiming our kickass feminine deities and all they stand for–sovereignty, equality, balance, and respect for the wisdom of age.

Final fun fact: the Goddess Brigid rules new life, healers and poets, but also–brewers. So, let’s raise a glass to her now with our traditional toast – Slàinte! I think she’d approve.