Ancient Irish gathered each Bealtaine at Uisneach, pronounced ish-nacht, to celebrate and pray for the fertility of the coming growing season.
Uisneach is considered the sacred center of Ireland, and the ancients weren’t too far off the mark, according to Marty Mulligan, a tour guide and chief supporter of Uisneach. The site is only about four kilometers off from being at the exact geographical center of Ireland.
Irish and visitors still gather at Uisneach each Bealtaine — better known as May Day or May 1 — for the annual fire festival — except when it gets rained out, as it does in some years. The festival at Uisneach is much tamer than it is in some places. Families come out for a day of music, picnicking and, in the evening, the lighting of a huge bonfire that signals the coming of summer. It’s easy to get chill bumps when answering fires are lit and become visible on far away hills surrounding Uisneach.
Uisneach is sacred, too, because it is considered the home and burial ground for some of Ireland’s gods and goddesses. It is said that Lugh, the Irish sun god, drowned in the lake at Uisneach. Dagda, the “good” god, is said to have lived there a while and to have stabled his horse there. Uisneach has long been associated with horses. Éiru, the goddess who gave her name to Ireland, is buried here beneath the cat stone, a formation, actually of five stones, that are said to resemble a feline with a really big head and also to contain a map of the five provinces of Ireland.
Ireland today has only four provinces — Leinster in the east, Ulster in the north, Connacht in the west, and Munster in the south. According to legend, however, a fifth province, Mide, also existed. It was the land of imagination and magic, the Irish Otherworld, which was accessible through the cat stone.
St. Patrick was among Uisneach’s most famous visitors, as was the last high king of Ireland, Brian Boru.
To visit Uisneach is to feel its power and its magic. To visit Uisneach at Bealtaine, well . . . .
The site where the palace at Uisneach is thought to have stodd. 
A sculpture of children playing in the lake at Uisneach.
Hawthornes dot the landscape at Uisneach. A giant horse dominates one of the Uisneach hills.
The route of the fire processional. A goddess sculpture.
Links
Dublin, Newgrange and the Hill of Tara
