St. Patrick’s Day continues with this tale from Ireland’s ancient Book of the Dun Cow (Lebor na hUidre) in which the demigod Cuchulainn helps the saint convert Ireland to Christianity. Interesting blend of Christian and pagan elements. For more from the Book of the Dun Cow click HERE.
THE PHANTOM CHARIOT OF CUCHULAINN (Siaburchapat Con Culaind) – This tale is dated to around the mid-400s A.D. because of the presence of St. Patrick.
The story goes that St. Patrick pays a visit to the stubborn Loegaire mac Neill, a High King of Ireland, again entreating him to convert to Christianity. Loegaire tells Patrick that he will not believe in the God of Christianity unless that God can raise Cuchulainn from the dead and have him pay a visit to and converse with him (the king).
God immediately sends an angel to tell King Loegaire and St. Patrick that God will raise Cuchulainn and send him to converse with Loegaire near the ramparts of the fortress at Tam.
The next day, St. Patrick and King Loegaire are both on hand at the appointed place when Cuchulainn appears, riding in his chariot driven by his usual charioteer Laege. The demigod’s two horses – the Dub Sainglend (black horse of Saingliu) and the Liath Macha (gray horse of Macha) – are pulling the chariot.
Cuchulainn stops to interact with the two living men. To help kill King Loegaire’s skepticism, the demigod performs assorted feats that only a being who was more than human could perform. Continue reading
HAPPY SAINT PATRICK’S DAY! From People’s Favorite Magazine in 1916 to Argosy in the 1930s, the saga of Irish pirate and mercenary soldier Denis Burke unfolded from the pen of H. Bedford-Jones. The fictional buccaneer deserves to be remembered in the same breath 
Though purists reserve the label Wild Geese strictly for those Irish Jacobin troops who left Ireland after the Williamite War ended in 1691, romantic military tradition has tended to consider almost all Irish expatriates who served in overseas armies from the 1580s into the 1800s and beyond as part of “the flight of the Wild Geese.” 
A MODERN DAEDALUS (1887) – By Tom Greer. No, the title’s not referring to James Joyce’s character Stephen Dedalus (sic) but this tale IS about Ireland. The main character is a young man named Jack O’Halloran, a recent college graduate who returns to his native Ireland. 
Balladeer's Blog 