In the week that’s in it, The Ploughing Championship, I have Eochaidh on my mind and how Midir was so enraged by the future he foresaw once man had spied on him and learned how his people ploughed.
In fairness, Midir is never far from my mind, I think he lives there with all the rest of “Them” from “The Wooing of Etain.”
There’s a detailed passage in the legend all about how “They” ploughed:
” Now until that night, the men of Ireland used to put the strain on the foreheads of oxen (but) it was seen that the folk of the elfmounds were putting it on their shoulders. Eochaid did the same. Hence, he is called Eochaid Airem i.e. ploughman, for he was the first of the men of Ireland to put a yoke upon the necks of oxen.” https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T300012/text003.html
We learned from then on to turn the earth much faster, produce more, and continue to keep getting faster and keep producing. Our human flaw of wanting more and wanting it now. No waiting to smell the roses.
I was watching “The Ploughing” on the news and the scale of it is amazing, fair play to them but it also saddened me, the size of the big machines, the way we’ve embraced industrial farming with glee here despite seeing the devastation it has caused all over the world.
It is a vicious cycle that we need to break out of fast. Farmers and all of us are stuck in the system and just want to take care of our families and their future. Large-scale everything is destroying the finite world we live in, from pharmaceutical to education, commercial to construction, and the great big war and money-making machines.
If the soil and water are destroyed, there will be no future for anyone except those who on a whim can take a flight to Mars and start again.
Midir knew, and that was where his rage came from when he put a fault in the road. Eochaidh wanted more and wanted it fast. He tasked Midir with impossible feats:
” A causeway over Móin Lámraige
a wood over Bréifne, without difficulty,
a clearing of stones from the hillocks of great Meath and rushes over Tethba.” https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T300012/text003.html
Without difficulty…. even Midir thought it too much. . ‘Thou layest too much upon me,’ said Midir.”https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T300012/text003.html
My mixed emotions battled it out about the ploughing. It is a great event and coming together, an Aonach if you will, certainly as important in modern life as those in the past were to our ancestors but what it represents in the destruction of the land and mass consumerism doesn’t sit well.
There is evidence of farming here since early Neolithic times, and for most of that long period to relatively recently we worked with the land and knew the plants, birds, animals like we knew ourselves:
“the pre-bog field system at Céide Fields pertains to the Neolithic and indeed the earlier part of the Neolithic as known from Ireland, Britain and much of north-western Europe including Scandinavia” https://www.universityofgalway.ie/about-us/news-and-events/news-archive/2020/february/new-nui-galway-research-confirms-the-ceide-fields-date-back-to-early-neolithic-age.html
Industrial farming crept in with the likes of not so good man and has destroyed the soil, the rivers, and hedges. The biodiversity of this mostly agricultural island is in crisis:
“Scientific assessments of the state of nature in Ireland have found that 85% of our EU-
protected habitats are in unfavourable status, with almost half (46%) demonstrating ongoing declines. This is having negative impacts on wildlife. Almost a third of our EU-
protected species are in unfavourable status, and over half of native Irish plant species have declined. Over half of our 100 bee species have undergone substantial declines, and 30% are threatened with extinction, 21% of breeding, and 52% of key wintering bird species were reported to have short-term declining trends.”
Ireland’s 4th National, Biodiversity Action Plan, Ireland’s 4th National Biodiversity Action Plan 2023–2030, available at: https://www.npws.ie/sites/default/files/files/4th_National_Biodiversity_Action_Plan.pdf
There is hope, though, hope being one of the most human traits of all. Late last night on TG4, a program came on about the tradition of Winterage in the Burren and the farmers that spoke on that are well worth listening to. Farmers have always been entrepreneurs and inventors, and they’ve noticed how monoculture, industrial fertiliser, and so forth is destroying the land and water while creating longer hours of work for them for little reward. They are in the process of renewing themselves and the land in pockets all over Ireland. Farming For Nature is a movement in this direction, and the program is well worth a viewing. Have a look, and sure, maybe we will all go and show our support this Samhain and learn to return to the cycle of nature that starts at that time. Our ancestors knew, and it would make Midir proud.
Caomhnóirí na Talún (1-3) | Player | Irish Television Channel, Súil Eile
#Ploughing #ThewooingofEtain #Midir #Eochaidh #Biodiversity #FarmingforNature #Samhain #WinterageintheBurren #TG4
Ann Gerety Smyth 
As they say, plough on!
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