The Legend of Fionn Mac Cumhail
(Finn McCool)
Stories of Fionn abound but at the heart of each is this simple truth
Fionn Mac Cumhail gained an understanding of the past, present, future because of the magical salmon he ate from the River Boyne. By the time he died, he had amassed all the knowledge in the world long before Google.
He was big, very big, a giant in fact
So big that one day in a fit of temper he scooped a single clod of earth and hurled it into the sea creating Lough Neagh and the Isle of Man in a single throw. Lough Neagh is the largest freshwater lake in Britain, it’s said to be bottomless and exactly the same size as the Isle of Man so Mac Cumhail must have had a quare grip*.
The challenge that never was
One day, Fionn heard there was another giant, Benandonner who lived across the narrow, stor- tossed waters that separate the north coast of Ireland from the isle of Staffa in Scotland. Giant etiquette demanded that he fight his Scottish rival to see who was stronger, so he set to and built a causeway made of interlocking hexagonal stones, the Giants Causeway .
There is an alternative theory about the causeway being made from volcanic action but hardly worth considering.
Fionn arrived in Scotland to find a giant much larger than himself. He did the sensible thing and ran back over the causeway chased by the Scottish giant. When he got back Fionn’s wife, Oonagh, hid him in her baby’s pram.
If that’s the Baby…
Benandonner seeing Fionn in the baby’s pram took fright, if this was the baby how big must his father be? Now it was his turn to run back across the causeway destroying it behind him as he went.
The remains of each end of the Causeway can still be found on the Antrim Coast of Ireland and on Staffa at Fingal’s Cave. Proof positive if ever we needed it that Fionn Mac Cumhail was indeed the greatest giant that ever lived.
Our jewelry designers are often inspired by the landscape, the legends and even the weather that makes Ireland unique. Our Giants Causeway pendant and bracelet reflects the amazing interlocking shapes created by the big man, Fionn Mac Cumhail.
* Quare (pron: kwair) adjective Irish dialect
lovely, remarkable or strange – he’s a quare wee boy (Translation: he’s a lovely child)
big, great or good - yon boy’s got a quare grip on his country (Translation: That guy has big feet)
