A Celtic Chronology

Anno Domini

10-100 During this period the Celtic tribes in Ireland vigorously raided and immigrated into Wales, Scotland, Cornwall, and Brittany.

43 The Romans again invade Britain, led by Aulus Plautius.

The Durotiges of the Dorset area offer stiff resistance

50 Approximately during this period there was a Milesian King of Ulster named Conor Mac Nessa. MacNessa had a wife named Maeve, she was a strong willed woman. Their marriage did not last long. Maeve left Ulster and married the King of Leinster, that too did not work out, she next married the King of Connacht. Each time she married, she increased her wealth. There was an argument with her new husband over who had the most wealth, this was important, because as stated above, it meant who ran the household. In this case it was the Kingdom of Connacht. She was the daughter of an Ard Rígh, and had been the wife of two kings of Ireland, she did not like it when people referred to her as the King’s wife. The argument got serious as to who had the most wealth, to the point there was a count made. After all the jewels, land, slaves, and other property was counted, it was found the King owned an especially fine brown bull that made him the richer.

Maeve was aware of a bull in Ulster, from her days with Conor MacNessa, which if she owned, would make her more wealthy than her husband. The owner of the bull would not sell it. Maeve was determined to have it. She raised an army for the purpose of going into Ulster and taking it. She offered land to Firbolgs in Alba if they would return and fight for her. When a large number of them accepted and began to arrive in Connacht, Conor MacNessa became alarmed. Knowing his former wife, he prepared for an invasion. MacNessa was a warrior king who had organized a band of warriors known as the Order of the Red Branch Knights. The Order brought security and prosperity to Ulster and allowed an environment in which the arts, music, art, and writing flourished. Now there was a threat to this level of civilization Ulster had never previously known.

Conor MacNessa sent his Red Branch Knights to intercept Maeve’s Firbolg Army before it entered Ulster. The leader of the Red Branch Knights was the warrior, Cuchullain. He single-handedly killed so many of Maeve’s soldiers that she tried to bribe him. Cuchullain would have none of it, but he did ask Maeve to send him her best soldiers, and he would fight them one at a time. Maeve agreed and all she sent were killed by Cuchullain. She then called for Ferdiad, the best warrior in Connacht, and Chief of an order known as the Fir Domnann (Knights of the Sword).

Ferdiad would not fight Cuchullain, they were friends. They learned the art of being a warrior from the same teacher. Maeve made it a point of honor between Connacht and Ulster, and so Ferdiad took up the sword against Cuchullain. They fought furiously during the day, for three days. Neither emerged as the victor, nor as the vanquished. At night they camped together.

On the fourth day Cuchullain was able to kill Ferdiad. He immediately began to mourn his friend. The Red Branch Knights, led by Conor MacNessa, then attacked the Firbolg Army of Maeve, and routed them.

After a relatively short time, Maeve was able to regroup her army and to again approach Ulster. One of the reasons Maeve was able to have another army in the field so quickly was because hardly a family in Connacht did not have at least one of its members killed by Cuchullain. They wanted revenge and sent more sons to accompany the Firbolgs. Again the Red Branch Knights led by Cuchullain blocked the way. This time things were different.

In the interim, Conor MacNessa did something that broke the unity of the Red Branch Knights. There was a girl in Ulster named Deirdre whom a druid prophesied would bring hurt, harm, and evil to Ulster. She was exiled to Alba, where she matured into one of Ireland’s most beautiful women. The King of Alba wanted to take her for his wife. To escape him, she fled with her true love, a knight of the Red Branch and two of her brothers. Conor MacNessa sent a trusted aide to kill these men and to bring her to him, that he might enjoy her renowned beauty. This was done. Deirdre’s sorrow and misery was so great that Conor became displeased with her and was sending her away. MacNessa was riding in the chariot with her on the first part of her journey that was eventually to take her far away to another man to whom MacNessa had given or sold her. When the chariot reached a high speed, Deirdre leaped from the chariot head first onto a large rock, killing herself.

Besides Deirdre’s family and the family of the Knight of the Red Branch who was her true love, Conor also earned the displeasure of the King of Alba and his men, as well as his own Knights of the Red Branch, who found it difficult to accept that their own king would kill one of them over an exiled woman.

The Army of Maeve was strengthened with personal feelings for revenge against Cuchullain, and vengeance against Conor MacNessa, and by additional men from Alba who wished to punish the Ulsterites for taking Deirdre in the first place. On the other side, the Red Branch Knights were weakened with internal dissension over the incident.

Cuchullain took the lead in the first battle, somehow he was pierced by his own spear. The battle stopped. With great difficulty and with both sides watching him, Cuchullain, holding his entrails, tied himself into a standing position against a rock. No one dared approach. He died standing up, sword in hand. No one moved near him until the vultures landed on his corpse and began rending the flesh.

The battle was joined again and Conor MacNessa emerged the victor, but the Milesian hold on Ireland had already begun to weaken from within as result of MacNessa’s indiscretion. About this time in Jerusalem, there was a member of the Red Branch Knights called Conal Cearnach. He was in the city when Jesus of Nazareth was crucified. He later was in Ulster and had a conversation with Conor MacNessa. He learned there was a day in Ulster when the day turned to night at mid-afternoon, this was accompanied with great lightning and high winds. Conal explained that was exactly the way it was in Jerusalem the day the man called Jesus Christ was crucified. MacNessa asked who was the man called Jesus, and Conal told him he was a man of peace who wanted to help all men, and loved all men. He told MacNessa the teachings of Christ provided for a better world, but he was crucified for saying it. Conor MacNessa, it is said, flew into such a rage, of the Romans inhumanity to this man of humanity, that he died of the strain.