Cath Maige Tuired

Cath Maige Tuired (Modern Irish: Cath Maighe Tuireadh; transl. "The Battle of Magh Tuireadh") is the name of two saga texts of the Mythological Cycle of Irish mythology. The two texts tell of battles fought by the Tuatha Dé Danann, the first against the Fir Bolg, the second against the Fomorians.

Etymology

The Old Irish placename Mag Tuired (Modern Irish: Magh Tuireadh; anglicised Moytura or Moytirra) is believed to mean "plain of pillars" or "plain of towers". It refers to two separate places, both in Connacht: the first near Cong, County Mayo on the border with County Galway in the territory of Conmaicne Cuile; the second by Lough Arrow in County Sligo.

The First Battle of Mag Tuired

The first text, sometimes called Cét-chath Maige Tuired ("The First Battle of Mag Tuired") or Cath Maighe Tuireadh Cunga ("The Battle of Mag Tuired Conga") or Cath Maighe Tuireadh Theas ("The Battle of Southern Mag Tuired"), relates how the Tuatha Dé Danann took Ireland from the Fir Bolg, who then inhabited the island. It begins with the children of Nemed, an earlier group of inhabitants of Ireland, leaving for Greece to escape their oppression by the Fomorians. A group of Nemed's descendants, the Fir Bolg, return to Ireland and conquer it, occupying it for thirty years until the coming of the Tuatha Dé Danann, another group of Nemed's descendants.

The Tuatha Dé Danann, led by their king, Nuada, come to Ireland in three hundred ships from the islands of the north. Their arrival is foreseen in a dream by the Fir Bolg king, Eochaid mac Eirc. When they land, they burn their ships.