Cailleach: The Hag of Beara

An Cailleach Bhearra, or the Hag of Beara, is a wise woman figure embedded in the physical and mental landscape of western Ireland and Scotland. The Cailleach's (pronounced Ca-lock or Cay-luck) roots lie in pre-Christian Ireland, and stories of her relationship with that rugged landscape and culture still abound. She had a love affair with a sea god and her petrified body overlooks the Ballycrovane Harbour, from which she is reborn at the beginning of each of her many lives. Leanne O'Sullivan's poems explore the human origins from which the legend grew.