A feminist retelling of a well-known tragic love story from Irish myth.

My version of this story, generally known as Tóraíocht Dhiarmada agus Ghráinne, or ‘the Pursuit of Diarmuid and Grainne’, looks between the lines to extract the kernel of how things might have been experienced from Gráinne’s perspective.

In the standard telling, Gráinne is portrayed as a duplicitous scheming witch who will stop at nothing to get her own way. The story then ends with her sacrifice, as rather than return to Fionn after Diarmuid’s death, she throws herself under the wheels of Fionn’s chariot. Thus she redeems herself as the loyal, faithful wife.

But there is a local legend in Sligo where the couple are said to have lived that tells a different story.

This version was shared with me by the late John Wilmott of Nature Folklore, and in it, Gráinne continues to rule as a wise, benevolent and beloved Queen in her own right long after Diarmuid’s brutal end.

Of course, this tale of a powerful woman ruler does not fit with the Christian patriarchal narrative that likes women to be meek and subservient. Her tragic suicide is deemed preferable to notions of female autonomy.

But Wilmott’s story got me thinking, and suddenly, I found myself re-imagining other myths from a female perspective. It was really fun to question the status quo and read these familiar stories from a different angle. I now have a book-length manuscript of them, so let me know if you enjoyed this one, and perhaps I will share more of them with you.

Thanks for reading and listening, and don’t forget to hit that ‘like’ button, leave me a comment, and share with like-minded Hags!

Grá Mór,