Lough Neagh: polluted by animal waste products both now and in its myth-origin story…

Dining in a restaurant in a town near Lough Neagh last weekend, I noticed a spelling mistake on the ‘Specials’ menu. (Too chicken to try the fish, I went for the chicken.) I couldn’t help horsing around with the spelling mistake.

Lough Nag

Lough Neigh.
Ulster says nay
to spelling mistake
on menu display.

Dollaghan; trout:
in Lough were caught.
Not highly sought
after. Algal growth:

putrid; rancid.
I wouldn’t chance it.
Fish in a pan: it’s
doubtless madness.

Stormont totters;
parties sputter:
but they know on what side
their bread is buttered.

Farming scutter:
voters scunnered.
But not enough scundered
to change their number

and vote out the hallions.
But Greens are flagging,
while Gortnagallon
and Aghagallon

spew mega-litres
of micro-bacteria.
And zebra mussels —
attached to boat hulls —

pilfer the plankton
and see the sun in.
Algae: blooming;
fish stocks: ruining.

We should be its stewards,
yet planet is poorer.
Our children unmoored:
their options are fewer.

        Each i Loch nEathach
ag lorg deoch.
Uisce salach:
truailliú sa loch.

Uisce marfach;
cac leachtach;
madra galrach:
páiste brónach.

Capall ag fualú.
Tobar ag teilgeadh.
Tobar ag bá
Eochaidh Loch nEathach.

An Irish myth-origin for Lough Neagh has Eochaidh’s giant horse urinating. A well sprung up, which flowed so much that it drowned Eochaidh. Lough Neagh gets its name from Eochaidh’s lake (Loch nEathach, sometimes spelt Loch nEachadh). Iveagh has the same root: Uí Eachach Cóbha. Eochaigh derives from each, which is an older Irish word for horse (related to equus, the Latin for horse; as is equestrian). The surname Haughey derives from Eochaidh. The giant horse had been given to Eochaidh by Óengus (from which the surname Mac Aonghusa / McGuinness {chieftains of Iveagh} derives). Eochaidh’s horses had been killed by Midir after Eochaidh eloped with his (own) step-mother Ébhlinne. Óengus warned Eochaidh that on no account must the giant horse be allowed rest, to avoid certain death.

It seems grimly appropriate that this myth-origin story has the lake birth derived from animal waste products.

The Irish verses could be translated as:
A horse in Lough Neagh / looking for drink. / Dirty water: / lake polluted.
Deadly water; / slurry; / sick dog; / sad child.
Horse pissing. / Well spewing. / Well drowning / Eochaidh of Lough Neagh.

Philip McGuinness

Philip McGuinness taught at Dundalk Institute of Technology, plays mandolin with the Oriel Traditional Orchestra and loves to walk around and over the wee perfect hills of the Ring Of Gullion.