Irish Goddesses List • Names of the Irish Goddesses

The goddesses of Irish mythology are not gentle or decorative.

They rule over war, death, sovereignty, rivers, healing, and poetry. They shapeshift, prophesy, and decide the fates of kings. Some of them are terrifying. All of them are worth knowing.

They are organised below by the three great races of Irish myth — the Tuatha Dé Danann, the Fomorians, and the Fir Bolg.

Tuatha Dé Danann

The goddesses of the Tuatha Dé Danann are some of the most powerful figures in all of Irish mythology. Some of them are tied to the land of Ireland itself. Some haunt battlefields as crows. Some rule rivers, poetry, the forge, or the door between this world and the next.

Aibell | Aoibheall

A fairy queen of Munster, guardian of the Dal gCais dynasty — the family of Brian Ború. She appeared to Brian on the eve of the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 and told him he would not survive the next day. He fought anyway. The battle was won, and Brian died.

Áine | Áine

Goddess of summer, love, and the land. Her hill, Cnoc Áine in Co. Limerick, was the site of midsummer festivals well into the 1800s. She is associated with the sun, the fertility of the land, and the kingship of Munster. In some traditions she is a daughter of Manannán mac Lír; in others she is one of the oldest land goddesses.

Airmid | Airmid

Goddess of healing. Her brother Miach was a better healer than their father Dian Cécht, who killed him in jealousy. From Miach’s grave grew 365 healing herbs. Airmid gathered every one of them and sorted them on her cloak by what they could cure. Then her father scattered them, and the full knowledge of healing was lost. She is the keeper of what almost was.

Anu | Anu

A great mother goddess connected to the land of Ireland itself. The two rounded hills in Co. Kerry known as the Paps of Anu are named after her. She is linked to prosperity and the fertility of the earth. Many scholars believe she and Danu — the goddess the Tuatha Dé Danann are named after — are the same figure.

Banba | Banba

One of three goddesses who gave Ireland its names. When the Milesians arrived to take Ireland from the Tuatha Dé Danann, Banba met them and asked that the island be named after her. She got her wish — her name is still used as a poetic name for Ireland today.

Bé Chuille | Bé Chuille

A witch-goddess of the Tuatha Dé Danann who used her magic to defend Ireland. She is named among a group of supernatural women whose powers in battle were as useful as any warrior’s sword. She doesn’t have a big story in the surviving texts, but she was clearly understood as a figure of serious power.

Bé Find | Bé Find

The “fair woman” of the Tuatha Dé Danann. She appears in the tale of Fróech mac Idath — one of the most beautifully written love stories in early Irish — as the sister of Boann. She is one of the bright, radiant Otherworld women who appear throughout Irish mythology.

Bé Téite | Bé Téite

One of the Otherworld women of the Tuatha Dé Danann, whose name suggests heat and brightness. She appears only briefly in the manuscripts, but she was clearly understood as a full member of the divine race. A reminder that the Tuatha Dé Danann were much larger than what survived in writing.

Bebhinn | Bebinn

An Otherworld goddess whose name means “sweet-voiced one.” She fled to Fionn mac Cumhaill for protection from a supernatural man who was trying to drag her back to the Otherworld against her will. Fionn sheltered her. Her story is one of several in the Fenian Cycle where the Otherworld and the human world collide.

Boann | Bóinn

Goddess of the River Boyne. She approached a sacred well that was forbidden to her and walked around it the wrong way. The waters rose and swept her away — costing her an eye, an arm, and a leg before carrying her out to sea, forming the River Boyne as they went. She is the mother of Aengus Óg by the Dagda.

Brigid | Bríd

Daughter of the Dagda and one of the most beloved figures in Irish tradition. She governed three great skills: poetry, healing, and the forge. Her festival, Imbolc, fell on the first of February and marked the beginning of spring. When Christianity came to Ireland, almost everything associated with the goddess passed over to Saint Brigid of Kildare — including a sacred flame that was kept burning in her honour.

Buanann | Buanann

The “Good Mother” or “Lasting One.” The old sources describe her as the foster-mother and nurse of heroes, especially in Munster. She trained warriors and raised champions. Her role wasn’t about dramatic stories — it was about making sure the next generation was ready.

Caer Ibormeith | Caer Ibormeith

The goddess Aengus Óg fell in love with after she appeared to him in a dream. He spent a year searching all of Ireland for her. She lived half the year as a woman and half as a swan. He found her on Samhain, turned himself into a swan to be with her, and they flew away together. The music they sang put everyone who heard it to sleep for three days.

Clíodhna | Clíona

Queen of the Munster fairies. She left the Otherworld for love of a mortal man, but Manannán mac Lír sent a great wave to bring her back before she could reach the Irish shore. That wave — the Wave of Clíodhna — is one of the three great sacred waves of Ireland, off the coast of Cork. Her name is still given to the ninth wave.

Danu | Danu

The mother goddess who gives the Tuatha Dé Danann their name — “the peoples of the goddess Danu.” In one of the stranger aspects of Irish mythology, she almost never appears directly in the surviving stories, despite being the divine ancestor of the whole group. Some scholars think her name was read back from the tribal name rather than the other way around.

Ériu | Éire

The goddess who gave Ireland its name. When the Milesians arrived, she met them and asked that the island be named after her. The poet Amergin promised it would be. The name has held ever since — Éire in Irish, Ireland in English. She and her sisters Banba and Fódla together represent the three faces of Ireland as a sacred place.

Étaín | Éadaóin

The subject of one of the greatest stories in Irish mythology. The jealous goddess Fuamnach transformed her into a fly. She was blown across Ireland on a magical wind, swallowed, and reborn as a human woman with no memory of her previous life. The god Midir spent lifetimes trying to get her back. In the end he won her from the High King of Ireland in a game of chess, then flew away with her as a swan through the roof of Tara.

Fand | Fand

Wife of Manannán mac Lír and one of the queens of the Otherworld. She fell in love with Cú Chulainn and the two spent time together in the Otherworld. His wife Emer found out and came with her women to confront them. Fand chose to leave. Manannán wiped both their memories so neither would carry the hurt. It ends in sorrow on every side.

Flidais | Flidais

Goddess of forests, wild animals, and cattle. Her magical cow could feed hundreds of men in a single milking. She drove a chariot pulled by deer. She is the central figure in the Cattle Raid of Flidais — one of the lesser-known cattle raid tales — where her magical herd is the prize.

Fódla | Fódla

Third of the three goddesses who gave Ireland its names, alongside Ériu and Banba. She met the Milesian invaders and asked that the island be named after her. Like her sisters, she got her wish — Fódla became a poetic name for Ireland, especially in formal poetry.

Fuamnach | Fuamnach

The first wife of the god Midir, and one of the most powerful sorcerers in Irish mythology. When Midir brought Étaín into the household as a second wife, Fuamnach transformed her — first into a pool of water, then a worm, then a fly — and blew her across Ireland on a magical wind. She was eventually killed by Aengus in revenge. You can see exactly why she did what she did.

Macha | Macha

One of the most complex figures in Irish mythology — at least three different women called Macha appear in the sources. The most famous was forced to race the king’s horses while heavily pregnant. She won. She gave birth at the finish line. And with her dying breath she cursed the men of Ulster to suffer the pains of childbirth for five days and four nights whenever Ulster faced its greatest danger. That curse is what makes the Táin — the greatest story in Irish mythology — possible.

The Morrígan | An Mórrígan

The great war goddess of Irish mythology — shapeshifter, prophetess, crow. She appeared to Cú Chulainn again and again through his life, sometimes threatening him, sometimes testing him, once offering herself to him. He refused or offended her every time. When he finally died, she landed on his shoulder in the form of a crow — the signal to his enemies that it was finally safe to approach. Her name means something close to “great queen” or “phantom queen.”

Niamh | Niamh

Daughter of Manannán mac Lír, and one of the great Otherworld women of Irish mythology. She came from Tír na nÓg — the Land of Youth — on a white horse, riding across the sea, to take the warrior-poet Oisín back with her. He stayed for what felt like three years. It was three hundred. When he returned to Ireland he touched the ground and aged three centuries in a moment.

Sinann | Sionann

Goddess of the River Shannon, which carries her name. Like Boann before her, she approached a sacred well — the Well of Connla, source of all wisdom — seeking knowledge that was forbidden to her. The well erupted and swept her away, forming the River Shannon as it went. She is part of a clear pattern in Irish mythology: forbidden water, a woman who reaches for it, and a river as the result.

Tlachtga | Tlachtga

Daughter of the great druid Mog Ruith. She died giving birth on the hill in Co. Meath that still bears her name — the Hill of Ward, near Athboy. That hill became one of the most sacred sites in Ireland. Every year at Samhain, the great fire was lit there, and from that fire all the fires of Ireland were kindled for the new season. Her death and the fire are bound together.

Uchtiu | Uchtiu

A goddess of the Tuatha Dé Danann whose name is preserved in the early manuscripts without a major story attached to it. She is one of many members of the divine race whose existence we know about but whose full tradition was lost before anyone wrote it down.

The Fomorians

The Fomorian women in the surviving texts are few, but the ones who appear are significant. They are prophetesses and mothers. Their power predates the Tuatha Dé Danann.

Bua | Bua

A Fomorian goddess whose name means “victory.” She appears in the early sources as a figure of supernatural power connected to the older order. Like several of the Fomorian women, she represents a layer of Irish mythology that goes deeper than the Tuatha Dé Danann.

Cethlenn | Cethlenn

Wife of Balor of the Evil Eye and a prophetess. At the great battle she threw a spear that wounded the Dagda — a wound he never fully healed from and that eventually killed him. She also foretold the destruction of the Fomorians before the battle started. She knew what was coming and fought anyway. The town of Enniskillen in Co. Fermanagh is named after her — Inis Cethlenn, Cethlenn’s island.

Domnu | Domnu

The mother goddess of the Fomorians — their Danu. Her name means “the deep” or “the abyss,” which fits perfectly: the Fomorians were always connected to the sea, the underworld, and the darkness that existed before the world took shape. She is more of a presence than a character in the texts — a vast, ancient power behind everything the Fomorians did.

Ethniu | Eithne

Daughter of Balor of the Evil Eye, and the mother of Lugh — the greatest of all the Tuatha Dé Danann. Balor locked her in a glass tower on Tory Island to keep her away from men, because a prophecy said his own grandson would kill him. Cian of the Tuatha Dé Danann got in anyway. Their son was Lugh. At the great battle, Lugh killed Balor with a sling-stone through his evil eye. The prophecy came true exactly.

Fir Bolg

The Fir Bolg arrived in Ireland in three separate groups over three days. When they were all assembled, the five chieftains divided Ireland into five provinces — the first time that division had ever been made. The queens who came ashore with those chieftains are listed here. Their names were preserved. Their individual stories were not.

Connacha | Connacha

Wife of the chieftain Rudraige, who led the third and final group of Fir Bolg to Ireland, landing on Friday. Her name may be connected to the province of Connacht. She and Liebar were the last of the Fir Bolg queens to set foot on Irish soil.

Etair | Etair

Wife of the chieftain Slainge, and the first of the Fir Bolg queens to arrive in Ireland. She and Slainge landed on Saturday the 1st of August, ahead of everyone else. Whatever the island looked like when no one was expecting them, Etair was among the first to see it.

Fuath | Fuath

Wife of the chieftain Sengann, who arrived with the second group of Fir Bolg on Tuesday. She and Oist came ashore together. Her name means “hatred” or “aversion” in Irish — a word that turns up in several contexts in the tradition, though no one recorded what it meant for this particular queen.

Liebar | Liebar

Wife of the chieftain Genann, who arrived with the last group of Fir Bolg on Friday. She and Connacha were among the last to land. When all five groups were finally together, the decision was made to treat the three-day arrival as a single event — and from that meeting, the five provinces of Ireland were established.

Oist | Oist

Wife of the chieftain Gann, who came ashore on Tuesday with the second wave of arrivals. She landed alongside Fuath and their chieftains, two days after Etair and Slainge had already come ashore. The sources name her without giving her a story beyond her presence at one of the most precisely dated events in all of Irish tradition.

Tailtiu | Tailtiu

Daughter of the king of the Great Plain, wife of the last Fir Bolg king, and foster-mother of Lugh — the greatest of all the Tuatha Dé Danann. After the Fir Bolg were defeated, Tailtiu spent herself clearing a vast forest in Meath with her bare hands to make the land farmable. She died of exhaustion. Lugh honoured her with a great annual festival at the hill that bears her name — Teltown, in Co. Meath. He held it every year at Lughnasadh.