Irish Gods

The gods of Irish mythology were not like the gods of Greece or Rome

They could be wounded. They could be tricked. Some of them died. What made them gods was their power over magic, nature, and the world — and the fact that they were here before us.

They are organised below by the three great races of Irish myth. The Tuatha Dé Danann were the main group — the magical people who ruled Ireland before the arrival of human kings. The Fomorians were older and darker, connected to the sea and chaos. The Fir Bolg held Ireland before the Tuatha Dé Danann arrived.

Tuatha Dé Danann

The Tuatha Dé Danann arrived in Ireland in a cloud of mist and brought four great treasures with them. They defeated two other races to take the island. When they were eventually beaten by the Milesians — the ancestors of the Irish — they didn’t leave. They went underground, into the fairy mounds, and they’ve been there ever since.

Aed Lamderg  |  Aodh Lámhdhearg

A warrior of the Tuatha Dé Danann whose name means “the Red-Handed One.” He turns up in the old genealogies connected to the fairy mound tradition. Not much of his story survived the centuries, but that name alone tells you what kind of figure he was.

Bodb Derg  |  Bodb Dearg

Son of the Dagda and king of the Tuatha Dé Danann after they went underground. He plays a big role in the Children of Lir — one of his foster-daughters turns Lir’s children into swans. He also helped Aengus search every corner of Ireland for the woman Aengus had fallen in love with in a dream.

Brian mac Tuireann  |  Brian mac Tuireann

The eldest of the three sons of Tuireann, and the one who struck the first blow when they killed Lugh’s father. Lugh made them pay for it — he sent them on eight impossible missions across the world. They pulled it off, but were badly wounded on the last one. Lugh refused to heal them. All three brothers died.

Cian mac Cainte  |  Cian mac Cáinte

A warrior of the Tuatha Dé Danann and the father of Lugh. He was killed by the three sons of Tuireann while he had disguised himself as a pig to escape them. His death started one of the great revenge stories in Irish mythology.

Credne  |  Créidne

The metalworker of the Tuatha Dé Danann. He made the rivets, hilts, and fittings for all the gods’ weapons — the detail work that holds everything together. He worked alongside Goibniu the smith and Luchta the carpenter as one of the three great craftsmen of the gods.

The Dagda  |  An Dagda

The most powerful of the Irish gods. He owned a club that could kill with one end and bring people back to life with the other. His cauldron fed everyone who came to it and never ran empty. He was enormous, wore a short tunic that didn’t fit properly, and ate ridiculous amounts of food. He was also one of the wisest beings in Ireland.

Delbaeth  |  Delbhaoth

A king and warrior of the Tuatha Dé Danann. His name means something close to “fire-shape.” He doesn’t have a big dramatic story of his own in the sources, but he shows up in the family trees of several important figures — one of the older generation of gods who kept the whole thing together.

Dian Cécht  |  Dian Cécht

The healer of the Tuatha Dé Danann. He made a working silver arm for the king Nuada after Nuada lost his real one in battle. He also kept a magic well during the great war with the Fomorians — warriors thrown into it came out whole and ready to fight again. He was brilliant. He was also jealous enough to kill his own son when the boy turned out to be a better healer than him.

Donn  |  Donn

The lord of the dead. His house — Tech Duinn, which means the House of Donn — is Bull Rock, a sea stack off the very tip of the Beara Peninsula in Cork, where the Atlantic begins. He calls to the dead from his door. Not a threat — an invitation. Every person who ever died in Ireland was said to pass through his house on the way to whatever came next.

Elcmar  |  Elcmar

The original owner of Newgrange, and the man the Dagda tricked out of it. While Elcmar was away on an errand, the Dagda used magic to make a single day seem to pass — but nine months went by in the real world. Later, Elcmar’s own foster-son Aengus took the place from him through a legal argument. Elcmar lost everything, twice, to the two smartest men in Ireland.

Goibhniu  |  Goibhniu

The smith of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Every weapon he forged at the great war was guaranteed to kill — one strike was enough. He also hosted a feast where the gods drank ale that kept them young and healthy. In the middle of the battle, when a Fomorian insulted him, he turned around and killed the man with a half-finished spear, then went back to work.

Lir  |  Lir

A king of the Tuatha Dé Danann and the father at the centre of one of the saddest stories in Irish mythology. His second wife transformed his four children into swans and condemned them to spend nine hundred years on the lakes and seas of Ireland. Lir was still alive and could do nothing. He spent the rest of his life on the shore, talking to them.

Luchta  |  Luchta

The carpenter and shield-maker of the Tuatha Dé Danann — the third of the three great craftsmen alongside Goibniu and Credne. Goibniu made the blades, Credne made the metal fittings, and Luchta made the wooden shafts and shields. During the great battle he could cut a shaft with one stroke and throw it straight into its shield without looking.

Luchar  |  Iuchar

The second of the three sons of Tuireann who killed Lugh’s father and paid for it with their lives. The three brothers always move together in the story. They completed eight impossible tasks across the world, then died together when Lugh refused to give them the one thing that would have saved them.

Lucharba  |  Iucharba

The youngest of the three sons of Tuireann. Like his brothers Brian and Luchar, he completed every task Lugh set them — things that should have been impossible. It wasn’t enough. Lugh didn’t forgive them, and all three brothers died together. The three of them are one of Irish mythology’s strongest pictures of what brotherhood means.

Lugh  |  Lú

The greatest warrior and craftsman of the Tuatha Dé Danann, and the closest thing Irish mythology has to a hero-god. His mother was Fomorian — which made him an outsider on both sides — and he arrived at the court of the gods by proving he could do everything better than anyone there. In the great war against the Fomorians, he killed his own grandfather Balor with a sling-stone through the evil eye. His festival is Lughnasadh, still celebrated on the 1st of August.

Mac Cecht  |  Mac Céacht

One of the three kings of the Tuatha Dé Danann who were ruling Ireland when the Milesians arrived. His name means “son of the plough.” He was married to Fódla, one of the goddesses who gave Ireland her name. He also appears in one of the great destruction stories, performing extraordinary feats trying to defend the High King in a burning hall.

Mac Cuill  |  Mac Cuill

One of the three kings of the Tuatha Dé Danann at the time of the Milesian invasion. His name means “son of the hazel” — and the hazel was the tree of wisdom and knowledge in Irish tradition. He was married to Banba, one of the three goddesses who gave Ireland its names.

Mac Gréine  |  Mac Gréine

One of the three kings of the Tuatha Dé Danann when the Milesians arrived. His name means “son of the sun.” He was married to Ériu, the goddess whose name Ireland still carries — Éire. He died fighting the Milesians. The three kings — Mac Cecht, Mac Cuill, and Mac Gréine — were the last rulers of the gods before humans took over.

Manannán mac Lír  |  Manannán mac Lír

The lord of the sea and the keeper of the Otherworld. His horse could ride across water as easily as land. He owned a cloak that made him invisible and a hall where the gods’ feast never ended. After the Tuatha Dé Danann were defeated, it was Manannán who led them into the fairy mounds and kept the boundary between their world and ours. He shows up in more stories across more cycles than almost anyone else.

Miach  |  Miach

Son of the healer Dian Cécht, and a better healer than his father. When the king Nuada had a silver arm, Miach went further — he grew Nuada a real arm back, joint by joint. His father was so jealous he killed him. From Miach’s grave grew 365 healing herbs, one for each joint and sinew of his body. His sister gathered them all — until their father scattered them, and the knowledge was lost.

Midir  |  Midhir

A lord of the Tuatha Dé Danann and one of the great romantic figures in Irish mythology. He loved Étaín across multiple lifetimes — through her transformation, her rebirth, and her marriage to a human king. He finally got her back by winning a game of chess against that king. He turned both of them into swans and flew out through the roof of Tara. He also raised Aengus Óg as his foster-son.

Neit  |  Néit

The god of war among the Tuatha Dé Danann — not a warrior in the heroic sense, but the force of battle itself. He was connected to both the Tuatha Dé Danann and the Fomorians. His wife was Badb, one of the great battle goddesses. He is one of the older, less developed figures in the mythology — his name and his function survived, but most of his stories didn’t.

Nuada  |  Nuadha

The first king of the Tuatha Dé Danann in Ireland. He lost his arm at the first great battle and had to step down — Irish law said a king had to be physically whole. His physician made him a silver arm, and later his son Miach grew back his real arm entirely. He was killed by Balor of the Evil Eye in the second great battle. His sword was one of the four great treasures of the Tuatha Dé Danann.

Oengus mac Óg  |  Aengus mac Óg

The god of love and youth. He fell in love with a girl who appeared to him in a dream and spent a year searching all of Ireland for her. He found her as a swan on Samhain, turned himself into a swan to be with her, and they flew away together. He also used a clever argument about time to take Newgrange from his foster-father. And when Diarmuid and Gráinne were running for their lives from Fionn, it was Aengus who sheltered them.

Ogma  |  Oghma

The champion of the Tuatha Dé Danann — and the god who invented the Ogham alphabet, the ancient Irish system of writing carved into stone. He was a warrior, but also a poet and speaker. After the great battle against the Fomorians, he captured the sword of their king Tethra — and the sword spoke to him, recounting every deed it had ever done.

Tuirenn  |  Tuireann

The father of the three sons who killed Lugh’s father. Tuirenn himself barely appears in the action — he is there at the edges, watching his sons complete the impossible tasks Lugh set them, and watching Lugh refuse to forgive them. He is a figure of grief. His sons did everything asked of them and still died.

The Fomorians

The Fomorians were the ancient race that the Tuatha Dé Danann drove out of Ireland. They were older, darker, and connected to the sea and the deep. They weren’t simply evil — some of the greatest figures in Irish mythology had Fomorian blood. But they stood for the chaos that existed before the world was put in order, and that made them dangerous.

Ainglech  |  Aingleach

A Fomorian warrior who marched in the great army against the Tuatha Dé Danann. He is known from the records of that battle rather than from a story of his own — one of the named members of the Fomorian host whose name was preserved even when the details weren’t.

Balor  |  Balor

The king of the Fomorians and the most terrifying figure in Irish mythology. His eye was a weapon — when it was opened, everything it looked at died. It took four men to lift the lid. A prophecy told him his own grandson would kill him, so he locked his daughter in a tower to keep her away from men. It didn’t work. His grandson was Lugh, and at the great battle, Lugh drove a sling-stone through the evil eye and killed him.

Bolg  |  Bolg

A Fomorian figure connected to the Fir Bolg — one of the earlier peoples of Ireland — and to the deep relationship between the Fomorians and the island’s oldest inhabitants. He appears in the genealogies of the Fomorian race. The connection between his name and the Fir Bolg is one of the more tangled questions in Irish mythology.

Bres mac Elatha  |  Breas mac Ealatha

A half-Fomorian, half-Tuatha Dé Danann king who took over when Nuada lost his arm. He was extraordinarily beautiful — that’s what got him the job. But he was a terrible king. He was mean with food and hospitality, he taxed the gods heavily, and he let the Fomorians walk all over everyone. He was eventually driven out by a poet’s insult. He went to his Fomorian relatives and came back with an army.

Cichol  |  Ciocal

One of the earliest Fomorian leaders in the Irish records. Long before the great battles of the Tuatha Dé Danann, Cichol led the Fomorians against the very first settlers of Ireland. He is one of the oldest figures in the whole mythological tradition — the Fomorians as they were before the world had fully taken shape.

De Domnand  |  De Domhnainn

A Fomorian king connected to the great mother of the Fomorian race, Domnu. His name is tied to the deep roots of the Fomorian lineage. He was one of the leaders who brought his forces to the great battle against the Tuatha Dé Danann.

Elatha  |  Ealatha

A Fomorian king who was unusually described as fair and beautiful — which was rare for the Fomorians. He was the father of Bres. He came to Bres’s mother across the sea in a silver boat. When his disgraced son came to him for help, Elatha wouldn’t help him dishonourably — but he pointed him toward the Fomorian assembly. He had his own code.

Goll mac Domnaill  |  Goll mac Domhnaill

A Fomorian warrior in the great battle against the Tuatha Dé Danann. His name means “the one-eyed,” which in Irish tradition often marks a supernatural or Otherworldly figure. He is completely different from the Fenian warrior Goll mac Morna.

Indech  |  Indeach

One of the senior Fomorian kings at the great battle, alongside Balor and Tethra. His son Octriallach led the mission to destroy the Tuatha Dé Danann’s healing well during the fighting. Indech himself was killed in the battle.

Loscenn Luchair  |  Loscann Luchair

A Fomorian figure whose name suggests something of the bogs and wet places that the Fomorians were associated with. He appears in the lists connected to the great battle tradition. One of the many Fomorian figures whose name was preserved but whose individual story wasn’t.

Morc  |  Morc

A Fomorian king from one of the earlier periods — before Balor’s generation. He and another king named Conand led the Fomorians when they held Ireland under tribute. He is one of the older figures in the Fomorian tradition.

Octriallach  |  Octrialach

Son of the Fomorian king Indech. He led one of the cleverest attacks in the great battle — he took a force to find the Tuatha Dé Danann’s healing well and blocked it with stones. Every warrior the Tuatha Dé Danann threw into that well came out healed and ready to fight again. Once Octriallach blocked it, that advantage was gone.

Robach  |  Róbach

A Fomorian warrior whose name is recorded in the battle lists of the great war. Like several of the lesser-known Fomorians, he is known from the records of who marched rather than from a story of his own.

Ruadan  |  Ruadán

The son of Bres and Brigid — half Fomorian, half Tuatha Dé Danann. The Fomorians sent him to kill Goibniu, the smith who was forging the gods’ weapons. He wounded Goibniu with a spear. Goibniu pulled the spear out and threw it straight back, killing him. Brigid came to the battlefield and wept over her son. According to the tradition, that was the first keening — the first mourning cry — ever heard in Ireland.

Searbhan  |  Searbhán

A Fomorian monster who turns up not in the early mythological stories but in the Fenian Cycle — as a fearsome guardian of a rowan tree in Connacht whose berries had supernatural power. He could only be killed by his own iron club. Diarmuid killed him while fleeing from Fionn. He is one of the few Fomorian figures to appear outside the main mythological cycle.

Sinnach  |  Sionnach

A Fomorian whose name means “fox.” In Irish tradition the fox was associated with cunning, the Otherworld, and liminal places. He appears in the Fomorian genealogies. A Fomorian named after a fox suggests a very different type of figure from Balor — more trickster than brute.

Tethra  |  Tethra

A Fomorian king who ruled over the dead in some traditions and fought at the great battle in others. After the battle, the champion Ogma captured his sword — and the sword spoke, telling Ogma every deed it had ever done while Tethra carried it. He is one of the Fomorian figures connected to death and the afterlife.

Fir Bolg

The Fir Bolg were one of the earlier peoples of Ireland — they arrived before the Tuatha Dé Danann and divided Ireland into five provinces for the first time. They were not supernatural beings like the Tuatha Dé Danann. They were understood as human, and their kings and champion were the leaders of the age before the gods took over.

Dela  |  Deala

The ancestor of the five Fir Bolg chieftains who divided Ireland between them. His five sons — Slainge, Gann, Genann, Rudraige, and Sengann — arrived in Ireland in three separate groups over three days and agreed to treat it as a single taking of the island. Dela is the root of that whole lineage.

Eochaid mac Eirc  |  Eochaidh mac Eirc

The last High King of the Fir Bolg. He was ruling Ireland when the Tuatha Dé Danann arrived. The sources describe him as a genuinely just king — no storms, no falsehood, no trouble during his reign. He died at the first great battle, fighting to defend his people. He is one of the ideal kings of Irish mythology.

Gann mac Dela  |  Gann mac Deala

One of the five sons of Dela. He arrived on the second day of the Fir Bolg landing, alongside his brother Sengann. His province was Munster or part of it, though the sources don’t all agree on the exact division.

Genann mac Dela  |  Genan mac Deala

One of the five sons of Dela. He arrived on the third and final day of the Fir Bolg landing, alongside his brother Rudraige. He took one of the five provinces in the original division of Ireland.

Rudraige mac Dela  |  Rudhraighe mac Deala

One of the five sons of Dela. He arrived last with Genann on the Friday of the Fir Bolg landing. He is the ancestor of the great Ulster dynasty whose descendants would include Conchobar mac Nessa and many of the warriors of the Ulster Cycle. His line shaped Irish history for centuries after the Fir Bolg age ended.

Sengann mac Dela  |  Seangan mac Deala

One of the five sons of Dela. He arrived on the second day alongside his brother Gann. He is one of the five founding chieftains who agreed — after arriving in three separate groups on three separate days — to treat the whole thing as a single taking of Ireland. That agreement was the first act of Fir Bolg government.

Slainge mac Dela  |  Slainge mac Deala

The eldest of the five sons of Dela and the first of the Fir Bolg to land in Ireland. He arrived on Saturday the 1st of August with his wife, ahead of everyone else. His province was Leinster. He was also the first Fir Bolg to die in Ireland — buried at Slieve Slanga in Co. Wexford, which bears his name. First to arrive, first to die.

Sreng  |  Sreang

The greatest warrior of the Fir Bolg. He fought Nuada of the Tuatha Dé Danann in single combat before the main battle and cut off Nuada’s arm with one blow. The Fir Bolg lost the battle overall, but the Tuatha Dé Danann respected Sreng enough to give his people an entire province — Connacht. He lived there after the defeat. He was beaten, but he was never conquered.

See also: Irish Goddesses  |  Irish Heroes  |  The Tuatha Dé Danann  |  The Fomorians