‘Diarmaid’s Daughter’ by Ann M. Lorenc. Original brush & ink on Bristol Smooth. Limited Edition Prints available here.
© 2023 Ann M. Lorenc. All rights reserved.

Using Celtic design to illustrate the folklore of Scotland and Ireland is something I wanted to try ever since I first started researching this style of art. My intention is to combine art and storytelling by using the symbolism of Celtic design along with its adaptability from stand-alone designs to full panels, or carpet pages. In this way, someone new to storytelling could use just one or two pages of art to help them recall the story and share it with an audience of friends, family, or the general public.

While working on my dissertation for my MLitt in Celtic Studies, I came across the Early Modern Irish poem ‘The Daughter of Diarmaid’. One line in particular caught my attention:

“Out starts the spirit of womanhood that dwelt in the athletic fair-bright maid: into her comes a quick spirit of manhood when she hears the tidings.”1

This references Eachtach’s decision to take on the warrior spirit, traditionally reserved for men at that time, in order to avenge her father. One of the original Irish words used in the description of ‘womanhood’ is bradach which is the same word for ‘salmon’. An image came to mind of the ‘spirit of womanhood’ spiraling out of her heart and spilling out of the mouth of the salmon while she reaches up to allow the hawk, symbolizing the ‘spirit of manhood’ or the ‘warrior spirit’ to spiral in to fill her heart. This became the inspiration to create my brush & ink version of ‘Diarmaid’s Daughter’.

In the poem, Eachtach was the daughter of Diarmaid, a member of Fionn McCool’s Finnian band, and Grainne, who was originally engaged to marry Fionn but fell in love and eloped with Diarmaid, indicated in the upper left hand corner of the border showing Diarmaid and Grainne in a boat. They remained on the run for seven years, according to the poem, before Fionn devised a plot to kill Diarmaid by having him hunt Gulban, a boar that legend said only Diarmaid could kill. After killing Gulban, Diarmaid was instructed by Fionn to measure the length of the boar which he did by walking in the direction of the Gulban’s spines. Fionn then told Diarmaid to measure the boar in the opposite direction which caused one of the spines to enter Diarmaid’s foot and cause his death. Therefore, in the main panel of ‘Diarmaid’s Daughter’, I drew the messenger towards the bottom right and the scened of Diarmaid’s battle with Gulban in the upper left connected by the pattern between the messenger’s hands.

As mentioned earlier, Eachtach allowed her ‘spirit of womanhood’ to leave her heart in order to welcome in the warrior-spirit which would give her the strength she needed to avenge her father. She gathered up her brothers, illustrated in the top center of the border, and they attacked the Fort of Daolghus pictured in the upper right corner of the border. I used the three suns and moons on the left and right side of the border to indicate the three days and nights Eachtach, her brothers, and their warriors laid siege to Daolghus.

After those three days and nights, Eachtach challenged Fionn to single combat, shown in the bottom left corner of the border. Just when she was about to defeat him, Fionn’s son, Oisín, and two other members of Fionn’s band rallied to his side and one of them, Lodhorn, struck a killing blow to Eachtach, illustrated in bottom right corner of the border.

Finally, I drew the diamond with the chapel scene in the border’s bottom center to reflect the poet’s final question asking if indeed Eachtach’s tomb is located beneath the cleric’s chapel.

I hope that ‘Diarmaid’s Daughter’ helps generate interest and awareness of the Finnian Legends and, by extension, the folklore of Scotland and Ireland.

‘Diarmaid’s Daughter’ was created using brush & ink on 9”x12” Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper. Limited edition archival prints are available. The print run is 283. The poem is the eighteenth poem in the Duanaire Finn and the three represents the three days and nights of the battle for 183. I then added 100 since it has been about 115 years since the Duanaire Finn was published, giving me the final print run number of 283.

If you would like to read the entire poem of ‘The Daughter of Diarmaid’, you may find it at The Internet Archive’s website: Original Irish Gaelic Version or English Translation.

Mac Neill, Eoin, Duanaire Finn: The book of the Lays of Fionn: Part 1 (London: The Irish Texts Society, 1908) p. 150.

Limited Edition Archival Prints available here.

This past Saturday, 13 June 2020, was the feast day of Saint Anthony of Padua, a Catholic saint who lived from 1195 to 1231 AD. Since he is the saint for whom I was named, I thought I would share a little bit about him.

Detail from Celtic Saint Anthony of Padua by Ann M. Lorenc ©

Originally named Ferdinand de Bulhoes, Saint Anthony was born in Lisbon, Portugal during the reign of King Alfonso II of Portugal. His early years were spent studying with the priests of the Lisbon cathedral. Initially he stayed close to home in his career, joining the Canons Regular of Saint Augustine at the age of fifteen before transferring to a priory at Coimbra in 1212 because he felt the visits of his friends were too distracting. He was ordained around 1219 or 1220, and joined the Franciscans a year later, where he took on the name Anthony.

At the start of his Franciscan ministry in 1221, Anthony went to Morocco and preached to the Moors. Within a year, however, he became too ill to continue and returned to Italy. Soon after, he delivered a sermon at the hospice of San Paoli near Forli and was then told to preach throughout Italy. His sermons gathered large crowds all over Italy and he became widely successful both as a confessor and in recruiting converts. Over time he was given the appointment of first lecturer of theology for the Franciscan order and the envoy to Pope Gregory IX. He eventually sought, and received, a release of his official duties from Pope Gregory IX so that he could focus solely on preaching.

Anthony chose to reside in Padua—located in the north-eastern province of Padua, Italy— where he immediately began working to end the wrongs and corruption he found. His efforts, along with his firey and eloquent sermons led the city to reform, however he continued to seek out ways to continue improving Padua. Some of these included assisting with the city’s poor, attempting to close debtors’ prisons, and reforming the heretics. Eventually, he became overwhelmed with exhaustion and dropsy, forcing him to take time away in Camposanpiero in 1231. He set off to return later that year, but died before reaching Padua on 13 June 1231 at Arcella in a Poor Clare’s convent. He was just thirty-six years old.

Anthony was declared a saint the following year in 1232 and named a Doctor of the Church in 1946 by Pope Pius XII. Since his death, there have been many stories of miracles attributed to Saint Anthony which earned him the title of ‘Wonder Worker’. He considered to be the patron saint of the poor and the oppressed and is often asked for his intercession in locating lost articles. I know that I have often asked for his assistance in finding things that I have lost and so far he has always come through for me!

Celtic Saint Anthony of Padua by Ann M. Lorenc ©Brush & Ink on Bristol Smooth — *Celtic Saint Anthony of Padua* by Ann M. Lorenc ©
Brush & Ink on Bristol Smooth

Of course, Saint Anthony being the saint for whom I was named, I was compelled to create a portrait of him: ‘Celtic Saint Anthony of Padua’.

The second piece in my Celtic Saints series, the brush and ink portrait shows Saint Anthony of Padua holding the Christ Child and a book, both traditionally appearing in art depicting the saint. Because he had such a love for the Christ Child, I wanted to show a less formal interplay between the Christ Child and Saint Anthony, which is why the Christ Child appears to be giving the saint a hug.

Saint Anthony is also represented by Easter lilies, so I incorporated them into the border using the same concept as the Celtic tree of life. The hammers on the book shown on top of the bowl refers to his title as 'The Hammer of the the Heretics'. To represent the Trinity, there are two triquetra knots at the bottom and the spiral motif behind Saint Anthony and the Christ Child. The two large spiraled circles located in the bottom corners depict the balance between fire, which symbolizes inspiration, and earth which symbolizes the ability to stay grounded.

Extra Point of Interest: While I knew that Saint Anthony of Padua was a fairly popular saint, I was pleasantly surprised to see how often he is depicted throughout Scotland. I had the opportunity to hike to the ruins of Saint Anthony’s Chapel in Holyrood Park while I was in Edinburgh a few years back doing family research.