Brian Rua U'Cearbhain

Brian Rua (c.1648–?) was 17th century "prophet" or Oracle from Erris in County Mayo, Ireland. Papers relating to the life and the prophecies of Brian Rua, known collectively as "Tarngaireacht Bhriain Ruaidh" were destroyed, apparently by his own son, who lost his temper with his father when the two had one of their regular disagreements.

Brian Rua lived in the parish of Kilcommon in the townland of Inver. Believed to have been born around the year 1648, his story was passed on through oral history in the parish. Brian Rua is reputed to have made a number of prophecies in his lifetime, predicting that "Carriages travelling North and South will have iron wheels and the stones on the roads will be talking" and "The day will come when fire carriages with iron wheels will bring death". In 1894, the first train on the newly created Achill railway line carried the bodies of 32 young people who died in a drowning tragedy in Clew Bay, an event locals suggest fulfilled the prophecy.^[1]^[2]

In 1906 a renowned Celtic scholar called Michael Timoney from Lahardane set out to collect the story of Brian Rua and publish it, so that it would not be forgotten. The stories were carried down the generations in the Irish language and published in that language. In 2000, as part of the Millennium Project, the story was translated into English and published as part of the book 'Traditional Cures and Gifted People' by Philomena Cronin.

References

Rails to Achill by Jonathan Beaumont (Oakwood Press 2002)
Achill Railway: http://www.realizedvision.com/railways.php
Cronin, Phil, Traditional Cures and Gifted People. With a translation of Red Brian Carabine's Prophecy' (2000) Crossmolina OCLC 52766648
Mayo County Library
McDonald T. Achill Island. Archaeology-History-Folklore (1997) Longford
Noone, Fr. Sean. Where the Sun Sets (1991) Erris
Nolan R. Within the Mullet (2001) Kildare
Timoney, Michael.Tarngaireacht Brian Ruadh 1906 Lahardane

^ "A story of triumph and tragedy". MayoNews.ie. Mayo News. 30 September 2014. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
^ Magan, Manchán (20 January 2019). "The story behind Ireland's greenway success". IrishTimes.ie. Irish Times. Retrieved 7 August 2019. Pádraig Philbin, senior engineer for Mayo County Council, points to a prophecy by the 17th-century prophet Brian Rua U'Cearbhain, who predicted that "fire carriages on iron wheels will bring death". When this prediction almost came true 200 years later (with the first train on the Achill railway in 1894 carrying the bodies of potato pickers drowned on their way to Scotland, and four decades later another train hauling the corpses of 10 young Achill men burned alive in Scotland, traversed the line two weeks before it closed) it gave the railway a mythic allure, which made the idea of reviving it in the 21st century more credible.

[1] "A story of triumph and tragedy". MayoNews.ie. Mayo News. 30 September 2014. Retrieved 7 August 2019.

[2] Magan, Manchán (20 January 2019). "The story behind Ireland's greenway success". IrishTimes.ie. Irish Times. Retrieved 7 August 2019. Pádraig Philbin, senior engineer for Mayo County Council, points to a prophecy by the 17th-century prophet Brian Rua U'Cearbhain, who predicted that "fire carriages on iron wheels will bring death". When this prediction almost came true 200 years later (with the first train on the Achill railway in 1894 carrying the bodies of potato pickers drowned on their way to Scotland, and four decades later another train hauling the corpses of 10 young Achill men burned alive in Scotland, traversed the line two weeks before it closed) it gave the railway a mythic allure, which made the idea of reviving it in the 21st century more credible.

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