What is Tir Na Nog?

What is Tir Na Nog (pronounced Tear nah-nawg)? You may have come across this term in a book about Ireland or the Celtic people of long ago, or maybe you came across the words Tir Na Nog in a video about Halloween. If you are Irish or of Irish blood, the term might be mysteriously appealing to you. It sort of just rolls off the tongue...and lingers for a moment or two. So what is Tir Na Nog, exactly?

According to the famed Pagan author Silver Ravenwolf in her book "Halloween", Tir Na Nog was a place in which the Celtic tribes in Ireland believed for centuries. Tir Na Nog was at one time believed to be the "underworld" or "otherworld" where the spirits of the dead dwelled. It was also known as the "Land of the Young" or the "Land of the Living"...sort of like a place equivalent to the Christians' "Heaven" or Wiccans' "Summerland" in more modern times.

There are many tales and legends of the beautiful land of Tir Na Nog, and most of them spun a mysteriously lovely story about how Tir Na Nog is a gorgeous island off the West coast of Ireland that is also the residence of the Tuatha De Danaan and other Celtic deities. While the island theory of the Celtic otherworlds was popular, there were other times in Irish Celtic history when Tir Na Nog was actually thought to be in existence all around us, just on a different plane or realm of existence. Because of this theory or just as a part of this theory, Samhain came into existence.

Samhain is the Irish Celtic holiday in which the Irish Celts would celebrate the harvest and their dead...specifically their ancestors. The belief of the "veils between the worlds being at its thinnest" on Samhain comes from the idea that Tir Na Nog was on the same earth as the people, just a different plane of existence and that there was a veil that separated the two planes. The dead were free to roam the earth and visit their loved ones or possibly cause mischief on Samhain night. Today Samhain is celebrated in the US and other countries of the world as Halloween . Much of the nonsensical traditions on Halloween done by children today is rooted in ancient Celtic Samhain tradition...most people just don't realize it. There are modern Pagans that now celebrate Samhain much like the Celtic people did centuries ago...but most don't refer to the otherworld as Tir Na Nog anymore.

Tir Na Nog is a place where there is no sickness, no storms, no death...just pure beauty and joy. Tir Na Nog is a place where the Celtic Irish ancestors live alongside of the gods and goddesses of ancient Celtic beliefs.

No human has ever gone to Tir Na Nog, except for a few of old legend. Oisin is one of those few humans who were written to have laid foot on Tir Na Nog's land. It was written that Oisin was carried away by a princess of Tir Na Nog and she made him into her lover. Oisin spent three weeks in Tir Na Nog, very happy but missing his family. He pleaded with her to let him return to Ireland to see his family and friends, and so she allowed him to go back but told him to never step foot off of his horse.

When Oisin got to Ireland from Tir Na Nog, he couldn't find his family or friends...they were all long since dead and had been dead for three hundred years. So three weeks in Tir Na Nog was liken to three hundred years in Ireland. Oisin stepped off of his horse and turned into a wrinkled and decrepit old man. He talked to some common folk, and he realized that Ireland had been turned from his native beliefs to the ways of Saint Patrick...into Christianity.

Oisin longed to return to Tir Na Nog but could not.

I hope that I've sucessfully answered the question "what is Tir Na Nog?" and given you some delightful Irish Celtic facts along the way. In my humble opinion, Tir Na Nog still exists...it just has different names.