Finn McCool

When I first created this blog, I chose to acknowledge the mythical giant Finn McCool.
My reason?  I live close to the North Coast of Northern Ireland.  Only a few miles from the Giant's Causeway, Finn's most famous creation.

There is a wide variety of conflicting versions of Finn's legendary activities.
It was only after some research that I discovered that Finn McCool is also Fionn mac Cumhail.
Fionn was the leader of the Fianna Eireann, a group whose exploits form part of the Fenian cycle of Irish mythology.

The photo above was taken some years ago in Bushmills, a small town a couple of miles inland from the Giant's Causeway.
The picture is on the gable wall of a house in a small housing estate..  It describes Finn as the "Defender of Ulster" and has Loyalist paramilitary symbols at the top.

The people who put up the painting see Finn as an Ulster giant and, therefore, a Loyalist like them.
The fact that he pre-dates Protestantism - and probably Christianity as well - obviously escapes them.
They certainly aren't aware of any link with Fionn mac Cumhail.  Not quite the Loyalist Defender of Ulster the painter had in mind.

My research showed me that Finn McCool's Country isn't just the North Coast, or even Northern Ireland.  It's the entire island of Ireland.
So the photographs in the blog, while predominately from the North Coast, will cover all of Ireland.