The Brown Bull of Cooley.

Click HERE for an audio introduction to this legend.

Queen Maeve was queen of a place in Ireland called Connacht. She was a fierce and powerful woman. She was jealous of her husband Ailill.

She was always fighting about who had more riches, herself or her husband. They were equal in wealth, but for one thing she didn't have. It was a fierce bull called the white bull of Connacht and it belonged to Ailill.

Ailill was boasting about this mighty bull, so she asked one of her knights was there any other bulls like the white bull anywhere in Ireland. He said that there was a bull called the brown bull of Cooley which was to be found in Ulster. So she sent out a messenger to Ulster.

This messenger asked the owner, an old man, if Queen Maeve could have the bull for one year. The messenger said "If you don't give the bull to her she will take it by force anyway". So the old man said "I'm not going to give you the bull". Queen Maeve was raging and set off to Ulster with her army to get the brown bull.

At that time The Red Branch Knights were under a spell but Cúchulainn was not under the spell because his father was a member of the fairylike Tuatha De Danann.

One by one Maeve's army went out to fight Cúchulainn and one by one Cúchulainn killed them. In the end there was one man left and that was Cúchulainn's friend Ferdia.

They fought for 3 days and at the end of each day they hugged each other and wept. In the end Cúchulainn killed Ferdia. Cúchulainn was so sad at killing his best friend. He went back to The Red Branch Knights with a broken heart. Cúchulainn was heart broken that day.Queen Maeve cheated then and stole the brown bull of Cooley even though she had been defeated. She went back to her home and she was delighted. When she went home the bulls had a huge fearsome fight when they saw each other. Queen Maeve thought the noise of their bellowing and pounding was thunder coming towards her castle. In the end the brown bull won and headed home for Ulster. When it got half way home it died. Queen Maeve and King Ailill said that they were even now at last.

The end.