"A tragedy for Irish heritage," said Professor George Eogan, of the bulldozing of a portion of the ancient earthworks at Telltown, County Meath. None should know better than he, for his work at Knowth and generally in the Boyne valley has been outstanding. And a Meath man, to boot. This is written as the first news has broken and we may know more before it appears in print.
The Aonach at Telltown, a few miles north of Navan was the most famous of Lughnasa assemblies and, according to Maire Mac Neill, is well documented. Two long poems were written for it: one for the 885 AD fair and the other for that of 1007. The first, she wrote in The Feast of Lughnasa, which appeared in 1962, was still unpublished. All the big names investigated the Telltown area: John O'Donovan, Wilde and Samuel Ferguson. But it is hard today, with land division, drainage and the growth of hedgerows to see it as it was. O'Donovan's map in the same book, shows a clear picture. Done in the 1830's. Even in 1872 Ferguson reported that there was no portion of those lands that had not been under the plough.
Most of us, nonarchaeologists, have heard of the custom held in a hollow called Lag an Aonaigh. There was a wall, too high to see over, and in it a gate with a hole large enough for a human hand to pass through. Here marriages were celebrated in this manner: a woman would put her hand through the hole and a man, with only that part of her to judge by, grasped it. This blind date ceremony obliged the couple to live together for a year and a day. IF they were not satisfied, they appeared at the Rath of Telltown/Tailtiu, obtained a deed of separation, and were entitled to try their luck again in the same fashion.
O'Donovan was the first to record this ceremony. And, writes Mac Neill, it "has so seized the fancy of some antiquarians that quite elaborate theories have been constructed from it". She reminds us that O'Donovan had a dry wit. The River Blackwater flows through the townland and loops around the south end. It used to be, and may still be, a good source of trout.