Maria Tanner Cohen

The Sidhe is the name given to Ireland’s ancient earthen mounds which mythology and folklore held to be the dwelling place of the Áes Sidhe (people of the barrows).

The Áes Sidhe also cautiously referred to as Daoine Maité, (The Good People ) or The Gentry were all one and the same, the legendary Tuatha Dé Danann.
Though this mythical race is often thought of as the pagan Gods of Ireland, the ancient texts such as Lebor Gabála Érenn and Cath Maige Tuireadh name them ‘not as Gods but as Kings’.
These noble ones came to live in Ireland in a time before it was invaded by the Milesians. After their defeat by the Milesian’s they were exiled to live underground in an invisible world that coexists with the world above ground.
Thousands of place names in Ireland with the pre-nouns Lis, Rath, and Shee are associated with Áes Sidhe , for example: Lismore, Raththangan, Sheemore tell of a deeper story, of an ancient spirit land that the modern Irish call home.
Brú na Bóinne better known today as Newgrange is the most important ‘mansion’ of the Áes Sidhe in Ireland. For anyone who has visited this sacred place, moving through the chamber deep into the belly of the earth, something is it is felt beyond the five senses. The sense is, that you are walking through what the ancient Celts call a ‘Thin Place’, a place where worlds are fused together, the world of the eternal and this world. The thinness of place has the power to move countless thousands of visitors into the presence of silent mystery.
This Little painting in some way tries to express a visual sense of ‘The Thin Place’ an ordinarily unseen realm that overlaps the physical 3-D world.
A little slice of the magical for a Sunday evening.