Aine was originally a sun goddess who assumed the form of Lair
Derg (the red mare), the horse that none could outrun. Sun Goddesses have
traditionally been Goddesses of Love and Fertility and Aine kept up the
tradition. Later, she also became known as a Moon Goddess, who watched
over people's crops and livestock. She survives in modern times as the
queen of the Faeries of South Munster; she is said to haunt Knockainy Hill.
She is also known as The Lady in the Lake and the Goddess of Earth, Nature,
Luck and Magic. Her special feast was Midsummer Night, when farmers carried
torches of straw in procession around Knockainy and waved them over the
cattle and the field for protection and fruitfulness; then they burn straw
and flowers in Aine's honour, requesting that she keep evil and ill from
them in return. In some accounts she is the wife of the Sea God Manannan
Mac Lir, God of the hidden paths in the realms of the western ocean; in
other accounts she was his daughter. Others say she was the Daughter of
Eogabail, the foster-son of Manannan Mac Lir. Her twin sister, Grianne,
who she shares part of a Triple Goddess aspect with and who is her alter
ego, has her feast day on the Winter Solstice.
Aine came from here.
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