Lady Physicians

Margaret Anne Cusack

An Illustrated History of Ireland

1868

start of chapter | Chapter III. concluded

In those days, as in the so-called middle ages, ladies exercised their skill in the healing art; and we find honorable mention made of the Lady Ochtriuil, who assisted the chief physician (her father) and his sons in healing the wounds of the Tuatha De Danann heroes. These warriors have also left many evidences of their existence in raths and monumental pillars.[5] It is probable, also, that much that has been attributed to the Danes, of right belongs to the Dananns, and that a confusion of names has promoted a confusion of appropriation. Before we turn to the Milesian immigration, the last colonization of the old country, let us inquire what was known and said of it, and of its people, by foreign writers.

Cavity, containing oval basin, New Grange

Cavity, containing oval basin, New Grange

Notes

[5] Pillars.—The monuments ascribed to the Tuatha De Dananns are principally situated in Meath, at Drogheda, Dowlet, Knowth, and New Grange. There are others at Cnoc-Ainè and Cnoc-Gréinè, co. Limerick, and on the Pap Mountains, co. Kerry.

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