Crom Cruach
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In the Pre-Christian Irish Pantheon, Crom Cruach (alternative spellings Crom Crúaich, Cromm Crúaich, Crom Cróich, Cromm Cruach, Cenn Cruach, Crom Cruagh, Crom Crooach, Crom Cruaidh, Ceancroitihi, Crom Dubh, Black Crom and as Crom-cruaghair, the great Creator, he has, by some writers, been identified with the Persian Kerum Kerugher) was the chief god of Ireland. He was both a solar deity and a fertility deity.
The ancient texts tell us that there was an idol on Magh Slécht, which is the plain of adoration or prostration, in the Parish of Templeport, County Cavan, Ulster named Crom Cruach. His statue was an upright stone pillar coated in gold and silver (To symbolise the sun and moon) and surrounded by twelve smaller, stone statues that were of bare stone or covered in bronze (according to different sources). This alignment would have represented the sun surrounded by the signs of the zodiac.
On the annual feast of Samhain (later renamed Halloween, November 1) his followers sacrificed one third of their firstborn to him in exchange for milk, corn, the fertility of cattle and a fertile growing season. The god horrified many because of his terrible demands.
The tradition of offering the First-Born to a god was still continued by the christian priests, successors to the Crom priests, at least as late as the 8th century A.D. See "The Collection of Tithes in Ireland" at- http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/8Ctithes-ireland.html and also the poem of St.Grellan in "The Tribes and Customs of Hy-Many" (page 13) at- http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G105007/text001.html
His worship was said to have been introduced by King Tigernmas. One Samhain night, during prostration, the King and 4,000 of his followers died from a plague contracted there, called "The Seventh Plague of Ireland". Only about 1,500 survived.
According to contemporary sources, St. Patrick cursed and destroyed the idol and stopped the worship of Crom Cruach. However it has been shown that the stones sunk in the Earth before the time of St. Patrick so this was probably just an anecdote.
The Masraige tribe were the inhabitants of Magh Slécht at the time of St.Patrick. It was this tribe who supplied the ancient Druids and High Priests of the god Crom Cruaich and their successors the Christian priests. Saint Dallan Forgaill, the Chief Ollamh or Poet of Ireland was a member of the tribe. History is vague as to what happened to them. They survived at least until the coming of the Ui Bhriuin in 700 A.D. who then dispossessed them and took control of Tullyhaw. The word Masraige means "Kings of Death", which may be related to their worship of Crom. The High King most connected with the worship of Crom was King Tighernmas. Again his name means "Lord of Death".
Crom is mentioned in the Dinnshenchas in the Book of Leinster, as well as the Tripartite Life of Patrick and the 14th century Book of McGovern.
He may be the same as the Clogher idol Cermand Cestach.
Alternative: Cromm Cruac ("bloody crescent"), Cenn Cruaic ("bloody head"), rid-iodal h-Eireann ("the king idol of Ireland")
People today find it hard to believe the stories of Celtic human sacrifice but are quite willing to believe bible stories of Moloch, Baal and Abraham sacrificing his son to his god. In the 1830's a traveller visiting the island of Inishmurray in the Achill Islands stated "There was an old wooden idol there called Father Molosh, probably a corruption of Moloch. In former times offerings and sacrifices were made to it, and it was esteemed as the guardian or god of the sacred fire, and held in great reverence, though but a rude semblance of a human head. The priest, however, has since had it destroyed.". The worship of Crom has many resemblences to the Middle-Eastern rites of Moloch/Baal and was possibly brought to Ireland by Phoenician traders (disproven, see discussion tab). The two great feasts of the old Irish year were Beltaine (the Fire of Baal) and Samhain (from Baal's other name Shamen, also known as Baal Samem / Baal-Sammin / Baal-Shamin / Barshamin "Lord Of Heaven" / "Master Of The Skies")
Celtic human sacrifice is well attested in many old sources, such as-
1.The ancient Greek writers such as Poseidonius of Apamea (ca.135-ca.50 BC)
2. The Roman writers Strabo, Tacitus, Julius Caesar etc
3. Irish sources such as the Dinnsenchas, the Annals, the Patrician
literature and even the McGovern Duanaire.
4. Archaeology findings such as the Lindow Man.
What must be remembered is that the Celts had a very different attitude to human life than modern people. For example they believed they would be reborn after death and it was commonplace for them to borrow money during this life on the promise to repay in the next! The crime of murder was not punishable with execution or even imprisonment, the murderer had merely to pay a fine. They were extremely bloodthirsty. Headhunting and murderous attacks on neighbouring tribes were a fact of daily life. Human sacrifice, even child sacrifice would not have been the taboo subjects they are today. Children were not as cosseted then. As soon as possible they were sent away from the family home to be fostered elsewhere. They were allowed to participate in very violent sports such as an early form of hurling where serious injuries and deaths were common.
The history of religion in Ireland is similar to that of Greece. The ancient religion of Geece was a dark, sacrificing religion to non-human monster gods, such as the Minotaur, the Gorgon, the Furies etc. as in Ireland with Crom. The Greeks were then invaded by a fair people from Central Europe who brought the worship of human-like gods such as Zeus, the Father of All and the rest of the Olympians. Likewise Ireland was invaded by a fair people from Central Europe who brought human-like Gods such as the Dagda, again the All Father. The old religion in both countries did not disappear, it merely went underground or was sublimated in the new religion, such as the Dionysian Mysteries. Later on another new religion took over in both countries- Christianity which again tried to overthrow or sublimate the old religions, but again they went underground.
The Crom stone was rediscovered in 1921 buried in the ground beside a stone circle on a nearby mound from where it had been moved. It had been smashed into several pieces, some of which lay nearby, probably by St.Patrick with a sledgehammer, as stated in the ancient texts. When excavated and placed upright on its flat base it was found to lean obliquely to the left from the vertical. This is why it was named Crom Cruaich = Irish for "bent or crooked one of the mound". It was decorated in the 1st century B.C. with "La Tène" symbols called the 'Waldalgesheim Style' but the stone circle was erected much earlier in the Early Irish Bronze Age c.2000 B.C. The stone was a phallic symbol like the similar Turoe Stone in County Galway (see photo at 
). Although now much damaged it can be reconstructed from the different surviving pieces. At the base of the stone there were four rectangular adjoining panels measuring 90 cm each in width giving a circumference of 3m 60 cm when it was first carved. The height of each panel was about 75 cm. These panels represented the foreskin of the penis. (See the panels at http://www.irishmegaliths.org.uk/zKillycluggin1.htm). The top of the stone (Representing the glans of the penis) was carved in parallel lines (See it at http://www.irishmegaliths.org.uk/zKillycluggin2.htm) and connecting the top with the panels was a blank triangular section representing the triangular piece of skin attaching the foreskin to the penis. So it was no surprise that the Christian church destroyed the stone as it represented the two things most abhorrent to them, a pagan idol and public sexuality. The stone was named the Killycluggin Stone after the townland where it was found and is now in Cavan Museum. A replica is situate at the roadside in Killycluggin. Beside the mound is Kilnavert Church which was founded by St.Patrick to eradicate the worship of Crom in the area. It was originally named Fossa Slécht or Rath Slécht and it is from this small location that the wider Magh Slécht area received its name. There is also a Tobar Padraig (St.Patrick's Well) nearby, as also described in the ancient manuscripts.
The 14th century "Book of McGovern", written in Magh Slécht, contains a poem which states that Crom was situate at Kilnavert beside the road and that the local women used to tremble in fear as they passed by. There is still a local tradition in the area that the Killycluggin stone is the Crom stone and all the manuscript sources confirm this.
The symbols on the stone have been variously interpreted as (1)the Sun and Moon (2) as sperm (3) as channels for the blood from sacrifices, human or animal, to flow down with the path of the blood being read as an oracle by the druids (4) as a penile tattoo.
The Turoe and Killycluggin stones were modelled on the Omphalos Navel Stone at the Delphi Oracle in Greece.
The cult of Crom is still fashionable today. A street in Belcoo, County Fermanagh is named Crom Crúaich Way in his honour. There is even a mountain in Australia named after him "Mount Cenn Cruaich" in Warrumbungle National Park. A popular novel was published about modern human sacrifice in Cavan, entitled "Cromm" by Kenneth Flint, Doubleday 1990. John Montague the poet has a poem "The Plain of Blood" about Crom. Thomas D'Arcy Magee wrote a famous poem in the 19th century called "The Celts", which mentions Crom. A type of Scottish harp is named crom-chruit because of its shape.
Notes to the text:-
The following sources may be consulted for further information-
(a) Saint Tirechan's memoir of Saint Patrick, written in 670 A.D. known as the "Breviarium." which is preserved in the "Book of Armagh. Tirechan used notes given to him by his teacher Saint Ultan of Ardbraccan who died in 657 A.D. and who lived a very long life. Ultan probably would have known people who lived in the time of St.Patrick so his notes on the saint would be pretty accurate.
(b)The Tripartite Life of Patrick written c.895 A.D. from older sources.
(c) The Metrical Dindshenchas. The first recension is found in the twelfth century manuscript the Book of Leinster with partial survivals in a number of other manuscript sources. The text shows signs of having been compiled from a number of provincial sources and the earliest poems date from at least the eleventh century. The internal evidence suggests the majority of the poems have a Pre-Christian origin. Two poems (7 & 71) on Magh Slécht can be found online at- http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T106500D/index.html
(d) The Book of McGovern written in the 13th century by poets actually living in Magh Slécht, who would have local knowledge now lost.
(e) Excavations at Killycluggin- (1. Ó Ríordáin, S.P. 1952. Fragment of the Killycluggin Stone. J. Roy. Soc. Antiq. Ireland 82, 68. (2. 1974 by B. Raftery, Department of Archaeology, University College, Dublin. (A short synopsis of the full report can be found at http://www.excavations.ie/Pages/Details.phpYear=1974&County=Cavan&id=5535 )
(f) Geoffrey Keating's History of Ireland 1632 (online at-
http://celt.ucc.ie/published/T100054/text035.html , (Section XXV, 25)
(g) Annals of the Four Masters
(h) For the continued worshipping of Crom up to the 20th century in Ireland, see "Festival at Lughnasa" Oxford Univ. Press, 1962 by Máire Mac Neill.
Texts
- Mag Slecht from the Metrical Dindshenchas Vol 4ja:クロウ・クルワッハ