ABSTRACT
This chapter studies the medieval documents relating to Mórdháil Uisnigh or the Convention of Uisneach: this political and religious assembly was apparently held on the hill of the center of Ireland in connection with the Gaelic/Celtic festival of Bealtaine (anglicized Beltaine or Beltane), in early May. The chapter goes over the historiography of this assembly and discusses the possibility that it was a late invention or re-creation by pseudo-historians such as Geoffrey Keating in his History of Ireland (Foras Feasa ar Éirinn). Other conferences and synods held on Uisneach (according mainly to Irish Annals) are analyzed and compared with Mórdháil Uisnigh. Other possible places in Great Britain and Continental Europe (including Killaraus and Stonehenge, the Locus Consecratus of the Carnutes in Gaul mentioned by Julius Caesar, Kermaria in Brittany, Tynwald on the Isle of Man, Arthur’s Seat in Scotland, Pumlumon or Plynlimon in Wales and the “Ford of the Ox”) are compared with Uisneach and its assembly.
