Ireland today is composed of five provinces: Connacht, Leinster, Munster, Ulster and Mide. Mide is the otherworld dimension which exists to holds the dynamic tension of the other four provinces inplace.
Although the modern geographer may insist Ireland consists of only four provinces, the Old Irish word for province is "coiced," literally meaning "a fifth". The dispute and designation of the territory of the provinces of Ireland goes back to an account written in the old Irish text known as "The Settling of the Manor of Tara."
This account retells a story which Fintan, son of Bocha, related to a group of warring Irish noblemenin around 550 A.D. Fintan related the chronicle of the settling of the provincial boundaries of Ireland by a supernatural being. The stranger, a fair giant known as Trefuilngid Tre-eochair, controlled the rising and setting of the sun and he ratified the arrangement of Ireland into four quarters and a centre - the mandala of life. Fintan then told of how he and Trefuilngid named the attributes which had been associated with each province throughout time. These qualities and the territorial boundaries combine to make each province a distinct region, not only in space but in character.
To the West and Connacht came the foundations of Learning and Wisdom, teaching, science and judgement. From the North and Ulster came the Battle - pride, war, conflicts and contentions. To the South and Munster came Music, poetic arts and advocacy. The East and Leinster brought Prosperity, abundance, hospitality and dignity. And from the Centre, from Mide, came the Kingship and Stewardship which holds the other four provinces fast into one island community.
The motif of the circle surrounded or bisected by the four directions or cardinal points is found throughout history and is sacred in many cultures. This circle or "mandala" in Sanskrit, is a physical symbol by which the creator makes the invisible world visible. In Native American, Hindu and Buddhist traditions the mandala is used for healing and to facilitate an encounter with the creative life force.
Mandala or circle forms have emerged throughout Ireland. Gold ornaments dating from 2,000 B.C.depict a cross surrounded by a circle with a distinct centre. This same symbol evolved into what is seen today as the Celtic cross. Even the well known Brigid's cross represents four directions leading from(and to) the centre of the cross.
The Centre is marked by a glacial erratic known as the Umbilicus Hibernia and it represents the intersection of the four points and the moment which exists in neither time or space where the mystic meets the mundane. The Hill of Uisneach is the area of the annual Beltaine Festival and it is from that Centre, from Mide, where the factions of Ireland are drawn together in a taut, interrelated web. The numinous energy which pours from the Centre illumines the landscape and animates the very rocks and trees - an "atmosphere" remarked upon frequently by visitors to Eire.
As with the great land works of the Celtic world, the five-fold "map" of Ireland provides a bridge for the individual to unite in the interplay between the divine and the earthly. From the Centre, in that moment out of time, one can know the grace to let go of the visible minutiae of everyday living and take one's rightful place in the cosmos.
