Medieval and modern myths accrued to Ireland’s Iron Age Queen Maeve (Medb), notably in Rosalind Clark’s ‘The Great Queens’, led to this redemption of Medb’s true identity,”Ireland’s Queen Maeve”, by the exemplary priest Tom O’Connor. Clark alone showcased the divine elements and tragic qualities on which the greatness of the medieval ‘Táin Bó Cúailnge’ rested, enabling us to fully appreciate Ireland’s greatest national epic. Nevertheless, a seismic shift had taken place in the retelling of Medb’s story which elevated the ‘Táin Bó Cúailnge’ to the level of a Greek-style Odyssey. Medb’s archaic history was deliberately suppressed as she underwent gross character assassination. Her true pristine identity is finally recovered here.

As O’Connor says, ” Medieval Irish pseudo-history carried out pernicious character assassination against Medb to the extent that her original noble royal reputation succumbed to this odious onslaught in the minds of modern academics…Academics pile up learned treatises on the mountain of spurious fictions burying the historic reality of ancient Ireland….The law-tract on bees,”Bech Bretha”, preserves the true “untampered version”. It has profound historical implications corroborating  Cruthin claims that their kings, and theirs alone, ruled at Tara up to the Battle of Moira in 637. The Battle of Moira ended the Cruthin tenure of the overkingship of Northern Ireland and Scotland from Tara. This fact and its attendant ramifications are vital to the recovery of the suppressed and silenced history of Iron Age and early Christian Ireland. The rising roar of Ui Neill warlords smothered the humble truthful voice of the Cruthin. Thereafter all Ireland rode on the back of a fiendish fraud reverberating with profuse repercussions, civil, cultural and historical, affecting all Ireland, past, present and future, Ireland is still being taken for a ride”

“O Connor’s research and photographs are unprecedented in any account of Irish history. This scholarly work is real Irish History – not the romantic myth of Gaelic High Kings of Ireland based at Tara. It should be compulsory reading for any student of Irish history” (Amazon.com Kindle book review). “This book is not only of Irish significance, for its revelations should result in a reinterpretation of prehistoric and early historic Europe. Academics and experts in archaeological, nomenclature and allied fields must study what can only be a very important discovery. I await their interpretations of its findings with excited anticipation” (Hugh W.L. Weir, historian and publisher, Ballinakella Press, Whitegate, Co. Clare, Ireland). “What can I say! This has to be the most informative work on early Ireland. I have a burning desire to learn about the people I descend from. All has been explained and expanded on to such a degree with accuracy that many other history books seem to be guesswork and fairy tales. What a great book!” (Michael Geraghty, Victoria, Australia). “Extremely interesting! This book’s Flickr and Web sites (www.handofhistory.com ) are awesome and explain a lot” (Steve Cavanagh, Death Valley, California, USA).