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Needle felted art piece

Orla Galligan was one of ten local artists selected by Cavan Arts to create works reflecting the Knockbride landscape, the legacy of Tom Barron, and the Corleck Head.

The exhibition ‘Knockbride – an Artists Response’ took place in Baileborough Library, September 2024.

Cows featured in many of the ancient traditions and myths that Thomas Barron collected. The mythological white cow goddess had a ‘three-fold personality, in other words she was a trinity like many Celtic deities.

She could be a white cow; a red cow; and a black cow, all depending on the stages of the moon. As a white cow she was believed to be the goddess of birth and growth; as a red cow she was the goddess of love and war; and as a black cow was the goddess of death and fortune telling.’ This piece features the cow goddess trinity circled around a central a triskele or triple spiral symbol.

The three faces of the Corleck head form a triangle around the cow goddess trinity. The Corleck head was once part of a larger shrine with a ram’s head on one side and a human head on the other. In this piece they have been reunited by placing them between the faces of the Corleck head, along with Brigid above the white cow as another local mythology recorded by Thomas Barron is of ‘the mysterious white cow with red ears’ who as legend said, ‘reared Brigid.’