Irish myth is full of women who fight, rule, teach the heroes and curse whole provinces. Here is what the texts actually say about them, including the parts the retellings leave out, and the one who really lived.
Queen of Connacht, who went to war for a bull · Méabh
Queen of Connacht in the Ulster Cycle, ruling from Cruachan, now Rathcroghan in County Roscommon, with a line of kings for husbands, Ailill mac Máta the best known. She raises the army of the Táin Bó Cúailnge to take the brown bull of Cooley, because it is the one thing that would make her richer than her husband. The bull is brought home to Cruachan, kills Ailill's white bull, and dies of its wounds.
The warrior woman who trained Cú Chulainn
The teacher of the greatest Irish hero. Cú Chulainn is sent to her in the hope the training will kill him; she teaches him every art of war, including the Gáe Bulg, a barbed spear thrown with the foot that has to be cut out of the man it hits.
Scáthach's rival, who fought Cú Chulainn · Aoife
A warrior at war with Scáthach, and in some versions her sister. Cú Chulainn fights her as Scáthach's champion, having asked what she loves most: her chariot and her horses. With his sword at her throat he spares her, on condition that she makes peace with Scáthach and bears him a son.
The goddess who cursed the men of Ulster
A sovereignty goddess of Ulster, with Emain Macha and Armagh both named for her. The best-known Macha is forced to race the king's horses while heavily pregnant, and curses the men of Ulster to suffer the pains of childbirth in their hour of greatest need.
The phantom queen of battle · an Mhór-Ríon
The war goddess who appears as a crow over the field, urges warriors on, and washes the clothes of men about to die. She is often one of three, with Badb and Macha.
The prophet-poet who warned Medb
Not a fighter but a banfháith, a woman prophet, and a fili, a learned poet. In the Táin Medb asks her what the army will meet, and Fedelm foretells carnage. Her name seems to mean seer.
Real, and the head of the O'Malleys · Gráinne Mhaol
Born about 1530, dead about 1603, head of the Ó Máille dynasty in the west of Ireland. When the Joyces moved on her castle expecting no resistance, she fought them off. She met Elizabeth I in 1593. The nickname Gráinne Mhaol may mean cropped-haired, or Gráinne of Umhall, her family's district.
The name Gráinne · The O'Malley surname · Source: Wikipedia ↗
The best known are Medb, queen of Connacht, who leads the army of the Táin; Scáthach, who trained Cú Chulainn; Aífe, her rival; Macha, who cursed the men of Ulster; and the Morrígan, the war goddess. Gráinne Ní Mháille, the 16th-century head of the O'Malleys, is the real woman most often put beside them.
Scáthach, a warrior woman the texts place in Alba, Scotland, especially on the Isle of Skye. She taught him all the arts of war and gave him the Gáe Bulg, the barbed spear.
In the story, she was killed while bathing, by a man who had practised for the moment, with a piece of cheese.
Yes. Gráinne Ní Mháille, about 1530 to about 1603, was head of the Ó Máille dynasty in the west of Ireland and met Elizabeth I in 1593. The name Grace O'Malley is later: the English records of her lifetime spell her Graney, Grany or Grane, never Grace.
The Ulster Cycle and the Táin · The gods and goddesses · The creatures of folklore · Irish girls' names