Red Branch

The Red Branch (from Old Irish Cróeb Ruad 'dull red branch'; alternatively, from Old Irish Cróeb Derg 'bright red branch') is the name of two of the three royal houses of the king of Ulster, Conchobar mac Nessa, at his capital Emain Macha (Navan Fort, near Armagh), in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. In modern retellings it is sometimes used as the name of an order of warriors, the Red Branch Knights.

For other uses, see Red Branch (disambiguation).

The names of two of Conchobar's houses can be translated as "Red Branch", as Old Irish had two words for "red": derg, bright red, the colour of fresh blood, flame or gold; and ruad, russet, used for the colour of red hair.[1] The Cróeb Ruad (modern Irish Craobh Rua, "russet branch") was where the king sat;[2] its name has survived as the townland of Creeveroe in County Armagh. The Cróeb Derg (modern Irish Craobh Dearg, "blood red branch") was where severed heads and other trophies of battle were kept. His third house was called the Téite Brec or "speckled hoard", where the heroes' weapons were stored.[2]

Modern usage
  • A Belfast Celtic group also goes by the name Craobh Rua.[4]
  • The name "Knights of the Red Branch" was also used by an Irish Catholic fraternal organization in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and San Francisco, California in the 19th and early to mid 20th centuries.[5]

Notes
  1. Dictionary of the Irish Language, Compact Edition, Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 1990, pp. 204, 512
  2. Whitley Stokes (ed. & trans.), "Tidings of Conchobar mac Nessa", Ériu 4, 1910, pp. 18-38
  3. Conflict Archive in Northern Ireland
  4. Celtic Music Group: Craobh Rua
  5. Bernard Donahue, Obituary of Francis P. Donahue, Philadelphia Inquirer, Sept. 20, 1911
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