Waking Maeve book published by Seamus McGoldrick
Waking Maeve: an excavation of Sligo’s landscape, myth and history explores the people, myths and landscapes that have shaped one of Ireland’s most significant sacred precincts.
Sligo surf pioneer, former physics student and three-time national champion Seamus Mc Goldrick has turned his attention from the huge waves of Mullaghmore to the ancient landscape of his native county with the publication of Waking Maeve: an excavation of Sligo’s landscape, myth and history.
Mc Goldrick grew up at the foot of Knocknarea, in the shadow of Queen Maeve’s Grave, the local name for Meascán Méadhbha, the largest unexcavated Neolithic cairn in Ireland, thought to conceal a passage tomb. He learned to surf in Strandhill as a child, surrounded by a landscape containing some of Ireland’s most extraordinary prehistoric monuments, and learned at an early age the myths and stories of Coolera.
The result is Waking Maeve, an ambitious journey through Sligo’s past, bringing together archaeology, mythology, history, literature and the lives of the people who have shaped the northwest of Ireland.
“I grew up in the orbit of Knocknarea in a village that was the hub of nineties surfing in Ireland,” says Mc Goldrick. “The landscape was as extraordinary as the waves, but I became hungry to know more about the mysterious cairns built by my ancestors at Knocknarea, Carrowmore and Carns Hill. Writing Waking Maeve led me to better understand the people who built these monuments and how they shape how we see Sligo today. Now it is time to share these stories.”
The book’s guiding light is Queen Maeve, one of the great figures of Irish mythology and Connacht’s best-remembered ancient warrior. Local tradition says Maeve is buried under the great cairn of Knocknarea, but the full story is richer and more revealing. Maeve ruled from her power base in Rathcroghan in County Roscommon, sixty kilometres from the enormous Meascán Méadhbha, which Knocknarea expert Stefan Bergh says has no match in Ireland.
The Coolera Peninsula contains an extraordinary concentration of prehistoric monuments. Of the approximately 250 passage tombs in Ireland, around 70 are found on the Coolera Peninsula, where much of Ireland’s ancient history is cradled between Knocknarea, Carns Hill and Carrowmore. For Mc Goldrick, the archaeological evidence shows Sligo was central to the development of ancient Ireland.
Stefan Bergh calls the Coolera Peninsula the ‘Landscape of Monument’. In Waking Maeve, Seamus explores the connection between the Neolithic monument builders and the Sligo landscape itself, which later ignited the cultural vision of poet W.B. Yeats.
From the mysterious passage tombs of Knocknarea and Carrowmore to the enormous swells that break at Mullaghmore, Waking Maeve carries readers on a rolling wave from the Stone Age to the era of rock ’n’ roll. Along the way, readers encounter kings and queens, saints and Vikings, poets and rebels, shipwrecks, surfers and dreamers who left their mark on one of Ireland’s most extraordinary landscapes.
An adventurous West of Ireland upbringing led Mc Goldrick towards becoming a chronicler of Sligo. He joined the Irish surfing team aged 15 and studied physics at Trinity College Dublin before becoming one of Ireland’s pioneering surfers and establishing Sligo Surf Experience, located in the National Surf Centre in Strandhill.
As a three-time national surf champion, he has ridden many of the best waves on the Wild Atlantic Way, including the frightening swells that break at the now world-famous Mullaghmore Head.
Today, he combines his ocean-based surf lifestyle with a growing passion for the history and heritage of the landscape in which he grew up.
“Surfing teaches you to look closely at the environment and embrace it, rain or shine,” Mc Goldrick says. “You learn to read the sea, the wind, the tide and the coast.
Writing this book was another way of learning to read the Sligo landscape. Like surfing, my study of local history has given me a deeper knowing, one I’m keen to share.”
Waking Maeve: an excavation of Sligo’s landscape, myth and history is available now in Liber Bookstore and other stockists in Sligo. It is also available via www.walkingmaeve.com .
A book launch will take place on September 24 2026 in Liber Bookstore, O Connell St, Sligo, and a ‘Celebration of Waking Maeve event is taking place on October 3 2026 in the National Surf Centre, in association with White Hag and Shells Café.
Further information, events and updates are available at wakingmaeve.com and via @wakingmaeve on social media.
