Every year I see people invent Samhain fakelore stories and if theyre SEO optimised they go down in internet folklore as a real part of Irish culture. Abaidh the boar god is a recent one from 2025. Its not in our medieval literature, our folklore, or any book that I can find.

Samhain fakelore: the origins of Abaidh

It looks like someone saw one of the nicknames for the Dagda from the story “how the Dagda got his magic staff” and head cannoned the rest. The nickname is Aed Abaid Ess Ruaid. But thats a reference to a high king Aed Ruaid from Ulster who died at a waterfall called Ess Ruad in dindsenchas.

The word itself as ‘Abaidh’ is mentioned in McBain’s dictionary of scots Gaelic but only as the Irish version of a Scottish word meaning ‘ripe’. The king was probably red faced like a ripe apple. Ruddy and healthy.

The dagda was one of the ancestral deities of Ulster dynasties so the writer of the story might have been saying the king was the devotee of, or embodied the values of the Dagda. Its nothing to do with a boar and it hides an important piece of how we view deities in Irish paganism.

Samhain fakelore: actual boar deities

In terms of actual boar deities, they exist. Being animistic and agricultural people in the past means Irish paganism has cults around important animals like sheep, cows, and pigs. Boars are specifically linked to a death cult in Irish mythology, so they can be tied to deities like Daire, Dearg, Donn, Ladra, Tethra etc and we have Torc Triath the king of the boars.

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Lebor Gabala Erenn – The Book of Invasions. Part 4

Gwynn, E. (ed.) 2004. The Metrical Dindshenchas: Ess Ruaid II. Available at: https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T106500D.html (Accessed: 8 October 2026)

Bergin, Osborn. 1974. “How the Dagda Got His Magic Staff.” In Medieval Studies in Memory of Gertrude Schoepperle Loomis, edited by Roger Sherman Loomis, 399–406.

MacBain, A. 1911. ‘abaich’, An etymological dictionary of the Gaelic language. Edited by C. MacPhàrlain. Stirling: Eneas Mackay.

Thurneysen, R. (ed.) 1935. Scéla Mucce Meic Dathó. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. Available at: https://iso.ucc.ie/Scel-datho/Scel-datho-text.html [Accessed: 8 Oct 2026].

Stokes, W. (ed.) 1901. Togail Bruidne Da Derga Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. Available at: https://iso.ucc.ie/Togail-bruidne/Togail-bruidne-text.html [Accessed: 8 Oct 2026].

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