"Well, there's always the tale of Fin McCool (or was it Dairmot) "sleeping" with the Hag and being rewarded for it."

Reminds me of the multitude of British & European faery tales in which the handsome prince is expected to kiss the Hag, only to discover, on kissing her, that she has become the Maiden.

"There are tales in Irish myth of whole armies fleeing when a woman exposed herself to them ... sounds a bit un-bloody-likely to me :-)"

It sounds unlikely if taken literally. Reading it symbolically, however, tells another story. A sorceress revealing the sources of her power? Or patriarchy on the run before a naked female power? There's surely other possibilities, though all of them have in common the theme of the supremacy of a female power (I mean this only in the context of the battle in question & am not an advocate of anything but balance & equality between the sexes).

"Most of the sheelas have emaciated looks, some with sticky out ribs etc. More Hag than anything."

Faery 'nuff, FourWinds. You've clearly seen a lot more Sheelas than me so I can only bow before your greater knowledge... I guess that's the point you were making, too, Shestu (and I can only agree about our culture's uptight attitude to sex).

"They sound cool critters - they'd pinch the corn sheaves at harvest and drag them back to the cairn for the rest of the fairies."

Folk memories of a harvest ritual, perhaps? Don't understand the symbolism of the cats at all, though... There are wild cats in the north of Scotland that are thought to have always lived in Britain. Are there wild cats native to Ireland?

"I actually managed to sit down and paint today at Carnagat"

Nice one! I've never done a painting of an ancient site but my experience of landscape painting suggests to me that its an excellent form of meditation. And I don't mean navel-gazing there, either: it forces you to look outward (though your inner state is inevitably part of the picture, too - forgive the pun!).

In the late 1800s and early 1900s Queen Elizabeth was still refered to as 'The Red Hag' by the people of county Clare.

This was not an association made out of any reverence :-)

There is a Sheela very close to one place this was recorded at, which implies to me that, if there ever was a hag link then it had certainly been forgotten by then. This Sheela is on Killinaboy church, right above the door and is considered by the locals to be an image of the patron saint of the area ... go figure that one!