http://ftp.fortunaty.net/text/sacred-texts/neu/celt/mlcr/mlcr05.htm

Do a Ctrl-F seach on this page for all the many sling references. I particularly like this one:

"The tale of the death of Queen Maev is also preserved by Keating. Fergus mac Roy having been slain by Ailell with a cast of a spear as he bathed in a lake with Maev, and Ailell having been slain by Conall, Macv retired to an island on Loch Ryve, where she was wont to bathe early every morning in a pool near to the landing place.

Forbay son of Conor mac Nessa, having discovered this habit of the queen's, found means one day to go unperceived to the pool and to measure the distance from it to the shore of the mainland. Then he went back to Emania,where he measured out the distance thus obtained, and placing an apple on a pole at one end he shot at it continually with a sling until he grew so good a marksman at that distance that he never missed his aim.

Then one day, watching his opportunity by the shores of Loch Ryve, he saw Maev enter the water, and putting a bullet in his sling he shot at her with so good an aim that he smote her in the centre of the forehead and she fell dead."

The Irish seem to be the one group of people who seem to love slings. Al the heroes were trained in and carried slings. Stories of slinging in chariots  are in the Tain.
  I really don't give credence to the tathlum though. These were supposed to be sling ammo made by soaking the brains of your enemies in lime. What would happen is that they would shrink and harden to s stone like consistency.
  There is one story of a Fergus who got hit in the head with a tathlum so hard it got stuck, and could not be removed. For the rest of his life he has to live with it.

Hello

I am very interested in which type of sling was used in times of Cuchulainn and Conchobar.

Is there archeologycal remains?

I think that like Celts love braided motifs and interlace decoration, perhaps their slings ("thabaill" in Old Irish) were similar to the ones used in Spain.

Greetings

At the archeological site in New Grange there are many small round balls which are not identified but sure look like sling ammo to me.

I read The Tain some years ago, and I remember the part that really stuck in my head was when Cu Chulainn was stalking Queen Maev's army and picking soldiers off in the dead of night with pinpoint accuracy even though the army had extinguished all their fires.  No one, including me, had any idea how he was doing it, and later in the book when his friend questioned him about it, he responded "No mortal can extinguish the stars." (or something to the effect, I didn't look up the exact quote).  He had been hiding in low ground and picking off soldiers when they were silhouetted against the stars!  Myth or not, that bit inspired me as much as anything has.

Also there was a bit at the beginning, when Cu Chulainn started teaching himself to fight (he was crazy young, seven I think) he insisted that he learn all weapons.  He was discouraged from using the sling, as it was not a weapon worthy of his rank, but he used it anyway insisting that it took skill to sling and that he wanted to be able to use every weapon.  There were certainly some who looked down their noses at slings, but perhaps not so much as elsewhere.

I also remember seeing an illustration of Cu Chulainn using a sling with a netted pouch, but I think the drawing was modern, so there’s not telling if its accurate or not.

was browsing the local bookshop and came across this title; first page I opened to metioned slings!
the universe does indeed work in mysterious ways  

In the "Heroic Age" that the Tain is set in, all the Irish warriors had at least some training  with the sling.

Not from that time period. However in the early Medieval Period, there were 3 leather artifacts excavated in Dublin.
If i don't get more information posted in a couple of days Slingbadger can also give the information.

Marc Adkins

thabaill wrote on Jul 9^th, 2011 at 7:03pm: