Maggie Moon/Mother Ireland

“Maggie Moon” was the nickname of a destitute figure who walked the streets of North Belfast. Just like Morrigan the Irish moon goddess, the image of Maggie Moon/Mother Ireland represents the moon as a ‘polluted’ mother and crone seen in the phases of the full moon, and the waning moon. She is a dangerous boundary figure. Maggie Moon is depicted as a crone-like destitute mother clutching a wooden cross who is incapable of lamenting her martyred children, and drinks their sacrificial blood. As such, she reflects the ugliness and supremacy of motherhood as a nation: she is the life giver, and the life taker.