Baile Binnbérlach
[Irish Baile, (vision?) of the clear voice]
Heir to the Ulster throne and tragic lover of Ailinn of Leinster in the 11th-century story Scél Baili Binnbérlaig [The Story of Baile of the Clear Voice]. Baile was making his way south from Emain Macha when he was told, falsely, that Ailinn and been killed, and died himself of grief. Travelling north, Ailinn was told of Baile's death and she too perished at the news. After their deaths a yew tree grew from his grave and an apple from hers. Poets and seers cut down the trees; those from Ulster turned the yew into tablets for writing and the men of Leinster used the apple. Baile's name appears often in the writings of W. B. Yeats, most notably the poem ‘Baile and Ailinn’ (1901) and the play On Baile's Strand (1904); the play deals with Cúchulainn, but Baile's Strand is near Dundalk, Co. Louth. Baile is also alluded to in The Only Jealousy of Emer (1919) and The Death of Cuchulain.
