Medieval Irish tradition remembers more than one Macha. Macha Mong Ruad, red-haired daughter of Áed Rúad, was said to be the only woman among the high kings. Her father had shared the kingship in turns with two cousins. When his turn came round after his death she claimed it, but the cousins refused to let a woman rule. She beat them in battle and killed one, Díthorba, and later defeated his sons, who fled to the wilds of Connacht.
She married the other cousin, Cimbáeth, and shared the kingship with him. Disguised as a leper, she went after Díthorba's sons alone and overcame each as he tried to take advantage of her. She bound the three and carried them to Ulster. The Ulstermen wanted them killed. Macha chose instead to enslave them and made them build a new capital for the Ulaid.
She marked out its boundary with the brooch from her neck, and so, the legend says, the place was called Emain Macha, from the words for Macha's neck-brooch. That is the Navan Fort, the great round enclosure near Armagh, which archaeology shows was a ritual centre, though the legend is much later than the earthwork.
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