One of the Mother Goddesses of early Ireland,
the ancestress of the Tuatha De Danann, who later dwindled to the Daoine Sidhe, the fairies of Ireland. Lady Gregory begins her book Gods and Fighting Men with an account of how the Tuatha de Danann came to Ireland, led by Nuada, and fought with the firbolgs under their king Eochaid. Among the goddesses who fought under Nuada she mentions Badb and Macha and the Morrigu, Eire and Fodla and Banba, the daughters of Dagda, and Eadon and Brigit, the two goddesses of the poets, and she adds, 'And among the other women there were many shadow-forms and great queens; but Dana, that was called the Mother of the Gods, was beyond them all.'