Wizards at the SUMMER SOLSTICE

That the ancient British Celts celebrated the Summer Solstice is not well-supported in their literature. Attempts to rebrand the festival by the neopagans have turned either to the Germanic and Scandinavian tradition of 'Yule', or to a brief mention of a season called 'Litha', found in the work on the Anglo-Saxon Bede of Northumbria. There are few accounts of what the Iron Age Celts actually did at midsummer. We can assume that they did something, because the longest day of the year is hardly something they would have missed, especially seeing as there are specific mentions of their activities on the other three quarter-days. But on the subject of midsummer, the texts don't say much.

​An exception is the strange story of the Summer Goddess Áine. In a story from the Book of Leinster, called The Battle of Mag Mucrime, Áine (the fairy daughter of Eógabal) is raped by Aillil Ollam, one of the Eóganachta, when he spends Halloween on the sacred hilltop called Gnoc Aine (Knockainey, near Limerick). She bites off his ear in revenge. (In ancient Irish tradition, you can't be a king without a whole body.)

That event happened at Halloween, not midsummer, but Irish men were known to gather and light a bonfire on that hill at St John's Eve (midsummer), and in one tale, the goddess Áine appeared to them, telling them to go away, for she and her fairy kind wished to have the hill to themselves.

That particular tale mentions that the rape of her was conducted by Gerald Fitzgerald, a wizard, who was Count of Desmond at the time. He is a distant relative of mine. I am truly sorry that my ancestor thus had his evil way with the Fairy Queen of Summer, and his descendants claimed her lineage from then on. Another story regarding the Wizard Earl of Kildare (the same Gerald Fitzgerald) mentions him gathering ingredients for an invisibility potion at midsummer. I sense a series of stories coming on, about evil aristocratic wizards. 

Source: https://archive.org/details/revueceltique04gaid/page/186/mode/2up 
The Wizard Earl of Kildare: 
​https://www.askaboutireland.ie/reading-room/history-heritage/folklore-of-ireland/folklore-folk-tales-and-c/the-wizard-earl/

The original Irish texts are always more more strange and wonderful than the neo-pagan attempts to overlay modern patterned meaning onto old names and symbols. Always. 

Happy Midsummer.