²²Ó Crualaoich, Gearóid. "Continuity and Adaptation in Legends of Cailleach Bhéarra." Béaloideas 56 (1998): 154-57.
In his book, however Ó Crualaoich expands on this theme, explaining that the Wise Woman's role in opposition to humankind may have been a Christian interpretation intending to raise the role of the priest: "[They were] well-regarded women, always ready to help those who seek their aid. Their powers and their knowledge are clearly shown as grounded in their access to the native otherworld and not, as in the clerical view, to an anti-Christian diabolic order. This mistaken clerical view is portrayed in story after story showing the wise-woman as a mediator (on the community's behalf), with the native otherworld, rather than with any version of the Christian supernatural. In many stories her power is shown to be equal to or better than that of the priest in respect of the diagnosis and healing of affiiction..." (Ó Crualaoich, Gearóid. The Book of the Cailleach: Stories of the Wise-woman Healer. Cork: Cork UP, 2003. 75-6.)
According to Concannon, some of the other names of the divine hag goddess included Aoibheal of the O'Brien dynasty of North Munster, Cliodna of the O'Keeffe dynasty of East and North Cork, Síle of the O'Gara dynasty, and Mauveen of the O'Neill Buidhe of Clannaboy. (Concannon, Maureen. The Sacred Whore: Sheela, Goddess of the Celts. Cork: Collins, 2004. 138.)
The dramatic figure of Cathleen ni Houlihan, invented by W.B. Yeats and Lady Gregory in 1901, blends together a beautiful young woman with the ancient Cailleach Bhéara. The fidelity to the legends of the Wise Woman Hag, however, were likely maintained by Lady Gregory, as Yeats' early version of the Cailleach—in The Celtic Twilight's story "The Untiring Ones"— was "Clooth-na-Bare," portrayed only as a woman who traveled widely looking for a lake deep enough to drown her faery life. (Merritt, Henry. "Dead Many Times: 'Cathleen ni Houlihan,' Yeats, Two Old Women, and a Vampire." The Modern Language Review 96.3 (2001): 644-48.)