The Children of Lir

One of the great cycles of Irish mythology. Lir’s four children, three sons and a daughter Fionnuala, were turned into swans by their jealous stepmother Aoife. The curse held them for 900 years across three locations: three hundred at Lough Derravaragh in Westmeath, three hundred on the Sea of Moyle off Rathlin, three hundred at Inis Glora off Mayo. They kept their human minds and voices and could sing more beautifully than anything in Ireland. When the curse finally broke they aged the full nine hundred years in a moment, were baptised by a passing monk, and died on the spot. Swans have been ritually protected in Irish folk custom ever since.