Children of Lir
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The Children of Lir is an Irish legend. The original Irish title is Clann Lir or Leannaí Lir, but Lir is the genitive case of Lear. Lir is more often used as the name of the character in English. The legend is part of the Irish Mythological Cycle, which consists of numerous prose tales and poems found in medieval manuscripts.
Bodb Dearg (the red) was elected king of the Tuatha Dé Dannan, much to the annoyance of Lear. In order to appease Lear, Bodb gave one of his daughters to marry him, Aeb. She bore him four children, one girl, Fionnuala, and three sons, Aodh and twins, Fiachra and Conn.
Their mother Aeb died and the children missed their mother terribly and Bodb, wanting to keep Lear happy, sent another of his daughters, Aoife, to marry Lear.
Aoife grew jealous of the children's love for each other and their father so she plotted to get rid of the children. On a journey with the children to Bodb's house, she ordered her servant to kill them but the servant refused. In anger, she tried to do it herself, but didn't have the courage. Instead, she used her magic to turn the children into swans. As swans, the children had to spend 300 years on Lough Derravaragh (a lake near their father's castle), 300 years in the Sea of Moyle, and 300 years on the Isle of Glora. It has been suggested that the site of Lear's castle is currently occupied by Tullynally Castle, home of the Earl of Longford, as the name "Tullynally" is the anglicised form of Tullach an allach or "hill of the swan". When Bodb heard of this, he transformed Aoife into an air demon for eternity. While the children were swans, Saint Patrick came and converted Ireland to Christianity.
After the children, as swans, spent their long periods in each region, they received sanctuary from MacCaomhog, a monk in Inis Gluaire. Each child was tied to the other, with silver chains, to ensure that they would stay together forever. However the wife of the King of Leinster, daughter of the King of Munster, Deoch wanted the swans for her own, so she ordered her husband, Lairgean to attack the monastery and seize the swans. In this attack, the silver chains were broken and the swans transformed into old, withered people. Before they died they each were baptised and then later buried with Fionnuala, the daughter, in the middle, Fiachra and Conn, the twins, either side of her and Aodh in front of her.
A Statue of the Children Of Lir resides in the Garden of Remembrance, Parnell Square in Dublin, Ireland.
The story is retold within Gods and Fighting Men by Irish folklorist Lady Augusta Gregory, first published in 1904.
