LEGENDS
CLIFFS OF OF THE MOHER
Eithne Massey
Illustrated by Lisa Jackson
Eithne Massey has had a lifelong attachment to the legends and traditions of her native Ireland. Her best-selling books of Irish myths and legends for children include what is fast becoming a classic picture book, Best-Loved Irish Legends, and of a number of novels for young readers, among them the award-winning Blood Brother, Swan Sister, with its backdrop of the Battle of Clontarf, and the skilful story of the man behind the rebel leader in Michael Collins: Hero and Rebel. Her other books include Legendary Ireland: Myths and Legends of Ireland and The Turning of the Year.
Lisa Jackson lives in Dublin. She works in comic books, illustration and game design and has illustrated books such as Best-Loved Irish Legends , Ice Dreams and The Henny Penny Tree .
Contents
The Mermaid of Moher 4
The Hag 14
The Lost City 22
The Magic Foals 30
The Giant Eel of Kilmacreehy 38
the Mermaid of Moher l l m
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PRONUNCIATION GUIDE
Muireann: mwirrin
Muireann and Conmara’s mother was very, very beautiful. She had long silver hair and sea-green eyes. If you looked very closely, you would see fine web-like skin between her fingers and toes. She kept a small dun cow and a flock of hens and ducks and geese and seagulls. She got eggs from the other birds, but she said that the seagulls were there ‘Just for the craic.’ She wasn’t like the other mothers in the village.
If the children came home soaked and covered with sand and salt after hours on the cliffs and the beaches, she just laughed.
5
‘The sea will look after you!’ she said. She smiled and laughed a lot. But sometimes her eyes had a sad, faraway look.
Muireann and Conmara loved to sit by the fireside in the evening. Their mother would sing to them and comb their hair with a silver comb. People said they could hear the sea in her voice.
Muireann and Conmara loved their mother very much. So when she grew thinner and her skin became pale and her hair turned from silver to a dull grey, they were worried.
6
She said to them, ‘I just miss the sea.’
‘But we live right beside the sea,’ said Conmara.
His mother smiled, but her eyes were sad. ‘Ah, but I can go only to the edge. Not into the deep waters where the sea-horses swim and the fish sing.’
7
It was a wild day. The children’s father went to market with a cartload of fish he had caught. A storm blew up, with the wind so strong and the rain so heavy that even Conmara and Muireann were not allowed out. The children played in the small gap between the thatched roof and the ceiling of the cottage. Muireann lay on her back and listened to the rain beating against the golden thatch. Then she noticed something silver glinting in the gold.
‘Conmara!’ she said. ‘Look up there. What’s that?’
8
They reached up and pulled. Out came a long silver cloak, shining like water.
‘It’s so beautiful!’ said Muireann. ‘And look, it even has a little hood.’
They carried the glittering cloak down to their mother, who was stirring a pot of potatoes over the fire. As she turned, a flash of lightning and a roar of thunder shook the cottage. In the brightness, the children could see their mother’s eyes change.
‘My cloak!’ she cried. ‘You have found it!’
9
She pulled the cloak over her and drew the two children into a hug underneath it.
Her hair became silver and her skin as white as sea foam once more. Her eyes were shining.
Their old mother was back.
Holding her children tightly, she said, ‘You must know, my dearest ones, that I am a mermaid.’
‘A mermaid?’ asked Conmara, his eyes as round as saucers.
‘But how did you get here?’
‘One day, I was sunning myself on some rocks by the Cliffs of Moher.
10
I heard someone singing. I swam up to the boat and saw your father. He fell in love with me and I with him. But humans and sea people cannot live together. I tried to tell him that but he would not listen. He hid my magic cloak. Without it, I could not go back into the sea. The water would drown me. I have been happy here because I have you two, my treasures. But I cannot live on land. I must go back under the sea.’
Muireann started to cry. ‘Let me go with you.’
‘My dear one, you would be leaving your father and all your friends.’
‘I don’t care,’ said Muireann. ‘I want to be with you.’
‘And you, Conmara?’
Conmara was crying too, but he said, ‘I will stay here. Father will be so lonely. But will I never see you or Muireann again?’
His mother said, ‘Come out to the rocks when the tide is high and sing the song I will teach you, and we will come to meet you. Listen, now.’
11
The storm had stopped. In the beautiful evening light, they went to the shore. Muireann and his mother hugged Conmara one last time. Then, wrapped in the cloak, they dived into the ocean.
Conmara wiped the salt from his eyes and went home.
His father was very sad when he learned what had happened. He said: ‘She told me that she could not live on the land. Now I have lost her. And Muireann too.’
12
But when the tide was high, Conmara would go to the rocks and sing the song his mother had taught him. The waves would glitter with laughter and his mother and Muireann would swim up to him. They would tell him about their life with the sea-people. Conmara would tell them about how things were going in the farmhouse, about how his father was, and how the little cow and the ducks and hens and geese were faring. The seagulls had all flown away on the day his mother left.
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