If you missed my article on Horus, you can find it here.
Cliodhna is the beautiful Celtic goddess of not only the death-calling banshees but also love and beauty. She is a goddess of the Tuath De Danaan, the Sidhe of Ireland. The Tuath De Danann are not fairies. They are the children of the goddess Danu. Much like Danu, she had two distinct sides. Cliodhna’s symbol/animal(s) is the three birds that she is often pictured with.
Cliodhna can heal or kill depending on where her mood is. If she wanted you healed, her birds will sing you to sleep and you will wake healed. The birds eat special apples from Tir na nOg. She also leads men astray with her beauty and drowns them.
Cliodhna comes from the Otherworld, Tairngire (the land of promise) specifically. Tir na nOg is also there in the Otherworld. When she fell in love with the mortal, Ciabhan, she chose to leave Tairngire. This is not something that is done with regularity. While waiting for Ciabhan on the shore, Manannan mac Lir, God of the Sea, used the waves to kill Cliodhna on the cliffs.
It is because of Cliodhna that we have the Blarney Stone. One day when Cormac MacCarthy was building his castle, he was having legal problems. He asked Cliodhna for help and she told him to kiss the first stone he saw in the morning. If he did this he would be gifted with eloquence. To repay Cliodhna, he made to stone available to all who wish to be gifted the same as he. The fact that Blarney Castle stands lends proof to the myth.
She is closely tied to a few families and particular lands. The O’Leary’s. The O’Donovan’s, and the MacCarthy’s all claim her name in their ancestry. She is said to live in south Muenster, specifically in County Cork. Really specifically, Mallow in a place called Carrig-Cleena, Cliodhna’s Rock. There are cliffs in Glandore in Cork that is said to still be hit with Cliodhna’s cries. Every ninth wave is called Tonn Cliodhna or Cliodhna’s wave.
