Maria Tanner Cohen

There once lived the infamous Fairy Queen/ Banshee of South Munster who went by the name of Clíodhna.
She was a spirit from a place inside the earthen mounds know as Tír Tairngire (the Land of Promise) but she incarnated in time to resembled mortal women in size and feature, but given her otherworldly essence Clíodhna beguilingly beautiful and no woman in Munster could compete with her seductive power.
Folklore tells us Clíodhna was to be feared,she was a women of great passion and powerful instincts. From her childhood days she was gifted with rare abilites of being able to reduce people to any shape or form she wished them to assume. In rivalry with her sweet sister Aíbell for the love of a young chieftain named Ciabhán, Clíodhna mercilessly turned her sister into a white cat. Her love for Ciabhán was deep and obesseional so when he was away she would sit wait for him by the seashore.
One day, while waiting by the shore, she fell asleep and while she dreamed, Mánannán Mac Lír, the ancient Irish Sea God saw her. Mánannán Mac Lír, deeply disapproved of the union between the Fairy Queeen and a mere mortal and so he sang the seas siren song to summoned an enormous wave that would sweep Clíodhna to the sea and drowned her.
The place where the sea consumed Clíodhna life and love was Glandore harbour (Cuan Dor) in County Cork. To this day the ninth wave of the incoming tide in Glandore, is known as ‘Tonn Chlíodhna’ or ‘Clíodhna’s Wave. Is it any suprise, Clíodhna being who she was, would not go down quitely and so there lives a prophesy,the source of it is not really know, that from her immortal realm in Tír Tairngire,the Fairy Queen will one day avenge her love lost by raising a wave big enough to engulf all of Munster.