#Celtic#FairyTaleTuesday: Although one of the mermaids was got with child due to his attentions, Prince Ruadh Mac Righduinn was allowed to depart from their land far below the ocean if he promised to stay with them on the way back. He spent seven years with his foster brother in Scotland, but he returned to Ireland by a different route, for he had no wish to spend his life beneath the sea with the Merrow race. Furious, the nine women of the ocean went looking for him, bringing with them his son, who had been born while he was elsewhere. They swam up the river to the very walls of his Dún near to the mouth of the river Delvin, but his warriors would not grant them access. In rage and despair the mother of the child slew the boy, her own son, with a seashell knife and threw his head on the shore to haunt Ruadh's memory forever more. Everyone who saw this was appalled and spoke as if with one mouth, saying “is oilb bine!,” which means, it is an awful crime! And so came to be the ancient name Inbher Oillbine for the river Delvin.
Source: https://emeraldisle.ie/the-naming-of-inbher-oillbine