The Ninth Wave

In the myths of Ireland there are many tales about the transforming magic of water. In one of the founding myths about the invasion of Ireland when to protect the island the Tuatha de Dannan caused a great mist to form and hid it from the Milesians. Their mage Amarigen cast a spell that made a storm that blew away the protecting veil and it was The Ninth Wave(the wave of transformation) that breached the enchantment of the Tuatha de Dannan. After the invasion of the Milesians, the Tuatha de Dannan withdrew into the hollow hills and past into the mists and legends of time as the Fairies.

Around Ireland are many tales of other great waves that rise like a Tsunami, these are set in the legdanary lanscapes and peopled with the Tuatha de Dannan

TheTonn Rurai,is a legendary wave, which rises in Dundrum Bay in Co Down, to come to the aid of Ulster when King Connor Mac Nessa beat upon his shield in times of need.

In Cork is theTonn Cleena in Glandore Bay, there are many versions of her tale, one is that she was a maiden of the Tuatha de Dannan who lived in Tir Nan O,who escaped with her mortal lover, Keevan Of the Curling Locks and landed on the southern shores of Ireland. When Keevan went off to hunt, Cleena who had stayed on the sea shore was lulled asleep by enchanted fairy music, then Mananan ( The Irish God of the Sea) sent a wave that caught her and carried her back to fairyland leaving Keevan broken hearted on the shore, this place is known as the Strand of Cleena Wave.

The Irish language has been naming the landscape for at least two thousand years and it is echoed in place names such as Murlough-enclosed sea-loch; Dundrum-the fort on the ridge; Slievenamaddy-the mountain of the dogs; Burrenreavy-the speckled rocky place. The ancient name of Dundrum bay is the Bay of Ruadhraigh or the Red Lough, which was named after a local tribe in the prehistoric period,called Rudhraighe- a modern spelling is Rurai - which probally translates as 'rightful occupiers'. Some of the oldest manuscripts often describe the tribe as Clann rurai, the clan or the children of Rurai. Another interpretation could be the similarity of Rurai with the word rua (red) and with tales of bloody battles fought on the strand which turned the sand and the sea red.

In the pagan iron-age traditions which have filtered down through the christian lenses have been preserved in the literature of the monasteries. By the 8th century the Ulaidh had lost most of its power base and ruled only in East Ulster (Co Down), even here two separate populations claimed to the the true inheritors of the Ulaidh. Then the midland tribe (Ui Neils) who had beaten the Ulais began to claim these traditions for their own.

In the medieval period many traditions where invented some on a fanciful etymology basis. some claimed that Rurai was a personal name and the clan had descended from a king of that name, a descendant of Ir, who in the origin-myths of the Gaels, who was a son of Mil Espaine, the ancestor of the Gaels. The tribe was also known as Ulaid ( modern Ulaidh,the people who gave Ulster its name.