CLÍODHNA

The most beautiful woman in any world.

Clíodhna (pronounced KLEE-nah) was one of the most beautiful beings in the Otherworld — a goddess of love, beauty, and the sea. She possessed three magical birds whose song could heal the sick. In later tradition she became the Queen of the Banshees of South Munster, particularly associated with the MacCarthy and O’Donovan families.

She left paradise for a mortal. The sea punished her.

Clíodhna fell in love with Ciabhán, a mortal warrior of extraordinary beauty. She left Tír na nÓg to be with him, arriving at the shore near Glandore, County Cork. While Ciabhán went hunting and Clíodhna slept on the beach, Manannán mac Lir — enraged at her departure from the Otherworld — sent a great wave to reclaim her.

The wave swept her back to the Otherworld. That wave — Tonn Clíodhna, Clíodhna’s Wave — is one of the three great waves of Ireland, and the bay at Glandore still carries the memory.

She became the voice of death.

In later folklore, Clíodhna evolved from goddess of love to Queen of the Banshees — the wailing spirits who announce death. This transformation mirrors the broader shift in Irish mythology as Christianity absorbed and reframed the old gods. The goddess of beauty became the voice that keens at your window before a family member dies.