The Book of Invasions (Lebor Gabála Érenn), which contains one of Ireland’s oldest legends, tells the tale of Balor of the Evil Eye, leader of the hostile Fomorian Warriors. Balor has a venomous eye that, when opened, unleashes destruction. It has been said that the poison force emanating from his eye decimated landscapes and was akin to a blight or a burning sun.
Irish folklore tells us that Druids prophesised that Balor would be killed by their own grandson. To prevent this prophecy coming true, Balor imprisoned his daughter Eithne in a high tower on the island of Toraigh. However Cian, one of his enemies from the Tuatha Dé Danann and his daughter shared an intimate moment, where nine months later she gave birth to triplets. Balor ordered them to be drowned in a whirlpool.
On route the baby who would later be named Lugh fell out of the sheet which wrapped the triplets. Lugh was rescued by Biróg a woman of the sídhe mounds, who put the boy in hiding, this child when still young kills Balor at An Cró Nimhe (The Poisoned Glen), whereupon the poison from Balors eye poisons the hollow between the mountains forever.
design by Sean Fitzgerald
