Clann Tuireann- Celtic GroupCollective"Sons of Tuireann"

The Murder of Cian

The Oidheadh Chloinne Tuireann (Fate of the Children of Tuireann), one of the Three Sorrows of Storytelling in Irish tradition, opens on the eve of the Second Battle of Mag Tuired. Lugh Lamhfada sends his father Cian to muster the men of Ulster for the Tuatha Dé Danann's war against the Fomorians. On the plain of Muirthemne, Cian encounters the three sons of Tuireann: Brian, Iuchar, and Iucharba. A blood feud existed between the families, and Cian, recognizing the danger, transforms himself into a pig to escape among a nearby herd. Brian sees through the disguise and strikes Cian with a cast of his spear, forcing him back into human form. Cian pleads for his life, asking to be killed in his own shape so that his blood-price will be paid as a man's rather than a beast's. The brothers comply, but they kill him with stones, striking him until his body is driven into the ground, and bury him beneath the earth.

The earth itself refuses to conceal the crime. Six times the brothers bury the body and six times the ground casts it up, until on the seventh attempt it stays hidden. But when Lugh passes the spot, the ground speaks and reveals what happened. Lugh swears to exact the full eric (blood-price) from the sons of Tuireann.

The Impossible Eric

Lugh sets the eric before the assembly at Tara, listing items that sound attainable but prove lethal. He demands the three apples from the Garden of the Hesperides, the pigskin of King Tuis of Greece that heals all wounds, the poisoned spear of King Pisear of Persia, the chariot and horses of King Dobhar, the seven pigs of King Easal, the hound-whelp of the King of Ioruaidhe, the cooking-spit of the women of Fianchuibhe, and finally three shouts on the hill of Miodchaoin, which is guarded by Miodchaoin and his sons who have sworn never to allow a shout upon that hill.

The sons of Tuireann accomplish each task through cunning and valor. Brian in particular takes the lead, using shape-shifting and guile to steal the treasures from their guardians. Each quest takes its toll, and the brothers accumulate wounds that only the healing pigskin could mend. But Lugh, tracking their progress, contrives through enchantment to make them forget the pigskin before attempting the final task. On the hill of Miodchaoin, the brothers fight Miodchaoin and his sons in a battle that leaves all mortally wounded. Brian manages to give the three shouts before collapsing.

The brothers return to Ireland with every item of the eric fulfilled, but their wounds are fatal. Their father Tuireann begs Lugh to lend the healing pigskin, now in Lugh's possession. Lugh refuses. The three brothers die on their father's breast, and Tuireann dies of grief over their bodies. The tale concludes with one of the most affecting laments in Irish literature, placing it alongside the Children of Lir and the Sons of Uisneach as the sorrows that no audience could hear without weeping.