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Where did Vampires and Banshees really come from?
The truths behind old Irish folk legends
Ireland feels very old.
It’s not just the old buildings - there are ruins of castles many hundreds of years old. But then there are ancient burial barrows, to which even the castles must seem young.
History is built upon history, one people upon another.
History becomes stories, which become legends. The legends grow a life of their own, creating a thousand different versions of the story, and a thousand origins.
The rich mythic past of Ireland seems to blend in with the real history, which is often murky until the line between fact and fiction, oral history, and fireside story become blurred and interlocked.
The Irish take their mythology seriously because it has its own meaning.
The Abhartach
If you go to a green, hilly region in County Derry and find the town called Slaughtavery, you will find the ruins of an old castle, from the 5–6th centuries.
It was once the home of the man who became the myth of the Abhartach.
5th Century Ireland was a wild, violent place, with the land ruled by petty warlords, who rose, fought, and fell almost continually.
