Popular Irish folklore holds that Lough Neagh covers a drowned city and that buildings may sometimes be seen through the water. A medieval writer recorded that fishermen on the lake see distinctly under the water, in calm weather, ecclesiastical towers which, as is the custom of the country, are slender and lofty, and also round.
Thomas Moore based one of his Irish Melodies on the legend: on Lough Neagh's banks the fisherman strays when the clear cold eve is declining, and sees the round towers of other days in the waves beneath him shining. In the story, a magical spring had once flooded a greedy kingdom and left its city beneath the water.
The tale links to the medieval flood story in the previous records. Nothing archaeological supports a drowned city, though the lough does preserve other remains. It is a good example of a legend that has been kept alive in poetry.
Comments