First High King of the Milesians
Éremon mac Míl was the first High King of the Milesians and the ancestor of the northern Irish dynasties. He was not the eldest son of Míl Espáine — Donn mac Míl was older — but Donn died before the conquest was complete, killed by the storm the Tuatha Dé Danann raised as the fleet retreated beyond the ninth wave. Éremon outlasted his brothers to become the man who held Ireland.
Amergin arbitrated the division: Éremon the north, Éber Finn the south. The peace lasted less than a year. Éber Finn’s wives complained that the northern hills were better than what they had. The brothers went to war. Éremon killed Éber Finn at the Battle of Airgetros. After that, Ireland was his.
His wife was Tea, a woman of the Tuatha Dé Danann. She gave her name to Teamhair — the Hill of Tara — which became the seat of the Irish High Kingship. The Milesian conqueror and the divine woman whose name consecrated the most sacred political site in Ireland: that marriage is the mythology’s account of how the two peoples, after the war, became one.
He introduced battle-standards — flags — to Ireland. He founded the precedent of the High Kingship that the later tradition sustained for centuries. His descendants — the Uí Néill, the Connachta, the dynasties of Leinster — claimed their lineage through him.
Éremon is Ireland after the conquest. Éber Finn is what it cost to hold it together.
Link/cite this page
If you use any of the content on this page in your own work, please use the code below to cite this page as the source of the content.
Link will appear as Éremón: https://irishgodsandgoddesses.net - Irish Gods & Goddesses, March 22, 2026