A murder, an impossible quest, and a father’s grief
The Children of Tuireann is one of the great revenge stories of Irish mythology — except that the revenge takes the form not of a sword, but of a list. When the god Lugh discovered that the three sons of Tuireann — Brian, Iuchar, and Iucharba — had murdered his father Cian mac Cainte, he didn’t simply kill them. He gave them a blood-price to pay: a list of magical objects and impossible tasks that would take them to the ends of the world. He designed the list to kill them.
The Murder of Cian
Cian mac Cainte — Lugh’s father, one of the Tuatha Dé Danann — was travelling across a plain when he spotted the three sons of Tuireann in the distance. There was a blood feud between their families, and Cian knew he was outnumbered. He transformed himself into a pig and joined a passing herd, hoping to hide until they passed. But Brian saw through the disguise and told his brothers. They surrounded the herd, and Cian transformed back into human form — hoping that killing a man rather than a pig would at least carry a heavier blood-price. He was right about that.
The Blood-Price
Lugh named his price in court before the High King — a list of eight magical objects, each one more extraordinary and more dangerous to obtain than the last. Three apples from the Garden of the Hesperides. The skin of a pig that could heal any wound. A poisoned spear belonging to the king of Persia. Two magical horses and a chariot. Seven pigs that could be killed and eaten every night and would be alive again the next morning. A dog-whelp from the king of Ioruaidh. A cooking spit from the women of a mysterious underwater island. And three shouts on the hill of Mochaen — whose sons had sworn that no one would ever shout on that hill.
The sons of Tuireann listened to this list and went pale. They understood what Lugh had done. Each item would require them to travel to a different corner of the world, fight their way through a different impossible situation, and survive long enough to collect the next one. And Lugh had no intention of helping them.
The Quest
And yet — they went. The sons of Tuireann sailed across the world in a magical boat, fighting kings and heroes and supernatural guardians at every stop. They got the apples through disguise. They stole the pig-skin from its owner’s back mid-battle. They tricked the king of Persia out of his spear. Item by item, through cunning and courage and desperate fighting, they assembled the blood-price. They were badly wounded by the time they reached the final task — the three shouts on Mochaen’s hill — and Mochaen’s sons wounded them so severely that they could barely stand.
The Final Cruelty
They made it back to Ireland with all eight items and delivered them to Lugh. Then Brian sent to Lugh asking to borrow the magical pig-skin — the one item in the blood-price that could heal any wound — to save his brothers’ lives. Lugh refused. The three sons of Tuireann died of their wounds. Their father Tuireann died of grief over their bodies. Lugh had his revenge — not with a sword, but with a list and a single refusal at the end of it.
Key facts about Fate of the Children of Tuireann
- Irish title: Oidheadh Chlainne Tuireann (“The Tragic Fate of the Children of Tuireann”)
- The three brothers: Brian, Iuchar, and Iucharba mac Tuireann
- Their crime: Murder of Cian mac Cainte — father of Lugh
- Blood-price: Eight magical objects, each requiring a dangerous quest to obtain
- Key item: The pig-skin that healed any wound — denied to them at the end
- Result: All three brothers died of their wounds; their father Tuireann died of grief
- Irish tragic trio: One of the “Three Sorrows of Storytelling” alongside Children of Lir and Sons of Uisneach
- Cycle: Mythological Cycle
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