The Red Blood-Drinker
The Dearg Due was a beautiful woman. Her father refused the man she loved and sold her instead to a wealthy chieftain for money. The chieftain treated her cruelly, drew blood from her, and locked her away. She died.
She came back.
She went first to her father. Then to her husband. She killed them both. Then she turned to the living more generally.
She is Ireland’s female vampire — beautiful, dead, blood-drinking, and rising from her grave unless a large stone is kept on top of it. The stone must be maintained. It is not a permanent solution. It is an ongoing one. Her grave is traditionally identified at Strongbow’s Tree in Waterford, and the tradition says the stone should be checked regularly.
Her containment method is exactly the same as Abhartach‘s — the heavy stone on the grave, the ongoing vigilance, the possibility of re-emergence if the stone is disturbed or neglected. Irish undead, it appears, require this specific technology.
Her story is not well-documented before the 19th century, which means her exact age as a tradition is uncertain. She may be genuinely ancient and simply unwritten until collectors reached her. She may be a later development drawing on the Abhartach tradition and the European vampire stories circulating in popular culture from the 18th century onward. The honest answer is that no one knows for certain.
Key facts about Dearg Due
- Name: Dearg Due (“red desire/thirst”; dearg = red, dúil = desire)
- Type: Female revenant; Irish vampire
- Origin: A woman who died from mistreatment and rose seeking revenge
- Grave: Strongbow’s Tree, Waterford (traditional identification)
- Containment: Large stone on the grave — requires regular maintenance
- Compare: Abhartach — same stone-containment method
- Division: Later folklore — poorly documented before the 19th century
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