Ireland's River Shannon and the Spirit of Sionainn

One lovely autumn day, in Ireland's Cuilcagh Mountains, a beautiful girl named Sionainn wandered through the oak tree forest to gather hazel nuts and blackberries.  Sionainn stopped at a small pond and looked at her reflection in a tear-shaped pond. She looked up at the ancient willow trees that shaded the pond. She looked beyond to the stream flowing out across a green pasture and down to the valley below.


Sionainn  walked over to an old large hazel nut tree to gather nuts that she could reach on  the branches. As she reach for the nuts, she thought she heard what sounded like a voice.


"Do not take the hazel nuts, young woman," she thought she heard the voice say. She looked all around her. Even the warning didn't keep Sionainn  from doing what she wanted to do. These fine nuts were so appealing that she didn't want to wait until she got home. She decided to eat some right then and there. Just as the beautiful Sionainn broke open a hazel nut shell, she heard such a loud clap of thunder. This was so unexpected on such a fine autumn day. Sinnan shrugged. She had never been frightened of thunder.


She tasted the nut ...Mmmm. It was the tastiest hazel nut! To her amazement, she immediately knew that this was avery special hazel nut. She felt that she was now somehow changed. At that moment, she became very certain that this very hazel nut tree was the Tree of Wisdom. She knew that now that she had eaten the hazel nut, she now had within her - all the wisdom in the world. With that wisdom,


Sionainn knew that no mortal tasting a hazel nut from this tree would survive.


Suddenly the quiet, peaceful pond stirred. With more and more power, a huge wave forced its way up and out, cutting a deep trench through the forest and carrying poor Shannon with that wave of water far, far away. There was no end to the flow of this torrent of water . As this torrent pushed down the mountainside, the force of the water cut a channel through the area, spreading out and out until a great lake was formed where a rock barrier couldn't cut through.


Sionainn cried out to the gods,"Help!" but the gods would not rescue a mortal who had entered into sanctuary. Sinnan was swept away in this torrent of water and she perished long before the water completed its path to the ocean.


The gods agreed that this beautiful, youthful woman had been innocent in her entering their sanctuary. So, in her memory, the gods gave Sionainn's name to that torrent of water that carried her away. Today, that water is the River Shannon, the greatest river in all of Ireland. Sionainn's spirit still guards the river that is still as beautiful and lively as she was, long, long ago on that day she tasted the nuts from the wisdom tree  in the oak tree woods.


The  River Shannon has been a blessing to the people of Ireland. Salmon and trout have thrived and have provided a way of life and nourishing food for those who lived along the banks of the Shannon. 


The mighty  River Shannon the longest river in Ireland was a water route for Vikings as well as early Christians who traveled the Shannon and settled to build monasteries within view of the river that brought them there. It is the  River Shannon that divides the west of Ireland from the east and south of Ireland


The  River Shannon has been a natural treasure as well as a means of livelihood and enjoyment for the people of Ireland. Wouldn't the lovely lass, Sionainn, be surprised to see how the river that swept her away that lovely autumn day was now so important to the people who lived and worked along its banks.



Copyright 2024 Elaine Robinson

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