The Merrow
Irish mermaids wear a little red cap that lets them pass through the sea. Steal it, and a merrow can't go home.
What was reported
The merrow is the mermaid of Irish folklore. The women were beautiful and gentle, and they wore a small red feathered cap, the cohuleen druith, which let them live beneath the waves. A man who hid a merrow's cap could keep her on land as his wife, but if she found it again, she would return to the sea, leaving her family behind.
In a tale collected by Thomas Crofton Croker in the 1820s, set near Doonbeg in County Clare, a fisherman befriends a male merrow, green-haired and red-nosed, who keeps the souls of drowned sailors in lobster pots beneath the sea. The fisherman tricks him and sets the souls free.
Explanations offered
Merrow stories belong to the wider family of sea-wife legends found around northern Europe, like the selkies of Scotland. Seeing a merrow was often thought to bring storms. Such tales may reflect the lives of coastal people, the dangers of the sea and the families it took from them.
- When
- Collected in the 1820s
- Where
- Doonbeg, County Clare, Ireland
- Witnesses
- Irish folklore
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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