Niamh (mythology)

In the story of Niamh, she was an otherworldly woman who fell in love with an Irish man named Oisín and carried him away to live with her in her domain of Tír na nÓg, the Land of Youth.

In the medieval version, Niamh was a mortal princess of Munster who eloped with Oisín to Ulster but committed suicide when her father's army arrived in pursuit.

[16] The only Irish text preserved from the past which contains the story of Oisín and Niamh in Tír na nÓg is the poem Laoi[ḋ] Oisín A[i]r Ṫír Na N-Óg "The Lay of Oisin in the Land of the Youth", composed around 1750 and attributed to Mícheál Coimín (Michael Comyn, 1676–1760).

[b][18][19] The poem may have been based on lost traditional material,[18][20] although the opposite may be true, and the poet may have largely invented the story working from very basic hints about Oisin and Caílte's journeys to the fairy mounds (sídhe), as described in the Acallam na Senórach.

The spot was named the Well of the Women (tipra an bhantrachta), and it was on the edge of the Lake of the Red Stag (loch and daimh dheirg).