Wild things are out there, riding the dark waves
They dress the black rock of Carricknarone
Their shadows confound the stronghold of the White Field
An still, neither bell nor call to marriage breaks the silence

Aed

"After the change, for many days and many nights,
"the sea bubbled and boiled beneath my chest
"the air was afire with tongues of scarlet and yellow
"and breath came shallow and fast and score to me."

Fiacra

"We are no wild things; we are
Finola and Aed, Fiacra and Conn. Yet it is known
"We have travelled long on salt weighted wings;
"We have long dined off sea salt and tear salt."

Finola

"I find the world careless of its treasures
"it leaves behind in pool and in cove
"Coverlets of foamy lace. Under a full moon,
"When fish lie deep, I dream, bedecked in finery, I dance."

Conn

"Always, at day's break I draw near the smell of loam and leaf;
"the smell of damp grass draws me.
"Always at day's end I am drawn to the sea's land-march;
"the scent of cut grass and crushed wild parsley is dear to me."


A note to The Children of Lir
by Sam Burnside

The story goes that when Bow the Red was made King, Lir grew angry. To placate him Bow offered him the hand of one of his daughters, Eve, Eva or Aluna.. Lir chose and married Eve who bore him two sets of twins, Finola and Aed and Fiacra and Conn. Durning a journey from their father's palace as Shee Finnehy, (the Stronghold of the White Field near Annagh) to their granfather's palace on the banks of the Shannon, and as result of an intra family dispute, Lir's children were turned into swans. Although they were allowed to retain their human feelings, and the power of human speech, and in addition were endowed with the gift of making sweet, plaintive music, the terms of the spell condemned them to endless wandering on the loneliest of waters: three hundred years, in turn, on the waters of Lake Derravaragh, then on the Sea of Moyle and finally, on the waters about the rocks of Inish Glora on the Western Sea. The spell could be brocken only if one of two conditions was met: if they heard the voice of a Christian bell bringing the light of the new faith to the island of Ireland; or., if a prince of the North were to unite in marriage with a princess of the South.

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