This map, created by Neil Parkinson of Púca Printhouse in 2022, showcases the monsters of the mythology of the island of Ireland, including Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Among the many myths that the author recovers in this map, some of the most iconic are worth highlighting:

• Dullahan, the headless horseman who roams the night-time roads of Ireland carrying his own skull under his arm, and whose appearance heralds the imminent death of someone in the west.
• Selkie, the creature that takes the form of a seal at sea and that of a human when it sheds its skin on land; the most common tragedy associated with it in legends is that a sailor steals its skin to prevent it from returning to the ocean, on the north-west coast.
• Fomorian, the race of primordial chaos giants who inhabited the island before the arrival of the Tuatha Dé Danann and with whom they fought mythological battles for control of Ireland, in the north.
• Bean Yes (banshee), the female spirit whose nocturnal wail heralds the imminent death of a member of certain ancient Irish families in the north.
• Abhartach, the dwarf chieftain and sorcerer of Derry County who, according to a legend first recorded in writing in the 17th century, returned from the grave demanding blood from his subjects and could only be restrained by burying him face down with a yew wood sword, in the north-east.
• Luchorpan (leprechaun), the supernatural cobbler from folk legends who guards a treasure at the end of the rainbow and only reveals its hiding place if you keep your eyes fixed on him without blinking, in the east.
• Merrow, the mermaid of the Atlantic, distinguished from her European counterparts by the magical cap she wears, which allows her to breathe underwater and on which her life in the sea in the south-west depends.
• Puca, the shape-shifting spirit that takes the form of an animal to frighten night-time travellers, and which gives its name to Neil Parkinson’s studio in the south-west.
• Salmon of Knowledge (the salmon of knowledge), the fish that had absorbed all the wisdom in the world by eating the nuts from the sacred hazel trees and whose flesh the young Fionn mac Cumhaill accidentally tasted, thereby becoming the wisest of men, in the east.
• Children of Lir, the four sons of the sea god Lir, transformed into swans by their stepmother for nine hundred years – one of the oldest and most deeply rooted tales in the Irish mythological cycle – takes centre stage.

Many of the myths depicted are typical of a much wider region than the one in which they are located on the map.

Sources

• Mythical Beasts of Ireland
• Mythical beasts of Ireland
• Illustrated Map, Mythical Beasts of Ireland, A3 Art print - Poster