Hinch Distillery

Mac Lir | Otherworld

Mac Lir, the name of the Celtic Irish sea god, meaning ‘Son of the Sea’ and poetical ruler of the ocean. He was considered a prosperous farmer on the ‘plains of the sea’ with shoals of fish instead of herds of cattle and sheep.

In Irish mythology, the Otherworld islands, home of Mac Lir, lie ‘beyond the ninth wave’. The ninth wave is said to be greater than any other wave before it, and is also known as the ‘Wave of Transformation’. The Tuatha de Danann attempted to protect Ireland from the attack of the invading Milesians by shrouding the land in fog and storms. They ordered the Milesians to go back beyond the ninth wave but the poet Amergin countered the Danann magic, and breached the spell; supposedly, it was the ninth wave itself which broke through. The Imramma is a sacred sea voyage in Irish mythology which takes the traveller beyond the ninth wave in search of the magical Otherworld and the Gods which inhabit it.