Dearg-Due: The Legend of the Irish Vampire and the Birth of a Deadly Blood Sucker

Author:
Gabriel Wilson
Updated:
Aug 31, 2018

Introduction

There are many tales of Irish demons sucking the lifeblood from the living. Ugly bat like creatures lurking in the dead of the night. Pale faced with long yellow nails and gaping purple mouths. Sour breath and bloodied hollow eye sockets. Stories that date back to pre celtic times. Perhaps these tales of demons were simply told to entertain during long winter nights. Perhaps parents told stories to scare their children so they wouldn't wonder too far from their camp. Or perhaps these tales were far more than just stories. Do blood sucking demons exist? Is there really such a thing as vampires? We may never know unless of course, we are one or meet one...

Dearg-Due

A Story of Young Lovers

An old Irish legend tells the story of a beautiful Irish maiden who was deeply in love with a common peasant boy. Their love was pure and true. The maiden, we will call her Órga and the peasant boy, we will call him Grian had promised to love each other till their death. They talked of when they'd marry and the children they would bare. Órga's father had very different ideas. He had promised the hand of his beautiful daughter to a rich Clan Chieftain. Her father was promised wealth and lands for himself and his other children in exchange for his daughter's hand in marriage.

It is said that Órga's beauty shone like a ray of sunshine; her eyes sparkled like midnight stars and her lips were redder than the reddest rose. Throughout the lands people talked of her exquisite beauty. Men were besotted with her every move and women would try to steal a strand of her golden hair.

To Órga's and Grian's dismay the marriage was planned and the day was set. Poor Órga's pleas feel on deaf ears. The wedding day arrived. Órga dressed in an array of gold and red, met and married her future husband. Everyone partied till nightfall. Órga looked on, cursing her father and promising vengeance.

Órga's husband was a horrible, mean and conceited man. He treated her like an object. Her days of playing in the meadows and fishing in the rivers were over. He locked her away so only he could feast on her magnificent beauty. The evil man relished in keeping her all to himself. Órga despaired at being locked away in the dark. Hidden from everything she loved. She couldn't eat, she couldn't drink. Distraught, she wondered of her faith!

*****

Stories say, she poisoned herself no longer able to live the life her father had put upon her. Other stories say she died of a broken heart.

Órga's burial was a simple affair. Her husband took another wife, while her body was still warm in her earthy bed. Her father and siblings were so busy with their new wealthy lives to cast her a passing thought.

One person however, morned her and cried a river of tears over her grave. The young lover, she had hopped to love for a lifetime, Grian. He visited her grave and spoke to her of his desire to see her again and prayed for her to come to him.

Legend says she rose from her grave the following year on the very date she died. Riddled with vengeance, she visited her fathers house. Finding him sleeping, she leaned over him and placing her lips gently over his, she sucked every breath of life from him. Órga then visited her husband. He was engaged in exotic sexual exploits with young women and never noticed his deceased wife enter the room. Órga went into a frenzied attack. Descending on her husband with such angry force, she not only drew is breath but also his blood. The surge of blood through her dead body made her feel alive again. She needed more...

*****

Órga used her beauty to prey on lustful young men. Luring them away to a quiet place with the promise of her beautiful body, only to sink her teeth into their soft throats and drink their delicious blood. Her hunger for blood was all she knew. So eager was she to quench her thirst that she forgot all about her young love Grian. She never saw him again, and if she had he would only have satisfied her thirst for blood. Órga was consumed with thoughts of the warm red liquid that gave her dead body living strength. With only one night a year to enjoy her lust, Órga feasted like a wild beast. Returning to her grave a bloody corpse.

Ans so, the legend of The Dearg-Due was born.

Beware of The Vampire as she flies through the night, once seen you are forever in her bloody sight...

A Little More to The Story

Dearg-Due (red blood sucker) was the name given to Órga's wondering remains. Her passion for blood, stripping her of her birth name. In her death as in the last of her living days it seems she was destined to be alone. The story goes, that the remains of Órga are buried at Strongbow's Tree in Co. Waterford in the southeast of Ireland. It is said: the locals pile stones on her grave every year on the eve of her death, thus preventing her from rising and sucking the life blood from their fleshy bones, but sometimes...sometimes they forget...

Comments

Gabriel Wilson (author) from Madeira, Portugal on June 23, 2018:

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should-i-watch-inglourious-basterds-2009

enjoying-the-late-night-ocean-breeze-stalker-on-the-beach

Thanks for reading Gerry :)

Gerry Glenn Jones from Somerville, Tennessee on June 23, 2018:

There are many of us that like a good vampire story. Yours was excellent!

Gabriel Wilson (author) from Madeira, Portugal on February 06, 2018:

Glad you liked it and thanks for stopping by :)

...... on February 05, 2018:

I loved this story, as an Irish myself !

Gabriel Wilson (author) from Madeira, Portugal on January 05, 2018:

Dearg-Due is a well known legend in Ireland. Órga is my version and I enjoyed writing it. It's fun to base things on something that is actually real even if it's a legend. I also like to write horror, mostly I dream it and then I write it to get it out of my head. I think perhaps I read too much horror as a child and perhaps that's the endless flow. Thanks for reading and good luck with your writing :) All the best for 2018.

cagejmadison on January 04, 2018:

As a fiction writer of the horror genre I'm always on the look out for new ideas I can used to create with. I love it when I find an article such as the one you have written here because it gets those creative juices flowing and wakes up my muse.

I know you wrote this article a few years ago but I wanted to say thanks heaps for writing it. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about Órga (Dearg-Due), and your article was a pleasure to read.

~CJM

Gabriel Wilson (author) from Madeira, Portugal on October 24, 2017:

Thank you for reading :)

Gabriel Wilson (author) from Madeira, Portugal on March 14, 2017:

Performing an exorcism might prove a tad difficult: she is dead. It is her spirt that rises. I doubt after all the bloodlust that an apology would work either, but you never know, stranger things have happened.

Dallas fields on March 10, 2017:

So this is a story of a woman who was in love, forced to marry another, locked away , dies only to return for love and payback! But all she ends up with is eternal loneliness and bloodlust! If she is real then the only methods to stop her and grant her, peace are for the remaining blood relatives from the families of Orga Gian and her husband to ask for forgiveness or perform an exorcism!!!

Gabriel Wilson (author) from Madeira, Portugal on December 04, 2016:

You might not think so if you met her. Hope your words don't offend her... sleep tight.

TAJA on November 29, 2016:

THATS SO FUNNY

Gabriel Wilson (author) from Madeira, Portugal on June 09, 2015:

The name, dearg is an Irish (gaelic) word meaning red, in this respect she was so named for drinking red (blood). I should expect though have no personal experience that once she starts to drink, she won't stop. There is only one Dearg-Due, she's an original. I would advise care and due-diligence (excuse the pun:) Bottoms up.

Gabriel Wilson (author) from Madeira, Portugal on June 08, 2015:

You might regret saying that though once you have met her, or maybe not :) you might get on like a house on fire.

Ryan McKay on June 07, 2015:

I would like to meet a dearg-due

Ryan McKay on June 07, 2015:

I would like to meet a dearg-due

Gabriel Wilson (author) from Madeira, Portugal on October 24, 2014:

The bones of the story I learned through research, it seems she is well known in that part of Ireland especially around this time of year. There are a number of Irish legends, some of which are quiet scary! Happy Halloween :)

Alex Adelman from Oakland Hills, CA on October 23, 2014:

There are posters of Dearg-Due in popular mall stores, however they don't have any description of who she is. Thanks for the info.

Gabriel Wilson (author) from Madeira, Portugal on October 23, 2014:

Glad you enjoyed reading it, and thank you for the feedback too :)

Gabriel Wilson (author) from Madeira, Portugal on October 23, 2014:

For a small place Ireland has a lot of stories, I'm sure you'd have a ball exploring :)

Gabriel Wilson (author) from Madeira, Portugal on October 23, 2014:

I love a good ghost story and being really scared is all part of it, the thing with legends though is you never know how much of the story is just a story or in fact how much is actually true. Happy Halloween :)

Angie Shearer from Whangarei, Northland on October 22, 2014:

Oh my gosh....now there's a story....absolutely loved it....engrossed as my mind illustrated the story to me....such emotion and suffering and revenge....thankyou sooo much for putting an extra special into my day x

yvette lozano on October 21, 2014:

i love stories like this makes me want to travel ireland and learn more.

Gabriel Wilson (author) from Madeira, Portugal on September 05, 2014:

The young lover was who she wanted to marry, that's why she was heart broken when her father gave her hand to another man. That's the whole reason why she was angry, bitter and revengful. The man she loved was lost to her, so he's vital to the story otherwise the story would simply be about a young woman marrying a man she didn't love. Being in the story after her death: he would have been just another man she would have killed, because in her death she became a vampire and killed... she wouldn't be capable of falling in love, she's a dead blood sucker not a fawning young woman looking for love...

Amanda on September 04, 2014:

I dont know why the toung lover was even mentioned if he really wasn't vital to the story. Would have been way way better if he was in the story after her death instead of just forgotten.

Gabriel Wilson (author) from Madeira, Portugal on April 26, 2013:

Around two thousand years ago, of course the story is a legend so perhaps even longer. Ireland had many demons and druids. The people believed in all kinds of after life; the majority having nothing to do with heaven. Kinda spooky really.

Crystal on April 26, 2013:

Nice story. When did this legend originate?

ali samad on February 26, 2012:

thank you for tell her story history:)

Gabriel Wilson (author) from Madeira, Portugal on November 21, 2011:

Hey Keaton Fox. Yes; it's amazing how entwined we all are one way or another through stories and history.

Tanx for popping in:)

Keaten Fox on November 21, 2011:

Wow! What an interesting story! How similar folklore is across the world... :)

Gabriel Wilson (author) from Madeira, Portugal on October 21, 2011:

Tanx for reading:)

annamarie on October 21, 2011: