Lí Ban, Ireland's Mermaid Saint

When it comes to saints in Ireland, most people would think of St Patrick but there is also an Irish saint who was a mermaid. According to legend, there was a palace where Lough Neagh is that housed the King of Ulster, Eochaid mac Mairidh and his family which included his daughter Lí Ban. Lí had a pet dog who alongside her survived a spring burst that started under the castle flooded the area and turned it into Lough Neagh. Lí survived thanks to an underwater chamber where she stayed for a year and while she was there, Lí Ban became half salmon-half human, a mermaid. Her dog transformed into an otter and the two roamed an open sea she swam into through a great river for 300 years. In the year 558AD, Comgall founded a monastery where Bangor in County Down is called Bangor Mór and it was there where Beoan, a man Comgall had sent found Lí Ban. When Comgall baptised her a year later and gave her the name Muirgen, Lí Ban died and she became the Mermaid Saint. Bangor has loads of remints of Lí Ban and Comgall's lives including a handmade quilt with a mermaid floating on the crest of a wave.