There are many websites with information about the Shannon Pot. I would recommend http://www.glangevlin.com for its inclusion of local stories and folklore.
However, it is curious that, while every site mentioning the location gives some version of the Sinann story, all are variants on the version cited by Eugene O’Curry. (Read his version here). There are some minor differences in the given stories:
- Some state that Sinann had come to catch the Salmon of Wisdom, who lived in the pool.
- A few even state that she had come to retrieve fruit from the tree of Knowledge that grew by the pool.
- Many associate the site with the stories of Fionn MacCumhail and the Fianna. (There is no direct connection between this site and the Fionn stories).
However, each given version asserts the idea that Sinann was a disobedient girl who angers the salmon or the magical water, and is punished for her presumption. None of the stories have much in common with the original textual story. All are clearly taken from the somewhat misogynistic interpretation created by Eugene O’Curry in the 19th century. For a full discussion of how The Story of Sinann became so distorted from the version told in the Metrical Dindshenchas, go to our podcast episode Revisiting Sinann.
Stories grow and change. That is their nature. But it is sometimes worth researching the journey they have made.