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Dearg-due (variations include Dhearg-Due and Dearg-dul) is a rarely noted creature possessing Vampire like qualities from Ireland. The name literally means "red blood sucker" and as the legend goes the Dearg-Due was a beautiful woman born in Waterford, County Munster. Her father placed her in an arranged marriage to a wealthy man who was very bad to her. To escape from him she eventually committed suicide and then rose from the grave to murder her father and widowed husband by drinking all of their blood. Depending on the legend she either rises once every full moon or once a year to continue her murderous exploits, using her extreme beauty to seduce men (always men) and drink their blood until they died. Reportedly, the way to get rid of her was to build a cairn, or pile, of stones on top of her grave to keep her inside.
There are other, very similar, Irish legends such as the Bhean-Sidhe and the Leanhaum-shee. However, in the case of the Leanhaum-shee, instead of drinking her victim's blood she is said to actually drink their life-force, very slowly and over a long period of time so that they gradually weakened and depleted until death finally overcame them.
References
edit"The Compendium of Vampyres & Other Perilous Creatures" ~Harper Collins Montague Summers