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Evil
Fairies of Ireland
You haven't seen darkness until you've been in the countryside in Ireland. It's the kind of darkness that devours everything beyond an inch from your nose and turns the forests and fields to shadow. It's easy to imagine something drifting over the moors or mistake the hoot of an owl for the lonely wail of a cursed fairy.
Irish fairies and their precious forts
‘Away with the fairies’ is a popular expression in Ireland, used to describe someone whose mind is elsewhere. Its origins lie in the belief that evil fairies steal people’s souls and carry them off to the underworld, leaving changelings behind in their place. There’s even a recorded case of an Irish man who tried to murder his wife, claiming her soul had been kidnapped by bad fairies and her body was inhabited by a fairy spirit.
As a child I was told never to play inside a fairy fort because the fairies might get angry and put a curse on me. Fairy forts are actually the remains of circular houses in which people lived from the Iron Age up until early Christian times. You can see them dotted all over the Irish countryside – circular markings in fields and gardens where modern man fears to tread.
And if you think the belief in the power of fairies has waned over the years, think again! When Ireland's once richest man, Sean Quinn, lost his fortune in 2011, his neighbors didn't blame poor business decisions and the waning economy but fairies, who they say put on a curse on him for moving an ancient tomb.
The tomb had stood in the same place, in the countryside of Co. Cavan, for 4,000 years but Quinn moved it two miles away to the town of Ballyconnell to make way for a new quarry, thus enraging the fairies and bringing on himself financial ruin.
Banshees and leprechauns
Many Irish families claim to be haunted by dark fairies or spirits called Banshees. The Banshee hails from the Underworld and is said to be drawn to certain families (particularly those whose surnames begin with O’ or Mac), who can hear her wails whenever one of their members is about to die. More tragic than evil, she is often seen drifting through the Irish countryside at night, cloaked in white and drawing a comb through her long silvery hair.
Then of course there are the mischievous leprechauns, the most recognizable of all the Celtic fairies. They are commonly depicted as small bearded men sitting on a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. According to common belief, if you catch a leprechaun, it is obliged to grant you three wishes. But as Irishman Darby O’Gill learns in the 1959 movie Darby O’Gill and the Little People, the little rascal will try to trick you into wishing a fourth wish, at which point all your previous wishes become null and void.
We don’t really call our Irish fairies evil. In fact we often refer to fairies as the good people but they’re certainly capable of doing evil to those who interfere with their ways. Whether our mythology is the result of an active imagination, a drop too much of the Irish ale Puteen, or a special Irish sensitivity to the supernatural, well, that's for you to decide!
Other types of fairies
Irish fairy tales often feature fairy folk who derive great pleasure of getting up to no good. I love our mythology but I think I prefer the fairy tale fairies with shimmering wings and musical voices. And I love JM Barre’s account of the origin of fairies. In his 1911 book Peter Pan and Wendy, Barre writes: "When the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies." His creation Tinkerbell is probably the most beloved fairy of all.
Throughout history, many people have claimed to have seen and even photographed fairies. Read about alleged fairy photographs and check out my review of the sad but beautiful fantasy film Photographing Fairies.
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