Analysis: Getting on the wrong side of a fairy could make or break your luck, health, livestock, home or fortune
Many customs in Irish rural life have been traditionally dominated by superstitious beliefs, one of the most deep-rooted is the conviction that fairies exist. In Irish tradition fairies were associated with darker themes, far removed from the small delicate winged creatures we are familiar with from modern childhood tales and Disney-led imagery. Fairies, according to Irish folklore, could be dark and malevolent with the ability to make or break one's luck, health, livestock, home or fortune.
Also known as sióg, they were immortal spirits thought to occupy an invisible parallel universe. They were thought to dwell physically underground or in hills, assembling at old ringforts, known as fairy forts, and solitary places marked by hawthorn trees. They were immortal, and according to Crofton-Croker, 'of both human and spiritual nature, having immaterial bodies, with feelings and passions of immortality, [and] supposed to possess both the power and the inclination to avenge and affront’.
Their power was time-related and they were believed most powerful at Bealtaine, then Midsummer and Halloween, when they could cross to the human domain. Many European countries have similar creatures in their folklore but in Ireland such belief was strong well into living memory.
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From RTÉ Archives, A 1982 episode of 'Of Night and Light and the Half Light' on the good people, the otherworld and exploring fairy folklore in Ireland
The chief belief was that if fairies were upset by humans there would be repercussions in the form of ‘bad luck’. In the past, rural farming societies that had little understanding of modern scientific thinking of life, weather or disease, the unexplainable might be attributed to fairies. If one suffered unusual illness or acted ‘strangely’ for a prolonged period of time, it was attributed to their malice: ‘away with the fairies’ was a common term used for people acting out of character or mentally unwell.
A ‘fairy blast’ or ‘fairy stroke’ would involve being struck by an ailment, such as ‘depression of the heart’ or even an actual stroke, for which all sorts of cures might be tried and likely to fail. If one’s crops or livestock did not thrive for no apparent reason, it might be explained by one having offended the fairies. Commonly, if milk did not churn into butter, the fairies were blamed - they were thought to have a special fondness for stealing or disrupting the production of dairy products, a vital form of income in farming homes.
Origins
There are many theories as to the origins of fairies. Some thought them to be the legendary race the Tuatha Dé Danann, who went underground after they were finally defeated in battle. It was thought fairies looked exactly like humans, except they were physically smaller, and it has been proposed this is a folk memory of an earlier ancient people who were shorter in stature. In the recent past in rural Ireland, many forts and some ancient monuments were associated with fairy activity and were left untouched for fear of upsetting them, and this is thought to be one reason why Ireland has so many well-preserved archaeological remains. Objects from the past that were found in fields were explained away as being their property: Neolithic artefacts and bronze age axes, arrowheads and spinning whorls were known as thunderbolts, fairy darts and fairy millstones.
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From RTÉ Archives, In an episode of 'Newsbeat' from 1970, Tim Hayes is determined to be buried alive on a Fairy Fort but locals in County Wexford believe it's bad luck
Offence
Fairies were easily offended creatures and thought to be invisible, omnipresent and always listening, and people so feared upsetting them that they were reluctant to refer to them by name. Thus, hoping to deceive by flattery, people called them by other names such as ‘The Good People’, ‘The Other People’, ‘The Gentry’, ‘The Noble People’ and other names. Although people were prone to slight embarrassment by these customs, they felt it was better to err on the side of caution and would rather be a little socially embarrassed than face the consequences of upsetting the fairies.
Appeasement
If fairies took offence and delivered misfortune, ultimately the blame lay on the human world for having somehow upset them. Therefore, there was a custom of continuous and careful fairy appeasement. People avoided interfering with places or things thought to belong to them, left offerings out for them (of milk or of food), and left a symbolic last drop of alcohol in their glass for them. When whiskey or poitín was being made, the distiller spilled the first drop onto the ground as an offering to them.
A warning was called to the fairies when dirty water was being thrown out of the house at night, in case they got splashed. When someone sneezed or yawned, the observer’s reaction was to say ‘bless you’, in case it meant imminent abduction by fairies. Disturbing any fairy property was off limits and people even built their homes away from sites thought to be associated with them and away from fairy paths. Sometimes fairies would cause chaos for no reason other than passing through and making their presence felt in the human world: the ‘fairy wind’ – the saodhe gaothe – was a sudden strong wind thought to be caused by their activity, while the Fairy Host was most dreaded, and thought to take the form of a destructive wind sweeping through the land.
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From RTÉ Brainstorm, Dr Marion McGarry The superstitions and mysteries around Ireland's 'fairy forts'
Abduction
The dangerous aspect of fairies was they could abduct certain humans and bring them to live in the ‘Other World’. Occasionally they might abduct a healthy and attractive young adult human in order to strengthen their bloodline, or they might snatch a male infant. This idea of child abduction, espoused in WB Yeats’ poem The Stolen Child, was believed to be the reason why some mothers dressed their toddler boys as girls. Famously Lady Jane Wilde, a passionate proponent of Irish folklore, dressed her son Oscar as a girl to ‘trick’ the fairies in this way.
When the fairies did take a human back to their world, they would leave in their place another fairy known as a ‘changeling’. These creatures would look exactly like the abducted human, but would commonly be identifiable to their families by their out-of-character angry countenance and ravenous appetite. There are stories of acts of cruelty performed to ‘purge’ changelings. In a tragic and gruesome case in 1895, Brigid Cleary was murdered by her husband assisted by his family members amid accusations of her being a fairy changeling.
Read more: "Darkest Ireland" and the burning of Bridget Cleary
Aside from the darkness, fairies could be nice and perform random acts of kindness. If they were treated with respect, ‘some unexpected good fortune or stroke of luck will come upon the house […] for the fairy race is not ungrateful and is powerful over man for both good and evil,’ according to Lady Wilde. It was always thought in Ireland that people should salute, be friendly, kind and hospitable to strangers. Who knows, that stranger might be a fairy in disguise and if you got them on a good day, they might bestow good fortune, save a life or bring love. And if you got them on a bad day, well, you wouldn’t cause offence, at least!
Counteraction
It was considered a very good idea to counteract fairy activity subtly. Iron for example was placed (in the form of horseshoes or nails) over windows, doors and other ‘liminal’ areas –places that were thresholds of the home, openings where things could get in and out. It was believed they could not pass over water, fire, or salt and, at certain times of the year, flowers. When travelling at night, a quenched coal or a hazel or blackthorn stick was carried for protection against them.
Symbols of Catholic piety were also considered potent forces against fairy activity in the home. As fairy activity could potentially hold sway over the luck and health of agricultural livestock, crops and land, many rural Catholic and Protestant farmers followed rituals of appeasement or counteraction. If someone was suffering a run of bad fortune that could not be reversed through counter ritual, as a very last resort the local priest or clergyman might be called in for help, as the symbolic light of Christ was believed to hold sway over the perceived primeval darkness of fairy activity.
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From RTÉ Archives, Fifty years after rural electrification 'The Late Late Show' talks to writer Alice Taylor and sports commentator Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh who recall the arrival of electricity in their homes
Present and Future
Until the twentieth century belief in fairies was deep rooted among many rural people. However, the modernisation of Irish life, along with a new understanding of science and medicine began to change mindsets. The Rural Electrification Scheme brought comforting electric light to Irish homes, and fridges prevented butter and milk from spoiling. Night life was altered forever and fear of ghosts and spirits vanished for many. My parents’ generation ridiculed those who believed in fairies as being simple minded and primitive, in ways that no modern right-thinking Irish people should be.
Yet, does some faith in fairies persist in Ireland today, and will it into the future? Many Irish will attest to ‘not believing’ and joke about the subject; however, if pressed would profess a reluctance to, for example, damage a fairy tree or fort. Let’s hope we can sustain and pass on at least this kernel of fairy belief to the next generation, once so strong in Irish cultural identity, and now nearly forgotten.
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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
