Years ago, when I was beginning to write “The Order of Brigid’s Cross – The Wild Hunt,” I told my (mostly Irish) mother what I was going to be writing about. This educated and fairly sophisticated woman advised me to make sure that I had “protection” if I was going to be writing about the fae. I thought she was teasing, but she was completely serious. So, I put some items of iron next to the front and back doors and on the windowsills of the windows in my office. They’re still there.
We often think about fairies or the fae as sweet little “tinkling” creatures who either pick up teeth and leave us money or sprinkle us with fairy dust to help us fly. But the Irish don’t consider the fae as sweet and harmless.
According to a “Monumental Ireland” Facebook post, “According to Irish mythology, the fairies or ’Aos Sí’ (people of the mounds) as they are known in Ireland, are the descendants of the Tuatha dé Dannan; A godlike race of people who inhabited Ireland before the arrival of our Gaelic ancestors. Upon the arrival of the ‘mortal’ Gaels, the Tuatha dé Dannan went underground, taking up residence in the ancient monuments, burial mounds, and other sacred places that dot the landscape of Ireland.
Local folklore tells us that they still inhabit these places: Some are known as ‘fairy forts’, which are the remains of ringforts (see previous post) and other ancient monuments, but also fairy trees (usually lone hawthorn trees) and fairy rings (circles of discolored grass or plants). Due to a combination of fear and respect, people never meddled with these places, as it was believed that disturbing sites, said to have strong connections to fairies, could bring bad luck or a curse. Even today, there’s not a village in the country that doesn’t have tales of locals who crossed the fairies.”
The reason I wanted to write this blog was because of another Facebook post from Superstitions, Fairy Tales, Folklore & Mythology about the fae and not disturbing their sacred sites. Here’s an excerpt from that post, “Nothing sums up this contrast between the ancient and modern worlds more than the reluctance of Irish people to interfere with the hawthorn tree.
The famous rag hawthorn tree of Killary Harbour.
Hawthorns are a common, wild shrub that grow in hedgerows all over Ireland. They are also known colloquially as whitethorn due to their display of tiny white flowers each summer.
Back in 1999, a motorway (freeway) was planned in the Latoon area of Clare. Locals protested. Why? They believed that a large hawthorn bush along its planned route was the meeting point for clans of opposing fairies.
Eddie Lenihan, a local folklorist, led the campaign. He warned them that…
“If they bulldoze the bush to make way for a planned highway bypass, the fairies will come. To curse the road and all who use it, to make brakes fail and cars crash, to wreak the kind of mischief fairies are famous for when they are angry, which is often.”
The story captured international attention. “If you believe in the fairies, don’t bulldoze their lair,” the headline in the New York Times on June 15th, 1999, read.
Eddie Lenihan must have been a most persuasive man. The motorway was rerouted to save the fairy bush. And the sacred hawthorn tree is still visible to passersby on the motorway.”
Silly superstition or prudent planning?
Well, here’s a story from the Thomas Sheridan Official Blog about someone who chose differently. The link takes you to an interview (which, unfortunately, is no longer available on his site), but you get the idea from the description. “Remarkable piece of Irish archival TV footage which demonstrates the power which belief in fairies once held over rural Irish communities.
In this particular case, a sacred Fairy Thorn (Hawthorn) is removed to make way for a new road construction project in County Down. The man who cut the tree down dies (according to a woman in the report), and then the community gives the Fairy Thorn tree a funeral in its honour. Nothing is reported of how they felt about the sacrilegious ad hoc lumberjack.
The purpose of the funeral was to give respect to the fairy folk whom Irish people lived in dire fear of, and it was not until Walt Disney that fairies were transformed into loveable sprites. Our Gaelic, Nordic, Anglo-Saxon, and Teutonic ancestors took fairies very seriously and did not want them to come anywhere near us. Which is why the woman in the story explains how her mother – as a little girl – hid in fear from a fairy when she saw one.”
I was able to find a link to the archived interview, and it’s worth watching!
The original Facebook post from Monumental Ireland touches on a few more modern stories about the consequences of not taking the fae seriously:
“Sean Quinn was once the richest man in Ireland until his investment in Anglo-Irish Bank shares sent him into bankruptcy during the 2008 financial crisis. However, it is thought by some that his downfall may have had more to do with the wrath of the fairies than his bad financial decisions. In 1992, to make way for a quarry for his concrete company, Quinn had a 4000-year-old wedge tomb in Aughrim, Co. Cavan ’relocated’ to the grounds of his nearby and newly built hotel. Mr Quinn has since lost his cement company, the hotel, and the rest of his fortune.”
“In June 2007, Minister for the Environment Dick Roche signed an order destroying the Lismullin Henge, a 4,000-year-old monument near the sacred hill. Not long afterward, Minister Roche was held up by an armed gang in the Druids Glen Hotel. He then lost his ministerial position before losing his political seat altogether. Martin Cullen, the then Minister for Transport, who ‘turned the sod’ on the M3 road project, also had a run of bad luck after the event. In March 2009, a helicopter which was carrying him from Killarney to Dublin made an emergency landing shortly after take-off, because a door had fallen off. He resigned in 2010 due to ‘back ailments’ (nothing at all to do with being hounded by the press for allegedly putting his mistress on the government payroll).
“We (Monumental Ireland) recently ran a post on the Garavogue Fairy Fort (A Passage Tomb in a housing estate Co. Sligo) and were contacted by one of the residents who told us if the terrible misfortune suffered by some residents after a local priest had a hawthorn tree and one of the central stones removed to erect a crucifixion scene on the ancient site.”
A final tale of warning from Irish Central.com is: “The car manufacturer DeLorean failed to heed the protestations of local workmen when, rather spectacularly, Chairman John DeLorean himself bulldozed a lone hawthorn tree to facilitate the building of his ill-fated luxury car plant at Dunmarry, near Belfast.”
Not only did the factory fail, but soon after, DeLorean himself was arrested and charged with conspiracy to obtain and distribute drugs. He was acquitted of the drug charges, but he soon went on trial for fraud and, over the next two decades, was forced to pay millions of dollars to creditors and lawyers.
I’m sure he would have loved to use one of his cars to go “back to the past” and change the decision to bulldoze the fairy tree.
Don’t mess with the fae!
Happy Friday!!!