In the midst of winter, our thoughts turn to the stories we told in the old days to pass away the dark evenings. Mary McCarthy explores why so many of us are still fascinated with our country’s fantastical tales.
‘IN West Cork, sometimes it has been said that the fairies left Ireland when electricity and light came to the countryside.’
So says Conor Ó Buachalla, co-founder of Gormú, which provides hikes and adventures weaving in the folklore of West Cork.
‘Even today, there is still a strong echo in the belief of these otherworldly creatures. It is evident in the fear the mí-ádh, or the curse of bad luck,’ he added.
‘We are now living in a globalised world. And there seems to be a renewed interest in exploring Irish culture and folklore. Fairies and the bean sí are a universal story. And we want to hold onto what makes us uniquely Irish,’ Conor said.
Perhaps, in a post-Christian society, there is still a desire to believe in something, in another world being or a higher power.
‘Fairy stories are taken “as if” for real,’ he said. ‘Fairies have always been regarded as characters from the other world. This is a prevalent belief that was universal in rural Ireland. A common thread from these stories seems to be that they were partly lessons and partly entertainment.’
Life is complex. We cannot explain everything. And sometimes we need to look at something from a different perspective. All cultures had otherworldly creatures. In European culture, Scandinavia had trolls and Central Europe had elves.
Conor, who shares the stories of our folklore on the Gormú Instagram page, mentioned the banshee, as being a type of fairy that’s written down in Irish as ‘bean sí.’ It means the woman fairy.
‘When the word ‘fairy’ is used, some people have an image of a Tinkerbell character with butterfly wings, a wand, and a sweet personality. Our sí are nothing like this,’ he said.
‘They were typically described as human-sized,’ Conor added, ‘and they do not have a wand or butterfly wings. And to the people of Ireland, they were respected and feared, because they had the power to do harm. Sometimes this happened if we somehow offended them like interfering with ring forts, or by building roads on top of them. Other times, it occurred if we talked about them in a manner that was disrespectful.’
There are two foundation mythologies. The original story tells us the fairies were members of the Tuatha Dé Dannan, when the Gaels took over Ireland after coming from northern Spain. The later version is the Christianised version that tells us they were fallen angels between God and Lucifer. At the beginning of the world, several of the fallen angels fell to Ireland and became the síoga.
‘What archaeologists refer to as the ringfort, more of us refer to it as the fairy fort,’ said Conor. ‘Most encounters in the fairy fort seemed to occur at night. It seemed to happen if someone went into a ringfort. Generally, they would be taken underground into what archaeologists called a souterrain, which is an underground chamber.’
The secret in mythology of this parallel world, was never to eat or drink at the ringfort. If you did, it would be 300 years before you came back to the surface.
Conor mentioned farmers are generally still respectful of these ancient sites. And that’s still evident. They usually never touch a ringfort.
The banshee is generally the fairy woman warning of an impending death. She is different in different parts of the country. In West Cork, she is seen as a wailing woman keening, while in Ulster she knocks three times on the back door.
‘Generally, mná sí followed certain families. Clíodhna, Queen of the Munster mná sí, was associated with local Ó Donnabháin clan. If a family member saw a banshee, it would have been Clíodhna,’ he added.
‘In Ireland, we deal with grief well,’ Conor said. ‘The bean sí warns of a coming death. It fits well with the Irish psyche for funerals. She is preparing the family for grief that is to come. And families are generally proud to have seen her. Each year on my Samhain experience in Leap, I have personally been told of such encounters. Perhaps, she has not gone away?
She appears as two versions. A young and beautiful girl, or an old and haggard woman, says Conor.
‘It depends on the banshee. Her clothes can be either black or white. Anyone who has a clear encounter with her has said her sound is not of this world. Some say it’s loud, like cats screeching,’ he added.
Conor concludes that the bean sí is a symbol about the way we deal with death in Ireland, and a feeling that we are not alone, and there is support from the local community and maybe the other world.
Further research is available from the National Folklore Collection - www.duchas.ie.
