Ailne’s Revenge
ONE day Finn and his people were hunting on Slieve Fuad, and a stag stood against them for a while and fought with his great rough horns, and then he turned and ran, and...
Country and County: Republic of Ireland
Headless Coachman and Roper’s Rest
The following description of an old haunting story was published in The Ghost World by T. F. Thiselton Dyer (1893). ‘A tragic case is recorded by Crofton Croker, who tells how, many years ago, a clergyman belonging to St. Catharine’s Church, Dublin, resided at the old Castle of Donore, in the vicinity of that city.
The Cailleach
From high mountain pass, exhaling ice breath, (2).
Comes Cailleach clothed in summers death.
Cold fingers search under starlight’s lantern
Staff cracks dew to frosted mantle, (3).
In the stags hoary frosted bark,
Riding with wolves on the cloak of the dark. (4).
From mountain, hillock, stone and spring (5).
Oilliphéist
In ‘Irish Myths and Legends’ by Ronan Coghlan, we are told that Oilliphéist, is an Irish word meaning ‘dragon’ or ‘great worm’, and that ‘a creature of this sort, hearing that Saint Patrick was coming to drive out its kind, cuts its way through the land, thus forming the River Shannon.’ The Shannon is 224 miles long and the is Ireland’s longe
Dord Fiann
The Dord Fiann is the mythical hunting horn of Fionn mac Cumhail. A dord is a large Irish bronze horn. They date from the Bronze Age.
The Undreamed Region: Barrows In Folklore & Archaeology
Hills, mounds and burial sites. Places which have a timeless allure. Such places can be seen and regarded as mythically liminal, a place that it is not a place. A place outside of time. A place where the living freely walk with the dead. Barrows are just such places.
Mansion House, Dublin
Built in 1710 by Joshua Dawson, the Mansion House has been the official residence of the Lord Mayor of Dublin since 1715. An by Kieran Dineen in The Irish Sun on 23rd May 2013 suggests the building is haunted.
Ballyheigue Castle
Designed by Richard Morrison in 1810, Ballyheigue Castle was a grand mansion and home of the Crosbie family. Now mostly a shell, surrounded by a golf course which opened in 1996. It ha been burned down twice, once by accident in 1840 and again on 27th May 1921 as part of the troubles and the destruction of buildings linked to British Imperialism.
The Midwife Of Listowel
"Why do you call the fairies ‘good people?’" asked I.
"I don’t call them the good people myself," answered Duvane, "but that is what the man called them who told me the story. Some call them the good people to avoid vexing them. I think they are called the good people mostly by pious men and women, who say that they are some of the fallen angels."
Changelings
Changelings are part of Western Folklore, a child of a fairy type (Elf, Troll etc) which has been secretly swapped for a human baby and left in its place. George Waldron gave the following description of one he saw in the Isle of Man and it was subsequently reprinted in ‘The Science of Fairy Tales’ (1891) by Edwin Sidney Hartland.
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