WHEN Giraldus Cambrensis visited Ireland in the twelfth century, he found the people “a trifle paganish.” They believed in all sorts of fairies, banshees, witches, and changelings— “the gods of the ...

In March 1895, 26-year-old Bridget Cleary (née Boland) disappeared from her home, a labourer’s cottage in Ballyvadlea in rural South Tipperary. Locals said she had been taken away by fairies of nearby ...

MY grandmother Maud and aunt Olivia (known as Evie) were both strong believers in fairies. Maud claimed no sightings, but attributed various household woes – curdled milk, stopped mangle, the ...

In Ireland people never talked of leprechauns. They talked of fairies. We never really considered them a benign force. Banished to the fringes of Irish life by the new Christian faith, at best we ...

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