THE FAIRIES, PART 4

Welcome to my weekly blog,  SATURDAY SESSIONS!

In this blog, for the perusal of all our students, past, present and future, I include an extract from our interactive presentation Course, Ireland and its Culture.

If you wish to ask me any question about the text, by the way, just send me an e-mail at greg@bluefeather.ie

THE FAIRIES, PART 4

This is the final part of SATURDAY SESSIONS' introduction to the fairies in Ireland.

The following three fairies are notorious. The first two are amongst the nastiest individuals you are likely to come across if you find yourself walking the roads of Ireland after sunset.

Should you wish to avoid a confrontation with these unhappy creatures, our advice to you is the same in all three cases:                                           Do not be afraid.

THE SHEERIE

These fairies are often described as the creepiest of all. They appear around twilight as a floating glimmer of light. Some say they are the souls of dead babies trying to return to the mortal world.                                         

The sheerie (singular and plural) are hostile to humans and are only happy when they can cause misfortune.                                                            

There are water sheerie and land sheerie. One may find the land sheerie in fairy raths and they are very active around Bealtaine (30th April) or Samhain (31st October).                                                                         

They are about the size of a day-old baby, with a baby face. They don't speak but instead, they emit a high-pitched shrill. They carry a lantern or a branch that seems to be burning at one end. Some sceptics say that it's only marsh gas but others argue that marsh gas doesn't flit about like that.

Sheerie lure people to their death in dangerous countryside or bog-holes. They do this by pretending to be a welcoming light in the dark bog.

The land sheerie flit about and confuse travellers, forcing them to run backwards and forwards until they become irrational and lose their self-control. It is always a good idea to sit on the road, at this point, and turn your jacket or pullover inside out to regain your composure.                                                 

They can also appear as a little goblin with a long, grey beard, holding a straw, lit like a candle. These goblins pretend to welcome travellers by showing them the way or leading them to a place where money is hidden. Just ignore them and they will go away!

THE DULLAHAN

The Dullahan is a headless horseman who carries his glowing head (the colour of mouldy cheese) in his right hand or on the saddle-brow of his black horse. His whip is a human spine. The face of the head he is holding grins from ear to ear. The small, dark eyes swivel about mischievously.

Wherever the Dullahan stops, a human dies.                            

The head can see across vast distances, even at night. By just looking at him, you could be blinded in one eye. The horse emits sparks from its fiery nostrils. In some parts of the country, the Dullahan drives a coach with six of these black horses.                                                            

The disembodied head has a limited power of speech; when the rider stops, it calls out the name of the person who is about to die.                                The best way to scare them off is, yes, you guessed it, have no fear.                                                        

MERROWS

Merrows are the Irish equivalent of mermaids but the only difference in Ireland between them and humans is that merrows have very flat feet and webbed fingers. They are amphibious.                                             

The males are rare and not very handsome-looking, but merrows are all very beautiful and are attracted to humans, even though they may not actually like them.                                                                                           

Fishermen in Kerry will turn back to port if they see a merrow on a rock. They don't trust them. There's one who sits combing her hair on  a rocky island in the Shannon estuary, for example. Anyone who sees her dies within a year.

Having said that, the O'Flahertys, the O'Sullivans and the MacNamaras all claim to be descended from a union with merrows.   

If you find a merrow cap or cloak, the merrow cannot return to sea until she retrieves them so there are many stories of bargains between people and merrows in relation to the return of their belongings.

Merrows are wealthy. Their fortunes are normally acquired from shipwrecks. They also tend to be great cooks.

But they are cold and aloof.  They rarely laugh. And sadly, merrows show little or no affection for their husbands and children. The lure of the sea often draws them back home, so they can abandon their families in an instant.