# A Guide To Irish Folklore

An episode of [Human History ASMR](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6793196842), 1 Oct 2026, 1 h 18 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/75116795/a_guide_to_irish_folklore_human_voiced_no_ads.mp3

Journey into the ancient and mysterious world of Irish folklore and discover the legends, spirits, heroes, magical creatures, and traditional beliefs that have shaped Ireland's cultural history for centuries. From mist-covered hills and lonely coastlines to ancient stone circles and remote villages, this episode explores the stories that generations of Irish communities passed down through the ages. Meet some of the most fascinating figures and supernatural beings in Irish tradition, including the Tuatha Dé Danann, leprechauns, banshees, púca, dullahans, merrows, fairies, giants, and legendary heroes. Explore stories of enchanted hills, fairy forts, haunted places, magical weapons, mysterious disappearances, and encounters between the human and supernatural worlds. Discover the deeper traditions behind Ireland's famous legends. Explore the influence of ancient Celtic beliefs, pre-Christian traditions, Christianity, Gaelic culture, and local customs on Irish folklore. Learn how older ideas about spirits, sacred landscapes, ancestors, death, and the supernatural survived and evolved as Ireland's religious and social landscape changed. This episode also explores the role of folklore in everyday Irish life. Discover beliefs surrounding birth, marriage, death, farming, weather, healing, seasonal celebrations, protective rituals, and the mysterious fairy world. Learn why certain landscapes, trees, wells, ruins, and ancient monuments were considered sacred or dangerous, and how these beliefs influenced the decisions of ordinary people. Beyond the famous stories, explore the remarkable regional diversity of Irish folklore. Traditions differed across counties, islands, rural communities, and Gaelic-speaking regions, creating an enormous collection of local legends and supernatural traditions. Discover how storytellers, poets, monks, antiquarians, and folklorists helped preserve these traditions for future generations. Drawing on medieval Irish literature, oral traditions, folklore collections, historical writings, archaeological discoveries, manuscripts, ethnographic records, and modern scholarship, this episode separates traditional Irish beliefs from later romanticized versions and modern popular culture. Narrated with a calm, human voice, this immersive journey is perfect for history enthusiasts, Irish history lovers, Celtic mythology fans, folklore listeners, relaxation, or listening before sleep. Settle in and discover the magical, mysterious, and sometimes haunting folklore of Ireland.

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: The fascinating folklore of Ireland. It's a rich blend of myth,
[0:08] Speaker 1: legend and tradition that comes from an ancient and medieval past.
[0:14] Speaker 1: You'll find heroic sagas of warriors and gods, mysterious spirits
[0:19] Speaker 1: and fairies haunting the landscape, and of course the seasonal
[0:23] Speaker 1: rites and festivals that mark the turning of the year.
[0:27] Speaker 1: Much of this deep lore has its roots in Ireland's
[0:30] Speaker 1: pre-Christian Celtic era, passed down orally by Fealy, poet Sears,
[0:36] Speaker 1: and Shanahay, storytellers, long before it was inscribed by later
[0:42] Speaker 1: medieval monks in Christian times. As a result, what we
[0:46] Speaker 1: have that survives today is this blend of pagan myth
[0:51] Speaker 1: and later Christian reinterpretation. So what we do today in
[0:58] Speaker 1: our folklore series that we're currently doing, is exploring the
[1:02] Speaker 1: breadth of the folklore of Ireland, with a little bit
[1:06] Speaker 1: of an academic lens to it too. From the mythological
[1:11] Speaker 1: cycles and legendary figures like the Morrigan and Fionn MacCool,
[1:16] Speaker 1: to folkloric motives like banshees and changelings, sacred wells, fairy
[1:24] Speaker 1: forts and the great seasonal festivals of Samin and Imolc.
[1:30] Speaker 1: And throughout it, we'll talk about the regional variations too,
[1:33] Speaker 1: because there's a bit of that, and of course the
[1:36] Speaker 1: more obscure beliefs. And don't forget the linguistic clues that
[1:43] Speaker 1: we have from the really old sources that help us
[1:47] Speaker 1: take a more scholarly perspective on these traditions. The goal is,
[1:52] Speaker 1: by the end, is to give you a broad picture
[1:56] Speaker 1: of what Irish folklore is like. The unique character, the
[2:01] Speaker 1: little eccentricities, so you can perhaps hold your own next
[2:06] Speaker 1: time you meet an Irish person when you're talking about
[2:10] Speaker 1: this conversation. So welcome, and as in good manners, I
[2:16] Speaker 1: always give the customary welcome to the channel for anybody
[2:18] Speaker 1: new here. Good to meet you. We're going to have
[2:22] Speaker 1: a great time today. A little bit of a departure
[2:24] Speaker 1: from the normal content, but something that's been quite requested.
[2:30] Speaker 1: In any case, if you've not clicked that subscribe button yet,
[2:32] Speaker 1: I do invite you to do so. And for those
[2:35] Speaker 1: returning to the channel, nice to see you again. Remember,
[2:40] Speaker 1: all these videos are ad-free, and that's because of the
[2:44] Speaker 1: contributions on Patreon, YouTube memberships, the people who checked out
[2:49] Speaker 1: the merch store, and the occasional donation. If you want
[2:52] Speaker 1: to find links to that, well, you can look at
[2:55] Speaker 1: the pinned comment or the video description. But first and foremost,
[3:00] Speaker 1: let's all just get nice and relaxed and begin the video. Oh,
[3:05] Speaker 1: and if there are any unnatural breaks, it's because I'm
[3:09] Speaker 1: pausing the video to check my pronunciations. I will do
[3:13] Speaker 1: my best. Although it's hard to find some old Irish pronunciations,
[3:20] Speaker 1: I will search the internet far and wide. Anyway, let
[3:25] Speaker 1: us begin. Of course, Irish mythology is traditionally divided into cycles.
[3:33] Speaker 1: Clusters of tales that form the backbone of this ancient folklore.
[3:39] Speaker 1: And foremost among these is the mythological cycle. that deals
[3:44] Speaker 1: with Ireland's earliest legendary inhabitants, the gods and supernatural races who,
[3:51] Speaker 1: in myth, ruled the island before humans. And the primary
[3:55] Speaker 1: source for these origin legends is actually a medieval compilation
[4:00] Speaker 1: called Le Borgabala Eireann, The Book of the Taking of Ireland.
[4:07] Speaker 1: This text, written by Christian monks, presents a... well, a
[4:11] Speaker 1: pseudo-historical narrative of successive invasions or takings of Ireland. In
[4:18] Speaker 1: it we read how gods and heroes shaped the land,
[4:23] Speaker 1: from the exploits of Partholon and Nemed, the mythic patriarchs,
[4:29] Speaker 1: to the drummer of the Tuatha de Danann, the tribe
[4:33] Speaker 1: of the goddess Danu, who represent these old gods of Ireland.
[4:40] Speaker 1: According to Lebor Cabala, the Tuatha de Tanan were defeated
[4:44] Speaker 1: by the mortal Milesians, which is the early Gaelic people,
[4:49] Speaker 1: and retreated back into the earth. A resonant detail that
[4:54] Speaker 1: echoes in later folklore were those once gods live on
[4:59] Speaker 1: as the fairy folk in their hollow hills. Though clearly
[5:06] Speaker 1: influenced by the Christian worldview, The text even attempts to
[5:10] Speaker 1: synchronise Irish myth within biblical timeframes. Le Borogabala Éireann provides
[5:16] Speaker 1: a foundational framework for Ireland's mythic past. It's a blend
[5:21] Speaker 1: of mythology and even a bit of political allegory, preserving
[5:26] Speaker 1: ancient names and stories, albeit throughout the filter of a
[5:31] Speaker 1: monastic scribe's pen. One striking figure from the mythological cycle
[5:37] Speaker 1: is the Morrigan. a goddess whose very name in Old
[5:42] Speaker 1: Irish meant Great Queen, or Phantom Queen, perhaps. And it
[5:48] Speaker 1: hints at her importance, but also her mystery. She exemplifies
[5:52] Speaker 1: the complexities of Irish myth, often appearing as a trio
[5:56] Speaker 1: of sisters or aspects. The morrigan is associated with figures
[6:01] Speaker 1: named Bad, Macha and Nymain in various texts. But primarily
[6:07] Speaker 1: the Morrigan is a deity of war and fate, appearing
[6:10] Speaker 1: on the battlefields to influence the outcome and to foretell
[6:14] Speaker 1: victory or perhaps even doom. Fingers crossed it's the right one.
[6:20] Speaker 1: Medieval epics describe her as a shapeshifter and even a prophetess,
[6:26] Speaker 1: one who might appear as a crow on a warrior's
[6:29] Speaker 1: shoulder or a hooded crone washing bloodstained garments in the river.
[6:36] Speaker 1: Always an omen. Always a deeper meaning. Never clear. The
[6:43] Speaker 1: Morrigan's betrayal in such mythic episodes has invited a lot
[6:46] Speaker 1: of scholarly interpretation. In Kath Magdured, the Battle of Magdured,
[6:52] Speaker 1: 11th century text recounting the great clash between Tuatha Dé
[6:55] Speaker 1: Danann and their foes, the Fomorians, the Morrigan plays quite
[7:02] Speaker 1: an interesting role. On the eve of battle, She meets
[7:07] Speaker 1: the Dagda, the chief god, often called the Good God
[7:13] Speaker 1: of the River Ford, and unites with him, thereby blessing
[7:17] Speaker 1: the hosts to victory. She then goes forth to battle,
[7:22] Speaker 1: using her magic to bewilder the enemy. After the Fomorians
[7:27] Speaker 1: are defeated, it is the Morrigan who claims the triumph
[7:31] Speaker 1: and a prophecy of Ireland's future prosperity. But medieval texts
[7:37] Speaker 1: even differ on whether the Morrigan is one being or
[7:40] Speaker 1: three sisters, reflecting the fluid identities in oral tradition. Of course,
[7:47] Speaker 1: everyone has a different idea on that when it comes
[7:49] Speaker 1: down to oral traditions, and different areas will have different interpretations.
[7:56] Speaker 1: Yet all accounts do agree on one thing, that is
[7:59] Speaker 1: her formidable presence. She walks that line between life and death,
[8:05] Speaker 1: war and prophecy, embodying the otherworldly power at the heart
[8:11] Speaker 1: of Irish folklore. So opposing the divine Tuatha Dé Danann
[8:17] Speaker 1: in the mythological cycle are the Fomorians, often characterised as
[8:23] Speaker 1: chaotic and destructive beings. In simple terms, the bad guys.
[8:31] Speaker 1: They may represent the wild forces of nature, or the
[8:35] Speaker 1: darkness that the bright gods must overcome. A famous Fomorian
[8:41] Speaker 1: leader is Balor of the Evil Eye, a giant from
[8:46] Speaker 1: Tori Island, that is off the Donegal coast, whose single
[8:51] Speaker 1: eye could wither an army out of fear. In myth,
[8:56] Speaker 1: Balor is eventually slain by his own grandson, the young
[9:00] Speaker 1: god Lugue. a tale wherein the new order of gods
[9:03] Speaker 1: supplants the old and light overcomes the darkness. Notably, Balor's
[9:11] Speaker 1: legend lives on in local folklore. The people on Torrey
[9:15] Speaker 1: Island long told stories of a one-eyed giant tying a
[9:19] Speaker 1: specific place and dialect tradition into the grand mythic narratives.
[9:26] Speaker 1: And isn't that not just a prime example of how
[9:30] Speaker 1: regional folklore can preserve these echoes of the ancient mythology?
[9:35] Speaker 1: Of course, things always change over time. Stories get changed
[9:40] Speaker 1: a little bit. Maybe it's political, maybe it's a religious thing,
[9:43] Speaker 1: spiritual tides changing how things are told, but it certainly
[9:51] Speaker 1: does speak to how long things can endure for. Well,
[9:57] Speaker 1: the mythological cycle also hints at old religious practices and
[10:01] Speaker 1: beliefs too. Because of course we have Christian Ireland and
[10:06] Speaker 1: pre-Christian Ireland. Medieval writers, often with Christian sensibilities, occasionally included
[10:13] Speaker 1: scathing depictions of the pagan cults. And that's nothing new either.
[10:18] Speaker 1: The Romans used to depict the Irish as cannibals for
[10:22] Speaker 1: quite a long time. Watch my video on Roman contact
[10:26] Speaker 1: with Ireland if you want to know more about that.
[10:30] Speaker 1: But one dramatic example is the tale of Cromcrw, a
[10:33] Speaker 1: mysterious idol said to have stood on the plains of
[10:36] Speaker 1: Magsla in present-day County Gavan. According to the lore in
[10:41] Speaker 1: the Jynshankers, It is a medieval collection of place-name legends,
[10:46] Speaker 1: and in later commentaries, Krumkru was a chief god of
[10:49] Speaker 1: the pre-Christian Irish, sometimes described as a gold-covered stone figure
[10:56] Speaker 1: surrounded by lesser stones. And in legend, kings and devotees
[11:01] Speaker 1: supposedly offered blood sacrifices to Krumkru to ensure bountiful harvests.
[11:08] Speaker 1: Even the sacrifice of his first-born children is alleged. Sacrifice
[11:12] Speaker 1: of firstborn children, rather. The High King Tigermas and thousands
[11:18] Speaker 1: of his followers are said to have perished while worshipping
[11:20] Speaker 1: this idol on one Samhain night, struck down by the
[11:25] Speaker 1: demon god itself. Such accounts were likely exaggerated by monks
[11:31] Speaker 1: to demonize the pagan past, so sprinkle of salt on
[11:36] Speaker 1: that last section. Yet the persistence of place names, like Maerslech,
[11:42] Speaker 1: the Plain of Prostration, suggests that they were rooted in
[11:47] Speaker 1: genuine local traditions. The lore goes on to relate that St. Patrick,
[11:52] Speaker 1: upon arriving in that area, smashed Gromkrook to pieces, symbolically
[11:57] Speaker 1: ending the old rites. So this story encapsulates a kind
[12:03] Speaker 1: of duality in sources. Part genuine folklore, part polemic, and
[12:09] Speaker 1: of course, like I said, get the salt out again.
[12:14] Speaker 1: But we do see a vivid, if not biased, snapshot
[12:17] Speaker 1: of indigenous religion and its suppression, as well as the
[12:22] Speaker 1: folkloric impulse to link even dark, obscure practices to concrete
[12:27] Speaker 1: locations in the Irish landscape. Alongside the mythological cycle, the
[12:34] Speaker 1: medieval Irish scribes recorded other cycles of tales, The Ulster
[12:39] Speaker 1: cycle is one of the best known, full of warrior
[12:43] Speaker 1: heroes in dramatic battles, set in a legendary Iron Age world.
[12:50] Speaker 1: These tales, rich in feats of strength, tragic destiny and
[12:55] Speaker 1: intertwined curses, have the flavour of an epic saga and
[13:00] Speaker 1: form a crucial part of the Irish folklore canon. And
[13:05] Speaker 1: chief among this canon is Tain Bocculnia, the cattle raid
[13:10] Speaker 1: of Cooley, often simply called the Tain. This is Ireland's
[13:16] Speaker 1: great epic, comparable in cultural stature to the Greek Iliad,
[13:19] Speaker 1: I suppose. Written down in Old Irish, too, with versions
[13:24] Speaker 1: surviving in the 12th century manuscripts like the Book of Leinster,
[13:28] Speaker 1: the Tain tells of a war ignited by a queen's
[13:30] Speaker 1: desire for a magnificent bull. Queen Mab of Connacht, a
[13:37] Speaker 1: formidable and shrewd leader, launches an invasion of Ulster to
[13:41] Speaker 1: seize the famed brown bull of Cooley for her own herd.
[13:44] Speaker 1: Standing against her is the teenage prodigy, Tsukulain, the Ulster's champion,
[13:52] Speaker 1: who must defend his province single-handedly. As legend explains, the
[13:58] Speaker 1: other Ulster warriors are disabled by a curse. Long ago,
[14:02] Speaker 1: the goddess Maka, an aspect of the Morrigan, laid a
[14:07] Speaker 1: taboo on the men of Ulster, kind of like a curse,
[14:11] Speaker 1: afflicting them with labour pains in their hour of greatest need.
[14:15] Speaker 1: And because of this, when mob's armies march, only Tukulain
[14:19] Speaker 1: is able to fight. The narrative of the day is
[14:23] Speaker 1: replete with episodes of folkloric motives. At one point, the
[14:27] Speaker 1: young Tukulain flies into a ristrad, a warp spasm or
[14:32] Speaker 1: battle frenzy. in which his body twists monstrously and he
[14:37] Speaker 1: becomes an unrecognizable berserker, defending Ulster's border. In single combat
[14:45] Speaker 1: after combat, he defeats a string of champions in duels,
[14:49] Speaker 1: fought at fords and narrow passes. He even faces Sverd Dyat,
[14:56] Speaker 1: his beloved friend and foster brother. In a pretty heartbreaking
[15:01] Speaker 1: duel that lasts three days, and ends only when Chocolaine,
[15:05] Speaker 1: grievously wounded himself, manages to slay Ferdiard with the Gebolga,
[15:12] Speaker 1: a barbed spear he had learned to wield during his
[15:16] Speaker 1: training with the warrior woman Satash. All the while, supernatural
[15:22] Speaker 1: elements lurk around. The Morrigan herself appears on the battlefield,
[15:26] Speaker 1: at one point taking the form of an eel, a wolf,
[15:30] Speaker 1: and even a heifer to hinder Chocolaine as he fights.
[15:35] Speaker 1: Although he wounds her in these forms, she later comes
[15:38] Speaker 1: to him disguised as an old milkmaid, and the compassionate
[15:42] Speaker 1: hero blesses her, unknowingly healing the injury that he caused.
[15:50] Speaker 1: Such interactions between hero and deity add a few layers
[15:53] Speaker 1: of meaning. For example, some interpretations suggest that Morrigan was
[15:58] Speaker 1: just testing Tukulain. and his act of mercy toward her
[16:03] Speaker 1: sealed his fate to achieve victory, albeit at a terrible cost.
[16:09] Speaker 1: In the end, Ulster survives Mab's onslaught at the narrowest margin.
[16:15] Speaker 1: The brown bull of Cooley is carried off, but promptly
[16:18] Speaker 1: engages in a titanic battle with Connacht's prize white-horned bull,
[16:23] Speaker 1: resulting in the death of both animals. Kind of a
[16:28] Speaker 1: poetic finale. to a cycle of vengeance, a moral tale,
[16:32] Speaker 1: I suppose. The Dane has reached us in multiple recensions, too.
[16:38] Speaker 1: The differences between them reveal how bards and scribes felt
[16:42] Speaker 1: free to tweak details or emphasise different aspects of the story.
[16:47] Speaker 1: But its core, however, remains a window into the martial,
[16:50] Speaker 1: honour-bound society of ancient Ireland, filtered through a few lively
[16:56] Speaker 1: exaggerations of oral tradition. Parallel to the Ulster cycle is
[17:02] Speaker 1: the Finian cycle, which centers on the exploits of Fionn
[17:06] Speaker 1: MacCool and his band of warriors to the Fianna. These
[17:11] Speaker 1: tales are set a little bit later in the mythological chronology,
[17:15] Speaker 1: around the 3rd century actually, and thus they celebrate a
[17:21] Speaker 1: bit of a different heroic ideal. The Fianna are less
[17:25] Speaker 1: tied to one court or king, and more like roving
[17:29] Speaker 1: warrior-hunter bands living in the forests, defending land and answering
[17:34] Speaker 1: only to thy king in times of need. The Fenian
[17:39] Speaker 1: stories have a kind of adventurous, free-spirited tone, and were
[17:43] Speaker 1: immensely popular in the oral tradition. Many later folk ballads
[17:47] Speaker 1: and stories recount the deeds of Fionn and his men.
[17:51] Speaker 1: and one key origin tale describes how a young Finn
[17:55] Speaker 1: gained the wisdom that would guide him as a leader.
[17:58] Speaker 1: Raised in secrecy, the boy was tasked with watching over
[18:02] Speaker 1: a wise druid's cooking of the Salmon of Knowledge, a
[18:07] Speaker 1: mystical fish that contained all the wisdom of the world.
[18:10] Speaker 1: When the salmon was accidentally overcooked, Finn dusted with his
[18:15] Speaker 1: thumb and burned himself, reflexively sucking his thumb, of course.
[18:20] Speaker 1: He imbibed the salmon's knowledge. Thereafter, by placing that thumb
[18:25] Speaker 1: in his mouth, Finn could call upon sudden inspiration and insight.
[18:31] Speaker 1: This clever tale, brimming with symbolism, explains how Finn's rise
[18:36] Speaker 1: from an obscure youth to a leader whose counsel was unparalleled.
[18:42] Speaker 1: So Finn's adventures ranged from battling supernatural foes to outwitting rivals.
[18:48] Speaker 1: and they are linked intimately to Ireland's geography. Let's take
[18:53] Speaker 1: one example. One legend says that Finn formed the Giant's
[18:57] Speaker 1: Causeway on the Antrim coast as stepping stones to Scotland,
[19:03] Speaker 1: doing a duel with a giant. A folkloric explanation for
[19:08] Speaker 1: that striking geological formation. Tales like that show how a
[19:13] Speaker 1: hero of the medieval manuscripts also became a giant of
[19:16] Speaker 1: local folklore. invoked to explain unusual landscapes. As for the Fianna,
[19:25] Speaker 1: they roam far and wide in the stories, hunting deer,
[19:29] Speaker 1: vanquishing monsters, hosting great feasts at palaces like the Hill
[19:35] Speaker 1: of Alan. They are often portrayed as models of bravery
[19:40] Speaker 1: and loyalty, but the cycle does not shy away from
[19:45] Speaker 1: internal strife and tragedy within their ranks. And that certainly
[19:49] Speaker 1: makes us think of the tales of King Arthur, Lancelot,
[19:53] Speaker 1: Arthur himself, Guinevere, all the rest. There's certainly a lot
[19:58] Speaker 1: of internal conflict. There are betrayals. There are comebacks. And
[20:04] Speaker 1: there are falls from grace. Same goes with the Fianna
[20:10] Speaker 1: just a little bit older. Of course, let's talk a
[20:13] Speaker 1: little bit about these cycles of betrayal. Good idea. The
[20:19] Speaker 1: tale of Diarmuid and Grena is a famous romance. Grena,
[20:25] Speaker 1: the daughter of the High King, is betrothed to an
[20:28] Speaker 1: aging Fionn. But she falls in love with a handsome warrior,
[20:32] Speaker 1: Diarmuid of Abdimene. On the eve of her wedding, Greiner
[20:38] Speaker 1: gives a magical sleeping draught to the company and elopes
[20:42] Speaker 1: with Diarmuid. Finn, enraged, and probably heartbroken too, I suppose,
[20:49] Speaker 1: pursues the couple across the breadth of Ireland. Many dolmens
[20:53] Speaker 1: or ancient stone monuments are poetically dubbed Diarmuid and Greiner's beds,
[20:59] Speaker 1: as folklore claimed the lovers slept in different hiding places
[21:02] Speaker 1: each night. Eventually, Finn's anger cools off, and he allows
[21:09] Speaker 1: him to settle. But there is a shadow of doom
[21:12] Speaker 1: that remains. Years later, Dermot is mortally gored by a
[21:17] Speaker 1: supernatural boar doing a hunt. Finn, who has the power
[21:21] Speaker 1: to heal by letting a wounded person drink water from
[21:24] Speaker 1: his hands, initially withholds his help, mainly out of lingering spite.
[21:32] Speaker 1: By the time he relents, it's all too late. Diame dies,
[21:38] Speaker 1: fulfilling an old curse on him. Now that's an interesting end,
[21:43] Speaker 1: isn't it? Even in that heroic world, the most grandest
[21:48] Speaker 1: and loftiest of figures, personal grudges can outweigh loyalty. Jealousy.
[21:55] Speaker 1: Old wounds. They get the best of all of us sometimes.
[22:00] Speaker 1: Even Finn McCool. And then we have the narrative of
[22:05] Speaker 1: Oisin in Tirnanog, where we can see the finale of
[22:09] Speaker 1: the Fianna story and the intersection of pagan and Christian Ireland. Oisin,
[22:17] Speaker 1: the poet's son of Fian, is lured to the other
[22:20] Speaker 1: world by Nima, a fairy woman who promises him eternal happiness.
[22:26] Speaker 1: Oisin lives for what he thinks are three blissful years
[22:29] Speaker 1: in Tirnanog, that is, the land of youth. only to
[22:33] Speaker 1: be overcome by homesickness for his comrades. Nim sadly permits
[22:39] Speaker 1: him to return to Ireland, warning him not to dismount
[22:43] Speaker 1: his magical horse. Oisin returns and finds that centuries have passed,
[22:48] Speaker 1: the glorious Fianna are no more, the deeds are now legend.
[22:54] Speaker 1: Quite shocked, Oisin accidentally falls from his horse, instantly ageing
[22:59] Speaker 1: into a frail old man. In one version, the newly
[23:05] Speaker 1: Christian Ireland greets him. St. Patrick himself meets Oisin and
[23:10] Speaker 1: hears of his tales of Finn's warriors in the old
[23:13] Speaker 1: pagan ways. Oisin's end, as the last survivor of his epic,
[23:19] Speaker 1: carries a wistful note of nostalgia. It symbolically closes the
[23:23] Speaker 1: door on Ireland's age of heroes, yielding to the error
[23:27] Speaker 1: of saints and Christian chroniclers. Such stories, recorded in medieval
[23:33] Speaker 1: texts like Akalam Nasenak, the Colloquy of the Elders, allowed
[23:38] Speaker 1: Irish writers to weave continuity between the pagan past and
[23:41] Speaker 1: Christian present, effectively integrating the Fianna legend into a new
[23:47] Speaker 1: cultural context. The final traditional cycle is sometimes called the
[23:54] Speaker 1: historical cycle, comprising of almost historical legends. pseudo-historical, we'll use
[24:03] Speaker 1: that term, of early Irish kings and heroes that kind
[24:07] Speaker 1: of bridge mythology and recorded history. Figures such as Comac Macer,
[24:14] Speaker 1: the wise High King, said to have ruled Tara in
[24:17] Speaker 1: the 3rd century, or Nil of the Nine Hostages, a
[24:23] Speaker 1: legendary 4th century king. They both feature in tales that
[24:27] Speaker 1: mix fact, folklore, and a little bit of political propaganda.
[24:32] Speaker 1: These stories preserved in annals and later compilations often serve
[24:36] Speaker 1: to legitimize medieval dynasties by linking them to illustrious ancestors,
[24:42] Speaker 1: if not entirely real. While the historical cycle is more grounded,
[24:48] Speaker 1: it still contains supernatural elements, prophetic dreams, encounters with wise druids,
[24:56] Speaker 1: miraculous happenings, things of that nature. and thus it does
[25:01] Speaker 1: remain within the realm of folklore. It shows how, in
[25:06] Speaker 1: the Irish imagination, history itself was often backfilled with this
[25:11] Speaker 1: mythic grandeur. Throughout all these cycles, the primary sources are
[25:17] Speaker 1: medieval manuscripts, by the way, penned by those monastic scholars,
[25:22] Speaker 1: but it is important to say that tone and the
[25:24] Speaker 1: content do suggest that they drew heavily on oral tradition.
[25:29] Speaker 1: Books like the Book of Leinster, Book of the Duncal,
[25:33] Speaker 1: and later compilations by historians such as Geoffrey Keating, offer
[25:38] Speaker 1: windows into these stories, sometimes copying older tales verbatim, and
[25:44] Speaker 1: other times embellishing them a little bit. The scribes do
[25:48] Speaker 1: occasionally insert their own commentary, whether as a pious aside
[25:52] Speaker 1: or as a note of scepticism, but for the most
[25:56] Speaker 1: part they acted as curators of the lore, Thanks to
[25:59] Speaker 1: their efforts, Ireland's pagan epics, battles and romances, they're not lost.
[26:07] Speaker 1: Though they were often Christianized in subtle ways. Let's take,
[26:11] Speaker 1: for instance, the monks might depict the pagan gods not
[26:14] Speaker 1: as deities, but as ancient mortal heroes. Or even, on
[26:20] Speaker 1: bad days, a demon in disguise. I suppose it depends
[26:24] Speaker 1: on the piety, tolerance, and imagination of the scribe who's writing.
[26:32] Speaker 1: But modern scholarship, that's where things get a little bit
[26:35] Speaker 1: more different. They kind of shift through these writings to
[26:40] Speaker 1: distinguish the likely pre-Christian elements from the later editions. And
[26:45] Speaker 1: what we have is a picture emerging of a very
[26:48] Speaker 1: rich mythological tradition, deeply connected, of course, to a wider
[26:53] Speaker 1: Celtic heritage, but uniquely shaped by Ireland's own landscape and
[26:59] Speaker 1: unique societal values. And just as importantly, the oral transmission
[27:06] Speaker 1: of folklore didn't just cease in the Middle Ages. For
[27:10] Speaker 1: many more centuries, the Shannae storytellers and villagers and hearths
[27:15] Speaker 1: kept reciting and adapting the old stories, and in the
[27:19] Speaker 1: Irish language too, which I'm really doing my best with,
[27:23] Speaker 1: by the way. It's a bit of a challenge, I
[27:27] Speaker 1: will say. Well, by the 18th and 19th centuries, when
[27:31] Speaker 1: folklorists began to collect those oral stories, they discovered that
[27:36] Speaker 1: peasants in remote areas still knew of Chucolaine's wild deeds
[27:42] Speaker 1: or Finn McColl's adventures, albeit in localized forms, of course.
[27:48] Speaker 1: Legends like the Children of Lear, in which a stepmother
[27:51] Speaker 1: turns her children into swans. who then lament across Ireland's
[27:56] Speaker 1: lakes for 900 years, survived as popular folktales told to children,
[28:01] Speaker 1: even if the medieval manuscript version had a more polished
[28:06] Speaker 1: literary form. This continuity illustrates a core principle of folklore tradition.
[28:12] Speaker 1: It is dynamic. It changes. With each generation, a new
[28:20] Speaker 1: reinterpretation comes and the old stories shine in the light
[28:23] Speaker 1: of a new world Thus the boundaries between mythology and
[28:28] Speaker 1: its sacred ancient stories and folklore, everyday traditional stories, are
[28:34] Speaker 1: pretty porous, especially in the case of Ireland. Characters from
[28:40] Speaker 1: the cycles can appear in later folk legends, and mythic
[28:44] Speaker 1: motives trickle down into what we might call superstition or custom.
[28:50] Speaker 1: And so, in exploring Irish folklore, we are therefore looking
[28:53] Speaker 1: at a long river of narrative, one that springs from
[28:58] Speaker 1: the deep wells of Celtic antiquity and flows onward, always
[29:03] Speaker 1: gathering new meanings over time. But beyond the grand narratives
[29:10] Speaker 1: of gods and heroes, Irish folklore is full of multitudes
[29:14] Speaker 1: of spirits and uncanny beings that populate that unseen, mysterious
[29:19] Speaker 1: world And here the line between mythology and folklore truly blurs.
[29:25] Speaker 1: The majestic Tuatha de Danann of the myths are essentially
[29:29] Speaker 1: transformed into the fairy folk of later popular belief. In
[29:35] Speaker 1: medieval texts, after the Tuatha de Danann are defeated by
[29:39] Speaker 1: the Milesians, they are said to have taken refuge under
[29:42] Speaker 1: the hills in the Shi mounds. Thereafter, they are often
[29:48] Speaker 1: called the Aoshi, the people of the mound, portrayed not
[29:55] Speaker 1: as almighty gods, but as a hidden people living in
[30:01] Speaker 1: splendid underground courts. And this concept of an other world
[30:07] Speaker 1: coexisting with our own is a cornerstone of Irish folklore,
[30:10] Speaker 1: by the way. But the other world is not heaven
[30:13] Speaker 1: or hell, rather just a parallel realm where the great
[30:17] Speaker 1: powers of the old world now reside. It can be reached, however.
[30:23] Speaker 1: You've got to go through the ancient burial mounds, perhaps
[30:26] Speaker 1: a cave, or even wandering into a mist at the
[30:30] Speaker 1: right time, though you'd have to be pretty lucky for that.
[30:34] Speaker 1: Many folk tales tell of humans who accidentally cross into
[30:38] Speaker 1: this fairy realm. A fiddler enticed to play at a
[30:42] Speaker 1: fairy dance, or a midwife bought in to deliver a
[30:46] Speaker 1: fairy child, only to return and find that what seemed
[30:51] Speaker 1: like a night's merriment was in fact years in the
[30:55] Speaker 1: human world. Stories like that capture the eerie idea of
[31:00] Speaker 1: time distortion between two worlds, and they carry a burden
[31:04] Speaker 1: of both enchantment and caution. Now among many of the
[31:08] Speaker 1: supernatural beings in the Irish tradition is the Banshee, and
[31:13] Speaker 1: that stands out as a pretty infamous figure. In Irish
[31:18] Speaker 1: it means woman of the she or woman of the
[31:21] Speaker 1: fairy mound. In folklore, she is a female spirit, who
[31:26] Speaker 1: heralds the impending death of a family or clan, usually
[31:31] Speaker 1: by keening, that is, wailing or singing a mournful lament.
[31:38] Speaker 1: And descriptions of the banshee vary by locale. In some
[31:42] Speaker 1: accounts she appears as a young woman of radiant beauty,
[31:46] Speaker 1: with flowing red-gold hair and pale skin, sometimes even seen
[31:51] Speaker 1: combing her hair with a silver comb in the moonlight.
[31:55] Speaker 1: In other accounts, She's an old hag, draped in a
[31:58] Speaker 1: grey cloak, with long white hair, blowing in the wind,
[32:02] Speaker 1: and eyes of red from centuries of crying. Occasionally, she
[32:08] Speaker 1: is said to assume the guise of a washerwoman, washing
[32:11] Speaker 1: blood-soaked clothes at the ford, an image strongly reminiscent of
[32:16] Speaker 1: Morrigan's wartime aspect, if you remember that one from the
[32:21] Speaker 1: previous section. But whatever her form, The banshee's keen is unmistakable,
[32:29] Speaker 1: an eerie, heart-piercing wail that can make the blood run cold.
[32:35] Speaker 1: Very scary. You'll often hear it at night, drifting on
[32:40] Speaker 1: the wind, and those who hear it will know that
[32:44] Speaker 1: it's an omen. Someone, often someone of an old Gaelic family,
[32:52] Speaker 1: will soon die. In a critical light, one might even
[32:58] Speaker 1: see a banshee as an evolved folklore memory of ancestral spirits,
[33:01] Speaker 1: or even a diminished echo of the goddess-like Bab, whose
[33:06] Speaker 1: name means crow, by the way, also pretending death. Notably,
[33:12] Speaker 1: banshees were often linked to particular Irish families of noble lineage,
[33:16] Speaker 1: for example, the O'Briens, O'Neills, or Conquerors. and would like to, said,
[33:23] Speaker 1: to have their own personal banshee. Which is probably not
[33:28] Speaker 1: what you want, but it's what you get. If multiple
[33:32] Speaker 1: banshees were heard keening together, it was believed to signal
[33:36] Speaker 1: the death of someone very eminent, or someone very pious.
[33:42] Speaker 1: Scholars have also pointed out the connection to real-world funeral customs,
[33:47] Speaker 1: In traditional Irish wakes, women known as Keening women would
[33:52] Speaker 1: sing laments for the deceased. The banshee can be seen
[33:56] Speaker 1: as a supernatural mirror of this practice, a fairy woman
[33:59] Speaker 1: performing the lament before the death has even occurred. This
[34:05] Speaker 1: blending of cultural ritual and otherworldly lore shows how intertwined
[34:09] Speaker 1: daily life and the supernatural world were in Ireland. hearing
[34:13] Speaker 1: the banshee is portrayed as a lonely, solemn encounter. Many
[34:18] Speaker 1: of the folktales of the person hearing a keening outside
[34:21] Speaker 1: their window at night, only to find the next day
[34:25] Speaker 1: that a relative far away had passed away, at the
[34:29] Speaker 1: exact time they heard the keen. Whether interpreted as an
[34:36] Speaker 1: actual spirit, or a poetic personification of grief, The banshee
[34:41] Speaker 1: remains one of the most iconic and, of course, haunting
[34:46] Speaker 1: elements of Irish folklore. Not the friendly leprechaun you were expecting. Now,
[34:53] Speaker 1: moving on from the banshee, and gladly so, another widespread
[34:59] Speaker 1: motive is the changeling, rooted in the belief that fairies
[35:03] Speaker 1: or other entities of the other world could steal a
[35:06] Speaker 1: human away, often a baby or a young child. and
[35:11] Speaker 1: would leave a false substitute in its place. Now this
[35:16] Speaker 1: notion is not unique to Ireland as found in many
[35:18] Speaker 1: parts of Europe, but it was particularly strong in Irish
[35:22] Speaker 1: and Scottish folklore. A healthy infant that suddenly fell ill,
[35:28] Speaker 1: or a child that displayed strange behaviour or developmental issues,
[35:32] Speaker 1: might be suspected as a changeling. A frail, fairy offspring,
[35:38] Speaker 1: who had been spirited the real child away to their realm.
[35:41] Speaker 1: This is the Dana Shee, who had taken them away. Likewise,
[35:49] Speaker 1: a young mother who became mysteriously sick or depressed after
[35:52] Speaker 1: childbirth might be thought to have been taken by fairies,
[35:56] Speaker 1: with a changeling left in her stead. Folklore offered various
[36:01] Speaker 1: ways to confirm and expel a changeling. One famous method
[36:05] Speaker 1: was the eggshell test. brewing eggshells in a pot, as
[36:10] Speaker 1: if they were cooking vessels. Well, this absurd sight would
[36:14] Speaker 1: often provoke the changeling to speak or laugh, saying something like,
[36:19] Speaker 1: I've seen the forest of eggshells growing, yet never saw
[36:22] Speaker 1: the like of this, thereby revealing its unnatural knowledge. Other
[36:29] Speaker 1: remedies were a little more dangerous. Some involved heating a
[36:33] Speaker 1: shovel or poke a red-hot, and threatening the changeling with it,
[36:39] Speaker 1: or actually placing the child on a hot iron in
[36:41] Speaker 1: extreme cases, which, not cool, under the belief that this
[36:46] Speaker 1: would make the fairy jump out, and the human child
[36:49] Speaker 1: be returned. Of course, I think I'd jump pretty damn
[36:53] Speaker 1: high if someone put a red-hot poker on me. But
[36:57] Speaker 1: sometimes the suspected changeling would be left overnight at a
[37:01] Speaker 1: fairy fort or by a sacred well, in hopes that
[37:04] Speaker 1: the fairies would come and, Reverse the swap. Well, these
[37:10] Speaker 1: practices could be abusive or fatal to the unfortunate victims.
[37:14] Speaker 1: It might seem a little bit medieval, but we have
[37:17] Speaker 1: records of people even into the 19th century who were
[37:21] Speaker 1: harmed or killed during such interventions. The most famous example
[37:28] Speaker 1: being the case of Bridget Cleary in 1895. She was
[37:33] Speaker 1: a young Tipperary woman, whose husband became convinced she was
[37:37] Speaker 1: a fairy changeling. In trying to drive out the fairy,
[37:43] Speaker 1: he and several relatives brutally murdered her. This shows that
[37:49] Speaker 1: changeling lore was not just an amusing fireside tale, but
[37:54] Speaker 1: a real belief with real consequence, persisting well into modern times. Now,
[38:01] Speaker 1: from an academic perspective, changeling stories likely served as an
[38:04] Speaker 1: explanation for misunderstood ailments like tuberculosis, or conditions like autism
[38:11] Speaker 1: and developmental disabilities in children. They provided a narrative, however frightening,
[38:18] Speaker 1: that helped communities cope with misfortune by blaming some supernatural force,
[38:26] Speaker 1: which seems to be quite a prevailing trend in not
[38:29] Speaker 1: just Irish history, but all over the world. But at
[38:33] Speaker 1: the same time, the extreme measure was taken against changelings,
[38:38] Speaker 1: and it highlights a darker side of folk belief, and
[38:41] Speaker 1: that's a belief where fear could override empathy and, frankly,
[38:47] Speaker 1: common sense. The persistence of changeling legends and the consistency
[38:53] Speaker 1: of certain remedies across centuries show how deeply embedded this
[38:57] Speaker 1: was in the rural psyche Now, of course, this realm
[39:04] Speaker 1: of Irish folklore is exceedingly rich, and it's populated by
[39:08] Speaker 1: far more than just banshees and changelings. There are countless
[39:12] Speaker 1: solitary fairies and magical creatures, each with their own niche,
[39:17] Speaker 1: and the most famous known globally is the Leprechaun. We
[39:22] Speaker 1: had to get to that soon enough, didn't we? Typically
[39:25] Speaker 1: depicted as a diminutive old fairy man who makes shoes
[39:29] Speaker 1: and gowns, a pot of gold at the end of
[39:31] Speaker 1: the rainbow. But in truth, leprechauns are not very prominent
[39:36] Speaker 1: in authentic Irish folktales. They appear occasionally as tricksters who
[39:41] Speaker 1: can grant three wishes if caught, but always manage to
[39:45] Speaker 1: outsmart their captors and scurry away. Nonetheless, a medieval tale
[39:50] Speaker 1: does mention those called lucorapain, which means little bodies who
[39:57] Speaker 1: capture a king and drag him into the sea, suggesting
[40:01] Speaker 1: a concept of tiny mischief-making sprites having deep roots. A
[40:06] Speaker 1: close cousin of the leprechaun, rather, in Munster folklore is
[40:11] Speaker 1: the clurachon, who is similarly small but known to be
[40:16] Speaker 1: perpetually tipsy. and fond of sneaking into wine-cellars to drink
[40:21] Speaker 1: up everything they can get. Yet another is the faderek,
[40:28] Speaker 1: that means red man, usually portrayed as a solitary, roguish
[40:34] Speaker 1: fairy who dresses in red and loves practical jokes, occasionally
[40:39] Speaker 1: of the more gruesome kind. In coastal counties, fishermen's tales
[40:45] Speaker 1: of the mero, or murk, Essentially a mermaid or merman exist.
[40:53] Speaker 1: Meros are said to have green hair and webbed fingers.
[40:57] Speaker 1: They wear a magic red cap or cloak that lets
[41:01] Speaker 1: them travel between the sea and the land. Now if
[41:04] Speaker 1: a human manages to steal a mero's cap, the mero
[41:08] Speaker 1: can live on land and even marry, but invariably. As
[41:13] Speaker 1: many tales relate, the call of the ocean eventually compels
[41:16] Speaker 1: the moat to retrieve the cap and return to the sea,
[41:20] Speaker 1: leaving their mortal family behind. Less benign is the Dulan,
[41:25] Speaker 1: a headless phantom rider, often seen on a black horse
[41:30] Speaker 1: carrying his own head under one arm. The Dulan gallops
[41:34] Speaker 1: through the night as a herald of death. He may
[41:37] Speaker 1: stop at the door of someone about to die, or
[41:40] Speaker 1: call out their name. And there is no real way
[41:44] Speaker 1: to stop him. No defense against the Dulang. Except perhaps
[41:49] Speaker 1: an aversion to gold. Some legends say that even a
[41:52] Speaker 1: small gold pin might frighten him off. An old kryptonite
[41:57] Speaker 1: for the headless horseman. Another notorious entity is the Puka.
[42:04] Speaker 1: A shape-shifting creature that can take the form of a
[42:07] Speaker 1: black horse, a goat, a dog, or even a goblin.
[42:12] Speaker 1: The puka loves to waylay travellers at night and fling
[42:15] Speaker 1: them on a wild ride across the countryside, only to
[42:19] Speaker 1: dump them in a ditch or a muddy field. While
[42:22] Speaker 1: the puka can be malevolent or just impish, depending on
[42:26] Speaker 1: local lore, some regions consider it a harvest spirit. In fact,
[42:32] Speaker 1: in parts of Ireland, the last untamed fruits of the
[42:35] Speaker 1: harvest were left for the puka, not to be eaten
[42:38] Speaker 1: by humans. But what do all these various beings have
[42:44] Speaker 1: in common? Well, there's one thing. Did you catch it?
[42:49] Speaker 1: It is their tie to the underworld and to nature.
[42:54] Speaker 1: The Irish imagination traditionally didn't draw a rigid line between
[42:58] Speaker 1: the natural and supernatural realms. Every lonely little hill, every
[43:05] Speaker 1: old tree, every glen could harbor an unseen supernatural presence.
[43:12] Speaker 1: even a sudden gust of wind sweeping up through a thicket,
[43:15] Speaker 1: a strange flicker of light at night, a little lightning
[43:19] Speaker 1: strike somewhere. These might be simply natural phenomena, or perhaps
[43:25] Speaker 1: they were actually the movements of hidden folk from another world.
[43:32] Speaker 1: Respect for the unseen was ingrained from childhood. Children were
[43:37] Speaker 1: taught not to stray off known paths for fear of
[43:41] Speaker 1: fairy rings. Farmers would leave a corner of the field untilled,
[43:45] Speaker 1: a fairy quarter as a sign of goodwill. And one
[43:49] Speaker 1: should never carelessly cut down a lone hawthorn tree in
[43:53] Speaker 1: the middle of a field, for such solitary white thorns
[43:58] Speaker 1: were often considered meeting places for fairies. The concept of
[44:04] Speaker 1: fairy forts exemplifies this integration of landscape and lore. Across
[44:10] Speaker 1: Ireland you'll find thousands of small earthen ring forts and
[44:14] Speaker 1: circular enclosures, the remains of early medieval farmsteads or dwellings.
[44:20] Speaker 1: To the rural folks of later times, these overgrown rings
[44:23] Speaker 1: were inexplicable ruins from a long, mysterious past, and so
[44:29] Speaker 1: they became known as fairy forts. Stories often abounded about
[44:35] Speaker 1: the she that lived there, It was taboo to disturb
[44:39] Speaker 1: a fairy fort, of course. Many tales recount dire punishments
[44:44] Speaker 1: for those who tried to dig them up or level them.
[44:48] Speaker 1: There are accounts, too, of farmers whose cattle died mysteriously,
[44:51] Speaker 1: or whose own health failed after they attempted to plough
[44:54] Speaker 1: a fairy ring. Well, even in the early twentieth century,
[44:59] Speaker 1: the belief held strong. In 1940, for instance, when a
[45:05] Speaker 1: ring fort in Kerry was bulldozed to make way for
[45:08] Speaker 1: a field, the locals whispered that the machines repeatedly broke down,
[45:14] Speaker 1: and that the man who led the project had a
[45:17] Speaker 1: string of bad luck thereafter. As recently as the 1990s,
[45:22] Speaker 1: highway construction plans were altered to avoid destroying a particular
[45:26] Speaker 1: lone hawthorn tree on a ferry mound in County Clare,
[45:30] Speaker 1: thanks in part to the warnings of storytellers that the
[45:33] Speaker 1: fairy folk would wreak havoc if their domain was disturbed. Well,
[45:39] Speaker 1: anecdotes like this show how seriously these old beliefs were
[45:43] Speaker 1: sometimes taken. An elected official in modern Ireland might even
[45:48] Speaker 1: casually blame his misfortunes on having angered fairies. It's a
[45:55] Speaker 1: good excuse for losing an election, I suppose. Well, of course,
[46:00] Speaker 1: in 2025, these claims are made with a bit of
[46:04] Speaker 1: a wink and a dose of humour. But many an
[46:08] Speaker 1: Irish person, if pressed, would admit that they wouldn't personally
[46:13] Speaker 1: go and cut the tree down, just as many English
[46:16] Speaker 1: wouldn't purposely walk beneath a ladder or open an umbrella inside,
[46:21] Speaker 1: this kind of thing. So, in effect, the folklore has
[46:24] Speaker 1: cast a protective aura over those archaeological sites. conserving them
[46:29] Speaker 1: through fear of supernatural retribution. But of course one can't
[46:35] Speaker 1: discuss the other world without mentioning the significance of music
[46:39] Speaker 1: and poetry as gifts from that realm. Folklore often claims
[46:45] Speaker 1: that the sweetest tunes and most haunting airs played by
[46:48] Speaker 1: Irish harpers and fiddlers were learned from the fairies themselves.
[46:54] Speaker 1: A common motive is the musician who falls asleep on
[46:57] Speaker 1: a fairy mound was drawn inside it on some haine night,
[47:03] Speaker 1: and when he gets there, he hears that unearthly music.
[47:09] Speaker 1: He does come back, though, sometimes thinking it only minutes
[47:12] Speaker 1: having passed when it's in fact been years, and he
[47:14] Speaker 1: finds that he can play a melody no one has
[47:16] Speaker 1: heard before. Many traditional Irish jigs and reels have fanciful
[47:22] Speaker 1: names like the Fairy's Reel or the Fairy Queen, reflecting
[47:26] Speaker 1: this belief in otherworldly inspiration. Similarly, poets were thought to
[47:31] Speaker 1: receive ailing, that is, vision poems from fairy muses, often
[47:36] Speaker 1: as she-women, granting them creative insight. The Irish language itself
[47:42] Speaker 1: contains euphemisms born of respect for the fairies. Terms like
[47:47] Speaker 1: the good people and the neighbours were used instead of
[47:51] Speaker 1: saying fairies so as not to offend them by direct mention.
[47:56] Speaker 1: In Gaelic-speaking regions, even into the 20th century, Older storytellers
[48:01] Speaker 1: would lower their voice or give a little nod to
[48:03] Speaker 1: the side when alluding to the other crowd, acknowledging their
[48:07] Speaker 1: presence in the most polite manner. All these cultural nuances,
[48:14] Speaker 1: they illustrate an essential truth. The other world was not
[48:19] Speaker 1: merely a fanciful idea, but an integral part of how
[48:23] Speaker 1: people understood the world around them, their fortunes, their art.
[48:29] Speaker 1: or perhaps even their fate. It offered up an explanation
[48:34] Speaker 1: for the mysterious and a source of wonder, while also
[48:38] Speaker 1: demanding a certain etiquette of fear and respect. So let's
[48:46] Speaker 1: not forget that Irish folklore is deeply tied to the
[48:49] Speaker 1: land itself. Every little hill, every hollow seems to have
[48:53] Speaker 1: a legend, every lake its little secret story to tell.
[48:58] Speaker 1: And every ancient tree has a guardian spirit. At least
[49:04] Speaker 1: according to some people that you ask. Of course, you'll
[49:08] Speaker 1: get different answers. But this reverence for the landscape goes
[49:13] Speaker 1: back to very ancient roots. The very earth was seen
[49:17] Speaker 1: as infused with the sacred roots. just in grand sites
[49:21] Speaker 1: like Tarrow and Newgrange, but in humble corners of the countryside,
[49:26] Speaker 1: where everyday people sought out blessings and sometimes omens. Prime example,
[49:33] Speaker 1: sacred wells. That's a prime example of the connection between
[49:37] Speaker 1: the divine and nature. since prehistoric times springs and wells
[49:42] Speaker 1: were places of ritual. Water was life-giving, and often thought
[49:47] Speaker 1: to have healing properties, so of course naturally over time
[49:52] Speaker 1: it became the focus of worship. But when Christianity took
[49:57] Speaker 1: hold in Ireland, many of these pagan water shrines were
[50:00] Speaker 1: renamed for saints, yet the practices around them remained remarkably similar.
[50:08] Speaker 1: All across Ireland, Even today you can find holy wells,
[50:12] Speaker 1: often dedicated to St. Bridget, St. Patrick, perhaps a local saint.
[50:18] Speaker 1: People visit these wells on the saint's feast day, or
[50:22] Speaker 1: at certain times of the year to pray and take
[50:25] Speaker 1: the waters. The rituals include walking around the well a
[50:30] Speaker 1: prescribed number of times, reciting prayers, a likely substitution for
[50:35] Speaker 1: altar incantations and spells of the sort, and of course
[50:40] Speaker 1: leaving offerings, another substitution for the old sacrifices. One common offering, actually,
[50:47] Speaker 1: is a strip of cloth tied to a nearby tree.
[50:51] Speaker 1: These trees, festooned with faded ribbons and rags, stand as
[50:55] Speaker 1: a testimony to the Countess' wishes and thank-yous left for
[50:58] Speaker 1: the well's spirit or saint. Coins, rosaries, even personal items,
[51:06] Speaker 1: also accumulated wells in great number, A famous example of
[51:10] Speaker 1: this is Tobavbrid, that is, St. Bridget's well in Kildare,
[51:19] Speaker 1: where to this day people leave an array of tokens
[51:22] Speaker 1: and kneel to sip or sprinkle the holy water for cures.
[51:27] Speaker 1: These wells often have origin legends, bridging pagan and Christian eras.
[51:32] Speaker 1: and it is commonly said that St. Patrick or St.
[51:35] Speaker 1: Brigid struck the ground and caused the spring to well up,
[51:39] Speaker 1: sanctifying the pre-existing sacred spot. Now, in the case of Brigid,
[51:44] Speaker 1: who's of course quite a bit less well-known than Patrick,
[51:49] Speaker 1: likely a Celtic goddess of healing and spring before she
[51:54] Speaker 1: was a saint, the Wells' veneration may go back to
[51:57] Speaker 1: pagan worship of the life-giving waters. Holy wells were also
[52:02] Speaker 1: scenes of communal gatherings, known as patterns, that is, from patron,
[52:08] Speaker 1: as in the patron's saint day, where people from the
[52:11] Speaker 1: local area would meet once a year, combining religious devotion
[52:15] Speaker 1: with a fair-like atmosphere, I suppose, of food, music, sometimes
[52:21] Speaker 1: quite boisterous revelry, a big old party, so much that
[52:27] Speaker 1: some nineteenth-century priests discouraged the practice due to the Rampant
[52:32] Speaker 1: drunkenness and faction fights that sometimes ensue alongside the prayers.
[52:37] Speaker 1: Always somebody to ruin the fun, isn't there? This mix
[52:41] Speaker 1: of the sacred and profane at Holywell shows our folklore
[52:44] Speaker 1: and faith intermingle in Irish tradition. It's a really good example.
[52:49] Speaker 1: And like I said, you can still find the Holywells.
[52:53] Speaker 1: Ask the locals if you're in Ireland. Maybe they'll tell
[52:56] Speaker 1: you a story too. And hopefully you'll be able to
[52:59] Speaker 1: hold your own in that conversation after learning all of
[53:02] Speaker 1: this today. Well, of course, these wells, of course, connect
[53:07] Speaker 1: to the turning of the seasons, too. On Imolc, that is,
[53:12] Speaker 1: February the 1st, which is St. Bridget's Day in the
[53:15] Speaker 1: Christian calendar, it was customary in many regions to visit
[53:19] Speaker 1: the nearest holy well associated with Bridget. People would pray
[53:23] Speaker 1: for health and the fertility of their livestock and fields.
[53:28] Speaker 1: as Imbolc was the time when the ewes began to lactate,
[53:31] Speaker 1: and the first signs of spring would appear. Imbolc traditions
[53:36] Speaker 1: also included the making of St. Bridget's Crosses, a simple
[53:39] Speaker 1: yet elegant cross woven from rushes or straw. These crosses,
[53:45] Speaker 1: fashioned on Imbolc Eve, were hung above doorways and rafters
[53:49] Speaker 1: to protect the home from fire, lightning and illness in
[53:52] Speaker 1: the coming year. The forearms of the Bridget's Crosses often
[53:57] Speaker 1: woven into a square shape, are sometimes interpreted as representing
[54:01] Speaker 1: the four major festivals or the four elements. Some even
[54:05] Speaker 1: see it as a solar symbol. While today they are
[54:09] Speaker 1: blessed in church, their widespread presence hints at a protective
[54:13] Speaker 1: talisman rooted in pre-Christian symbolism. Another immoral custom in parts
[54:18] Speaker 1: of Ireland was the braid dog procession. Young girls, or
[54:23] Speaker 1: sometimes adults, carrying a girl, would carry a doll or
[54:27] Speaker 1: effigy of Bridget around the village, often singing or reciting
[54:31] Speaker 1: verses and receiving small gifts or food at each house.
[54:34] Speaker 1: And this clearly echoes earlier processions of a spring goddess figure,
[54:40] Speaker 1: ensuring that Bridget, and thus spring's vitality, visited each home.
[54:44] Speaker 1: If wells and springs were sacred to Bridget, and the
[54:49] Speaker 1: gentle stirrings of spring, other parts of the landscape were
[54:53] Speaker 1: seen as the domain of different powers or legends, There
[54:56] Speaker 1: are also standing stones and ancient monuments that have gathered
[55:00] Speaker 1: folklore over the ages. For instance, a single standing stone
[55:04] Speaker 1: might be called Glokvada, the long stone, and said to
[55:09] Speaker 1: have been a petrified warrior. Or a glacial erratic boulder
[55:14] Speaker 1: on the plain might be explained as a rock thrown
[55:16] Speaker 1: in battle by Finn McCool. Dolmens, that is, megalithic portal tombs,
[55:23] Speaker 1: are often cloaked in legend as well. One well-known doorman
[55:27] Speaker 1: in Clare is called the Bed of Diomede and Graene,
[55:32] Speaker 1: tying it to lovers on the run. Even if the
[55:36] Speaker 1: stones are Neolithic, far from the Fianna legends, of course,
[55:41] Speaker 1: Neolithic being the Stone Age times, New Stone Age, the
[55:47] Speaker 1: folklore remixed them into later stories, showing the tendency to
[55:52] Speaker 1: retrofit visible ancient structures into a narrative. and County Cork,
[55:59] Speaker 1: on the Beara Peninsula. A famous rock known as the
[56:03] Speaker 1: Hag of Beara stands overlooking the Colab Bay. Local lore,
[56:08] Speaker 1: of course, identifies this weathered bulgar as the Hag or
[56:12] Speaker 1: the Crone of Beara, a powerful figure in both mythology
[56:16] Speaker 1: and folklore. The Hag of Beara, according to legend, was
[56:21] Speaker 1: at one time a beautiful goddess who personified the land's
[56:25] Speaker 1: sovereignty in the cycles of the seasons. She enjoyed seven
[56:29] Speaker 1: periods of youth, marrying seven husbands in succession. But eventually
[56:35] Speaker 1: her youth was spent as she remained an old woman,
[56:39] Speaker 1: watching all her descendants prosper. The rock is said to
[56:44] Speaker 1: be the Kelek herself, that is, the hag, turned to
[56:49] Speaker 1: stone as she gazes eternally out to the sea, always
[56:53] Speaker 1: awaiting the return of her lost youth. The lore of
[56:57] Speaker 1: the Hag of Bera is rich in poetic imagery and
[57:00] Speaker 1: renewal and decay. She is associated with the harshness of
[57:04] Speaker 1: winter and the barren time of the year that is winter.
[57:09] Speaker 1: Some versions of the folklore, she renews herself each season
[57:12] Speaker 1: by bathing in certain waters or using a hidden magical veil.
[57:17] Speaker 1: The very specific placement of her legend in the Bera Peninsula,
[57:24] Speaker 1: one of Ireland's southwestern extremities, shows how a pan-Irish mythic
[57:29] Speaker 1: figure can become rooted in particular local folklore. To local people,
[57:34] Speaker 1: that craggy rock is not just a geological curiosity. It
[57:39] Speaker 1: is rather the embodiment of an ancient story, and an
[57:43] Speaker 1: object of respect. And indeed, people historically would leave offerings
[57:49] Speaker 1: or say prayers there, treating the hag as a sort
[57:52] Speaker 1: of wise old guardian of the land. Local customs also
[57:58] Speaker 1: flourished around daily life and the agricultural calendar, often preserving
[58:02] Speaker 1: fragments of older beliefs in particular rituals. One notable aspect
[58:07] Speaker 1: was the use of folk charms or spells, and protective practices, essentially,
[58:13] Speaker 1: concerning farming and livestock. At Beltane, that is May 1st,
[58:19] Speaker 1: the traditional start of summer, cattle were driven to their
[58:23] Speaker 1: summer pastures, and with that movement came the fear of
[58:27] Speaker 1: maleficent forces or jealous neighbours who might magically steal the
[58:32] Speaker 1: herd's fertility. To guard against that, people would light great
[58:37] Speaker 1: bonfires on the eve of May, a tradition with clear
[58:42] Speaker 1: ancient Celtic pedigree, and his Beltane fires were recorded by
[58:46] Speaker 1: medieval writers as pagan rites. The cattle would then be
[58:51] Speaker 1: driven between two bonfires or, made to jump over small
[58:55] Speaker 1: fires with the smoke believed to have a purifying and
[58:58] Speaker 1: protective effect. People would also take some of the blessed
[59:02] Speaker 1: fire back to their homes, ashes or embers to rekindle
[59:06] Speaker 1: their own hearths, thus currying the summer's protective warmth. into
[59:10] Speaker 1: their very living places. Living places, what am I talking about?
[59:15] Speaker 1: Into their very homes. Well, another Beltane practice was decorating
[59:21] Speaker 1: the May bush, typically a thorn bush or branch bedecked
[59:25] Speaker 1: with bright ribbons, flowers, sometimes shells or candles. anything that
[59:30] Speaker 1: looked nice, really. The decorated bush set outside the house
[59:35] Speaker 1: was thought to welcome in the summer and keep away
[59:37] Speaker 1: mischievous spirits or ill luck. This custom was particularly strong
[59:43] Speaker 1: in some eastern counties and has parallels in parts of
[59:47] Speaker 1: Britain and Europe, hinting at common ancient origins celebrating the
[59:51] Speaker 1: life force of spring turning into summer. And at the
[59:55] Speaker 1: same time, May Eve was considered a dangerous night for
[59:59] Speaker 1: supernatural mischief, especially involving witches or fairy sorcerers stealing dairy produce.
[1:00:08] Speaker 1: There were widespread desolations about not giving away milk or
[1:00:13] Speaker 1: fire on May Day, for fear that you might be
[1:00:17] Speaker 1: handing over your farm's luck. There are tales of people
[1:00:22] Speaker 1: skulking out at dawn to skim the wells of their
[1:00:25] Speaker 1: prosperous neighbours, symbolically stealing the cream of their crop for
[1:00:30] Speaker 1: the year. Cream of the crop. Reminds me of macho
[1:00:35] Speaker 1: man Randy Savage, that does. Well, to counteract this, farmers
[1:00:41] Speaker 1: might sprinkle holy water in their barns, hang primrose or
[1:00:45] Speaker 1: rowan above the door, or ensure the first churn of
[1:00:47] Speaker 1: butter in May was done with, special prayers in mind.
[1:00:53] Speaker 1: One colorful ritual in some areas was to gather yellow
[1:00:56] Speaker 1: flowers like buttercups and gorse and scatter them at the thresholds,
[1:01:01] Speaker 1: sunshine-colored blooms to repel the darkness of evil intent. Customs
[1:01:06] Speaker 1: like that, while pretty much just ritual superstitions, can still
[1:01:11] Speaker 1: be traced back to older ritual practices for safeguarding the
[1:01:14] Speaker 1: community's food supply, especially at a critical time of the year. And,
[1:01:23] Speaker 1: speaking of critical times of the year, Lunasa, August 1st.
[1:01:28] Speaker 1: That was the start of the harvest season, and another
[1:01:32] Speaker 1: major festival with strong folkloric observance. Lunasa is named for
[1:01:38] Speaker 1: the god Lug, and the many-skilled champion of the Tuatha
[1:01:44] Speaker 1: Dé Danann. According to myth, Lug inaugurated this festival as
[1:01:48] Speaker 1: a funeral feast, and athletic tribute to his foster mother, Teoto,
[1:01:55] Speaker 1: an earth goddess, or perhaps a queen who died of
[1:01:58] Speaker 1: exhaustion after clearing the plains of Ireland for agriculture. The
[1:02:02] Speaker 1: principal site of this celebration was Teotin in County Meath,
[1:02:08] Speaker 1: where in ancient times the great Olnek, that is, assemblies
[1:02:12] Speaker 1: or fairs were held. Medieval texts mention the Ánacht Téotén
[1:02:18] Speaker 1: as a time of truce, markets, games, and even if
[1:02:22] Speaker 1: you were lucky, a bit of matchmaking too. Get yourself
[1:02:26] Speaker 1: a girlfriend at the Lunasa festival. Not a bad idea.
[1:02:32] Speaker 1: The tradition of athletic contests in late July persisted into
[1:02:36] Speaker 1: historical times. Indeed, the Irish government in the 20th century
[1:02:41] Speaker 1: revived the Téotén games a little bit whimsically, but Still
[1:02:46] Speaker 1: a good way to connect with their heritage. And I
[1:02:49] Speaker 1: appreciate governments doing that side of things. It's good to see. Well,
[1:02:55] Speaker 1: across Ireland, Lunasa was traditionally a time for bilberry picking
[1:02:59] Speaker 1: on hilltops, family outings and community gatherings on high places.
[1:03:06] Speaker 1: People would climb local mountains. Many of these climbs have
[1:03:10] Speaker 1: now been Christianized as pilgrimages, of course, like the famous
[1:03:14] Speaker 1: Reek Sunday climb of Graugpatrick in late July. But their
[1:03:19] Speaker 1: timing and revelry betray Lunasa's origins. You see, at the
[1:03:23] Speaker 1: summits of scenic spots, there would be sports, music, and dancing.
[1:03:28] Speaker 1: In County Kerry, the ancient Lunasa Fair transformed into the
[1:03:33] Speaker 1: Puck Fair, held annually in early August in Kiloglin. There
[1:03:39] Speaker 1: a wild mountain goat, a puck, that is, is crowned
[1:03:45] Speaker 1: king for three days of merrymaking, likely a vestige of
[1:03:50] Speaker 1: pagan sacrifice or fertility rites, dressed up as a quirky
[1:03:55] Speaker 1: local tradition. It's all a good bit of fun, and
[1:03:59] Speaker 1: in many areas customary it was to bring home the
[1:04:03] Speaker 1: first berries or first sheaf of grain and honour it.
[1:04:08] Speaker 1: sometimes by baking the first loaf of bread of the season,
[1:04:11] Speaker 1: hence the English folk name Lammas, that being loaf mass. Well,
[1:04:20] Speaker 1: this Lunasa festival was essentially a harvest Thanksgiving, and not
[1:04:25] Speaker 1: to mention a pretty strong community bonding event. Everyone showed up.
[1:04:32] Speaker 1: I mean, it was the event of the year. It's
[1:04:34] Speaker 1: kind of like showing up to New Year's Eve in
[1:04:37] Speaker 1: our modern homes. world, I suppose, depending on where you're from.
[1:04:41] Speaker 1: And even as the festival was Christianised or fell out
[1:04:44] Speaker 1: of official favour, because like other folk festivals it could
[1:04:48] Speaker 1: get quite rowdy, drink involved, of course, elements of it
[1:04:53] Speaker 1: did survive regardless. Up to the twentieth centuries, rural communities
[1:04:59] Speaker 1: in Ireland still held patterned days on the last Sunday
[1:05:02] Speaker 1: of July at holy wells or special hills, where they
[1:05:06] Speaker 1: mixed prayers and rounds at a sacred site with music,
[1:05:10] Speaker 1: horse races, and, of course, the long-looked-forward-to courting opportunities. The
[1:05:18] Speaker 1: patchwork of Lunasa customs across different counties, each with their
[1:05:22] Speaker 1: own local flavour, really is a folklorist's delight, and it
[1:05:28] Speaker 1: shows how a very old pan-Celtic festival could be localised
[1:05:33] Speaker 1: into many unique expressions. Now finally, the year would come
[1:05:39] Speaker 1: full circle to Samhain, which in Irish is pronounced Samhain,
[1:05:46] Speaker 1: but we generally know it as Samhain, at least that's
[1:05:49] Speaker 1: how we pronounce it in English vernacular, so I'll try
[1:05:53] Speaker 1: not to confuse by doing too many departures from what
[1:05:57] Speaker 1: we already know. I do apologize for anyone who wants
[1:06:01] Speaker 1: me to stick to the Irish pronunciation purism. Well, This
[1:06:06] Speaker 1: was a festival marking the summer's end on October 31st.
[1:06:11] Speaker 1: Summering was, in many respects, the most significant quarter day
[1:06:15] Speaker 1: in the Irish calendar, essentially the Celtic New Year, and
[1:06:20] Speaker 1: it remains so in the folk memory since its echoes
[1:06:23] Speaker 1: live on in Halloween. The old Irish world view, actually,
[1:06:27] Speaker 1: the day began at sunset. the remnant of which how
[1:06:31] Speaker 1: we see the Gaelic languages even today. The word for
[1:06:34] Speaker 1: tomorrow can actually mean morning of the next day, or
[1:06:39] Speaker 1: literally the day on the morrow after this night. Thus,
[1:06:44] Speaker 1: Samhain Eve, what we would call the night of October 31st,
[1:06:48] Speaker 1: was a transitional point when the old year died and
[1:06:53] Speaker 1: the new year's dark half commenced rather. This night and
[1:06:59] Speaker 1: the day following were believed to be the time of
[1:07:02] Speaker 1: weak boundaries between our world and the next. Spirits of
[1:07:07] Speaker 1: the dead could return to their former homes, and the
[1:07:10] Speaker 1: denizens of the she could become forth freely. The medieval
[1:07:16] Speaker 1: literature shows the uncanny nature of Samhain. Many adventurers and
[1:07:21] Speaker 1: battles began on this night. At Amain Marsha, the Nevin
[1:07:25] Speaker 1: fought the seat of the Ulster Kings. A prophecy said
[1:07:28] Speaker 1: that no battle should be undertaken except on Samhain, when
[1:07:33] Speaker 1: heroes' powers could be grated, but supernatural forces also running high.
[1:07:40] Speaker 1: At Krushan, the Konak stronghold, that is, there is a
[1:07:44] Speaker 1: tale of Neera, who on Samhain accepts a dare to
[1:07:49] Speaker 1: put a willow twig on the corpse's foot, and in
[1:07:52] Speaker 1: doing so he witnesses hordes of spirits arising, and follows
[1:07:56] Speaker 1: them into the other world, barely returning to warn King
[1:08:01] Speaker 1: Aelil of a coming disaster. Now such tales show the
[1:08:05] Speaker 1: belief that doors to the other world did open at Samhain.
[1:08:09] Speaker 1: One reason why people stayed close to hearth and home
[1:08:12] Speaker 1: that night, well, because the supernatural was expected to roam.
[1:08:18] Speaker 1: People took precautions and also enacted rituals of hospitality toward
[1:08:21] Speaker 1: the unseen. Samhain was a time for bonfires on hilltops.
[1:08:27] Speaker 1: continuing the fire festival tradition. But now the fires were
[1:08:31] Speaker 1: for protection and cleansing as the winter approached. Cattle, having
[1:08:42] Speaker 1: come down from summer pastures, might be driven between flames
[1:08:46] Speaker 1: as at Beltane, to bless them and the community. Families
[1:08:51] Speaker 1: would gather round the hearth and share the fruits of
[1:08:54] Speaker 1: the final harvest. slaughtering the fatted calf or pig for
[1:08:58] Speaker 1: a feast. Yet alongside feasting for the living, there was
[1:09:03] Speaker 1: an emphasis on the dead. On Samhain it was customary
[1:09:07] Speaker 1: to set an extra place at the table or leave
[1:09:10] Speaker 1: a portion of food and drink out overnight for visiting
[1:09:13] Speaker 1: ancestors or wandering spirits. These offerings were the original treats
[1:09:18] Speaker 1: given to the ghosts and fairies who would not feel
[1:09:21] Speaker 1: slighted and not play tricks on the household if they
[1:09:25] Speaker 1: got a little something in return. The idea of it
[1:09:30] Speaker 1: was to show respect and kinship to those who had
[1:09:32] Speaker 1: passed on, recognizing that every new year they would come
[1:09:37] Speaker 1: back for a little visit. And then there is the
[1:09:41] Speaker 1: custom of the interestingly named Dumb Supper. Let me explain.
[1:09:48] Speaker 1: It is the custom of eating in silence, or leaving
[1:09:51] Speaker 1: a meal on the table for those unseen guests. There
[1:09:56] Speaker 1: was one way of acknowledging the dead on Samhain. Another
[1:10:00] Speaker 1: custom was mumming or guising. People, often youths, would dress
[1:10:05] Speaker 1: in old clothes, animal skins or costumes, and go around
[1:10:09] Speaker 1: the village after dark, stopping at homes to perform little
[1:10:13] Speaker 1: skits or songs in exchange for food. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
[1:10:19] Speaker 1: Like we said, the roots of Halloween. right there for
[1:10:22] Speaker 1: us to dig up. Now, this practice served as a
[1:10:25] Speaker 1: dual purpose, entertainment and a ritualistic warding off of malignant
[1:10:31] Speaker 1: spirits by rather impersonating them or perhaps confusing them. The
[1:10:38] Speaker 1: disguises might prevent a malevolent spirit from recognizing the person
[1:10:43] Speaker 1: or simply scare it off. The practice is clearly a
[1:10:48] Speaker 1: forbearer of what we just mentioned. the costuming and trick-or-treating.
[1:10:53] Speaker 1: Children and adults donned the frightening masks, or even blackened
[1:10:58] Speaker 1: their faces with soot, becoming unrecognisable as they roamed with
[1:11:03] Speaker 1: turnip lanterns or torches. Another enduring Samhain custom was the
[1:11:08] Speaker 1: carving of jack-o'-lanterns. In Ireland, people traditionally carved grotesque faces
[1:11:13] Speaker 1: into large turnips or mangled wurzels. placed a candle or
[1:11:18] Speaker 1: ember inside and set those lanterns by the road or
[1:11:21] Speaker 1: in windows to ward off evil. These were sometimes said
[1:11:25] Speaker 1: to represent spirits or a damned soul. Jack O'Lantern in
[1:11:30] Speaker 1: folklore is a wandering soul who tricked the devil and
[1:11:34] Speaker 1: was condemned to roam with only an ember and a
[1:11:37] Speaker 1: carved turnip to light his way. Irish immigrants later carried
[1:11:42] Speaker 1: this tradition to North America. where the more plentiful pumpkin
[1:11:46] Speaker 1: became the vegetable of choice, giving us the now familiar
[1:11:51] Speaker 1: pumpkin lanterns of Halloween. Samhain also had many divinatory rituals,
[1:11:57] Speaker 1: especially for young people curious about love and marriage. There
[1:12:01] Speaker 1: was one popular game, too, to blindfoldly bite at a
[1:12:04] Speaker 1: hanging apple on a string, or to bob for apples
[1:12:08] Speaker 1: in a tub of water. Apples were strongly associated with
[1:12:12] Speaker 1: Fertility in the underworld. The otherworld, rather. We can't really
[1:12:15] Speaker 1: say the underworld. It's the otherworld. Excuse me. Another was
[1:12:22] Speaker 1: to pour molten lead or egg whites into water and
[1:12:26] Speaker 1: interpret the shapes as symbols of future spouses or fortunes.
[1:12:31] Speaker 1: The bandrak, a special kind of fruit bread baked at Halloween,
[1:12:36] Speaker 1: traditionally contained tokens. a ring meaning impending marriage, a coin, wealth,
[1:12:43] Speaker 1: a thimble, which might mean bachelorhood, a pea, poverty, and
[1:12:48] Speaker 1: so on. One's fate for the year ahead was thus
[1:12:51] Speaker 1: randomly assigned by whichever token ended up in one's slice.
[1:12:57] Speaker 1: Bad luck to the people who got the poverty one.
[1:13:00] Speaker 1: Not a good night for them. Now the Christian church,
[1:13:04] Speaker 1: they were unable to suppress such a popular festival. So, instead,
[1:13:09] Speaker 1: They repurposed it. November 1st became All Saints' Day, or
[1:13:15] Speaker 1: All Hallows' Day, and November 2nd, All Souls' Day, a
[1:13:21] Speaker 1: time to honour the blessed dead and pray for all
[1:13:23] Speaker 1: departed souls, and it is no coincidence that these observances
[1:13:27] Speaker 1: align with Samhain. In effect, the Church provided a sanctioned
[1:13:31] Speaker 1: way to continue the tradition of remembering the dead, while
[1:13:34] Speaker 1: layering it with Christian theology. Yet many Samhain folk practices
[1:13:41] Speaker 1: simply persisted alongside, slightly rebranded. Fires in remembrance of the dead,
[1:13:48] Speaker 1: visiting graves with candles, the ongoing belief in wandering souls,
[1:13:53] Speaker 1: it all remained a part of this seasonal observance. So,
[1:13:56] Speaker 1: from a folklore viewpoint, Samhain is perhaps the clearest window
[1:14:01] Speaker 1: into that old Celtic mindset. A view of time is cyclical.
[1:14:08] Speaker 1: and a view of the world as inherently enchanted. That
[1:14:13] Speaker 1: the essential character of Samhain survived into the present as Halloween,
[1:14:17] Speaker 1: now an almost global night of costumes and pumpkin lanterns,
[1:14:22] Speaker 1: is a testament to the enduring power of Irish folklore,
[1:14:26] Speaker 1: and of course its ability to adapt and thrive through millennia.
[1:14:34] Speaker 1: And just as we wrap up that Great legacy of
[1:14:37] Speaker 1: Ireland's folklore. I think we'll leave it at that. Of course,
[1:14:43] Speaker 1: there's probably more that we can talk about. But maybe, well,
[1:14:49] Speaker 1: maybe you've had enough. I don't know. I haven't. I
[1:14:54] Speaker 1: think tonight, as I relax, maybe I'll go and read
[1:14:57] Speaker 1: a little bit more up onto it. Who knows? Maybe
[1:15:00] Speaker 1: I'll go back and edit the video and add a
[1:15:02] Speaker 1: few little things of my own. But for now, that's
[1:15:05] Speaker 1: where we head off. We've done an hour and 15 minutes. Now,
[1:15:09] Speaker 1: let me thank my top dear patrons and supporters. No
[1:15:13] Speaker 1: ads in this video because of them. How lovely. Christine, Sally.
[1:15:18] Speaker 1: Hang on, let me find them. There they are. Ember, Susan, Kimberly, Cameron, Carrie, Charlene, Lynn, Therese, Katiana, Nicholas, Alfred, Nia, Alexander, Charles, Christine, Dr. Neuronerd, Erin, Jaden, Jim, Jeffrey, Jessica, Madeline, Melissa,
[1:15:38] Speaker 1: Orthodox Review, Scott, Shell, Wendy, Josie, Sarah, Ryan, Thor, Cameron, Stefan, Kevin, HMSHH, Crystal, Talvery, Anthony, Brutal,
[1:15:49] Speaker 1: where am I, Brandon, there we go, Lucy, Gugu, Bubonic, Nicholas, Greg, Neftis, Alexander, Gokhan, Dorsey, Vanita, Claire, Courtesy, Carol, Robert, Mary, Bridget, Nefertari, Yvette,
[1:16:02] Speaker 1: Miss Mochi, Eleven, Allison, Free American. Jennifer and Brittany. Thank
[1:16:12] Speaker 1: you so much. Well, that's it for me today. And
[1:16:17] Speaker 1: of course, we're going to continue going on the series
[1:16:21] Speaker 1: of folklore. Put them all into a nice little playlist
[1:16:24] Speaker 1: for you. We're going to be doing England, Scotland and
[1:16:29] Speaker 1: Wales as well. This is the first one in the series.
[1:16:33] Speaker 1: So I will see you For the rest, and if
[1:16:37] Speaker 1: we really get the views on them, well, I'll probably
[1:16:41] Speaker 1: do Asian folklore, African folklore, Middle Eastern folklore. Well, I
[1:16:46] Speaker 1: suppose the sky is the bloody limit, isn't it? Hope
[1:16:50] Speaker 1: you enjoyed, everyone. Good night. Lots of love to you all.

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