The Hawthorn and Ash trees are known as fairy trees. The Hawthorn tree is also associated with Bealtane, an ancient Celtic festival in Spring. It was considered a sacred tree, a symbol of love and protection and was not to be disturbed.
In Celtic mythology it is one of the most sacred trees and symbolises love and protection. It is also known as the Fairy Tree, as fairies live under the Hawthorn as its guardians, and so was treated with great respect and care.
It tells the story of hundreds of years ago when the Fairy Queen was born and at the same time when the seed of a Red Gum tree sprung into life. The Big Tree became the Fairies home. How a fierce Bunyip guarded the Tree and the Fairies were forced to leave and live elsewhere for hundreds of years.
A fairy tree is usually a Hawthorn tree or an Ash tree. They stand alone in fields and are commonly found with large stones circling its base, most likely to protect it. What's mysterious about these large stones is how they came to be at the tree, the landowners wouldn't dare disrupt the wee folk.
These gateways are so important to the little folk it is said that “those who cause harm to a fairy tree will be cursed by the 'Sidhe' & have terrible bad luck for the remainder of their days” If you even touch a fairy tree you still run the risk of calling unlucky attention to yourself!
Though today the number of people who claim to have seen or interacted with the fairies has gone down significantly, fairies are still very much a part of Irish culture and Irish folklore. The stories still get passed down through generations and told at the fireside.
There is also the belief that they bring good luck and that they are a sign of a fairy village underground. Another folklore story is that you should never step into a fairy ring, as you may become invisible or become trapped there forever.
In Irish tradition, fairies could be dark and malevolent, and interference with or by them could make or break a family's luck, health, livestock, home or fortune. Essentially earth or nature spirits, they were thought to occupy a parallel universe, often conducted underground, and mostly invisible to the human eye.
The fairies are believed to be the Tuatha de Danann, one of the first tribes to arrive in Ireland, they were magical and secretive people. When warrior tribes like the Milesians began to arrive in Ireland the Tuatha de Danann were defeated in battle but would not be forced to leave.
They may sometimes appear smaller than us, but certainly not minuscule like the tinkerbell-esque creatures people expect. They look just like us and certainly don't have wings, but due to existing on another plane to us, are able to conceal themselves. They live lives like us for the most part.
This tree is known as the Fairies' Tree, and it was carved by the artist Ola Cohn – unpaid and completed during her spare time – over three years during the Depression from 1931 to 1934.
It was and still is said, that if you cut a fairy tree down then bad luck will befall you, although generations pass by and this awareness becomes faded, you will still find many townlands where the practice of leaving a single 'fairy tree' to grow unhindered occurs.
Sidhe literally means "a mound" or "a thrust," and since the Danaan people were associated with mounds, barrows and tumuli, they became known as the People of the Sidhe.
Fairies in these myths may be of the more cartoonish variety and signify simply love, magic and springtime, but most signify things like death, sexual depravity, abduction and general immorality. This exhibition looks at representation of fairies within art of many different mediums and time periods.
Some parents and guardians use fairy doors to stimulate their children's imaginations and prompt creative thinking, describing the fairies as creatures that use their magical powers to protect children from bad dreams, grant their wishes if they are well-behaved, and replace lost teeth with small rewards.
The common ash is Ireland's most common, tallest native tree. It is a deciduous tree and after it has been cut down, it is able to re-sprout and start growing again. The tallest ash in Ireland measures forty metres in height, and is happily growing in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary.
They symbolised both a combination of good and evil. The fairy folk could easily bless someone or cast bad luck over them. They harboured both fortune and misfortune and this gained the 'wee folk' a lot of respect. Many people were said to be frightened of upsetting the fae due to the magical powers they had.
Known to the islanders as the “little people,” “good people,” or “gentry” (Messenger, et al. 1969: 98), fairy folk are supernatural entities named after the grassy mounds that dot the Irish landscape.
Historical origins of fairies range from various traditions from Persian mythology to European folklore such as of Brythonic (Bretons, Welsh, Cornish), Gaelic (Irish, Scots, Manx), and Germanic peoples, and of Middle French medieval romances.
The leannán sídhe ( lit. 'fairy lover'; Scottish Gaelic: leannan sìth, Manx: lhiannan shee; [lʲan̴̪-an ˈʃiː]) is a figure from Irish Folklore. She is depicted as a beautiful woman of the Aos Sí ("people of the barrows") who takes a human lover.
A banshee (/ˈbænʃiː/ BAN-shee; Modern Irish bean sí, from Old Irish: ben síde [bʲen ˈʃiːðʲe], "woman of the fairy mound" or "fairy woman") is a female spirit in Irish folklore who heralds the death of a family member, usually by screaming, wailing, shrieking, or keening.
Weapons and implements made from cold iron are often granted special efficacy against creatures such as fairies and spirits. In the Disney film Maleficent, the title character reveals early on that iron is lethal to fairies, and that the metal burns them on contact.
Use one teaspoon of soap per gallon of water and pour several gallons on the ring. The soap breaks down the surface tension of the water, so it flows more easily. The soap will not hurt the grass or kill the fungus.