Irish Fairies
Banshee and Leprechauns

Irish fairies are deeply embedded in the lore and cultural memes of the Irish and the Gaelic-Celtic peoples of Scotland, Brittany, Wales, and Gaul. I'm sure you've heard of Banshee, also known as the Changeling, and the Leprechaun.

Well, Irish faeries were originally conceived as beings very similar to the Anglo or Germanic elves, although fairies are not always humanoid as are elves. Elf actually means "shining being".

In basic terms, the humanoid Irish fairies are tall, slender, very fair, and very beautiful (although they could shapeshift); indeed, they are sexually compatible with humans and sometimes do bed them, although some stories say that they can be so sexually intense and lascivious that they can kill a human through sexual intercourse;

fairy stories like Waylan the Smith tell of the intense, overwhelming sexual attraction fairies can choose to enchant humans with.

Irish fairies, again with a trait similar to elves, are immortal but they can choose to die, or cease to exist, if they become too despondent about existence; they can also be killed by magical means, although this is exceedingly difficult to accomplish.

Special magical wards and iron implements are thought to be able to keep fairies away or drain them of power.

The Irish and Celtic peoples first began referring to these beings as "fairies" in the Middle Ages.

Since the Christian Church had risen to prominence, but in Ireland never realized the complete takeover of people's spiritual lives from the former paganism, the church authorities demonized fairies.

Irish fairies are believed to have no souls and to live forever in a supernatural world halfway between the Earthly plane and Heaven (or Hell), probably as a result of Church doctrine.

Fairies can, however, enter the Earthly plane and some people believe they do so frequently through portals such as burial mounds or dolmens. It is believed that the original Irish race was the Tuatha de Danaan, a magical race often thought to have been humanoid fairies.

Irish fairies were originally thought of as whimsical beings who would, if they felt like it, meddle in human affairs, especially but not always those of human royalty. They could be helpful or they could be mischievous and even harmful.

There are thought to be times of the year when Irish fairies are most prominent in the realm of mankind, such as All Hallows Eve (Halloween).

People who believe that there is a "dark" faerie court that contrasts with a "light" faerie court believe that Halloween is the time of year when the Unseelie Court, the harmful dark court presided over by The Fool, is most powerful.

One of the most pernicious of the harmful things fairies are thought to do is give a human family with a new baby a changeling, while they steal the human child and take it to the Fairy Realm with them.

Fairy fascination with human babies is explained by the fairies' lack of souls and incapability of conceiving of innocence. The changelings would look just like the human baby but they would never grow much, and would always be wizened, foul tempered, and endlessly mischievous.

Babies who developed birth defects or had strange behaviour were often taken to be changelings and would be treated very poorly in an attempt to drive them away.

Later on, fairies become like the modern conception of small, winged creatures who are generally always kind, playful, and magical, but not all that powerful.

This change mostly took place in the Victorian Age and was an attempt by Christian society to diminish their standing in people's minds.

They had had a heavy influence on literature such as in the works of extremely influential writers Shakespeare and Sir Edmund Spencer, and then on the Romantics and Pre-Raphaelites of the earlier part of the 19th century in England and Ireland.

A surge in Irish nationalism in the late 19th century made "old style" fairies figure prominently in Irish literature and art again, and they have been preserved in the Fantasy literature and art of the 20th century.

One of the most powerful of the original fairies is the Banshee. Appearing as either a young woman, a regal lady, or a ragged old hag (the triple aspects of the Celtic triple-goddess of war and death--Badhbh, Macha, and Mor-Rioghain.) and typically wearing either a hooded gray cloak or the winding sheet or grave robe of the unshriven dead, the banshee wails through the night with the keening of a hurricane's winds.

It was originally believed that it wailed for certain ancient Irish families when one of their members was about to die: the O'Neills, the O'Briens, the O'Connors, the O'Gradys, or the Kavanaghs.

Similarly, the Bodach was conceived as dark-gray humanoid figure who appeared to foretell the death of members in an Irish clan.

Other prominent Irish fairies include:

Cait Sith

A supernatural cat as big as a dog and utterly black except for one white spot on its breast; sightings of mysterious huge black cats in the Highlands are still very common (as are sightings of mysterious giant black dogs that can hunt in utter silence, the Cu Sith).

Fuath(an)

Water sprites.

Glaistig

Golden-haired fairies who helped around farms.

Joint Eaters invisible fairies who sit next to people and eat their food so that they get no nutrition.

Sidhe

The humanoid fairies of incredible beauty, magic, wisdom, and seductiveness

Slaugh

A group of very dangerous spirits known as the unforgiven dead. Always malevolent, some believe them to be fallen angels.

Urisks

Half human and half goat spirits which haunt pools and waterfalls.

The Irish nationalist writer and researcher
Cait Sith

A supernatural cat as big as a dog and utterly black except for one white spot on its breast; sightings of mysterious huge black cats in the Highlands are still very common (as are sightings of mysterious giant black dogs that can hunt in utter silence, the Cu Sith).

Fuath(an)

Water sprites.

Glaistig

Golden-haired fairies who helped around farms.

Joint Eaters invisible fairies who sit next to people and eat their food so that they get no nutrition.

Sidhe

The humanoid fairies of incredible beauty, magic, wisdom, and seductiveness

Slaugh

A group of very dangerous spirits known as the unforgiven dead. Always malevolent, some believe them to be fallen angels.

Urisks

Half human and half goat spirits which haunt pools and waterfalls.

The Irish nationalist writer and researcher James Stephens assembled a wonderful collection of tales and poems about Irish fairies which he published in 1920.