The Blindboy Podcast - Irish Folklore with Eddie Lenihan

Episode Date: May 6, 2020

I chat with Seanchai Eddie Lenihan about Fairy forts, Leprechauns and Irish folklore Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dip the devil's toenails in the Ardagh chalice, you poolside Julians. Welcome to the Blind Boy Podcast. I hope you've all been exercising self-compassion and not being too hard on yourself and accepting the inevitable pain and suffering of human existence. of human existence em so yeah what's the crack

this week I've got a special podcast planned for you this week em firstly what's been going on with me so last week if you listened last week

you'll know that I made a promise. And the promise was that I would have done some live streaming by now, which is true. I have. I've been live streaming all week. All right. But what I haven't done is I haven't told anybody where I'm live streaming or what time I'm live streaming. So I've been doing practice runs to a very small

audience been live streaming a bit of Red Dead Redemption and I did some Streets of Rage old school video gaming and mainly I'm doing it I'm doing it to to work out some bugs to try and see what's gonna go wrong and once I have everything sorted then I'll tell you all when I'm live streaming and where I'm live streaming a very important piece of equipment is arriving to me in the morning

it is the final piece of the puzzle of my live streaming setup so I'm going to keep you updated keep an eye on my Twitter, Instagram and Facebook alright Twitter at Rubber Bandits Twitter at Rubber Bandits Instagram at Rubber Bandits

Official and then Facebook Rubber Bandits there you go something very something very heartwarming and inspiring happened this week and because of this

heartwarming and inspiring thing is going to influence what this week's podcast is about and why i'm choosing um the topic of this week's podcast so the coronavirus crisis in america in in particular is is a big giant shit show. The American government aren't handling coronavirus in a particularly compassionate or responsible way. It's overwhelmingly affecting the most marginalised communities, of course, in America. And in particular, one of the most marginalised communities in America is in particular one of the most marginalized communities in America is Native

American people and the Navajo people in particular are dying in huge numbers because of coronavirus and because of lack of access to health care so the Navajo and hopi families have a covid19 relief fund which they put up on gofundme to raise i believe it was 1.5 million dollars to try and assist their community in fighting covid19 coronavirus and from the darkness of something like that um a thing really beautiful happened in the past week which is not only have they reached their goal of 1.5 million they're now up to nearly 2.5 million and the goal has been raised to 3 million to save the lives of the Navajo community of Native American people and one of the reasons that

their GoFundMe is so successful is because of Irish people this GoFundMe page started to go viral during the week everybody was sharing it and donating, I shared and donated myself and if you look at the GoFundMe page you'll see that 90% of the comments are all from

they're all Irish names and the reason that us in Ireland are overwhelmingly donating to the Navajo people is because there's this thing and most Irish people grew up with this I grew up with it too and it's been confirmed historically recently but i grew up my dad would say to me when i was when i was a kid and when my dad would speak to me about the the famine our famine in ireland which we had in the 1840s uh famine slash genocide whatever you want to call it but four million irish people uh gone half our population gone as a result of, because of the Brits, I'm

blaming the Brits, you can disagree if you want, alright, but during our famine which cut the Irish population in half, one story I always grew up with is my dad would say to me, do you know that during the Irish famine when everybody was starving and when the British were not only making it far worse by exporting all of our food they were refusing to give any help or assistance whatsoever that during all of this the only people that gave the Irish people assistance were a small community of Native Americans who donated money and grain and I grew up with this story not knowing was it like is this true or not and then history now comes out and says in the past 20-30 years is like yes this was true

the Choctaw people Native American people, the Choctaw, who were up, I think they were around Florida, Louisiana, they donated to the Irish people at the time $170, which would be the equivalent of $5,000 today. Because in 1847, the Choctaw Nation, they had just gone through a thing called the Trail of Tears, where they were pushed from their lands and had to relocate. And the Choctaw Native Americans heard the story of the Irish people and the famine. And this is, you know, a hugely marginalized people with nothing, driven from their fucking lands with no you know being sent somewhere else everything taken from them and these poor

people in 1847 decided do you know what we're gonna we're gonna get what little we have and we're gonna give it to the irish people while the brits did fucking nothing while the great British Empire at the height like 1840s was the height of the British Empire and wealth who did not give us anything because they wanted to see us die and starve so they could take the land

and the reason that when you go to this GoFundMe page today to help the Navajo people through the coronavirus crisis. It's all Irish people donating five quid, donating a hundred quid and everyone writing beautiful messages. I'll just read you out a couple of the messages that I'm seeing on the GoFundMe page. Dermot wrote, at Ireland's time of need during the great Hunger of the 1840s, Native American people donated to the famine relief effort, even though they themselves were still given in hardship. Their generosity will never be forgotten. So the whole GoFundMe page is just overwhelmed with this generosity of Irish people.

Kind of helping Native American people at their time of need and remembering our ancestors 170 fucking years ago. And it's just beautiful. It's just a lovely outpouring of compassion and love and generosity. And at a time where, I mean, one tenet of Irishness is our spirit of generosity and friendliness. That's a tenet of Irishness. And sometimes you fear that it leaves us, you know. As we move from being a country that is historically oppressed, we've always been historically oppressed, we've always been under the boot, but, you know know the past 50 years that's changed

and now in 2020 we you know we've got direct provision we are the oppressor we've got direct provision we've got fucking emergency accommodation we've got our ruling government has

managed to turn misery into a product that it can milk for private profits you know so we are now living as oppressors so you fear that you lose this Irish compassion the kind of

the compassion that binds us all but this gesture it's just lovely to see it's just one of those things that gives it gives me hope it gives me fucking hope that it's like don't forget our history what good are we as irish people what's the point of 800 years of fucking oppression lads if you can't use that to be an ally and to assist other people

that are currently being marginalised and oppressed you have to fucking hang on to that or else you yourself become the oppressor do you know what I mean so it's just a lovely thing and I had to give it a shout out on the podcast lads

and if you want to go to the gofundme page um you just go to go gofundme and look for the navajo and hopi families covid19 relief fund and donate some money to help indigenous american people and do it for your fucking ancestors that were starving in the famine you know what i mean so i just thought i'd give that little mention and also again don't forget lads look direct provision we must end direct provision and also people in direct provision are suffering right now under coronavirus. So Masi Asylum, M-A-S-I Asylum is a very good charity to support, to help people in direct provision right now. So this week's podcast is inspired by the reinvigorated and hopeful feeling that that mass act of generosity has has given me um like i said it's it's

the part of me that goes we haven't forgotten who we are we haven't forgotten who we are capitalism hasn't completely erased our generosity as a people you know so this week I'm speaking to a man called Eddie Lenehan who is a Seán na chí, a Seán caitha, a seán na chí we'll say, which is the, it's the anglicised version of it, a seán na chí, but a seán na chí is a storyteller, it's within the Irish oral tradition, a seán na chí was someone who had an incredibly important role within culture and society as the person who passed on histories and stories and folklore and laws and the Sianna Cí or the Sian Cáirhe was a hugely important person in Gaelic society who was looked up to and they were the keeper of knowledge within an oral tradition and after the brits successfully managed to eradicate with a gaelic culture shankaha shanakis still existed and eddie lenehan is a shanakie he is someone who collects old stories, has been doing it for many, many years. And we speak about some Irish history.

We speak about fairies. We speak about leprechauns. We speak about folklore. And Eddie is a direct source. Eddie has spent many years collecting these stories from as he says himself, older people he collects older stories it's ours lads

he's a Sian Cah it's a unique Irish storytelling tradition that's ours and no one else's and it's pre British rule, British's and it's pre-British rule, British colonization, it's uniquely intertwined into who we are as a fucking people, the shanakí, the storytelling tradition,

the reason why some of the best fucking literature in the world even though it's written in the english language is irish literature all right for a tiny country we punch far above our weight in the world of english literature because we come from the oral storytelling tradition and that's ours and no And no amount of penal laws or brutality or violence or famines took that away from us. So that's what this week's podcast is. Me chatting to Eddie Lenehan, to Sean Cahill, to Seán O'Keefe. First off, thanks a million for doing this, right? I've been really looking forward to hearing your talk. Thanks a million for doing this, right? I've been really looking forward to hearing your talk.

The other thing too is, because I'm recording this, it's going to go to an international audience. So there's a few real basic things that I'd like to ask you that this audience might know, but an international audience wouldn't. Firstly, what is a sh Shanakí? Who has been, I suppose, I won't say studying is the wrong word. It's the wrong word. Somebody who knows a bit about Shanakís. Knows a bit about what? Shanakís, Shan, old. Shanachas, things that are old.

And I have been listening to old people for the last 43 years. So they're my teachers, they have been my teachers, and a lot of these old people, they might not have had formal education, but by God, they were a lot more educated than people with degrees nowadays. I'd have to say that. And a lot of them, most of them, not all, had common sense. Because as one old man said to me one time, if you're stupid at 20, you're going to be stupid at 90. And was probably right he was probably right because common sense is the one thing you can't teach you can teach most other things

but you can't teach common sense look at our governments yeah down the years there haven't been too much common sensical people in a lot of them. Some, yes, but a lot of them in all walks of life. In all walks of life. Maybe ourselves included. But, yeah, in all walks of life, common sense is lacking. I think look at the flooding nowadays.

Flooding will always happen. But what do you do about it? People. People contribute. We won't go into that, though. We can if we want. Sorry, sorry. You're the man.

You're giving the leads tonight. One thing, at what point in your life, Eddie, did you decide to start, as you say, listening to all people, collecting stories, collecting traditions? When did you know this was something you wanted to do? I never did. I never did. But, you see, my father was a harness maker in a place called Brusna in County Kerry. And Brusna, by the way,

and I think there's one or two people here tonight. Ireland is a small country. You can never, I won't be saying too many bad things. Because bad things, as you probably know from where you come from, they always come around. There's a come around in Ireland always. But that applies good as well as bad and middling too. So it's better not be too

controversial. But I come from a place called Brusna, and people often ask me, but where's that? It's exactly where Kerry, Cork and Limerick meet. On one side of the border on the Kerry side, you have Brusna. On the other side of the River Vale, you have Mount Collins in Limerick,

and up the road in Cork, you have Rockchapel. So the three counties meet thereabouts. But my father was a harness maker as my uncle was, as my grandfather was. What's a harness maker Eddie? Is that for horses? Exactly. Exactly. Tractors, the coming of tractors

destroyed that trade just as the coming of tractors destroyed the trade of blacksmith and wheel maker and so many other so many other trades but my father he pointed out and i'll shorten the story we don't want to bore people but he pointed out an old man to me once i was in ucg and I was studying phonetics, of all kinds. But people should never get in the way of their children when they're sent into college. And the children say, God Almighty, what the hell are you studying that for?

Phonetics is the study of how things are pronounced. Exactly. Exactly, exactly. But it has stood me in great stead down the years that study I had a professor he lived to be 95 people were saying

he's still wandering around the streets but he was a great man and I got my MA from him in phonetics not from him he used me as his slave but he was one of the best MA from him in phonetics. Not from him. He used me as his slave. But he was one of the best.

And you know something? In later years, you appreciate when somebody makes you do something right. Right. And tells you there is no in-between. And in later life, you appreciate that. And in phonetics, there is no in-between. And says only in later life you'll appreciate that.

And in phonetics, there's no in-between. You're either right or wrong. It's like maths. It's like maths. And it took me five years to get my MA. But it was 400 and something pages. I look at MAs today and this, that and the other thing. And you blow them away in the wind.

They're giving them out like a book of tickets. You know. Yeah. If you can pay for it. They're worthless. Yeah. They're worthless because now you need a PhD. And my son, who has done one and the other fellow is doing one,

you now need a post-PhD to get not a job but a contract. Yeah. Education has become so, so, so devalued. And they still have to work as hard as ever. Yeah. And look at the rents they're paying. Look at how much does it cost parents now to keep their children in college.

In Cork last week, student accommodation is €1,000 a month. Absolutely. You saw it on television. Or €1,000 a week, sorry. Well, it is a month. Yeah, you're right. It is a thousand euro a month absolutely you saw it in television or a thousand a week sorry oh well it is a month yeah it is you're right it is a month but just it's breaking parents and at the end of all they may not get a job yeah no as i said i was doing that in phonetics and my father can i ask you a phonetics question eddie yeah uh just what why do cork people talk the way they talk more no that's seriously like because I always say car people they sound like a

limerick person was after receiving a bit of good news can you can you explain to me did you ever come to a white why Cork people, and Kerry to an extent, why is there a song in how they speak? Well, you think Limerick people ever got good news after 40-how-many-years-without-no-alarm-and? No, we don't get good news in Limerick. We don't. Well, no, there's Limerick stories,

and we won't go into that. We won't go into that, because... But I suppose it has to do with the intonation. The intonation, you know, there's this quite high, you know, they speak a little bit above the intonation of other people. It's different in every part of the country. Has anyone ever come to figure out a reason, though? What causes intonation?

Would it be weather? In Kerry, where I come from, you know, they're pronounced like the Healy race. You know, they're stop and start and this and that. You can't learn that. Because when you hear people outside of that, there's a particular combination of S-H-T and snail and start. When you hear people who never grew up with that, they'll always get the combinations wrong.

There's schnaip, there's schtart, s-h-t, s-h-n. You grow with that and you learn that by learning it. And if you try to pronounce that, a person from Kerry, or from other places too, it's not just Kerry, they'd laugh at you because that person is pronouncing it wrong. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, it's as simple as that.

Now, when I come from Brosna, and there's a few people here around coming from close by in the audience tonight, and I can't see you because there's a glare in my glasses, and it's just as well. But Brosna, but I can hear you, I can't see you because there's a glare in my glasses and it's just as well but brush now but I can hear you I can hear you and and I know I'll always know a person that's not from brush now because I'd pronounce a brush now and an outsider will call it bros now yeah immediately there you go and the older generation would have called it Bresna. So there's three pronunciations of the one place. Bresna, Brosna, Brasna. Of the one place.

So you'll always recognise a person who is an outsider, a younger generation, or one of the older generation. Now, Náche Ná Gáil, where the terrible thing took place during the Civil War, the mine that blew up the Free State soldiers that led to Ballyseedy, that terrible, terrible thing. Well, now, the older generation, you should call that the mall.

Modern people call it Nochnagoshal, and some of the older people used to call it Mount Cashel. So, you know, Ireland is a maze. So how could an English person ever manage? They haven't. Yeah, but the British just came in and decided to call things what they wanted to based on how they heard people saying it, didn't they? They wouldn't have a clue.

And that's in English. How do they manage it in Irish? Yeah. Oh, no. It is a maze. And so when you were a kid and your dad was a harness maker, because I interrupted you, he pointed at an old man, you said. To start.

And that's what started me because this old man. He said, go and talk to that man. Because I hadn't a clue who they were. I had no notion who the older generation were. But, you see, as in a blacksmith's forge, the farmers used to gather to get their harness or their horseshod or whatever and they'd be talking. Okay.

And in a harness maker's shop, farmers are always the same. They want the job done now. Yeah. They want the job done now. And they'd leave their harness go rotten. But they want it fixed now when the season would come for getting things done. And, oh, Jesus, I remember it, having all straddles to be fixed.

And I used to get the job sometimes of teasing out the horse hair because a lot of them would make a horse hair at that time and maggots coming out of the goddamn thing. What? I still remember maggots, you know, had to be resting on the horse's back, all straddled. There'd be maggots on a fucking harness. Yes, yes.

Oh, for fuck's sake. What would they want to be eating? They'd want to be eating the horses. No, no, but where you'd be teasing out the hair so that it could be used again in another replacement for the straddle. Where my father would be lining it and all the rest of it. And you'd be, nowadays there'd be farmers who weren't very tidy, but that would have left the thing go too, too long. And I can still remember the bloody maggots inside the thing. nawddiadau byddai ffermwyr yn gweithio'n ddigon, ond byddai hynny wedi gadael y peth i fynd am ddwy, ddwy hir. Ac rwy'n cofio, rwy'n gallu cofio y fagwyr ymlaen yn y peth. Ond dyna'r pethau nad ydych chi'n eu cofio.

Ond mewn unrhyw fes, y ddyn hon ydw i wedi'i gynnal i Jack Leahy, ddyn gwych, roedd yn ei 90au pan es i i'w gfon i'r llaw. Roedd yn help mawr. Roedd yn y dyn rwyf yn cyflwyno'r cyntaf, ac mae gen i adroddiadau o'i ddyn. Byddai Jack yn 130 os oedd yn byw nawr. Ond roedd ei brodor yn marw yn y Llywodraeth Cymru cyntaf. Roedd yn ei stori yn bod yn byw mewn lle anodd, mewn lle cael ei enw, Ra Reikosle. And it was only a bare farm. And the landlords at that time, their trick was, they'd give you a farm and then reclaim it at a very low rent. Reclaim it, an old heathery mountain.

And when you'd have that reclaimed, pick and shovel, they'd claim it then, raise the rent. You couldn't pay that. you'd be a poor person but they'd give you another 20 or 30 acres and you'd have to start all over again it was a low way of doing things but what choice did you have? no choice, because you hadn't the fear to go to America

so the son, Jack's brother he got sick of this and he said to hell with it I'm going and one night he went into Brushner with the few pennies he had saved. Now, this was in 1916, the year of the Rising. But sure, they knew nothing about the Rising. People were confined to their own little place that time.

There was no electricity. There was maybe telegraphs in towns. They were living in the wilderness. He had saved a few pennies. He went into Brusna. He got drunk, I suppose, in two or three pints because he wasn't used to it he didn't go home that night he slept in a hay barn and

in the morning he went up to the barracks RIC that time and the sergeant, decent man Jack named him for me and I checked it out afterwards and he was right he was the barracks sergeant at the time and he told him, shag off home fuck off home, your father needs you

and he didn't someone of the smart Daleks in Brushner said to him if you go back three times he'll have to give you the farms for joining up that night he borrowed a few more pence and got, I won't say drunk that time he slipped in the hay barn again

didn't go home and went up the following morning again, sergeant told him the same't go home, and went up the following morning again. Sergeant told him the same thing. Go home. Go now. Go home. Give you nothing. And he didn't. Slipped that night in the hay barn again in Brusna. Went back the following morning. Sergeant had to give him the

forums to join up. British Army, of course, that time. He couldn't read or write. All he could do was make his mark. And I suppose he borrowed the price of the train below Nebby Vale, got the train back to Tralee, into Belly Mullen Barracks, and did his basic training there.

But before that started, he hadn't gone home. The parents wondered where in the name of God is he? After three days, they came to brush now inquired up to the barracks the sergeant told him Jesus Christ what's he going to do there and the sergeant said you better get him out you could 1916 what was going on in France that time the middle of the First World War Flanders and all thousands being killed. And they went back with their horse and car to Tralee, I suppose, five hours drive. But the father knew a counsellor in Castle Island.

The counsellor signed an old letter to get him out. They arrived back at Ballymull and Barracks and fair dues to the officer, fair dues, the English army officer came out, saw the letter, brought out the boy and said, look, your father is here here do you want to go home he wouldn't go home he wanted to see you the world yeah that could do nothing anyway he finished his basic training in trolley he got a couple of days leave and the sergeant said fair juice to the old

ric sergeant look he said get rid of him sent him out to the wiles accounting court to friends or i'r Sargeant RIC. Roedd yn dweud, gadewch i ni gael ei ffwrdd â'i llwyddo i'r Cwmni Cymru i ffrindiau neu rhywbeth, a byddwn ni'n gorfod edrych arno, ond byddwn ni ddim yn edrych yn ddifrifol. Ond na, nid y byddai'n mynd. Roedd yn cael ei gadael i Tralea, ac wedi cael ei gadael i'r Llywodraeth.

Ac roedd ganddyn nhw 10 diwrnod o ffwrdd cyn eu bod wedi cael eu gadael i'r Ffrans. Ac eto, roedd y Sargeant yn dweud, gadewch i ni gael ei ffwrdd â'i llwyddo. Gadewch i ni gael ei gadael i'r Swn Ples. Na. Roedd yn cael ei gadael i'r Ffrans. before they were sent to France and again the sergeant said get rid of him no he was sent back he was sent to France and he fought in France and I have some of his letters I have some of the

letters that he wrote and they were pathetic letters that he'd be home he was saving his money and he'd buy a couple of bullocks innocent letters from a poor little country buy you know he was only 18 or 19 at the time and he had seen a bit of

other things too, fellas killed and all the rest of it but he was coming home, he never came home he was killed in October 1918, one month before the armistice and Jack the man who told me all about him,

70, 60, 70 years later, this was in 1976, he never forgave the boys in Brushner who told him about going up to the barrack three times to get that bloody, what would I call it, the form for enlistment.

Now, of course, you can't blame them entirely because he wanted to go. He wanted to see the world. But, and Eddie, you recorded conversations with this man. So, like, when did you start realising speaking to people is something I need to start recording? Because I'm guessing this is what, the 1960s, 70s? Mid-1970s. And when did you, when when did you like what what was going on in your heads that you're going I'm gonna record this conversation something about this person needs to be preserved I realized that here is something because I knew nothing about this just I went in there to record phonetics and here I for all

you are is something were you trying to preserve dialects and languages or was that the interest are That was my first job to do. But then I realised that here is a world that I know nothing about. A whole world that was two generations behind me, you see. This man, he remembered the Boer War

of 1899-1902. Now, if you said that to someone today, if you said that about the First World War today, which is 103 years ago, they're all dead and gone. The Second World War, what I have been here is just yesterday.

And that's 70 years ago. That's 70 years ago. I have thousands and thousands and thousands of hours recorded in my own house. A huge archive. There's 50 books in it. There's a lot of questions I got asked actually, Eddie, for you was

do you have any intentions of releasing all the recordings you have of people? I mean, what would happen now if there was a fire in the room where you have all the recordings? Do you give them to the National Archives? Are they... I don't know what.

I have one son in Germany who might be interested. And I'll tell you the reason why is because he has tried he has done his PhD in Germany and he was interested enough to try to find German soldiers

who were engaged in the Eastern Front mm-hmm in Germany and that was one tough tough it destroyed the German army yeah fighting against the Russians in the Eastern Front the Ostfront oh there were so many of them died it was hard to find any right destroyed the army and he found it very very hard to get them to talk when he did meet them because they had seen such awful awful awful things on the eastern front um anybody who knows about it and has read about it will will realize what it was like I mean the western front in in the first world war was bad but the eastern Front in the Second World War,

with the massacres of Jews and all the rest of it and the concentration camps, but the fight against the Russians and the Russians against the Germans, it beggars belief. It beggars belief. And he could hardly get them to talk until he got to know some of them because he does have German and good German.

And eventually he got to know some of them because he does have German and good German and eventually he got someone to talk and he said it would leave you paralyzed the things they told him it was awful awful a church of our civil war here because in my next book no that will be coming up military memories that's what I meant to ask you about Eddie and and have you ever found cuz you were speaking to people that were involved in the Irish Civil War and also the War of Independence. Yes. When you were speaking to these people, did you ever find difficulty like that where they're trying to bring up memories that are actually traumatic and then you end up with difficulty within your role? An old woman in Kerry, she had died two or three years ago.

She was 101. She said to me that when she was a girl, and remember now at that time during the Civil War, everybody was on edge. Because when law and order breaks down, I tell you, you're in big trouble. Don't mind the romantic thing. What do you mean by that now, Eddie? The next knock at your door at night could be somebody who has a grudge against you But what was, when you're describing

law and order breaking down in the Irish Civil War what did that look like? What do you mean? There was no police? Yes I tell you I think everybody was relieved when the guards were founded in 1920 I think everybody was relieved when the guards were founded in 1920, I think, 6.

Now, nobody expected them to succeed. So there was a period of lawlessness in Ireland? Absolutely, between 1919 and 1926. Jesus. Everybody was in charge and nobody was in charge. When the IC went out and between that and the guards came in. We'll say if somebody had a grudge against you over land, you were dead. You could be

dead. And it might all be done under the guise of for the Republic or for the whatever. Lots of schools were settled at that time. And very often nobody knew why. And nobody dared

mention why. Dared mention why. This old woman, as I'm saying, she told me a horrible story and she saw it herself. She said to me, she was only a young girl at the time. And like I said, everybody was on edge because you never knew what was coming next. But this particular morning, there were farmers. And they went out to milk the cows. Simple as that. yn dod nesaf. Ond y bore yma, roedd yna ffermwyr ac maen nhw'n mynd allan i gael y gwaith. Yn syml fel hynny. Ac roedd ganddyn nhw'r cwg, cwg, cwg, ychwanegu, ychwanegu, ychwanegu ar y gwrth

gwrth. Dwi'n credu bod yn gwrth gwrth gwrth. Ac roedd y ffermwyr wedi mynd allan i weld beth oedd y peth. Ac roedd y cwg yno, gyda chynnyrch a'r llyn ychydig yn ei gosod allan. Roedd yna with a man's boot and the shin bone sticking up out of it. There had been a landmine the night before and somebody obviously blown to pieces. And here was the dog back, you know, pleased, pleased with himself, bringing back a present for the people of the house. Now, she never, ever forgot that in all of her life, a little girl to see a horrible thing like that.

Now, that's what happened in for example the land mine at knock Nagashima which was a path to the parish of where I come from brushna and knock Nagashima with the same parish at the time and they said that the mine that blew up those free state soldiers which led to belly CD where the Republican prisoners were blown up, 11 of them, by the Free State Army. That mine was made in Brosna. These things, when they come out, you know, you begin to say, oh my God, how did we never hear about all of this when we were being schooled? And you can see why. Everybody just wanted to forget about these goddamn horrible things. And you can see why.

Everybody just wanted to forget about these goddamn horrible things. The only place I was ever told to fuck off when I brought up any of these subjects was in Kerry, my own place. Because the memories were so vile and so violent. And you can understand that. And that's 100 years ago. 100 years ago, it'll be in four years' time. Yeah. These things don't go away.

So that's why I always say that look at the Middle East. Look at what that's doing to children today. I know, yeah. Little children. Yeah. They'll remember that for years, and just like in the North. Yeah. Look at the things those children saw.

Yeah. Will they forget? No, no. Children should never see those things. That's why adults have so much to answer for. And no cause justifies those things. I don't care whether it's political or whether it's religious or whatever. And religions of all kinds, be they Muslim or Christian or Judea or whatever,

they're supposed to be something of peace. Yeah. And by God, so often they're not. Yeah. They're used as an excuse for people's own violence. And I often say that's why I admire my dog so much. Oh, no, it is. It is.

When I go home, my dog, Dolly, she's a Tibetan terrier. She'll be out at the door to me with a present, something stupid in her mouth. It might be a golf ball or my wife's shoe or something. She'll be there. Now she knows she'll get a reward. But, you know, dogs are a lovely animal. And treat them nice of course and children of course are the same

treat them nice and they'll behave treat them like dirt and you know the world they'll behave so we have a lot to answer for in some ways in some ways and part of that is I walk up and down the streets of this town every other day Rwy'n dweud wrthych chi, a rhan o hynny yw, rwy'n mynd i fyny ac i lawr y strydau y dyn hon bob dydd arall. Ac roeddwn i'n dysgu, roeddwn i'n dysgu ac yn dysgu am lawer iawn o flynyddoedd.

Dydw i ddim eisiau bod yn dysgu nawr, oherwydd gallaf weld rhai, yn ystod amser ystod, ac gallaf weld llawer o'r plant yn dod allan i'rstod ystod ystod. A'r ffordd maen nhw'n mocc pobl. Ychydig o gilydd yno. Dwi ddim yn hoffi cael fy enw'n santa claus oherwydd y ffwrdd. and the way they mock people. A couple of times there, I don't mind being called Santa Claus because of the beard, but one little thug caught me by the beard there one day and pulled while I hit him a slap. And I saw the look of surprise on his face. He was trying to be a little tough manine in front of his friends. I want to bring up the, you made national headlines around the time of, there was a tree.

weren't you responsible for a motorway being rerouted because you alerted the developers to the fact that they were trying to build a tree over build a motorway over a fairy tree? That hasn't gone away by the way that very same thing on that same motorway. Can you tell us about it? Can you give us some background?

Well I'll tell you a more modern version I'll tell you that in a minute if you like. There's a book a very interesting one being launched on the 6th of March. The name of it is Men Who Eat Ringforts. Men Who Eat Ringforts. And it's about the same M18 motorway, but further up along the line towards Gort. Because when they were building the same motorway,

because when they were building the same motorway, they chopped a ring fort just across the Galway border in the townland of Curtin, C-U-R-T-I-U-N. And very oddly, since that was done, there have been accidents after accidents after accidents to an amazing degree at that point. And quite often, the carriageways of the motorway ar gyfer cyfnod gwych ar hyn o bryd. Ac yn aml, mae'r ffordd ymlaen o'r ffordd ymlaen wedi cael ei gosod ar hyn o bryd. Yr unigolion a ysgrifennodd y llyfr hwn, ddod i mi a gofyn am beth bynnag, a chyfeirio lle mae llwythiau o ffordd arall wedi cael eu llifio yn y adeilad o ffordd.

Ac fe wnaethon ni fynd o gwmpas ac edrych ar eich rhai o'r rhai ond roedd hynny'n sbectacol o ran ei fod yn adeilad newydd o'r rhodd yno ac o ran y Ddeddf Gweledig o'r Ddeddf Gweledig, cawyd y statistgiau am y lle hwn. of of of of accidents at that place and all caused by freak showers of hailstones at that place Wow now you ask yourself look I'm a believer in coincidence as much as anybody else and maybe two coins or three or four coincidence but when it happens again and again and dozens of times you begin to ask yourself is there something happening here that shouldn't happen now of course they got beautiful shots from drones and all

just to show how the fort had been chopped if these things happen why? Eddie could you tell us just for the listeners that don't know what is a ring fort, what is a fairy fort? Edi, a allech chi ddweud i'r gwrandoedd sydd ddim yn gwybod beth yw ffort Rhyngfwrdd? Ffort Rhyngfwrdd, gan ddisgrifiad archeolegol, fyddai'n lle oedd pobl yn byw yn y Gweddill Ysgol.

Doedd ffort Rhyngfwrdd yn parhau i gael ei adeiladu o'r blwyddyn 1200 neu ymlaen. Nid yw pobl sy'n astudio'r ffort yn gwybod yn union beth yw'r achos, ond maen nhw'n ceisio'u adeiladu o'r cyfnod 1200. Ac gyda'r adeiladu, wrth gwrs, ar ôl hynny, roedd pobl yn meddwl, beth oedd y pethau hyn yma yn ystod y 500 neu 600 mlynedd nesaf? Oherwydd byddai'n cael eu cymryd? well what had these things we in the in the next five six hundred years because they would have just been bumps yes they were that well they're not their circles with a bank of earth around okay and bushes growing up around of that bank of earth mainly white thorn bushes which are the ones associated with the fairies always not black thorn bushes but white thorn bushes and people oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd oedd odd odd odd odd odd odd odd odd odd odd odd odd odd odd odd odd odd odd odd odd odd odd odd odd odd odd odd More than anywhere else. People wouldn't touch them. Yeah. Well, leave them be, since we don't rightly know what they are. They may belong to the good people. Let them be.

But nowadays, since fairy belief has begun to decline, and big machinery is there, well, a big machine, you'll have ploughed up and destroyed one of these in five minutes. Whereas, if you had to destroy this with a pick and shovel and a speed you had plenty time to be thinking what might happen to you as a result so yeah to be safe than sorry and Eddie tell us about the so that I think I saw that the particular bush I think I saw it today on the way from limerick to here tell us about why didn't you try

and stop the road being built or you tried you you wanted the road to be built a different way what was your rationale like what was this superstition or were you trying to preserve something that was important or what's your thinking it's not superstition at all superstition if you call I always said if you if you call belief in the fairy superstition at all. Superstition, if you call, I always said, if you call belief in the fairies superstition, well, belief in God is superstition too. It has to be so. Because

belief in God is in the otherworldly. Belief in the fairies is in the otherworldly. Now, I'm not mocking, and I wouldn't mock belief in God because people are sincere in that. But Eddie, you believe in fairies. I'd always keep a corner of my mind open. Yeah.

I would because I've listened to too many people over 43 years. People who weren't stupid, people you wouldn't frighten easily, people who were out at all times of night. And we know now there were always tricksters and people who were out also at night

trying to play the fool to frighten people that they thought they could frighten. But by God, I met people that if you tried to frighten them at night, you would get your comeuppance. Yeah, yeah. Those kind of people. Sensible people too. People who didn't necessarily believe in this kind of thing, but who had respect.

What story springs to mind that you've heard from someone that would seriously make you go, wow, there's something, something is happening here and I can't explain it, or that would make you, the part of yourself you said that's open to the belief in the fairies,

can you tell us a story where you're like, wow, that one changed my mind? My uncle was, I think, a sound man, as we put it. He was the kind of man who would travel out at night playing cards. He was from Mount Collins. And a couple of people here knew him well, the harness maker, Bill Linehan. and a couple of people here knew him well,

the harness maker, Bill Linehan. And there was a track, a short cut, should save you three miles walking, and there was a track between Mount Collins and Brusna. And I suppose Brusna, you see, was a bigger village. And maybe, I never asked Bill too much, but obviously maybe there was a better porter there, but he was never a big drinker, Bill,

or maybe there was a better company, or maybe there was a better game of cards, or what. I never asked him the reason why, but he used to go to Brosna, up this track, rather than going all around by the line, the cart line, which would be three miles, this would be a mile and a bit. Now, this particular night he was coming back. And Bill knew, as most other people knew, that there in Cahar, that there was a field that was supposed to be,

if you went into it at a certain hour of the night, you weren't going to come out of it. Now, there are fields like that in every county in Ireland. There's three of them in Mount Collins Parish. I know six of them here in Clare. If you go into them at night, you are not going to come out of them. They're not big fields. They're not fields in a very, as we might say, earguld

place. They are fields in very ordinary places. And there'd be a gate here, there'd be a gate there. This one, it was a very, very ordinary field, and it was on the path. But there was a particular time of night, if you went into it, you were not going to come out of it.

And Bill told me he was coming back this particular night. He had been delayed in Brusna. He didn't tell me why. But he was coming on. He was alone. He was coming on, and he had just crossed Brostner. Nid oedd yn dweud pam ond roedd yn dod ymlaen, roedd yn unig, roedd yn dod ymlaen ac roedd yn cyrraedd y llwybr ac roedd yr holl rhan o'r llwybr yn i lawr i'r Môn Collins ac wrth ddweud byddedig roedd yn cyrraedd trwy'r ffordd ac ddod i'r ddwyll, ddod i'r gwrth. Beth ydw i? Nid oedd yn gallu gael allan o'r ffordd honno

nid oedd yn ffordd mawr. Roedd yn gallu gweld y llythiau o'r Môn Collins o danno. Roedd yn mynd yma ac yn mynd yno, ac yn mynd o gwmpas y ffordd. Nid oedd hynny'n gwneud unrhyw beth. Roedd yn dweud iddo fod yn gwneud unrhyw beth oherwydd roedd ym Môn Collins o danno. Roedd yn y fan yna am ddwy awr. Ac wedyn, am ddim rdewr, wedi mynd. Fe wnaeth ymlaen o'r ffordd a'i ddod yn ôl.

Fe ofynnais i'w, a oedd e'n eich llwyr? Roedd yn ei ddweud, mae wedi'i ddweud. Roedd yn ei ddweud, mae wedi'i ddweud. Ond nid oedd yn gallu gwneud unrhyw beth. Nid oedd yn gallu gwneud unrhyw beth amdano, ond roedd yn gwybod amdano. Roedd yn cael yr un peth o'r bobl eraill. do? He said, there was not a bit I could do about it, but he had known about it before. He had heard from other people the same thing. And I asked him, of course, why did you come that way? Well, he said, very practical. I wasn't going to walk around the road three miles. I was going to

chance it. But he said, I picked the wrong night. But nothing happened to him. Nothing happened. He was none the worse for it. It was just that he was not going to get past that place at that time on Ac nid oedd yn gwneud unrhyw beth. Nid oedd yn gweithio'n ddewr amdano. Roedd yn ymwneud â bod yn ddim yn mynd i'r lle hwnnw ar y nos. Felly mae yna leoedd fel hyn. Byddai rhywun yn dweud wrthych chi, os ydych chi'n troi'ch coed i mewn i allan, byddwch yn cael gwell fferywyr, os ydynt. Dwi ddim yn credu hynny. I don't believe that. I don't believe that. Because I know one man in Crushing Parish that did that. When he went into a field like that. He took his jacket off and put it inside out.

It was a well-known thing. Yeah. That you'd fool the fairies. I don't. How would you fool them? You're not going to fool them. What about Eddie, though? I heard that poutine makers

traditionally if they had a child if the child was a boy they dress it as a girl and if it was a girl that dress it as a boy to confuse the fairies is that something you've heard well what what pushy poutine makers used to do was that always live the first few drops for the boys to put the gaugers as they used to call them astray. To confuse the fairies? No, to confuse the gaugers. Who were the gaugers? The revenue men. Okay. Yeah, they do that all right. But the other thing, you're nearly on the ball there, all right, because I knew a man above in Doolin one time, and he told me that, genuine, genuine,

he's dead now, God bless the man, but he said up to the age of about 10, his grandmother, she'd never let him out in the evening without doing two things. She'd make the sign of the cross on his forehead with piss. I know, I know, it might sound to us, what in the name of God was she after escaping from the big house? But no, no, she was not. Because remember, according to the old people and

check it out with professional folklorists according to the old people the fairies were afraid of seven things the seven things were something holy and all religions remember have their holy things something holy something dirty something red the color of blood because their their blood is not red it is rhywbeth golyg, rhywbeth dwyll, rhywbeth ryd, y cwlwr o blwyd, oherwydd nad yw eu blwyd rydd. Mae'n gwely, peil, oherwydd nad ydyn nhw'n dynion. Rydw i ddim yn gweithio ar stôl. Y peth gorau i gael, os ydych chi'n cyfarfod y fferywyr, yw knif o ddwyll bach, ac maen nhw'n eu cadw'n dda o chi.

Gwlad, ffyrdd, ac os nad ydych chi'n cael un o'r chwe beth hynny, salt, fire, and if you haven't any of those six things, well, run, run. But there's no point in running from them if you think you're going to get away from them by running if you can make for flowing water, a stream, and get across it. They can't cross flowing water. Those seven things. Now, you see, his grandmother knew that,

and she was giving him double protection something holy something dirty piss I'll tell you a story I was playing cards I well do we have time we took course yeah no is it actually I was gonna give him an interval for a genie the piss and a pint we give him an interval Eddie may tell this like like the people like the people okay one more and then you can have a pint It was from it was from Christine and the man Man is dead. No, but he again. I believed him. He told me that one night He was playing the old game. You know they were playing the old game

Combs and Un nos oedd yn chwarae'r gêm, a chyflawniodd y cêm, a chyflawniodd eu cwrdd, yn Duggan, Pobins, Pencil Hill, ac yn mynd yn ôl. Cyfleoedd, wrth gwrs. Y nos honno, un ohonyn nhw, ar y llwybr, o ble byddai'n mynd, o'r rhain yn cyfleoedd, wherever he was going, one of the partners, there were three of them cycling home, one of them went this way and the other one went that way and he had about half a mile to cycle home alone this particular night. And on his way

he had to pass this fort. Now he had passed it, it's still there, it's still there, covered with old briars and bushes on his right hand side as he was coming home. Now usually he'd have the second man with him but the second man this particular night he had gone off wherever he was going. And so he was alone at that little stretch of the road. So I figured, he told me, and he

admitted it, and a man you'd think now would be ashamed to admit this, but no, he said. He was a bit worried, passing the fort. So what did he do before he came to the fort? i ddyfynu hyn, ond nid, fe dweudodd, roedd yn bach yn anodd, yn cyrraedd y ffordd. Felly beth wnaeth fe wneud cyn i mi ddod i'r ffordd? Fe wnaeth hi ddod o'r byc, trwy'r byc yno yn y ddeg, a'r i mewn i'r ffordd. Ar y llawr llawr, roedd y ffordd ar y dde, ac yn cyn i mi ddod i'r ffordd, yn ystod y nos, ac fe edrychon nhw o gwmpas i ddod a chael cawdwng, cawdwng, ac fe wnaeth ymdrin at ei hun, a gwnaeth ei ddraid i'r cwch, a chymerodd ei bike a'i ddraid i'r ffordd. Roeddwn i'n gwrando ar hyn, ac fe ddweud, ie, roedd y dyn yn drwg, ond roeddwn i'n ei wybod, ac fe wnaeth ymdrin yn Man et al. Byddai'n cael cwpl o hanner o bain lle byddddai'n chwarae cadau ac roedd hynny'n dda. Roedd hi'n debyg. Ond, yn unrhyw fath, fe wnaeth hi ddod yn ôl a chael ei gyrs yn y sied.

Ac fe wnaeth ei wasgu ei ddau o fewn bwyd o ddwy arall y sied. Ac fe wnaeth ei ddrys. Ac fe wnaeth ei ddyn a'i gynnal arno. Ac fe wnaeth ei ddyn a chael ychydig o tŷ. Ac nid yw wedi dweud unrhyw ddau i'w gynnal. Fe wnaeth hi ddweud wrthi i mi, Never said a word to her. Went to bed. And he said to me that that was that. And of course, I knew the reason why immediately. Something dirty he needed passing the fort.

And once he had the couch shit on his hands, he felt the boys wouldn't interfere with him. If they did happen to take a fancy to a bit of sport tonight, he felt he was safe. So he believed in the boys there in the fort. That's fucking unreal. I don't

know what to say to it. When I'm hearing the story, all I'm thinking of is British soldiers who used to occupy Ireland and all of a sudden they're just meeting some man who's dragging his fist through cow shit. Just trying to understand like what what did foreign people, a foreign force, make of people who found it perfectly logical to go, oh I'm just punching some cow shit

because there's fairies in that field. Well I'll tell you, it's a good note to finish on. As I say, British soldiers, ask me if I'm on the next half about the tans. The tans. Oh, I'll be asking about the tans, I will. You can be short of it, Eddie. All right. We'll have an interval now of about 15 minutes, right,

so you can go and get a pint and have a slasher, right? Thank you. Right, so we are going to have, right now, our little ocarina pause. And then I'll be back on with Eddie in less than a minute for the second half of my chat with Eddie. I hope you're enjoying it. So here's the ocarina pause where an advert for something is going to go in. And if you didn't hear an advert, you just heard a beautiful ocarina.

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come along for the ride and punch your ticket to rock city at torontorock.com on april 5th you must be very careful margaret it's a girl witness the birth bad things will start to happen evil things of evil it's all you know don't the first omen i believe girl is to be the mother mother of what is the most terrifying 666 is the mark of the devil hey movie of the year it's not real it's not real what's not real who said that the first omen only in theaters april 5th so as you know because i am a live performing artist that side of my career has been taken away i've lost a big load of gigs and my sole source of income is now this podcast the patreon page right patreon.com forward. The blind buy podcast. So that's my sole source of income.

That's what I have to pay my bills. If you're in a position. Where you can afford the price of a pint. Cup of coffee. A fucking. A couple of extra snacks. On your grocery bill. If you can afford that once a month.

That's all it is once a month. Please do support this podcast. because I need it now more than I've ever needed it before because it's my sole source of income. If I don't have the Patreon, I don't earn money. And just look, just consider it. Look, if you're listening to the podcast and you're enjoying it and you're getting an hour each week, then just pay me for the work that i'm putting into it that's all i'm asking pay me for the work that i'm putting into it it's hugely appreciated and it makes a difference if you can't i don't want to be fucking guilting you all right don't worry about it but if you can please price of a pint or a cup of coffee if that's alright with you also you can support Eddie

buy one of Eddie's books Eddie has a load of books, Eddie Linehan has a shit ton of books I think he has a website and they're on that but you can check him out buy some of Eddie's books and support him that way alright let's get back to the chat, it's very enjoyable

I like it em, Eddie so before we had Let's get back to the chat. It's very enjoyable. I like it. Um, Eddie, so before we had the break there, you said you wanted to tell us something about the blackened hands. They weren't half as bad as they're painted. Oh!

Yes, would you believe? And I'll tell you a story. An old woman inod Clare. Fe wnaeth hi ddweud wrthi i mi, os yw hi'n ddyn ifanc, a doedd hi'n marw nid yn hir, bod y tŷ yn cael ei ddynu. Yn Ym mis Cresmws 1920, roedd yna gyfnod o'r ffordd, acwrs, a ddim yn dda i gael ei chyflawni allan. Wel, ni fyddai, oherwydd gallai unrhyw beth ddigwydd i chi.

Ond ei ffaith, na, mae'n rhaid i'w fod yn ei ffaith, oedd allan y nos, ble bynnag yna, efallai roedd y menyw yn amlwg, dwi ddim yn gwybod beth, ond roedd y tŷ yn cael ei ddynnu. Ac ei ann, neu'i ann-dyn, na, nid oedd yn bwysig, ond y dyn oedd yn y tŷm wedi'i ddynnu, ac roedd ei ann, neu efallai ei gran-ann, nid oedd yn bwysig, ond y gwartheg oedd yn y tŷm, roedd hi'n ddodder. Ac ar Ym mis Heddiw, wrth gwrs, ar y pryd, byddai cendlau yn y llyfr, cendlau gwirioneddol, nid fel heddiw, sydd yn eledig ac yn debyg yn llawer yn siŵr. Ond ei mam a'i hun, roedd hi'n bfermio, a ddod i'r ysgol. Ar ryw bryd o'r nos, cael y gynharach yn dod i fyny. Pwy bynnag oedd ei gweithio, pwy sy'n gwybod, ond fe wnaeth hi ddod i fyny'r cendl yn y llyfr. Ac fe wnaeth y cwrtain fyny a chyfo. Yn ddiweddar, roedd y mam yn cwyno'r ffwrdd a'i gyfroi i lawr, ond doedd hi ddim yn gallu rhoi'r fferm i ffwrdd.

Roedd y cwrtain wedi cymryd ychydig. Beth fyddai'n mynd i'w wneud? Oherwydd roedd yna ddwyll, a gallai fod wedi bod yn... Wel, y gweddill oedde, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efallai, efall in 1920, and what do you think she did? The barrack was only a short distance up. Up she ran to the barrack, and now the Black and Tans, as well as the RIC, were inside, and she, help, help, help. Now, of course, the boys inside, and remember, they were all armed. At that time, they could have come out shooting, thinking that it was the IRA and that they were being attacked. But luckily, the sergeant of the RIC inside,'r RIC i mewn, a chyntaf y drws, a gwnaeth ychydig o weld pwy oedd.

Ac roedd un ohonyn nhw wedi edrych allan, a gweld y llwybr, ac, gan dduw, dywedodd yr oeddlen i mi fod y tans, tri neu chwe o'r rhai, yn dod allan. Ac nid oedd yna dŵr gyrff yn rhedeg, wrth gwrs, yn y dyddiau hynny. Ond roedd yna dŵr pwll mawr ar draws y rôl, a chan no running water, of course, in those days, but there was a big pool of water across the road, ice on it. It was very cold that December, and with the butts of their rifles, they broke the ice on the pool of water, and they formed a bucket brigade, and they put out the fire. And she said she never forgot it for them.

Now, she wasn't making little of what they did in other places because, remember, they burned in a stamen. They burned cork. They did. And they cut the hoses in cork when the firemen tried to put out the fire. Have you ever spoken to anyone who's seen a fairy? Of course I have. How did they...

Because the thing is, we were speaking a little bit backstage about the concern that we have around it can be difficult for us to know the truth of our own folklore because around the time of the Gaelic Revival the people who were writing the folklore like lady lady Gregory and things like that they were trying to make us not look savage to the British because the British had an idea about being savages. And when I think of a fairy, I think of a little small cute thing with wings.

What does a fairy actually look like? How big are they? That picture that you're describing there was invented by the artist Arthur Rackham you know the ones with the curly tails and the pointy ears yeah yeah in the Victorian age I knew a man he's only did I think about six six months and he was a hundred mm-hmm and he told me I knew him for 30 years I think I have about a hundred and something hours of him recorded an amazing man and he told me he met them fe ddweud wrthi, roeddwn i'n ei gwybod am 30 mlynedd, rwy'n credu bod gen i tua 100 o awlion o'i gynnal, dyn gwych. Ac fe ddweud wrthi mai fe wnaethon nhw'n eu cwrdd, doedd gen i ddim rheswm i'w ddysgu oherwydd roeddwn i'n ei gwybod ei fod yn dda iawn ac yn siarad gyntaf i mi, wrth gwrs,

yw beth maen nhw'n edrych fel. Ac fe wnaeth i gael ateb ddiddorol iawn. Fe wnes i ofyn I asked him that question and I remember his pause very well. And he said to me, the person sitting beside you could be one of them and you wouldn't know it. A kind of frightening answer when you think about it. The person sitting beside you could be one of them or standing beside you and you wouldn't know it. They can take any shape they like. They can take animal shape and when they take an animal shape it's mainly the shape of something dark

like the black dog. A big, big dog without a white hair on him from the tip of his tail to the tip of his puss. And most black dogs have some white hair or another somewhere but when the fairies take the shape of a black dog no white hair whatsoever so they take an animal shape they take a human shape they can take any shape the shape shifters so what does a fairy look like when it's not pretending to be a dog?

No, but you know what I mean? I know what you mean. Look, they are what they are. They're themselves. And they mind their own business, if you mind yours. But if you don't, you're in big trouble. If you build a house on a fairy path,

for example, that's why you'll see perfectly, perfectly good houses sometimes. I've seen them, and you'll ask yourself, why is that house abandoned? No, there could be 10 other reasons. It might be family trouble,

it might be legal trouble, it might be God only knows what. But there are some times. I've been told quietly because people don't necessarily want to tell because that house might want to be sold. I wouldn't sell a house like that because you're putting your troubles onto somebody else. And I know a house that has been sold on once, twice, three times, four times because it was built on a path. And sadly sadly that house

the path was right through the middle of it and the middle room of that house you'd walk into it and this is with the heat turned on a newish house this now and that house you would freeze in that room just like walking into an iceberg

because my buddy who we were talking to backstage keen he told me a story before about a friend of his who had a house somewhere in Clare and he was about to cut down a tree in the house and you arrived at his door warning him about this tree and he didn't listen to you and I believe you said something to him about a bull or something and then as soon as he cut the tree down his house kept birds kept crashing into the window non-stop and then one day he woke up and there was a bull in the garden

and this is just a story that my buddy has about I said oh I'm talking to a fella called Eddie Lenehan oh he arrived at my friend's house and warned him about a bull, and then a bull showed up. I don't remember, to be quite honest. No, I don't remember. But people do... Does it happen a lot in your life where you find yourself knocking on someone's door and warning them about cutting down a tree

or warning them about something because of your knowledge of the area? I would never go to anybody's house. Normally, people would come to me. Okay. Or send me an email. Look, you would be amazed in this day and age, 2020, the number of people who are very worried about this, that or the other thing, but are afraid to say it because they're afraid they'll be laughed at.

Pishogues are a case in point. What is a pishogue? That was a question. Pishogues are where people try to wish other people evil, to take away their good look, to have that good look for themselves. A very human thing. A very human thing, and it's known on the five continents. It's under different names.

In another place, it might be known as voodoo. Here in Ireland, it's known as pishoaks and people are jealous it's all based on the notion of there's only a certain amount of good luck to go around if you have more I might have less so I'll steal your good look in order to have more for myself it's a very dirty so is a pishoak something you can cast upon someone like a spell? Yes. How do you do that? How do I do a pish-org on Bresi? Any of the old people, when people weren't so goddamn lazy that they used to set gardens,

if you found raw meat in your garden, if you found eggs in your hay, you could nearly believe that you weren't going to have much of a crop that year. The way it worked was, as the eggs in your hay rotted, your crops rotted. As the raw meat in your garden rotted, your crops, there might be spuds, there might be tunas, there might be carrots, whatever, your crops rotted also. Now, what kind of a person would do that? Yeah. Evil-minded. There was a great priest here in the Franciscans one time that people used to bring their stuff to when that happened. And he'd handle it for you.

People usually had great faith in the Franciscans. People used to come, so if a person felt that a pishogue had been done against them, they would go to the priest? The Franciscans especially, because the Franciscans would never take any money. What were common things, other than meat and eggs, what else might, what would someone find that would make them believe that someone's putting a pishogue on them? The leavings when a cow would calf. What's that, like a cow's umbilical cord?

Yes, yes. Yeah. It should be always something that wouldn't be... maybe very pleasant. Yeah. Because what was happening wasn't going to be very pleasant. And the kind of mentality of the person who was doing it wouldn't be very pleasant, and he isn't.

But there was always a remedy. There was always a remedy, and the thing about pishogs was that it could be turned back against the person who was doing it. Like most magic, magic is a bad kind of thing, but if you met the person who had a charm against it and went to them, they could turn it back on the person who was who was who had a charm against it and went to them they could turn it back on the person who was doing it and the old people knew that it was always three times worse if it went back against the person who was doing it so you were you were playing with fire by working pishogs were there ever any people Eddie who were seen as having a natural ability to cast pishogs on people and they were feared?

Like an evil eye almost? Oh yes. Oh God yes. Certain families were supposed to have the evil eye. What is the evil eye? It was if they looked at you that could bring sickness on you. Now, the terrible tragedy about the evil eye was that the families, some families who had it couldn't do anything about it, so it was

seen as an awful scourge because you could be born with the evil eye and it was, would you like, if you were one of those families and you were born with it and could do nothing about it, people would be keeping out from you, through no fault of your own? Now, you can say that, oh, that is nonsense superstition. So I've always said, and I still stand by it, the old people were not stupid. They weren't stupid. They handled in their way the things, the problems that were thrown up against them.

We're trying to handle in our way the problems that face us. But when something big that we're not expecting comes our way, we'll be fuddled as they were. You see, we've become very complacent because of all the machinery, I call it, you know, the beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beeps we have. But by God, they are only ways of communicating. It's the people behind those. We're still only people. Yeah.

We're still only people. We forget that. Can you tell us a little bit about leprechauns? Because the thing with leprechauns, I only know about leprechauns from American films, and I know nothing about actual leprechauns. I went recently to a school, a primary school, which I often do under the Writers in Schools scheme,

from the Arts Council, which is a wonderful scheme because it allows small country schools to get something that they otherwise wouldn't be able to afford whereas big schools can. And I asked, since you bring it up, who has heard of a leprechaun now?

And what answer did I get? A leopard! A leopard! They had never heard of o lepricon. Ond nid yw'r plant wedi clywed o lepricon? Nid yw'r plant wedi clywed o lepricon. Ac rwy'n credu bod chi wedi'i sôn amdano, wrth gwrs, yn gynharach am ein traddodiad. Mae ein traddodiad yn llwyddo, llwyddo, llwyddo, o ran y ddiffyg... Yn ffwrdd, rydyn ni'n ffart o wlad. declining, declining, declining, under the influence of... You see, our problem is we're a little fat of a country.

We are. We're a pimple on the arse of Europe. No, we are. We put ourselves out as something important, and we're not. We're a population of a half a city in Europe, a ton of a city in Europe. And we're the ones who should be trying, trying, trying to preserve our traditions. And what are we doing?

We're selling ourselves to America on one side, England on the other. And we don't seem to care. We're squeezed and we're like a sponge. Every bit of our tradition is being squeezed out of us and we love it we love it we'd love we would prefer to be what you call the whole train engine Tommy the tanker people the fool of people that go whatever I know and and we don't mind our own traditions and not have the other ones too but have I was over in East Clare

not so long ago not so far from where Biddy Earley was born lived her life and did all those wonderful things that she did for people and was so famous Biddy Earley is that's what I want to ask you about Biddy Earley who someone on the internet asked me to ask you about her, but they described her as a witch. No, she was a Ban Fasar, a woman of knowledge. The most famous woman of knowledge, Ban Fasar, of the 19th century in Ireland. And not one of the children knew about her. Not one of the children knew about her.

And I think that is a shameful thing that is a shameful thing in County Clare that of the most famous woman in County Clare and you'll go to any corner of Ireland and all you need to is mention Biddy Eirealli now they may not know many of the stories about her but they know her name and here's a new generation coming up and they don't know about biddy early i think that's shocking i don't like ultimately it comes down to so anytime i would have learned a little bit about folklore as a child it wasn't from the curriculum it was from a particular teacher who had the passion to decide to tell us i suppose so if the children aren't

learning that it means that the parents and the teachers don't consider it... Worthwhile. Worthwhile. And for me, like I mentioned earlier, I find it really sad that we've lost parts of our folklore because it had to be sanitized

so the British didn't think we were savages. And like, I just... We should be trying to find as much stuff about Irish culture and folklore as possible to get a good sense of who we are our sense of values and our identity you know well look it's like this I spend most of my time now I'm busy all the time I could be going eight days a week but I don. I refuse many things now anymore because I have five books to write. Five. I have a second volume of that, Meeting

the Other Crowd, which is now in its 13th edition, and you can get it in Japanese if you want to. How many books have you written, Eddie? 21. Fucking hell. 21. Well, no, but that isn't a boast. I wish to god

I had more and there is plenty more in the amount of stuff that I have at home on record on tape and MD and the rest of it but they take time a book takes time as you well know time to write and you need level space and quietness

in front of you and I'm constantly being interrupted to do sessions, which is great, it's wonderful to be asked, but I've had to refuse and I'll refuse more. Look, I'm 70. I'm 70. God bless it, I mean I have only so many

my mother died at the age of 49, my father died at the age of 66. I'm older than they ever were. So I don't know how long more I live, but if I get 10 more years out of this life, I'm privileged, more than privileged. I'm the oldest of, well, no, I'm not. My aunt, my father's sister, this year, she's 100. 100 this year, and she's still playing cards and she'd like a little drop of whiskey but she's the last she's the last of all the family though do you have any

um apprentices as such do you have anyone younger who you are trying to pass things on to or you're hoping that will continue the work that you're doing no not my business i'm often asked that not my business at all my business is to just collect as much as i can and tell the stories as best i can and i i tell them for the for the in the honor and for the honor of the people i collected them from because as long as i can tell their stories they're not dead they not dead. Because I don't tell any stories from books. I tell the stories I collected from all those people down the years. And at least we'll all be dead long enough.

And they're not dead while I'm able to tell their stories. Do you feel that, almost on a government level, do you have the resources to do what you need to do? Do you feel that what you're doing is respected by the state? No. Not at all, no? I never had the resources. Every bit of the collecting I did came out of my pockets. That's why when all is finished, I feel that I should donate all my work, if my son doesn't want

it, to some American university. You think the Yanks would give it more respect? Oh, absolutely, absolutely, because nobody has ever shown any bit of interest in my collection. And that collection is worth millions. In another sense, it's worth nothing. Yeah. If you're not interested in the thing, it's worth nothing. But in another sense, it is priceless,

because if, well, if I hadn't recorded it, all those stories would be in graveyards. Yeah. Out of your collection, Eddie, what do you value the most? What recordings do you have? That's a very hard question to answer, but one of the ones I remember every

night, and I say a prayer for the man, and I do pray. I do pray, because some of those people were so, so good to me when they sat down. I know it was a relief to them, too, just to have somebody to listen to their stories, but they were so generous to me to give their stories and never to ask anything for them because I suppose you don't but I remember the first book I ever got published long ago by Shannon side it was out there in the mental hospital a. He was a wonderful man and I remember going into that place and looking at all the people walking up and down and up and down those long corridors which is ruined now, which is ruined and I have nowadays I have mixed feelings about it. Because in all of those mental hospitals around Ireland, and most county towns had one, mostly named after saints.

Our ladies, St. Brendan's in Killarney, the one in Cork, St. Finian's, I think. And very imposing buildings, all of them were. They were like jails, of course, and they were. But when they were all closed under our enlightened new legislation, so many of the patients were let out, but nothing was done for them when they were let out. While they were in those places, all right, they were hidden away, yes, but they were a kind of a family at least in those places.

Now, I know a lot of them had become institutionalized in those places, but they were a kind of family and they were cared for. Sometimes it was a cruel kind of a care. But when they were let out, I think a lot of our homelessness today maybe is accounted for by the neglect that some of those people came under

when they were let out of places like that because they weren't cared for afterwards Well you know there definitely is today a huge amount of people who are homeless who also have mental illnesses you know Well there I go, they would have been cared for in places like that today a huge amount of people who are homeless who also have mental illnesses you know i know they would have been cared for in places like that

well it it depends like it's a complex thing it's a very complex thing um what what could you explain to us what were changelings what was the fear that people had around changelings and things like that? A mallorthon was a changeling. And the fairies, you know, well, you see, there's an awful lot of logic about fairy stories. And the fairies who were there, were there the Tuatha Dé Danann and all that. I never collected any stories about the fairies being the Tuatha Dé Danann. But what I did collect was that the fairies you see some of these stories are very funny because when you were around the fire long ago at night

no television, no electricity you had to be able to tell a story or sing a song or recite, or play a tune or dance a step if you couldn't, it was a case of out, go home, you're only taking up space as one old man said to me a danseu'r llwyth. Os na allech chi, mae'n achos bod yn mynd i'r adref. Wel, fel dywedodd un o'r dyn oedde i i mi, byddwch chi'n cael eich llwyth yn ystod y sgrwff o'r nôl,

a'r hysb o'r dyn, ac yn mynd i'r adref. Gwlad, nid ydych chi'n ei angen yma. Yn ddiweddar, rydych chi'n mynd i lle ac nid oes unrhyw un yn cael amser i chi, oherwydd mae pawb yn... yn gollu ar y bwc. Mae pobl wedi dod yn ffwlion. has time for you because everybody is oh oh oh oh gawking at the box if people have turned into fools now ago everybody had to be able to do something and tell a story and one storyteller would be vying with the next one and the next one and the next one and the next one or whatever now one of the stories was how did the fairies come to be now i won't tell it just too long but the story to make it

short was that they were the angels in heaven and lucifer was the bright one and he was the one who was watching god and god in his golden seat and lucifer of course he'd love to be in that seat and looking down at where we are now. So he bided his time. And as the storyteller had it, which God is like everyone else, he has to go to the back place too. Tachanasal, as they call it in Connemara. And one of these times,

when God went out to the back place, Lucifer jumped up into his seat, the golden chair, and the crowd below, well, whoever was in the golden chair, you know, had to be adored, you know, and they were there bowing down and bowing down. Ah, Lucifer, this is the place. Why didn't I do this before? But he had forgotten one thing, one thing, even bright people can be very stupid at the time. But

he had forgotten God would be coming back and when God came in the back door you know from the place outside you know pulling up his trousers and when he saw who was in his chair lost his temper and he kept his hands and the floor of heaven opened and down a chafodd ei ddaeus a chafodd y flwyddyn o'r haen a chafodd y gwaelod gwirioneddol, a chafodd y gwaelod yn ddifrif, ac roedd Lucifer yn y gwaelod. Ac nid dim ond Lucifer, ond'r holl un o'r rhan o'i gilydd, y llawr o'i llawr, a chafodd y gwaelod yn y starns o'r haen. Ond, ond yn ddigon ddigon, yn ddigon i bawb,

roedd Michael y Gwarcheg yn y corno, yn gwneud y te. But luckily, lucky for all of us, Michael the Archangel, he was over in the corner making the tea. And he was standing on a rafter. And he saw what was going on. And he said to God, Master, Master, he says, do something quick or we'll be here alone. Oh, you're right, says God. And he clapped his hands again. And immediately everything froze. But, of course, it was too late.

It was too late for the bright one, the bright one, Lucifer. He had fallen with the chair, of course, down, down, down into the pit, the dark place, and the ones nearest to him. But he could fall no further, but the ones that were still falling, they stopped. And, well, the ones who were falling through the air, that was all right. They today are known as the air fairies. And the ones that had fallen to earth into the fairy forts and all the rest of it, they today are called the earth fairies. And the ones that had fallen to water, lakes, rivers, seas, they today are called the water fairies.

But the ones below, they're the devils. Now the fairies in all their varieties, they'll do you no harm if you don't interfere with them. But the devils, they will because they know what they have lost. ddewch chi ddim o ddifrwydd os nad ydych chi'n ymdrech â nhw. Ond mae'r dewylion yn gwneud hynny, oherwydd maen nhw'n gwybod beth maen nhw wedi'i ddod o hyd. Maen nhw'n gwybod eu bod wedi'i ddod o hyd i'r haen am byth. Ac roedd hynny'n ymdwn. Ac roedd yn rhaid iddynt gadw eu hunain yn hapus ar y nos o ran y fferm, gan ddweud storïau, ac roedd hynny'n un o'r storïau maen nhw'n eu gofyn. A'r peth arall amdanynt oedd eu bod yn cael ymddygiad o lyfn am eu hunain o ddyniaeth. Ac mae'n anodd iawn heddiw nad oes pobl yr cael yr un sen o llyfr am ddiddordeb. Roedd ein rhwydwyr yn ddiweddarach yn dweud, fel y dywedais yn gynharach, nad oeddent yn bobl ddiddordeb.

Felly dyna'r un o'r storïau. Dyna'r un o'r storïau a ddweud am 'r dewylion a'r ferwyr a'r ddiddordeb, sut mae'r ferwyr yn cael eu bodoli. Ac mae'n ei ddatganoli hefyd pam nad oedd y ferwyr yn cael blwyd rydd. Mae'r blwyd nhw'n groes oherwydd nad oeddent yn ddiddordeb. Why the fairies have no red blood. Their blood is greenish because they weren't human. And it explains what you asked about changelings. They want to get back into heaven. Because they know what heaven is like. The joys of heaven. But they can't.

The only ones that can get into heaven are human beings. If they behave themselves. And human beings have red blood. And these fairies, these fairies of whatever, the fairies included, of course, they know that if they can steal a human child and get a little bit of that blood, they might be able to come to the gates of heaven and fool St. Peter or whoever is in charge.

It'll never work, of course. But if you're desperate enough, you'll chance anything. And that's the reason the old people always had for the fairies trying to steal a person, a young person, a lovely-looking young woman,

a little child, as a mollathon, a changeling. And would the fairies take the child or take the the woman and would they leave another thing in in its place that's right and as the things I left then faded away faded away and withered away they had the real thing then now practical modern people will say of course oh that was TB oh that was cancer and the old people didn't understand what cancer was that

you know a person withered up and withered away but that's what the old people believed is I heard the phrase and you know the way we say if someone has mental illness someone was said they're away with the fairies yes that it's the state if a person developed mental illness though would say they're away with the fairies yes that it's the state if a person developed mental illness that that wasn't the person that person was a changeling and your real relative is away with the fairies in a forest and they've left behind this person who has mental illness i suppose well people you see will always look for explanations yeah no matter what people look for explanations and i heard that the changeling thing,

there was just a huge amount of infant mortality. There was that too. In Ireland, and it was a way to go, that's not your child, that's a changeling. Well, now you talk about huge infant mortality. I heard the story from an old man, a most pathetic story, an interesting story. And you know yourself a fairy bush like the one down

there a lone white thorn bush a lone white thorn bush it has to be a lone white thorn bush yeah that's a scary bush but you know in the bad old days, when children, unbaptized children, and suicides, and strangers, couldn't be buried in a local graveyard. Now, you can understand the strangers because they had no grave. So they had to be buried someplace. And they used to be buried in what's known as kailins, or kailinachs, these little lonesome burial grounds out in the land. You look at your Ordnance Survey maps and you'll see they're in every single parish in Ireland

and sometimes two or three of them. And you go to them and they're lonesome places because all that's there is, you'll see the little field stones stuck down over the little bodies of these children. And I've questioned old people and it's a very sad thing to find that old people sometimes know that little brother or sister who died maybe maybe they were stillborn or died two or three days after birth and not baptized for whatever reason and had to be taken away maybe in a cloth in the dead of night to that place and just buried there and a stone put down over them like you'd bury a dog and they knew the name of

the little child the child might have been named not baptized yet and you think yourself wasn't it bad enough for a mother and father to lose a child without having to bury the child in such a place, without any ceremony, by night? But I was told by one particular man. Well, he knew. He knew that his little brother was buried there. But another member

of the family, he said, no. He said, no. There was another child, yes, but they didn't bury the child there they buried the child under a shkach a white thorn bush and I said what?

I had never heard this before but of course the reason was obvious it only struck me afterwards the reason was obvious it was the safest possible place to bury a child. It was like having a headstone over the child because nobody was going to interfere with a fairy bush. To bury the little child under a fairy bush, it was the perfect place

to bury him. Because what more secure place could you have than that now the other thing it shows is that in Ireland under Catholic tradition there was no contradiction whatsoever between religion and the fairies the two things fitted quite together which is not true with Protestant tradition mostly. Protestant tradition is quite separate. What I'm meaning to ask, Eddie, was like, how did Irish people maintain these traditions and beliefs about things that are outside of Christianity? How did that, how did it work?

Were the priests tolerant of it? Did the priests speak about fairies? No, I never came across that. Because priests knew that if they condemned the fairies, the congregation would, you know, very interesting, and they would go right on doing and believing what they believed anyway. And priests knew that, and they never, I never heard of a priest preaching against the fairies.

And, of course, the reason was obvious priests came from a background that knew very well about all this belief now priests didn't come from your ordinary background remember the priest came from a rich farmer background yeah a professional background because it took seven years remember to put somebody through college through minute yeah a priest but as a man in a cottage never Roedd yn cymryd ychydig o flynyddoedd i roi rhywun trwy'r coleg, trwy'r mhennod, i fod yn prif. Ond nid yw'r dyn yn y caffa'i ddim wedi dod yn prif. Roedd yn dod yn ymlaen i'w ddynu o ddydd i ddydd, 20 ffyd o teulu. Roedd yn cymryd ychydig o flynyddoedd i roi rhywun trwy'r coleg, ac roedd yn rhaid i chi fod yn ffynnydd i wneud hynny.

Ond nid oedd prif yn pregio yn gyda'r fferywyr, oherwydd ro eu bod nhw'n gwybod yn dda iawn bod pobl yn cymryd dim sylw. Maen nhw'n pregio yn ymlaen â'r sex, maen nhw'n pregio yn ymlaen â'r peiriant, maen nhw'n pregio yn ymlaen â'r dimoroledd, maen nhw'n pregio yn ymlaen â'r hyn, hyn, hyn a'r gwedd, ond nid oeddwn i wedi clywed eu bod yn pregio. Maen nhw'n pregio yn ymlaen â pysogs, wrth gwrs, yn ddifrifol, ond nid yn ymlaen â'r pysogs. Yn ymlaen â'r pysogs yn ymdrech? O, yn bendant. Ie. Yn bendant. Ac roedd rhai pariswyr wedi'u nodi ar gyfer pysogs. And the funny thing is, this is a strange thing, parishes that were noted for pishogs were also noted for having very many priests. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Why that is, I do not know, but that is true. Maybe one thing balanced out another. There's no hint that the priests had anything to do with the pishogs, but as if right balanced out wrong. It's a funny funny strange thing odd very odd and what would you recommend people do to maintain to gain knowledge in in our folklore our tradition like the average person so that we don't lose it so that we don't lose it, so that we don't have a situation where you're going into a school

and there's kids who've never heard of a leprechaun? Oh, boy, that's a good question. Like, where are the resources? Obviously, there's your own books, but for anyone listening here who wants to learn about this, what resources are there if they don't have an old person to talk to?

And I'll tell you this it's very little use telling young children now go home and talk to your parents because the parents don't know yeah and i mean that without any disrespect and very often the grandparents don't know it was the generation before that knew because the book that i mentioned to you they're meeting the other crowd which is all my interviews with the fairies in their own words because they're off of my recordings I let them speak for themselves if I try to do that now wait you interviewed fairies no the people oh yeah okay the people who know the people the people who gave me the stories about them and very well able to tell them they were, I just let them

tell their own stories and if I tried to do that now I wouldn't be able to do it Why? Because the stories are gone The stories are gone You'll only get little rags and pieces of stories now rather than the long stories that are in that book Did you ever meet someone who

claimed to be a fairy? No. And if I did, I'd say, you're only talking nonsense. No, because like I said to you before, I'd be as sceptical as anybody else and I'd always try to look for an ordinary explanation for things. First,

second, third. Genuinely, I would try not to believe rather than to believe. And lots of people that I meet Mae'n dweud y gwir. Mae'n dweud y gwir. Mae'n dweud y gwir. Mae'n dweud y gwir. Mae'n dweud y gwir. Mae'n dweud y gwir. Mae'n dweud y gwir. Mae'n dweud y gwir. Mae'n dweud y gwir. Mae'n dweud y gwir. Mae'n dweud y gwir.

Mae'n dweud y gwir. Mae'n dweud y gwir. Mae'n dweud y gwir. Mae'n dweud y gwir. Mae'n dweud y gwir. Mae'n dweud y gwir. Mae'n dweud y gwir. Mae'n dweud y gwir.

Mae'n dweud y gwir. Mae'n dweud y gwir. Mae'n dweud y gwir. Mae'n dweud y gwir. Mae'n dweud y gwir. Mae'n dweud y gwir. Mae'n dweud y gwir. Mae'n dweud y gwir. Mae'n dweud y gwir. Mae'n dweud y gwir. Mae'n dweud y gwir. stood the test of time so far and will I hope sell on and on to now in its 13th edition and I hope it will reach 50 editions because remember

they're not my stories I let the old people tell the stories for themselves and the same is true about the book about B.D. Early let the people tell the stories themselves Can you give us an example of any time you've warned someone

not to cut down a tree or interfere with a fairy thing and they haven't listened to you and things have gone wrong for them? The problem is, you see, in a case like that, you can give the advice and very often people don't come back. You don't see them again.

It's like students from ITs. They come to me all the time. I help them as much as I can, but you never hear anything more. You never hear anything more from them, which is a pity. Because I've often said what they should teach students at college is a bit of courtesy also. A little thank you goes a long way. Thank you goes a long way, because those people that I have recorded down the years, many of those people I have been later with right to their hospital beds when they come to die.

You become one of the family. You can't just say, like a lot of television people do, here I am, tell me the story, here we are, important people, and bye-bye. I have met some of the most stupid television people that I'll tell you ever. They think the world revolves around them. It doesn't. It doesn't. They're there to fill a space. But when you meet

some of the old people that I have met you have to stay with them. I have known some of these people for at least 30 years and there are some of them, not all, but some of them, they are fountains of knowledge and when they give you that knowledge you have to be with them right

up I as I say have been with them on the day they died how even when you were starting off how do you find these if you were to travel the country what would you have done to get to an area and try and find out who is the old person that i should talk to who has stories like how were you doing this you tend to go from one person recommending you to the other it used to be the case that the local priest of the local guard was good but that's all gone because with the closure of local guard stations you can't do that anymore with the scarcity of priests you can't do that anymore now you can be landed and i very often am in a strange town with time to kill and i'll say look i'm here i might as well

try to find somebody who would talk to me because I always take my recording equipment with me and very often nowadays they're so small that yeah they're taking up no great space and I find that I can find nobody at all and nowadays the difference is one time you could walk into any house and there was an open door that day is gone that day is gone in Ireland because of all the black artism that's going on in countryside. Old people being attacked for no good reason. Ireland is not the friendly country

it once was. It's a sad thing to say but thuggery and blackguardism has spread out into country places that never experienced it before. And the other thing of course is that you can travel miles and miles and miles in the countryside today And never meet a single human being yeah

Did it used to not be like that no no oh god No, people had the leisure to talk to you when I was walking down through the West Clare Railway. I walked every every footstep of the 58 miles of that in order to do the the book in the tracks of the West Clare railway and people had time and leisure to talk to you and point out to you about this castle and that blessed well and who used to live in that house and all ruined house here baby or that house there or go talk to him no one he'll talk to you or she'll talk to you. All gone. All gone. And of course, that's what makes it so easy for the gangs now. They can go to this house, empty, empty, empty.

And it's so easy to rob places now because there's nobody at home. I'm going to open up questions now to the audience there's going to be a microphone flying around and you can ask questions about absolutely anything can we have the house lights off a tiny bit there you go I just wanted to ask about banshees

or have you any belief in them or stories about them there are several stories about the banshee in the book, I always call it the black book, meeting the other crowd. The banshee, remember, most people hear the banshee, but I have met a couple of people who saw the banshee, and she, according to the descriptions I have had of her, yn ystod y ddisgrifiadau rwyf wedi cael ei ofyn, yw'n fferm, llaw, llaw, gwedd, llaw-gwyd.

Yn un man, roedd un o'r bobl yn ei ddisgrifio fel statwm Llywodraeth. Llaw, llaw, ond yn edrych yn ddysgu iawn. Roedd yn dweud ei fod wedi'i gwrdd â hi wrth fynd i'r fferm Gort. Un nos, roedd yn mynd i bwyto yn y fferm Nwyf to the fair of Gort one night. He was going to buy cattle at the November fair in Gort. He was cycling.

He met her. And she was a woman. He said he didn't know for a start who would be there at that. It was about 1 o'clock in the morning because he had to cycle all the way to Gort. And he wanted to be there early for the fair. And who would she be? Because she was just sitting there. roedd yn rhaid i mi ddod yn cyrraedd i Gort ac roedd yn hoffi bod yno yn gyntaf i'r ffair. A phwy fyddai hi? Oherwydd roedd hi'n gwneud ymgyrch yno. Ni fyddai unrhyw ddyn yno ar y nos hwnnw, yn gwneud ymgyrch lle roedd hi'n gwneud ymgyrch. Ac yna roedd yn ymlaen ati pan ddechreuodd y llawr, y llawr, yn dechrau.

Roedd yn dweud bod ei blwyd yn llythyr yn cael ei ddynu'n glod. Roedd yn cael ei ddysgrifio'n llawr. Byddwch yn cael pobl yn ysddangos y bansi yn aml fel, gallai fod yn ffocs, gallai fod yn fferm. Byddai'n cymryd person gwlad i ddisgrifio'r math o gwael y gall y dynion hynny ei wneud weithiau, yn enwedig gall fferm yn ymdrin yn ymdrin. Ond fe wnaeth ei weld y dyn honno,

ac yn ystod y gwael, fe ddechreuodd y gwael. Fe dweudodd, fe fdechreuodd y cryn. Fe dweudodd, fe ffroedodd bywyd bywyd allan ohono. Ac yn sicr, roedd y person wedi marw y bore nesaf. Felly, fe wnaeth ei weld, fe dweud, fe wnaeth ei weld, ac fe dweud, nid oedd eisiau gweld unrhyw beth fel hyn eto. Ac roedd yn sicr, roedd yn sicr. Ond doeddwn i ddim wedi clywed am ddwy ddisgrifiad arall o bobl yn ei weld.

Rwyf wedi cael ddysgrifiadau o ddewadau o bobl yn ei glywed, But I only heard about two other descriptions of people seeing her. I've had dozens of descriptions of people hearing her. But seeing and hearing, that was one of the few. Is the banshee a fairy, Eddie? Bam. She. Bam. Combination of the two Irish words. Bam. Woman. She. The Irish word for the fairies. The she. S-I-D-H-E. The she.

Are there any other notable fairies? Like, as in, okay, the banshee is one, but are there any other ones that have a name and are a thing? Oh, yeah. The leprechaun is just a combination of the two Irish words, loo, corpán, leprechaun, leprechaun, leprechaun, leprechaun.

Are leprechauns, are they evil? Are they bad? Neither. He's the fellow who makes the shoes. He makes the fairy shoes? Yeah, he's the... Okay. They have to have shoes as well. Look, every single thing that we do, they do.

They play huddling, they play football. They don't play soccer, they don't play rugby. rugby. Well, you see, they couldn't because they are two imported games and the fairies are utterly and utterly Irish. So, I mean, soccer and rugby are just, forget about Limerick, that's all. No, but you see. Has anyone ever seen a Harlan match between fairies? Now listen, thanks for reminding me. I knew a man, again, he's not dead that long. And he said, at that time, you see, everybody went out and could visiting at night because, look, would you be staying at home looking at the four walls when there was no television or radio?

You visited your neighbours. And he was living in about two fields from this old couple that were living alone, they had no family, all the more reason for visiting him. And it was a case of take the shot cut or go round by the road. Now if the weather was bad he'd come around by the road, you know, to spare his boots, but if the weather was dry he'd take the shot cut. And this particular night roedd y ddwylo'n ddrwg, byddai'n dod o amgylch y rôl i ddynnu ei dynion, ond os oedd y ddwylo'n dry, byddai'n cymryd y llawr. Ac ar y nos penodol, oedde i'n cymryd y llawr ar y gwaith, o dan y gwaith y gwaith y gwaith, i mewn i'r ystafell ac i mewn, fel y gwnaethoch chi'n amlwgu'n gwneud, yn llawer, yn llawer o'r amser. Ond

fe wnaethon nhw ddweud wrthym, ar y nos penodol, fe wnaeth hi wneud hynny. Roedd yn dda. Roedd ganddo'r cyff o the a chyff o'r ddwylo, y gwaith o'r gwaith, y prys o'r gwaith, y pethau cyfforol rydych chi' wnaeth y ddau. Roedd yn ddrwg. Roedd yn cael y tŷ a chyfeirio am y gwaith, y prifoedd, y pethau cyffredinol rydych chi'n siarad amdano. Ond roedd yn amser i fynd yn ôl ac yn ddiweddarol byddai'n mynd i ffwrdd o'r llawr o'r 11 o'r o'r cloc. Ni fyddai'n parhau yn ddau o'r llawr. Roedd yn ymlaen i fynd pan ddywedodd y ddyn o'r tŷ i fynd i'w ddau. Fe ddywedodd, ddau, cwp oddwch, caw te. Fe dweud, mae'n rhaid i mi fod yn bryd yn y bore. Ond fe wnaeth y man yn y tŷ i geisio ei ddysgu, ffwrddwch, te, ffwrddwch, a'i gafodd.

Nid, nid, fe wnaeth hi ddweud ei bod yn rhaid i'w mynd. Doedd nhw allu ei ddod. Fe wnaeth i fynd yn y ffordd o'r drws. A'r man yn y tŷ, pan dweud wrtho'i bod, efallai y byddwch yn ôl. Beth yw hwn? Byddwn i'n ôl i'r dydd hwn. Efallai. and the man at the house only said to him you might be back well Jesus what back to here he'll be back tomorrow night maybe and out he went, good night, God bless and

he took the shot cut the way he had come out by the gable of the cow shed but he told me he had only just gone beyond the gable now he said there was a small hill on his left hand side, small little hill he'd only just gone beyond the gable. Now, he said, there was a small hill on his left-hand side, a small little hill.

He'd only just gone beyond the gable. When he heard the shouting, and he heard the poking of the ball, like a hurling match. Of course, he said, Jesus, who's playing a game of hurling at this hour of the night? Maybe quarter past eleven? I was wondering, was he hearing things

but there was the shouting and the crowd cheering and the poking of the ball and I said I must say this and he took a few steps forward and suddenly a hand laid on his chest you know and no a big man but he stumbled

back of course like when you wouldn't be expecting something like that he caught him on the wires and he stumbled back, of course, like when you wouldn't be expecting something like that. He caught him in the wires and he stumbled back and got his balance and took a few more steps forward. But what if he did? Hand laid solid on his chest. There was nothing there that he could see. Nothing that he could see but the hand laid on his chest

and held him there. He couldn't move. He couldn't move and the game still going on and the shouting and the poking of the ball. But by God, he said it was time to turn. He was going no place anywhere. He turned around, he told me, and back to the door, lifted the latch and walked in. And there was the old man and the old woman sitting Roedd y dyn a'r dyn a'r dyn yn ymgymryd. Yn ystod ei sgwrs, roedd y dyn o'r tŷ, yn dod yn ôl. Roedd yn clwydro'r drws y tu ôl ac yn seilio.

Roeddwn i ddim yn gwybod amdano, ond roedd y dyn wedi dweud i'w gynnal ychydig o ddau i'r dyn. make a drop of tea there for the man. And she did. She did. You know, the old black kettle would be always in the boil that time over the fire. And she made a cup of tea for him. And he was still, still quiet. But the man of the house only leaned over. Rock City, you're the best fans

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He said, he said, they're playing their game. And he said, they don't want any witnesses. He said, for a while and you can go away when they're finished.

And they drank their tea and they chatted about this and about that. But he was very quiet. chi allwch chi fynd i'r llaw pan fyddwch chi wedi'u diwedd. Ac roedd yn debyg, roedd yn siarad am hyn a hyn, ond roedd yn ddiddorol iawn. Ond ar ôl amser, roedd y ddyn o'r tŷ, wedi edrych ar y cloc ac yn dweud, fe dweud, mae'n diwedd, mae'n dweud, gallech chi fynd. Ond fe wnaeth hi fynd i'r tu allan, fe dweud wrthym, ac roedd yn yno yn meddwl a fyddai'n mynd o amgylch y rôd, neu fyddai'n mynd o amgylch y rôl neu ymlaen i'r siart-cut. Ac fe dweudodd, fe wnes i fynd i'r siart-cut, fe dweudodd.

Roedd yn rhaid i mi, oherwydd os nad oeddwn i, fe dweudodd, byddaf i ddim yn mynd i'r ffordd hwnnw eto. Ac fe wnes i, dim. Dim. The game was over. And I went home, he says, and I said, I was very glad to get home that night. But he said I was not going anywhere. They were playing their game, and like the man of the house said to me, they wanted no witnesses. So, what do you know fucking hell

and and alright thank you very much for listening to that I hope you enjoyed it ladies and gentlemen that was another pleasure

for me an area that I'm hugely interested in and it was just incredible to be able to speak to and record eddie eddie lenehan a legend of a man thanks to eddie for doing that i'll catch you next week all right i'm gonna be back next week with i don't know some violent hot takes look after yourself be compassionate to yourself be compassionate to whoever you're living with at the moment all right yart