The May bush ribbons dance as the Fairy Host pass by.

My May bush this year, a fallen branch.

Yesterday was Oíche Bealtaine, May Eve, and last night the fairy forts opened and the Good People

travelled across the land. 

At Bealtaine and Samhain They are at their most powerful and in the past people would put up a May Bush near the front door to protect their homes from the travelling Daoine Sídhe.

Recent May bushes in the Slieve Bloom mountains.

The bush itself consisted of a green branch of hawthorn or other tree stuck into the ground or tied to a pole and set in front of the homeplace. 

As well as providing protection against Otherworldly attention, the bush was also believed to also ensure an abundant milk supply all summer long. 

In some rural areas it was placed in the middle of a field and when night fell, set alight, 

in other places branches from the bush were thrown amongst the crops to guarantee a good harvest. 

Here in Co. Laois slips of whitethorn were blessed with holy water and stuck into the earth in

fields to prevent the Good People from harming the new crops.

The May Bush tradition was particularly strong in Co. Wexford where it was stuck on top of the 

dung heap used to fertilise produce.

Hawthorn branch with traditional decorations.

The May Bush was decorated by adults and children with traditional trimmings consisting of ribbons, coloured egg shells, bunches of yellow flowers and strips of coloured paper.

Photo courtesy of Michael Fortune.

The practice of decorating the bush is considered by some to be a survival of an ancient Bealtaine tradition welcoming the summer whilst others believed differently:

Peggy Doyle, Co. Wexford. Taken from James Lawlor, Irish National Folklore Collection.

May bushes were also customary in towns and cities. 

In Dublin it was recorded that rival gangs from north and south of the River Liffey would vie 

to exhibit “the best dressed and handsomest May bush”.

May Bush, Co. Westmeath 1964, National Folklore Commission.

In town and country alike there was often a community May bush, placed on common land or 

at the crossroads and as darkness fell stumps of candles or small rush lights were lit around the May bush as people danced to traditional music. 

These bushes were frequently guarded overnight by locals in order to protect them from being stolen by outsiders whom, it was believed, would steal the year’s luck from its rightful owners.

In some areas the bush was left in position until the end of May, 

in others until the decorations had crumbled and the bush itself was burned.

The importance of the May bush and its’ accompanying celebrations declined over time, especially in towns when, in the 18th century, authorities enacted a number of British laws forbidding their erection on public roads or near houses.

Those who continued the tradition were heavily fined.

May bushes in the Irish Midlands.

Recent years have seen the May bush return to Irish homes and communities as the tradition

is revived and the start of summer is celebrated once more.

Poster courtesy of Michael Fortune & Aileen Lambert. 

Bealtaine ‘May Bush’ Festival at Kinnitty Castle, Co. Offaly, 2014.

http://slievebloomassociation.com

Yesterday I put up my own May bush and as the sun set it stood guarding my home.

Later as I slept I’m sure its’ ribbons danced in the darkness as the Fairy Host passed by.

This short film was made by the pupils from St. Ibars NS, Castlebridge, Co. Wexford during 

a two-day visit to the school by Heritage Council Expert, Michael Fortune. 

You can read about another May Eve tradition ‘Welcoming the Summer with flowers’ here:

http://theeverlivingones.blogspot.ie/2015/05/welcoming-summer-with-flowers.html

The Homeplace

 ‘The Homeplace’.

When returning home through night dark lanes there is no greater pleasure than seeing a welcoming light in the window and turf smoke drifting like mist across the fields.

In rural Ireland it is said that “there was once a house to every field”, now many lie cold and empty.

Empty cottage in Glenbarrow.

Famine, eviction and enforced migration meant that homes were left to fall and today this continues as young people and families emigrate seeking employment. 

Home to a local dowser and once a well known ‘rambling’ house where neighbours would gather 

of an evening to chat and exchange news.

Another empty family home which never knew electricity, 

lit only by oil lamps & candles.

Few live now in the musical or rambling houses, where you were once welcomed to the hearth, especially if you could share a tune or tell a tale.

An abandoned cart and tractor speak of lives lived close to the land. 

In places, where walls stood, all that remains are stones.

Many are green ghosts of their former selves.

The remains of  Biddy Early's house. 

Others are marked annually by flowering bulbs, once planted by the Woman of the House, or by a rambling rose which still guards a gateway.

Reminders of old beliefs also remain.

Small pieces of iron, horseshoes, tobacco, whiskey and Christian medals have been discovered in the foundations of old homes, thought to be offerings to the spirit of the place.

A donkey or horse shoe placed above the door was common and understood to bring good luck 

and deflect the attentions of the Good People. 

The house itself could not be built where it would disrupt Otherworld inhabitants or hinder the movement of 

the Good People on their fairy paths.

Whilst folk traditions ensured that the homeplace and family remained safe.

House leek grown in a thatched roof to guard against fire in Co. Limerick. 

Growing house leeks was probably a form of sympathetic magic as the plant resembles small flames. 

Photo © Barry O’Reilly.

Traditionally the use of white quartz, materials from sacred sites and ruins were taboo when building, as was red oak. 

To ensure protection, a Brigid’s cross was made annually and hung above the door, the hearth or placed in the thatch. 

Even in town houses and pubs the Brigid’s cross gave protection.

Of the many folk practices one of the most extensive seems to be the prohibition against extending

the home westwards.

Donn, the god of the dead, had his house off the west coast. 

It was thought that ‘only a man stronger than God would extend his house to the west’.

This tradition appears to stem from the belief that the place of the setting sun was the place where the dead went and in some areas the west room was used for laying out the deceased. By building on westwards it was understood that a death would occur in the family soon after the new room was completed.

***

The Homeplace in my painting once stood across from my own home. 

Only stones remain to tell the tale.

Although the people have long gone, I sometimes imagine that I catch voices and a drifting tune on the air and I’m not alone in having glimpsed a glow of light where the old homeplace once stood.

Despite the changes in the country neighbours do still gather over a cup of tea to exchange news and there are modern day kitchen sessions.

This one in Lisdoonvara shows Sean Nós dancing on the flags by the fire with Brigid’s Crosses hanging in the background. 

Sean Nós Dancer Stephanie Kane, session hosted by Joe Kelleher with the accordion player Bobby Gardiner.

‘Raths and Fairies’ - tales of what can happen when you cross the Good People by Michael Fortune, from his Co. Wexford folklore collection.

'Otherworld Shenanigans' posts

If you're looking to escape the weather with a cup of tea and a short story here are links to my
'Otherworld Shenanigans' posts.

They are based upon real places in Ireland, tales and reminiscences of my elderly neighbour, Jim, 

who lived his life in the same house he was born in. 

The stories reflect a time when the belief in the Good People was more common than it is today. 

Just click on the titles below & you will be transported.

1 ON THE FAIRY PATH

Map showing the local Fairy Path -The 1829 Ordanance Survey Map of the area

 which depicts Lough Duff with the island &  tree. 

Our home is marked X,  the wooden cabin Y & the second field Z. 

2 BALLYGILLAHEEN

The Comb Field of the Banshee today.

3 DIGGING FOR GOLD

The Diviner - Pic © 'Ireland: the living landscape' 

by Tom Kelly, Peter Somerville-Large & Seamus Heaney.

4 THE FAIRY WIFE

Lough Doire Bhile, Glengoole © peterdriver.blogspot.ie

The island on Lough Duff , in which the Good People live, may have looked like this.

5 SHEEAN - A PLACE APART

Under the whitethorn on the mound at Sheean.

I hope you enjoy them!

Otherworld shenanigans- Digging for Gold.

The field of the Fairy Path - © Jane Brideson 2015

It was on an evening such as this back in the 1970's, when there was a good stretch in the day and work on the land was done, that Jim and his friends decided to dig for gold.

Everyone knew the story about the treasure that was buried in the Lough Field and how the place was home to the Good People, which was why no one had dared to go looking for it before.

The lads believed the story about hidden riches, for hadn't gold been found in Offaly just down the road?
The thought of wealth won out against their fear of the fairies' displeasure and they decided to
go ahead with the search.

The Lough Field is large so firstly they needed to find the right spot.
Advice was sought from Jack D, a well known dowser, who had found water sources for most of
the domestic wells in the locality. Jack was interested in archaeology so gladly took his hazel rod to
the field. He walked its' length and breadth and finally the rod twitched and the old dowser was convinced he'd found the right spot.

The Diviner - Pic © 'Ireland: the living landscape' by Tom Kelly, Peter Somerville-Large & Seamus Heaney.
The book can be found HERE

At first the lads used spades but it was heavy going and they realised it would take days.
Things looked bleak until someone suggested borrowing a digger.
The machine was brought and despite the boggy conditions the earth was scooped up into the bucket then deposited in a mound.

Pic © skyscraper city.com

The mound got higher and the hole got deeper.
They reached a depth of thirty feet when the sides of the hole began to collapse.
Looking down into darkness the lads realised they had reached the bottom of Lough Duff.

The sun began to sink in the western sky and there was a chill in the air.

Sunset from the Lough Field 2014 © Jane Brideson.

They remembered the tales of the Good People and just as they were about to give up and go home there was a loud sucking sound and the digger brought up one final massive lump of earth.

As the bucket was lowered it became clear that this was more than wet turf.

Something large and heavy lay before them. 

"This is it" thought the lads, the gold was found and they would soon be rich!
Everyone took a hand cleaning away the mud until finally the treasure was revealed. 

Something had indeed been buried in the lough many years ago but it wasn't gold. 

"And begob" Jim said to me "if it wasn't a canoe!"
Before them lay an ancient dug out canoe.
It was long, dark and looked like a hollowed out log, shaped to travel through shallow water.

From Jim's description the Lough Duff canoe was similar to the picture above 

& may have been crafted in the Bronze Age circa 2,200 BCE. Pic © prehistoricwaterford.com

In the twilight the questions began: Was it worth anything? Whose boat was it? 
How old was it? Did it sink with a man on board, if so where was the body? 

A number of dug-out canoes have been uncovered in Ireland. 

They appear to have been used for travel on small rivers, lakes & used for fishing.

The canoe above was discovered when Lough Derryvaragh was drained & where, 

according to legend, some of the Tuatha De Danann settled.  

Even more worrying was the fact that it may not have belonged to a mortal at all. 

Everyone knew that there had been an island in the lough belonging to the Good People so perhaps 
it was a fairy boat from the Otherworld. 
Had they disturbed Them?  What would happen to the lads now?

This was serious and as all thoughts of wealth vanished they discussed their options. 
Finally it was decided to fetch the priest who was over from America visiting his relations nearby. 

"If anyone knew what was to be done, it was him" Jim explained.

The priest arrived and after berating them for their foolishness in messing with the Lough Field, 
he wisely told them to put the canoe back where it had lain for all those years.
If they didn't follow his advice and bury the boat, he told them, no good would come of their actions 
and they would have no luck.
And so it was done. 

The canoe was returned to the earth, the turf replaced and soon reeds covered the spot again.

Lough Field 2015 © Jane Brideson.

That was forty years ago. 
Jack, the dowser, along with Jim and the other lads are no longer with us, so there is no one left who remembers the spot where the canoe rests.
As I walk the Lough Field to cut the reeds each Brigid's Eve I remember them all on that evening 
and how the place still holds its secret, not gold but treasure of a different kind.



The 'Otherworld Shenanigans' posts are based upon the tales and reminiscences of my elderly neighbour, Jim, who lived his life in the same house he was born in. 

Jim died several years ago and is remembered as a real character by those who knew him.

The Fairy Thorn - a new painting & the fairy thorn that stopped a road.

This is my painting of a Fairy Thorn, a whitethorn, sceach heal, which stands on the Connemara coast.
I have painted this image several times but my previous attempts did not capture the liminal aspect of these lonely trees which feature frequently in Irish landscape and mythology.

To my eye this painting of a wind torn tree goes some way towards illustrating the otherworldliness
and sense of the Aos Sí, the People of the Mounds, I feel when I visit such places.

The lone Fairy Thorn on the coast of Connemara.

It is believed that these special trees are connected to the Good People and are thought to be meeting places where they gather to roam the countryside especially during the months of May, Bealtaine and November, Samhain.

For this reason to cut down or maim a fairy tree is to invite their displeasure and eventual misfortune will fall upon those who do so.

One such tree, a fairy thorn in Latoon, Co. Clare became famous in 1999 when the route of a new motorway meant that the tree was ear-marked for destruction.
Now this particular tree had a great deal of folklore attached to it as it was here that the Kerry fairies were said to rest on their way northwards to fight the fairies of Connaught.

It was felt by those who remember fairy lore that destroying the thorn would result in road accidents and fatalities.

The Storyteller, Eddie Lenihan, publicised the plight of the tree and the story spread through the media in Ireland and abroad. The result of this publicity was that Clare County Council and the National Roads Authority met to find a way in which their motorway could incorporate the fairy thorn.
Finally a compromise was found which benefitted both mortals and those of the Otherworld:
a section of the field in which the bush stood would form part of the motorway but the bush itself would be spared, with a special fence built around it to ensure that the Sídhe could still rest there.

© http://www.irelandinpicture.net
The fairy bush & fence beside the new road.

Sadly, in 2002, someone took a chainsaw and cut off the branches one night, leaving the trunk bare.
It is not known what befell the person who did this, though the Good People do not take this sort of destruction lightly and many believe that he will have been punished accordingly.
However, the celebrated fairy tree confounded all expectations eight months later by sprouting
new leaves and flourishing once more.

Image: ©flickr.com

You can learn more about Irish Fairy Beliefs by listening to this interview with Dr Jenny Butler:

Welcoming the summer with flowers.

In the past there were many customs and observances connected to the first day of May, Bealtaine,
and people here continue to mark the seasonal transition by decorating a May Bush, lighting bonfires
or by visiting a holy well.
When the weather cleared and the sun shone on May Eve I gathered wild flowers to celebrate the start of Summer.

An abundance of flowers in the hedges.

One of the traditions I maintain is to hang the May bough over the front door.
The bough had fallen naturally, I decorated it with ribbons and flowers and according to custom,
swept the threshold clean, and placed it above the doorway on May Eve to stay in place for three days.

The May bough hangs above the door.

Yellow flowers are used mostly, such as primroses, cowslips and buttercups because they symbolise
the sun perhaps but white and blue flowers are also collected.
As well as welcoming the summer it was believed that the sweet scent of spring flowers offered protection against the Good People who were understood to enter homes at this time.

In the past posies, red ribbons or slips of mountain ash were tied to the cows' tails and horses' bridles
to offer them similar protection from the activity of the Sídhe and also to counteract the 'evil eye' of certain neighbours who had the ability to steal the goodness from animals and produce.

Placing flowers on the doorstep or on windowsills also offers protection.

Good luck and further protection was afforded to the household after sunset on Bealtaine Eve when farmers' families and workers would walk the boundaries of the land carrying seeds of corn,
Sgaith-an-Tobar , the purity of the well, (the first water drawn from a sacred well after midnight the previous year) and the herb, vervain.
The procession stopped at the directions, beginning in the east, where they would dig a sod of earth, break it up, sow the seed then sprinkle it with the water.

So powerful are the supernatural forces at Bealtaine that the landscape itself was understood to be able relocate. The Motte / Motty Stone, a huge, white granite boulder on Cronebane Hill in Co. Wicklow,

was said to leave the hill top and come down to drink at the Meeting of the Waters on May Day,
whilst rocks off the coast of Ireland become unbound to journey across the sea.

PIC Motte Stone © 2015 Samuel Connolly http://www.gardenofireland.com

Encounters with the Sídhe were expected at Bealtaine when the Good People travelled the countryside to take part in hurling matches, dances and battles.
For this reason it was considered wise to stay safely indoors at night, although several precautions
could be taken if one had to venture out.
Carrying a black-handled knife, a piece of iron, a cold cinder from the hearth or a twig of mountain ash were all effective as means of protection against Other-worldly forces.
If however that protection failed one could always resort to the extreme remedy of washing the hands and face in urine which disgusted the Good People and caused them to depart!

The practice of leaving small offerings at a fairy fort, a lone bush or near the home was believed to propriate the Sídhe and to ensure their goodwill in the coming months.
This tradition also continues in Ireland to this day.

Personal offerings of milk & butter to the Good People on the eve of Bealtaine.

Irish readers can take part in the survey of May Day customs by submitting information & photos
to the website "Our Irish Heritage" here: http://www.ouririshheritage.org/category/lets_welcome_the_summer

Information on May customs taken from The Year in Ireland by Kevin Danaher which has been republished by Mercier Press and can be found HERE

Sheean - a place apart.

Although Sheean lies within the townland of Ballygillaheen, it is a place apart, hidden by woodland within the landscape.

Sheean - An Sián / An Síodhán, The Fairy Mound aerial view. © OSI.ie

There are two routes to the fairy mound, the first takes you past the COMB FIELD, up a bohereen
to the top of the ridge and into a field which looks towards the Slieve Bloom mountains.

Past the Comb Field

To the top of the ridge

Here there is a small standing stone known as the Licking Stone, beloved of the cattle who graze here. One theory for its' attraction is that it provides the animals licking it with essential minerals, the other is that it sits close to Sheean and therefore contains some sort of animal magnetism which draws the cows and keeps them healthy.

 From the Licking Stone it is an easy walk across the fields to the mound within the trees, seen in the distance.

The second route runs along a green lane, then, byway of field margins, onto the small woodland which surrounds Sheean.

The green lane to Sheean.

I first went to Sheean by this route many years ago and when I mentioned my visit to Jim he seemed surprised that I would want to go there. Then he warned me never to visit after dark. 

"Even in summer" he explained "you have to be away from there before 9pm." 

His advice apparently came from his own experience. 

When he was a young man, he and his friends would ramble to a house near to Sheean to play cards. 

"And there was no drink taken on these occasions" he insisted.  

They would usually leave together but one night Jim was the last to go and passing the woodland in the darkness he heard music. It was beautiful music and he knew that it was the Sídhe enticing him into trees and on into their mound.

He ran as fast as possible until he got home to his mother and he admitted to me that he was afeared 

and would never pass there alone again.

Another man, Pat, farmed the land in the area and worked late in the fields, but never past 9pm. 

Many times he returned to his tractor to drive home only to discover that it wouldn't start and 

he'd have to leave it overnight. On returning the following morning the tractor would start up immediately and finally Pat realised that it was the Good People. 

They were tricking him into staying, would try to keep him there and he would never see home again. 

From then on Pat always left the engine running in the evening whilst he worked so if  he lost track 

of time and it began to grow dark he knew he could make a quick escape. 

Trees enclosing the mound.

Today Sheean is still known as the place of the Good People and is rarely visited.

If you do take a chance and go there, walk through the surrounding trees until you reach a clearing
and make sure to bring a gift for the Sídhe, some cheese or a drop of poitín will do nicely.
Approach quietly, acknowledge their presence and leave your offering at the foot of the tree which stands like a guardian on the path.

Walk slowly into the wide ditch and make your way, sunwise, until you reach a small overgrown path.

Climb the path with care and stand beneath the old archway of two whitethorn trees.

Two entwined whitethorns covered with ivy stand on the mound.

Listen to voices on the wind....

but be sure to leave before 9pm.