A visit to Biddy Early's - The Wise Woman of Clare

Last week I  travelled to County Clare to visit the remains of Biddy Early's cottage.
I was about to begin a new painting and as part of my research I looked for the photographs that I'd taken there nine years previously. I hunted high and low but they had gone.
Not only that but my friend, who had been with me back then, had also misplaced hers, so I left home
for a second pilgrimage to Feakle.

This time, alone, I found the over grown pathway which leads to the remains of Biddy's cottage. 

Biddy Early was a renowned herbalist and healer, using her cures to help both people and animals, skills which seem to have been handed down by her mother.
She was reputed to be in touch with the Good People and some in Clare viewed her as a descendant
of the Tuatha Dé Danann.
Many of those who sought her help travelled great distances and none were turned away from her door. For this service she took no money but would accept poitín, whiskey or food in return.

Her cottage, near Feakle, hidden in a tangle of trees and surrounded 
by greenery now stands forlorn.  

Biddy was born in 1798, the year of the Rebellion and baptised Bridget Connor, but she was always 

known by her mother's maiden name, Early.

Her parents died within six months of each other, forcing Biddy to leave home aged 16 and take to the 

roads. She went on to marry four times, surviving each of her husbands and her only child, Tom, 

who died of typhus aged eight. 

Her life was extremely hard and Biddy lived through famine, evictions, disease and forced emigrations. 

Looking through the doorway into the cottage with a chair left by a previous visitor.
On entering there is stillness, silence and an atmosphere which cannot be described.

Biddy's most mysterious power was reputed to lie in her famous Blue Bottle.
Where this bottle originated is unclear, some say her mother returned from the dead to give it to
her daughter, whilst others firmly believe that it was a gift from the Otherworld.
By looking into it she was said to predict futures and divine the source of illness so accurately that people from all over the country sought her help.

It was well known that Biddy was close to the Good People throughout her life and on occasion intervened to save those marked by the Sídhe who were due to be 'taken'. It was understood that she paid a price for this ability and was beaten by supernatural fists.

Her fame as a wise woman, who helped those in poverty and need, was considered by the church
to be dangerous and disruptive. Although she was well respected within her community the parish priest denounced Biddy from the altar and admonished people for visiting her.

Offerings, including a blue bottle, are left in remembrance of Biddy on the window sill inside. 
My own, a small white quartz pebble left 9 years ago, still lies there amongst the coins, 
jewellery, stones and shells.

In 1865 Biddy Early was accused of practicing witchcraft. 

During her trial in Ennis many people who had benefitted from Biddy's skills supported her and 

by the end most of her accusers had withdrawn their testimonies. 

She was acquitted of the charge due to lack of evidence. 

Three years later, aged 70, Biddy married for the last time. Her husband, Thomas, who was 40, 

passed away after a year and widowed once more, she spent her remaining days alone. 

Despite her fame and skill Biddy continued to spend her life in poverty.

In April 1873 Biddy Early died peacefully in her two roomed cottage, aged 75.

A priest was present at her death and she is buried in the local cemetery although her grave is unmarked.  At her funeral Father Dore of  Feakle is reported to have said,
“We thought we had a demon amongst us in poor Biddy Early, but we had a saint and we did
not know it.”

On her death the famous Blue Bottle was thrown into the nearby lake, now a bog.
Although it has been searched for since, the bottle was never found and it is understood that the
Good People took it back.

Biddy's renovated cottage as seen in the RTÉ film.

In the late 1960's a local man, Dr. Bill Loughnane, reconstructed and furnished Biddy's cottage,
as can be seen in this short RTÉ film - link below. According to stories the doctor had nothing but misfortune following this venture and the building was left to fall.

CLICK HERE to visit RTÉ  and watch archive footage inside Biddy's cottage.

Such is the enduring nature of Biddy Early's legacy that 142 years later, people here are still wary
of her powers and she is named by some as a wise woman, by others a witch.

The gable end of the cottage & nook next to the fireplace where a visitor had recently rested.

Standing there alone I felt a curious atmosphere in the remains of her cottage.
After taking the photos you see above, I turned to take a shot of the hearth when my camera stopped working. I felt my presence had been tolerated for long enough so I left.

The folklorist Eddie Lenihan talked with many people whose families had personal contact with Biddy. You can listen to Eddie and local residents reflect on the Wise Woman in this video:

Eddie's book 'The Search for Biddy Early' can be found here:

http://www.amazon.com/Search-Biddy-Early-Edmund-Lenihan/dp/0853428204

'Biddy Early - The Wise Woman of Clare' by Meda Ryan is here:
http://www.mercierpress.ie/irish-books/biddy_early/

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:

The Storyteller

Model: Seanie Larkin

The traditional Irish storyteller is the Seanchaí, which originally meant a 'bearer of old lore'.
These storytellers were part of the great oral tradition of Ireland who remembered and passed
on a large number of tales across the generations. Their particular style of speech and gesture,
as well as their role as custodians of folk tradition, are understood to link them back to the
filí, the poets of pre-Christian Ireland.

Some Seanchaithe travelled from one village to another trading their stories for food and shelter
whilst others settled and became the Storytellers of their particular area.
Many of the stories, which are still being told today, focus on special places within the landscape, Otherworldly animals or beliefs about the Sídhe and their customs.

One such story - The Oldest Creature is being told by the Seanchaí in the painting above:

"A certain man, amazed at the coldness of a particular night, wonders if there was ever so cold
a night before.
He sets out to discover the answer to this....

and first meets an otter lying in a deep hole on top of a rock. The otter tells him that he has been there so long that the hole has been worn in the rock by its body, but it has never seen so cold a night as recently.

Next the man meets....

 Seabhac Acla - the Hawk of Achill, Co. Mayo, which is perched on an anvil
and has been there for so long that the anvil is almost worn away by the rubbing of its beak after eating. Neither has it seen so cold a night.

Finally the man encounters....

the one-eyed Bradán Easa Rua - the salmon of Assaroe, Co. Donegal.
The salmon tells him that it does indeed remember a colder night an extremely long time ago.

It had frozen so fast that night that when the salmon had jumped out of the water to catch a fly,
the river had turned to ice when it returned.
The salmon had lain on the ice sure it would die until a bird came along and plucked out one of its eyes.
The heat of the blood from the eye melted the ice, and so the salmon had returned to the water. "

- from 'The Lore of Ireland' by Dáithi Ó hGáin.

One of the best known Seanchaí today is Eddie Lenihan and you can see him introducing his
art of telling a good story below.

You can find Eddie's book "Meeting The Other Crowd" HERE

Please contact me on the email form below if you would like to order  

an Art Card of The Storyteller /Seanchaí .