Irish Fairy Trees
When it comes to places full of magic and myth, Ireland sits near the top. This emerald isle is known for Leprechauns, Banshee’s, Fairy’s, Giants and all manner of other creatures with a list too exhaustive to write out here.
Of course, most people there don’t literally believe in the supernatural. Well, not directly.
The Irish Poet W. B. Yeats, talking to an old man asked “Do you believe in fairies?”. “I do not“, came the indignant reply. “What do you take me for? An ignorant fecker who believes in little people? In goblins, witches and leprechauns?” scoffed the man. “Go on outta that” he continued. “I do not believe in them, not at all”.
A pause.
“But they’re there”. He finished, his tone much softer than it had been.
Whether the belief is outright or not, its there. Intertwined within the communities. A cornerstone, a touching point where the Irish still ground themselves with the land they are raised on.
Irish Fairy Trees
Which brings us to fairy trees. Irish fairy trees are usually Hawthorns, like the one below. They can grow up to 20 feet tall (6 metres) and live for 400 years.
And if they are growing alone, they are known as fairy meeting places. And are not to be tampered with in any way. Farmers are known to leave them alone, ploughing a field around them, not wanting to test the “little folk”.
This belief stretches back to the Festival of Beltane, a pagan festival important to the ancient Irish and to the fairy people. It appears in some of the oldest Irish texts.
The fairy trees are known for bringing luck and many people leave gifts and personal tokens at them in hopes of good fortune. To have one on your land is a boon and will bring you prosperity, as long as you look after it of course.
Tales of the Trees
A tale from early in the 20th century tells of a construction firm ordered to remove a fairy tree to make way for new buildings. None of the crew would do it. The foreman, being a little more brusque in nature, pulled the tree up on his own. As he was doing so, hundreds of white mice (supposedly the fairies in disguise) shot out. As the foreman wheeled away soil from the fallen tree, a nearby horse startled and crushed him against a wall. He would never walk again.
In 1954, a Priest in Sligo removed a lone Hawthorn tree and replaced it with a Crucifix. The locals were scared that a curse had been placed on them as soon after 3 local men died tragic deaths.
In 1982, the car firm DeLorean caused a huge stir. Chairman John DeLorean bulldozed a lone Hawthorn tree himself (presumably no-one else would do) to clear the way for building his car plant in Dunmarry. He was arrested in October of 1982 on charges to smuggle 24 million dollars of cocaine into the USA. He was acquitted but his reputation never recovered. Neither did his company. That same year (1982) DeLorean filed for bankruptcy.
This intrinsic belief can still be seen today. Let me tell you about the motorway that was delayed for years because of a Hawthorn bush.
Irish Fairy Trees and the Motorway
When an upgrade to the M18 was proposed, one that would bypass the towns of Newmarket-on-Fergus and Ennis, it was met with delight. A much needed 100 million upgrade to the Irish motorway network.
Apart from one man. Eddie Lenihan. A seanchaí (traditional Gaelic storyteller). One of Irelands greatest living storytellers some say.
He objected because of a Hawthorn bush that would be removed or displaced because of the motorway. This bush was a marker for the Connacht fairies. A meeting place where they would stop to consider their next move on the road to battle the Munster fairies.
Eddie told a story about how a local farmer had found fairy blood around the tree one morning, showing that the fairies had battled there the night before.
Surely the planners and councillors weren’t silly enough to ignore this and invite the ire of the fairies onto themselves and the motorists that would have to travel the route?
What would you do? Any sane person would have the tree removed, right? Remember though the story of the old man and W. B. Yeats. Ireland is a different place. The council commissioned a feasibility study and eventually agreed to have the tree fenced off while work was ongoing and for the motorway rerouted slightly, to miss the tree by some meters.
Aftermath
I’d love to say we have a happy ending here, but sadly that’s not quite true.
After the building of the motorway, someone took a chainsaw to the bush, removing all of its limbs. They didn’t succeed completely though and within months it had sprouted new growths. The motorway however, is a bit of an accident black spot. According to Eddie, this is not just because of the damage to the tree. It is also because the motorway damaged a fairy fort on the same stretch of the road while building.
Eddie added “And mutterings among old people have been” – “What could you expect?”. I’m sure the old man talking to Yeats would have smiled hearing that.