Fairies

In Ireland two distinct fairy types exist---the trooping fairies and the solitary fairies. The trooping fairies can be found in merry bans about the hawthorn tree or at feasts in gilded fairy palaces. They delight in company, while the solitary fairies avoid large gatherings, preferring to be left by themselves and separate from one another.

The trooping faeries are the major and presiding residents of fairyland; but the solitary ones (leprechauns, selkies, banshees, merrows, etc...) have greater interest in mortal affairs and therefore are generally more familiar to us.

Fairies exist all over the world. In Ireland they are the 'sidhe' (pronounced shee), a name they have retained from the ancient days.

The trooping faeries are found living in the bushes and circles of stones that crop up all over Ireland--the fairy raths. The fairy raths crop up in pastures all over Ireland, and the farmers never plow them up for fear of disturbing the faires who live there and bringing down some bad luck upon themselves.

The fairies are said to be very beautiful, with long yellow hair and perfect delicate forms. They love milk and honey and drink flower nectar as their fairy wine. The fairies can assume any form and can make horses out of straw. They have the power to affect human life, especially unbaptized children. The fairies also love music, often luring mortals into an eternal dance with their piping and singing.

                                                       Leprechauns and Cluricauns

Leprechauns

The leprechaun is a solitary creature avoiding contact with mortals and other leprechauns--indeed the whole fairy tribe. He pours all of his passion into the concentration of carefully making shoes. A leprechaun can always be found with a shoe in one hand and a hammer in the other.

Most leprechauns are ugly, stunted creatures, not taller than boys of the age of ten or twelve. But they are broad and bulky, with faces like dried apples. They have a mischievous light in their eyes and their bodies, despite their stubbiness, usually move gracefully.

They possess all the earth's treasures, but prefer to dress drab. Usually grey or green colored coats, a sturdy pocket-studded apron, and a hat---sometimes green or dusty red colored.

They have been know to be foul-mouthed and they smoke ill-smelling pipes calld 'dudeens' and they drink quite a bit of beer from ever handy jugs. But the other fairies endure them because they provide the much needed service of cobblery.

Leprechauns guard the fairies' treasures. They must prevent it's theft by mortals. They, alone, remember when the marauding Danes landed in Ireland and where they hid their treasure. Although, they hide the treasures well, the presence of a rainbow alerts mortals to the whereabouts of gold hordes. This causes the leprechauns great anxiety---for no matter how fast he moves his pot of gold, he never can get away from rainbows.

If a mortal catches a leprechaun and sternly demands his treasure, he will give it to the mortal. Rarely does this happen.

Occassionally, especially after a wee too much beer, he will offer a mortal not only a drink but some of his treasure.

Female leprechauns do not exist.

Cluricauns

There is much debate over whether cluricauns are actually leprechauns or their close cousins. Except for a pink tinge about the nose, they perfectly resemble leprechauns in all their physical characteristics. But they never wear an apron or carry a hammer, nor do they have any desire to work. They have silver buckles on their shoes, gold laces their caps and pale blue stockings up to the calves. They like to enter rich men's wine cellars, as if they were their own, and drain the casks dry.

To amuse themselves they harness sheep and goats and shepherds' dogs, jump from bogs and race them over the fields through the night.

Leprechauns sternly declare that cluricauns are none of their own. But some suspect they are really leprechauns on a spree, who, in the sobering morning, deny this double nature.