Campaign For Real Leprechauns

[Abhannmor]

Up the airy mountain
Down the rushy glen
We daren't go a-hunting
For fear of little men
Wee folk , good folk
Trooping all together
Green jacket , red cap
And white owl's feather!

Away with the ghastly American version which swamps the nation - and the Internet - every St. Pats. All crappy Hallmark tat. Especially annoying are the Puritan style hats with a buckle. Some yank idea of ' ye olden days ' I guess. Anyway the ' good people ' follow their own religion. We should try and be more authentic starting this year. The white 🦉 feather might be hard to source though.

That poem is about fairies though, not leprechauns 😁
Leprechauns didn’t steal children away as far as I know (a later verse).

Traditionally leprechauns were mostly thought to wear red coats apparently. The green coats etc are a more recent reimagining.

Well of course Mr Allingham was a Protestant gentleman to quote Mrs Doyle. And fairy is what people speaking English call the Sídhe. The little chaps he met above in Donegal were very tastefully attired I think. And they certainly didn't drink green 🍺 beer. They make their own Heather Ale. Or so I have heard. Best not say too much .....don't want to get on the wrong side of the Daoine Maithe.

Heather ale sounds good! 😁

don't want to get on the wrong side of the Daoine Maithe

I know what you mean. I have a young whitethorn growing wild in my garden. It’s in a very awkward place but I am actually wary of removing it…just in case 😅

Let the yanks have their fun; they have enough problems with an orange man of a different kind.

Ikr! I brought a branch of it home once after absent mindedly snapping it off. Lovely fragrance. Well my Nan went ballistic. ' Do you want to kill us all ?! ' she said. I had to take it outside. You couldn't keep up with all her piseoga (sp?).

But girls carried it around as per Thugamar Féin an Samradh Linn...I'm hugely confused Ted. Maybe you could only do that on Lá Bealtaine? You're right though @Lakesideblue . We have enough problems now ...

My granny did exactly the same to me when I was little and scared the life out of me

Same here! My gran would have gone mad. You can’t bring whitethorn inside the house!

Maybe it’s okay to cut a branch as long as it stays outside? That seems to have happened all right. As long as you don’t cut down the tree 😱

Jaysus I wouldn’t chance it!

She was genuinely scared ....as well as angry. Same when I brought home a ginger kitten. Well he followed me really...but I had to put him back where I found him 😔

Oh…never heard any superstitions about ginger kittens?

I wonder if she made that one up? Just didn't want a pesky cat perhaps .

It’s bringing it indoors that portends death. Outside is ok.

The smell of the hawthorn is associated with death apparently (though I always thought it smelt nice actually 🤔)

‘Why was this tree singled out in Irish tradition as the one to be avoided, with its associations with faery merriment, retribution and bad luck? …
Some suspect that the answer to this lies in the unexpectedly unflowery smell of hawthorn flowers…Hawthorn flowers omit a particular smell to attract mainly carrion insects (such as flies) to pollenate them. This is due to a chemical contained in the flowers called triethylamine that has a stale element reminiscent of gangrene or decomposing dead bodies.
This smell was more familiar to people long ago. In the days before modern embalming techniques, people often laid out their own dead relatives or neighbours…’

www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2023/0508/1136776-hawthorn-tree-ireland-folklore/

I always loved the smell of hawthorn too !

Heather Ale is available in Scotland. Called Fraoch ...of course. The Scots say it was a Pictish invention. Irish legends say it came from the Vikings. Pfft! I think they were too embarrassed to say they got from the leprechauns.

Love it @JaneJeffer😂

I want to take issue with the Americans for their getting luck + black cats wrong.

In my part of Ulster, we've always seen black cats as good luck (I think that's true for most of Ireland but am willing to be corrected) and it always peeves me immensely that the American version of black cats being bad luck is killing off the old Irish tradition.

Yes I think you are right. It's probably the other way round. It was a dark haired man who had to cross the threshold first on New Year's Day as well. Foxy lads and girls are highly valued in general of course!

Around these parts, the only stipulation I remember from childhood as to hair colour was that it was considered bad luck to let a redhead be the first visitor of the new year (sometimes some coal as a gift by the first visitor was also needed but doesn't seem to have been a universal requirement).

And as you say, given how prevalent red hair is, and how liked it is, it's strange to have that as a custom 🤔

There are so many wee traditions and customs that don't seem to be being passed down to younger people, it's quite sad. And I know from talking to elderly relatives, when I was a child, that there were loads of customs missing from what was passed on to me.

Well now I guess I know what decomposing bodies smell like 😬 I've heard the smell of hawthorn blossom compared to female genitalia too, but can't smell it myself.

Maybe try yoga

😆

dúchas has a great collection of piseogs from the schools

“Maybe try yoga”
You’re on fire @JaneJeffer 😂