Irish Folk Magic
ARTICLE LAST UPDATED 22 February 2024
(2/22/24 update: adding more hag stone context found in Co. Antrim)
(9/5/23 update: Irish saint statue veneration)
There is an innate syncretism that surrounds catholicism and its relationship with different paganisms, i.e. indigenous cultural practices, that involve a lot of practical themes across the board.
When people are first coming to decolonise their christianity, I find that it’s definitely easier if you’re catholic because many of the practices were absorbed or catholic-washed with a very thin veneer.
We see this in Italian, Spanish, and Mexican catholic practices amongst others. We see it in Black liberation religious practices like Vodun/Vodou, Candomblé, Santería/Lucumí, etc. We also even see it in Protestant branches of BLR hoodoo/Rootwork/Conjure evidenced by the work of Dr. Katrina Hazzard-Donald. We see it in Brujeria/Curanderismo. Often saints and madonnas are stand-ins for orishas and other indigenous deities; so that traditions can still be practiced although masked for safety.
Irish saint veneration is a little different though.
Catholic folk magic in general tends to focus on madonnas, novenas, saints, and ancestors. For those of you that don’t know, madonnas are representations, frescos, paintings, or statues of Mary that are majoritively her holding a baby Jesus/Yeshua in her arms; but not always.
It is the month of May, Bealtaine as Gaeilge (Bealtaine in Irish), and it is a huge Irish catholic custom to venerate Mary all month. Whether or not she is represented with a baby Jesus it doesn’t really matter, but what does is a blue or linen altar cloth, or the cleanest tea-towel you can find, votive candles, prayers, and fresh “wildflowers, like buttercups, primroses, and wild bluebells and cowslips”.
This is done to protect the home from maliciousness, from evil, from the Sidhe and all other harms, and also to ensure good luck, health, and wealth for the year. All very reminiscent of Irish pagan Bealtaine practices. Just think of the May Bush and May Bough traditions that we are seeing: a happy revitalisation in Ireland.
For more information on Bealtaine traditions, the Irish Pagan School has an incredible 2.5 hour course along with some free resources. As does University College Dublin in their folklore podcast series.
It makes me wonder though, are madonnas seen in the same way in Ireland as they are in other catholic cultures? But — this is a question for further ethnographic work…
In line with madonnas, are wooden saint statues.
Irish Saint Veneration
Feast of St. Gobnait (Feb 11) “is remembered fondly in Ballyvourney in South West Cork. There is a lovely ritual tied in with the wooden statue where ‘Measures’ (ribbons) are rubbed and wrapped around the wooden icon. The measures are the length of the wooden statue and … are “for sale by industrious local women in lollypop jars beside the altar for 50 cents…people “lay the ribbon on or around the wooden icon and everyone seems to have a slightly different approach”. She (Gail Tangney) also tells me she has one tied on the handle of her suitcase so she can identify it on the carousel in airports.
Rounds are also paid to Gobnait’s two Wells and around the local graveyard while some do it barefoot but apparently thats rare now. She also tells me that for some bonus excitement there is a Shiela na Gig over a window at the small ruined Church in the graveyard.” (Michael Fortune)
Michael’s post about the St. Gobnait statue led me to look further into Irish saint veneration, and luckily I found Catriona MacLeod’s 1946 “Some Mediaeval Wooden Figure Sculptures in Ireland: Statues of Irish Saints” that describes five surviving wooden figures and their associated practices of veneration.
More descriptive of the practice however: comes from Louise Nugent: “The ribbon(s) is held along the length of the statue and then wrapped around the neck, then the waist and finally the feet of the statue. Some pilgrims make the sign of the cross when this is done, others pick up the statue and kiss it, while others bless themselves with the statue. The ribbon or in most cases ribbons are then brought home and used to ward off and to cure sickness. Farmers often placed the ribbons in outhouses where there is livestock.”
“In the Early Christian oratory there, about which garden herbs of Brendan’s monks still grow, the statue made of wood and painted, stood upon a wooden painted altar. Pilgrims making stations there showed great respect for this image and it “was regularly kissed by every Catholic whether on stations or not”. Later, MacLeod shares that another statue of St. Molaise “has been painted several times, and there are still signs of green, red, and more recent white paint on the wood.”
This practice echoes for me the dozens of bog/river idols that have been found around Ireland. In August 2022, the Rathcroghan royal site held a conference for Heritage Week entitled “Idols and unclean things’: The Gortnacrannagh Figure & its Context”.
“Irish archaeologists have unearthed a 1,600-year-old wooden pagan idol from a bog in Co Roscommon. The artefact was retrieved from a bog in Gortnacrannagh, around six kilometres from the prehistoric royal site of Rathcroghan.
The idol was made during the Iron Age from a split trunk of an oak tree, with a small human-shaped head at one end and several horizontal notches carved along its body.
Only a dozen* such idols have been found in Ireland and at more than two and a half metres, the Gortnacrannagh Idol is the largest to date.”
Here is a short list of other wooden figures found throughout Ireland — please note that the exact number is squishy — some have said that there have been found 23 to date in Ireland, but approx. 40 figures are known from all over northern Europe, which could signify artistic and cultural expression but not wholly an Irish thing, and hardly shows enough evidence of a pan-European culture — reminder that there has never been a unified European/celtic culture contrary to what the Nazis and fascists would have you think. What we do know though is that they date back since the Early Bronze Age in Ireland, and they are made out of several types of wood according to Dr. Eve Campbell (alder, oak, ash, birch, elder, elm, yew, and 8 unknown).
- The Eight Cloncreen figures, (Cloncreen, Co. Offaly)
- The Five Cloonshannagh figures (Cloonshannagh, Co. Roscommon)
- The Two Gortnacrannagh figures (Owenur River fen, Co. Roscommon)
- Kilbeg figure (Kilbeg, Co. Offaly)
- The Broughal figure (Broughal, Co. Offaly)
- The Corlea figure (Corlea, Co. Longford)
- The Kilescragh figure (Kilescragh, Co. Galway)
- Ralaghan Figure/idol (Ralaghan, Co. Cavan)
- The Lagore figure (Lagore crannog, Co. Meath)
- 2 Paper Figures paper record (Golden Bog of Cullen, Co. Tipperary)
- Unknown paper record (Ballybritain, Co. Derry)
For more info on these anthropomorphic figures, I highly recommend checking out the Pallasboy Project.
Moving on from madonnas and saint statues now is the idea of novenas and candle magic.
Novena Candle Magic & Holy Wells
Irish scholar and engineer Orlagh Castello has done amazing research into Brig, flame keeping, and Irish Catholic Magic as “practical approaches to problem solving”. Renown American scholar Morgan Daimler has also done excellent work that ties all these fibers together in her Pagan Portals book about Brigid.
The practice of candle magic and novenas (nine-day long candle petitions to saints or to Mary) are done in different ways and places. Candle magic is widespread in Ireland. Castello shares in her Catholic Magic course about how lighting a candle in Ireland is more of a practice done for someone else and is only active while the candle is lit:
“Prayers are said while lighting and very often done for people other than yourself. It can be done of course, but it has more oomph if done by someone else, especially women in the family. Now, if you can’t be going to someone about a really private matter, you would go to the church and light a votive candle instead; and then go about your business. Again because the magic is only being worked while the flame is alight, and it isn’t safe to light a candle at home and leave it unattended.”
Novenas, on the other hand, are something altogether different. Bridget Haggerty details the Our Lady of Knock novena tradition done annually in Ireland, and when searching the collections at Dúchas, many more Irish novena practices pop up. Of the 31 transcript count references, Irish novenas in the collected folklore have connections to graveyards, gaining a spouse, and cures from poultices or holy wells. For comparison ‘candle’ is referenced 5153 times, ‘madonna’ only once, ‘mary’ 7322 times, ‘saint’ 6709 times, ‘ancestor’ 178 times, and ‘the dead’ has a whopping 17,858 transcript count!
Novenas are a bit more badass, being candle-magic par excellence when you need to bring out the big guns. Novenas are done for all kinds of reasons. Anticipation or Preparation novenas are done before and after funerals, to prepare the soul for specific sacraments (marriage, baptism, communion, etc.) and holy/saint/feast days. Petition novenas are when you need big help and Indulgence novenas are done when you want to make penances for sins.
Novenas however are not just about the candle and prayer, but also the offerings you make along with them. Whether it is flowers, food and drink offerings placed or poured out near the saint or madonna statue/prayer card/icon; or a sacrifice like fasting; it is traditionally also accompanied by attending extra weeknight masses, and going to church for the eucharist.
Paying the Rounds, Doing the Stations
What is different though in Irish folklore, is that Irish novenas tend to be much more connected to making a pilgrimage to a holy well rather than attending extra masses or going to church. One was done to pass an examination bare foot, and fasting. Handkerchiefs and other items like pins are also sometimes left as votive offerings. This connection between water and fire is a theme that echoes throughout Irish folk custom & Irish paganism, and is in my opinion one of many differences in Irish catholicism.
According to folklore, in cases where a novena is done and the person does add to it a visit to a church or chapel, it is humourously done with a threat to a saint’s statue as in this case with St. Anthony in Where is Your Father a Mhaicín?
Irish Novenas also have another connection to wells: “paying the rounds”, or “doing the stations” called turas on Mary’s Pattern Day (September 8th) in Ballyheigue, Co. Kerry where the rosary is said three times while circling Our Lady’s well. At St. John’s Well, three rounds are said to be ideal as well. Other sites may have you do nine circumambulations, and upwards of 14 or more stations to do, again all barefooted and sometimes involving crawling on your knees. My bones ache just thinking about all the crawling … but one does what one must in order to have divine beings intercede on your behalf. According to Ray, once the prayers are complete, “Devotees may then drink the water (often in three sips) or dip their fingers in the water and bless themselves by making the sign of the cross, flicking water around their bodies three times in the name of the Trinity, or anointing an ailing portion of the body”.
Many might know saints like St. Brendan, St. Patrick, St. Anthony, St. Mac Cairthin, or St. Blaise for when you lose something or need pain relief.
But here are a few marginalised-gender saints: St. Ailbhe, Athracht, Brigid of Kildare, Damnat, Edana, Faber, Gobnait, Ita, Moninne, and St. Samthann, amongst others.
The top three saints in Ireland are Brigid of Kildare, Colmcille/Columba of Iona, and Patrick; who all can be called upon for their various cures.
One though, who isn’t really a saint, and is often in every home in Ireland, probably the most popular in Irish folk tradition (besides Mary Herself of course), that many of us Irish-Canadian-Americans have never heard about, is the Child of Prague.
Child of Prague and Sacred Heart
Inside the home, the Infant Jesus tends to help with wealth by placing a “ha’penny wrapped in brown paper underneath it”; and when a wedding is coming, the statue is brought outside and placed under a henge-bush or buried in the garden. The funny part is that in some cases, the ultimate luck and good weather comes when the statue is accidentally beheaded, but it absolutely must be accidental!
Another Irish folk practice that is a bit more popular than saints statues is the Sacred Heart, something more common in our Irish-and-French-Canadian-American households. (There was one or two at both my grandparents, and great-grandparents houses).
The Sacred Heart is typically one that is a physical framed and signed contract made with Jesus to protect the house(is it just me or does this echo Sidthe contracts? but I digress).
So, it would seem that there is a clear difference in Irish Catholic Folk Magic with regard to the saints. It would seem like it is more of a practice to pray to them when needed, and visit their sacred wells and sites rather than have statues of them in the house. I could be wrong, but it would seem that you’re much less likely to find St. Lorenzo in an Irish kitchen near some hanging garlic or red peppers than you would in an Italian or Spanish catholic household. The well tradition also doesn’t seem to be of as big an importance in Italian or Spanish folk magic as it does in Irish folk magic. (The only mention of sacred saint wells I could find was in Orvieto, Italy, the Pozzo di San Patrizio: the Well of Saint Patrick; and Pozzo sacro di Santa Cristina, in Sardinia.)
No. In Ireland, it would seem that wearing saint medallions and saying prayers and actual visits to Irish saint sites on their days is much more the thing to-do. All Saints Day in November as well would be a big day thing, along with Pattern Day in September both seem to be borrowings from older Lunasa and Samhain practices. A great way to visit saint sacred sites if you don’t live in Ireland would be to do a virtual tour of the sites and use Lora O’Brien’s technique of Journeying to a Sacred Site.
Irish Saighead (F*iry Darts), Quartz & Scottish/Welsh/Cornish Holey Stones
Marion Dowd’s article Bewitched by an Elf Dart: F*iry Archaeology, Folk Magic and Traditional Medicine in Ireland (2018) details how “In Ireland there is plentiful archaeological and folkloric evidence for the use of prehistoric artefacts in folk magic and medicine. The topic has been highlighted in folklore scholarship since the nineteenth century, most significantly by Penney (Penney 1976), but is almost entirely absent from archaeological discourse. This is part of the broader ‘firm and wary distance’ and ‘estranged relationship’ that has traditionally existed between the disciplines of archaeology and folklore, not just in Ireland, but across Europe and North America (Thompson 2004, 335–8).”
Dowd goes on to say: “Within folk tradition, archaeological artefacts were not for display and study, but possessed real curative properties that had the potential to safeguard livestock and the home. These artefacts did not belong to long-gone cultures, but to the ever-present sí… The sí were normally invisible, though they lived parallel lives to humans: they kept cows; enjoyed whiskey, hurling, Gaelic football, music, singing and dancing; liked gold, milk and tobacco; and hated iron, fire, salt, urine and Christianity (Bourke1999, 28; Mac Neill, Ó hEochaidh, Mac Neill and Ó Catháin1977; Ó Súilleabháin1970 [1942], 450–79). Accounts vary as to their size: they could be larger than humans, smaller, or of equal stature. In one account from Co. Donegal, male fairies were described as wearing blue britches and red caps, while their female counterparts wore green dresses; they were all about 0.75 m in height (Ó hEochaidh, Neill and Ó Catháin1977, 37). The fairies carried out a similar range of domestic and agricultural activities as undertaken by humans. They could assume the appearance of an animal, and hares in particular were often considered fairies in disguise (Danaher1972, 110).”
The following is from “Save Irish F*iry Forts, Heritage Conservation Community”: “In the days before machinery, when people worked the land, they would sometimes happen across unusual stones, some were Stone Age artefacts such as arrowheads, and not knowing about the different ages of times past, they explained them as F*iry darts, arrows or dragons teeth. The old beliefs of people connected with nature, sought reasons for sudden inflicting of illness and pain, and this was sometimes put down to having done something to upset the F*iries, or they might want to take them away, causing them to fire a f*iry arrow at them, or their livestock.”
This 1930’s account from The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0086, Page 94 on Duchas.ie explains their use a bit more:
Darts or Elf Stones.
When a cow was hit by Darts thrown by the fairies she was said to be ill-shot. The darts were little stones of different shape with the track of fairy fingers on them. A cow when hit by these became sick and unless the cure was applied she died i.e. she went to the fairies. If a cow was sick and if there was a doubt that she was ill-shot she was measured. Her tail was straightened out for the measurement. The unit of measurement was the distance between the elbow and the tips of the fingers. She was measured three times and if she made the same measurement each time it was just some ordinary sickness that had attacked her, but if she measured different she was ill-shot. If she was found to be ill-shot nine darts were put into a jug, some coppers (pence or half pence) and a two shilling piece. The cross on the two shilling piece had a certain charm. The jug was then filled with soft water. This was allowed to stand for a while and then the cow was bottled with the liquid. Some of it was poured into her ears and if she shook her head it was a sign she would get well.
Often the cure for an animal hit by elf-shot is varied, but I found this other reference (Volume 0155, Page 0530) interesting as it suggests collecting similar but different objects and again 9 elf stones and other objects: “The cure for an “elf shot” animal is as follows — A set of “elf stones” (it consists of 9 stones) a gold ring, 6d or 3d in silver, 1d or 1/2d and a pair of beads are put into a jug along with Holy Water and a pinch of salt is added. In addition to above the water from the mearing drain of three different townlands is put into the jug and also a little hay. The liquid is then poured out of the jug into a porringer and the hay is soaked in the liquid and the back of the animal from head to tail is rubbed, then the ears, eyes, nose and mouth in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. The vessel containing the solids are brought round the beasts back and under the belly three times, saying while doing so three times “In the name of the Father, Son and Holy ghost.” The cure is effected in a day and in a few days the beast will be quite well again. The articles are taken out of the jug and are kept for further use.”
Makes you wonder if the bundle bag of arrow heads shown above were being saved for many uses as another use for them has been documented “in a letter dated 1684, a Church of Ireland clergyman, Rev. John Keogh, mentioned a woman in Co. Roscommon who possessed a fairy dart that she used to ensure the safe delivery of babies (Dowd 2018, Sneddon2015, 15).” Often these elf-bags were owned by a wise woman (mná feasa), herb doctor, fairy doctor, fairy man, handy man, gentle doctor, or cow doctor; but they were also kept by a whole house hold or even collectively owned by a community where the bag would be used and kept safe until someone else needed it, or individually rented out for use as well (Dowd, 2018).
Marion Dowd again from her 2018 paper explains: “Archaeological artefacts could also provide physical evidence of the existence of the fairies. Antiquarian and folklore accounts are replete with references to elf-stones, elf-shots, elf darts, fairy darts, saighead [fairy dart] and gae síe [dart or spear of the sí]. These interchangeable terms applied to natural pebbles, unusual stones, as well as prehistoric lithics (in particular, Neolithic and Bronze Age arrowheads) (Evans1957, 304; Logan1981, 165–6). Ó Súilleabháin (Ó Súilleabháin1970 [1942], 459) also notes that ‘elf-shot’ could include thimbles or pieces of bone. No distinction was made between the efficacy of archaeological artefacts versus natural pebbles if they were considered elf-stones/darts: these were all equally powerful supernatural items…one collection of elf-stones consists exclusively of colourful natural pebbles, while the second includes natural pebbles, prehistoric lithics and a post-medieval gunflint. Essentially, any distinctive or unusual items that were encountered — whether geological or archaeological — had the potential to be interpreted as pertaining to the sí and therefore possessing supernatural properties.”
F*iry darts as you can see are often generalised as “elf stones”, especially in the Schools Collection, which in the photograph database tend to just be large stones with a hole in them (there are currently 3 photos with descriptions) though any neolithic tool is generally called as such.
Quartz in Irish folk tradition are used similarly to cure. Dowd helps us out again by explaining that “In Ireland and Scotland, natural quartz crystals, as well as worked quartz or agate beads and spheres, were also employed to ward off or cure diseases, particularly those afflicting cattle. These were often known as ‘murrain stones’ — ‘murrain’ meaning an infectious disease that affected cattle (Atkinson1875; Frazer1879/88). Part of the significance of quartz in Irish folk medicine and popular ritual was that it is closely associated with Neolithic passage tombs, regarded in folk tradition as places of the sí (Thompson2005, 111). In some parts of the country quartz was considered ‘fairy stones’ and quartz pebbles were also used by fairy doctors (Thompson2005, 115, 116). Using quartz in the construction of a house or outbuilding was generally considered forbidden and unlucky because of its close association with the fairies (Ó hEochaidh, Neill and Ó Catháin1977, 99).”
For more info, I highly recommend reading Tok Thompson’s 2005 paper entitled “Clocha Geala/Clocha Uaisle: White Quartz in Irish Tradition”, and cannot stress enough the importance of Marion’s article which also details neolithic stone axes called thunder-axes and thunderstones used and found all over Ireland to protect the home from lightning and to bring good fortune and early Bronze age flat copper axes and late Bronze age spearheads and swords used for similar purposes against lightning and “as a charm to attract good fortune, repel ill health and misfortune, or avert fairy mischief and evil”.
There is one thing though I want to mention a bit about: hag/holey stones. Irish Saighead (Darts) and Irish ‘elf stones’ are not however hag/holey/adder/ marestane/ snake egg stones! They are very much different items, and if they were used in Irish contexts (if ever) they were no doubt used practically as fishing line weights. It appears, as with all neo-pagan ideas, we have another case of hag stones being lumped in with all things “celtic” which gives the false impression that they were used everywhere though no pan-celtic culture ever existed!
Hag stones, witch stones, lucky stones, marestanes… are not once mentioned on duchas, and there is growing opinion that these stones were more in use in other places: Glain Neidr in Wales, milpreve in Cornwall, marestanes or adderstanes in the south of Scotland and Gloine nan Druidh (“Druids’ glass” in Scottish Gaelic) in the north, and called hag stones, witch stones, serpent’s eggs, snake’s eggs throughout Britain and continental Europe — and the well known 1832 Bannatyne’s ‘History of the Macleods’ story about the Brahan Seer who was gifted a smooth white/blue holey stone by the daonie sith in order to see truths through it is well… a Scottish folktale and not an Irish one.
It has been said that the 1484 Papal Bull of Pope Innocent VIII references witchstones in use in Ulster to protect cattle and their milk. I recently found this 2019 article, which sites J.G. Dent’s 1964 “The Witchstone in Ulster and England” to look at the folklore of the hagstone. Dent is quoted here:
In the Glens of Antrim witchstones were hung on the wall inside the byres to protect the cattle from ‘blinking’. The Ulster Folk Museum has a holed flint from Ballyvester which was hung around the neck of a calving cow, and the County Museum Armagh has several witchstones from the counties of Armagh and Tyrone, all of which hung in byres to prevent the stealing of milk by witchcraft. In the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, London, are two witchstones from Co. Antrim, both of which are said to have been tied to cows’ horns for the same purpose, and in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, is a large rough flint from Ballyrashane through the hole in which the first strains of milk from a new-calved cow were drawn to safeguard the future supply.
A holed flint is different than a holey stone since f*iry darts are often called ‘flints’ in Irish folklore and on duchas…and according to Dowd (2018) “perforated flint pebbles, known as witch-stones, were sometimes suspended from a string in a cattle byre to guard against ‘milk-stealers’ (Evans1957, 304; Penney1976, 71). Ettlinger (Ettlinger1939, 152) recorded a stone spindle whorl of unknown date from Antrim that had been tied to a cow’s horn to prevent the fairies from milking her. It is likely that the stone axes and Bronze Age metalwork described above related to folk medicine and farm outhouses allowed the folk healer privacy while conducting rituals. Possibly the best known Irish folk healer, Biddy Early (1798–1872), worked primarily with herbs; there are no records that she employed archaeological artefacts in her trade. Several accounts state that she worked in an outhouse for privacy: ‘out in the stable she used to go to meet her people’, that is, the f*iries (Gregory1992 [1920], 45).”
So, we have a distinct Irish custom of using flints and prehistoric items with holes in them, but not the water worn holey stone persay. The Ulster Folk Museum and County Museum Armagh do not have their collections searchable online, but i have a hunch that these are more flints rather than the water carved holey stones, which in my opinion as of now were of imported Scottish and Scots-Irish folk tradition context (and subsequently universalised by neo-pagans). So… before we lump hag/holey stones into authentic Irish folk tradition, I think we should focus on the many many other authentic Irish folk practices... like the variously used neolithic tools (flint arrowheads, scrapers, stone axes, etc.), quartz crystals… and fossils & Bullaun stones to just name a few!
UPDATE 2/22/2024:
Jane Brideson via Michael Fortune posted recently one of the few Irish hag/witch stones in use photos… from Larne, Co. Antrim.
The image reads “Witch stone hung in pantry to keep f*iries from souring cream, from the series Irish Country Life”.
So here we do have proof of hag stones being in use in Ireland in at least 1900, however I do feel like I haven’t given enough nuance above. Scottish and Irish culture are not monoliths, and it is evident that there has been considerable cultural diffusion and enculturation and multiculturalism throughout the centuries between the two… and with Cornwall and Wales to boot! That said, I do not think it is coincidence that this image was taken in Co. Antrim, in the very north of Ireland… you can’t get any closer to Alba/Scotland than that! So if we were to see a hag stone practice in Ireland, it certainly would be found and can be found in the north.
Now the hunt must continue because if proximity to Scotland sees the practice, perhaps southeast Ireland could be a potential hot spot as well for Welsh Glain Neidr tradition being diffused there as well…
Please! Let us know in the comments if you can find any instances prior to the modern 21st century.
Fossils & Bullaun Stones
According to Volume 0326, page 392: “Long ago if a person had warts they would go to a certain rock and dip a holy stone in the pool of (holy) water and bless themselves with it nine times and go around the rock three times every day until they be gone.” This to me sounds like what you do when you visit a bullaun stone for either healing or cursing depending on how you turn them, which tends to be equally important in Irish folk tradition. Sometimes pins and coins are left in the holes too, so be careful.
Fossilised sea urchins (cuán mara or Gráinneog Trá as Gaeilge, which directly translates as “Beach Hedgehog” in Irish) are sometimes called Suffolk fa*ry loaves in Britain, and are kept in the kitchen to ensure proper bread making… but this is not a thing recorded in Irish folk tradition. Instead, fossilised sea urchins and other fossils are often found in neolithic funereal ceremonial deposits in Ireland — so not so much folk magic tradition — but more proto-folk tradition if it ever was (that said there are only 2 records of ‘fossil’ and 3 records of ‘fossils’ currently in duchas, but only in describing geology.
Many were found at the Ballycarty passage tomb, and a small cist-grave burial site at Stonepark in Co. Mayo are prime examples. At Ballycarty, brachiopods, gastropods and cephalopods fossils were deposited along with quartz crystal points, and about 100 chalk fossil sea-urchins were found surrounding the remains of a woman and child. “Carboniferous coral Michelinia megastoma was discovered and was thought to have been worn as an amulet. This coral would have been collected by the grave builders from the local Carboniferous bedrock that underlies much of north-west Ireland.”
More research must be done to look at fossils in Irish folk contexts throughout the ages in the modern age, but this gives a snapshot of what we as reconstructionists could use to help ascertain burial meaning in authentic ways.
Power of (Milk and) Blood
Blood is very popular in Irish folk tradition whether it is in food, as a part of medicinal leeching or blood letting. A quick search on duchas and you can find blood mentioned in 90 stories, and in over 10,000 transcripts!
Blood of a male wren is/has been used to cure an evil: “Search for a wren’s nest when all the young ones are out. Kill all of them and spare none. Collect their blood and apply all the blood on to a strong clean piece of paper and put the paper with the blood to the sore. The sore will dry up and soon it will be healed. Note — The reason why one must kill all the birds in the nest is to get the blood of the cock, because it is only the blood of the male bird that cures the sore known as the evil” (The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0255, Page 024).
In another excerpt from Volume 0797, Page 161 we see that “The fairies exercise a powerful influence for evil at Bealtaine, or May time, so as a preservative against their malice and the fairy darts, which at this season wound and kill, It was the custom on May morning at sunrise, to bleed the cattle and taste of the blood mingled with milk. Men and women were also bled, and their blood was sprinkled on the ground, but this practice, however, died out, even in the remote. West.”
In my Decolonising Winter article, I make mention that on Martinmas (November 11th) when a goose or any animal is killed, the blood is sprinkled on the front door or sometimes put on in a sign of the cross, sprinkled on threshold, floor, and four corners of the house to exclude any evil spirit dwelling in the house (Danaher, p. 230 & TSC Volume 0515, Page 132) or it is put in a cloth and then hung in the rafters for the next year (The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0406, Page 096). When a foul is killed it can be sprinkled on a ribbon and tied to the round of your head as a cure for a headache as well (Volume 0524, Page 146).
Red Cloth with Pins/Flannels
Via Michael Fortune: “Sorting boxes the past few days and going through a pile of religious stuff belonging to my grandmother earlier and no surprise to find a piece of red flannel among it all. I havefound other bits in bags and boxes over the years and this one had the safety pin marks on it, so it must have been used. Red flannel was used a lot years ago for protection against chesty coughs and sore throats abs I came across some people who’d wear a red flannel shawl under their clothes for the same reason. Res flannel was often used as Brat Bríde on St. Brigid’s Eve too.”
Morgan Daimler also explains a similar Irish-American tradition of flannels (note: not Irish but Irish-American tradition): “fascinating. In my (Irish American) family children were dressed in red flannel nightgowns or flannel with red in it to protect against the Good Folk (alternately a safety pin was attached to the night clothes for the same purpose)”.
Ancestor Veneration
Lastly, the ancestors. “Death Customs in Rural Ireland: Traditional Funerary Rites in the Irish Midlands” (2009) by Roscommon native Anne Ridge details many of the Irish folk practices surrounding the beloved dead. I have yet to read it entirely, it is next up on the list after JP Mallory’s (2016) “Irish Dreamtime”, and Eddie Lenihan’s (2003) “Meeting the Other Crowd”, but it definitely comes well recommended.
Two very Irish things that are well known about are the Irish D*mb Supper done at Samhain or All Souls Day, and of course merry Irish Wake customs; which have been written about at length. Lesser known would be the customs of keening women or mná caointe, which like the tradition of the May Bush are having a decolonialist revitalisation.
Ancestral veneration in Irish folk magic goes hand-in-hand with candle-magic. Often on the evening before Samhain, visits to the cemetery take place and graves are to be cleaned where prayers are said on behalf of those passed and a candle lit (again with the fire and water). Once home, another candle is lit with a bowl of water and more prayers said; either in the room the friend or family member passed away in, or a single candle placed in the window that faces the cemetery to act as a beacon for them to visit and take part in the food and drink left out.
During the rest of the year, prayers are said on their behalf and like we said earlier, a novena would be burned nine days before the funeral and after; before though candles would surround the washed and shrouded body for three nights. Tobacco clay pipes would also be smoked by all the men in attendance and the pipe left on the chest of the dearly departed, with mirrors covered or turned around.
Once the loved one is buried, traditions vary as to grieving periods and when to begin ancestor veneration. Many do the novena after the funeral to pray for the departed. And often is can be done with a rosary or saint medallion; especially the saint the departed confirmed with. A picture may be used, flowers, and a favourite food or beverage offered, and again a votive lit while you are praying to the saint to intercede on the behalf of your loved one.
Others then begin adding to their collective genealogy research as a form of devotional work and family-tree healing. I’ve written a little bit more about this here.
So. This about sums it up. I hope this was helpful and that you will click on the resources provided. I know writing this helped me flesh out Irish folk tradition a bit more, and especially in how it compares with other folk customs. Sometimes that’s all we need. Some time and conversation.
What are some Irish folk magic practices in your family or region? Have you experienced any of the customs shared above? Are there others you would have us mention in the future?
Go raibh maith agat to everyone who helped contribute to this article, especially Orlagh Costello and others at the Irish Pagan School who dedicate their lives to these sacred and varied practices.
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