Leprechauns and other Wee Folk
In 1989, what appeared to be a leprechaun suit was discovered on a mountain near Carlingford in County Louth, Ireland. Carlingford is a coastal town about sixty miles north of Dublin, close to the border with Northern Ireland. It’s known for its beautiful scenery, medieval buildings and a long storied history. (It was also the 1988 winner of Ireland’s Tidy Towns Competition.) The discoverer of the leprechaun suit was a Carlingford pub owner, Mr. P.J. O’Hare. According to Mr. O’Hare, while looking at some land on the mountain, he heard a small scream coming from a nearby well. When he went to investigate, he discovered an area of scorched earth with a miniature green jacket, and trousers with a few gold coins in the pockets.
Word got around. Many were skeptical that O’Hare had actually found the remains of a leprechaun, and considered it nothing more than “a hoax concocted by bored jokers after one too many pints of Guinness”, according to the Irish Post article, The Bizarre Story of the Last Leprechauns of Ireland.
Kevin ‘McCoillte’ Woods, a Carlingford local, was one of the few who didn’t completely dismiss the possibility that leprechauns existed. In 2002, he discovered gold coins that he claims enabled him to communicate with some leprechauns who informed that there were only 236 leprechauns left in Ireland, most having died off due to the loss of their natural habitat. Since then he has become known as the “Leprechaun Whisperer”. Over the years, Woods was able to get a portion of land in that area recognized by the E.U. as a natural habitat for the protection of “Plants, wild animals, and Leprechauns.”
The video The Naked Leprechaun of Carlingford features an interview with Mr. O’Hare talking about his discovery.
Leprechaun legends have endured in Irish mythology and folklore since at least the 8th century. The early legends are related to water spirits or sprites called luchorpan, meaning “small body” or sprite. Another Gaelic word with a similar meaning is leipreachan, which some believe could be the origin of the term leprechaun. According to other researchers, leprechaun actually comes from the Irish term ‘leath brogan’ which means shoemaker.
It is generally agreed that leprechauns are small entities that usually look like an old man in a green or red coat who busy themselves making shoes. They are known to be mischievous little misers who hoard their gold coins in a pot kept at the end of a rainbow. In other instances, the pot of gold is buried in the ground somewhere close by, but which humans never manage to find thanks to the leprechaun’s trickiness. In his 1831 work, Legends and Stories of Ireland, the novelist Samuel Lover depicted them as men who wear red outfits with tri-cornered hats. William Butler Yeats writes that all leprechauns once wore red, but sometime in the 18th century they started wearing green. Yeats, in Irish Fairy and Folk Tales, characterized leprechauns as solitary fairies (as opposed to sociable ones) “who make shoes continuously and have grown very rich, and who are also great practical jokers among the good folk.”
Here I should also mention Clurichauns, best known for taking up residence in wine cellars and boozing it up. Below is an explanation of Clurichauns from the Leprechaun Museum blog:
Clurichauns - this little guy is related to leprechauns - kind of like first cousins but the main distinction apart from their red colored clothing is that he is a lush. Well, it’s that time of year again. St. Patrick has banished all of the snakes from Ireland, very good-looking Brazillians have frozen whilst dancing on parade floats, our emerald clad American cousins have been and gone to Dublin to feel close to their Irish ancestry, and we all got very very merry indeed.
It just so happens that getting very drunk is the favourite pastime of one of Ireland’s lesser-known folklore creatures; The Clurichaun.
A Clurichaun is the mythological first-cousin to the Leprechaun, meaning that they are often compared to and even confused with each other.
Clurichauns, and the stories about them, are most often found in Munster, Ireland’s southern province. More specifically, however, they are found in wine cellars. If you were to leave your drinks store unlocked, unattended, and unbarred, you would soon find it dry if there was a Clurichaun about!
With that in mind, here are the dos and dont’s when dealing with a Clurichaun
DO: Double check whether it is a Clurichaun or a Leprechaun. A Leprechaun would be very insulted if accused of being one of their drunken cousins. A Clurichaun however, is easily differentiated by his attitude and fashion sense. They favour reds and plums over the earth tones of their Leprechaun counterparts and have the attitude of a ragged fop rather than the honest worker. They also tend towards having a healthy dose of facial hair, whereas the typical Leprechaun is clean shaven.
DON’T: Take your eyes off him. One of the reasons they are confused with the Leprechaun is that they share the same trait of disappearing if you look away for even an instant. The difference though, is that where a Leprechaun will simply vanish, a Clurichaun will vanish and take your wine and beer with him!
DO: Listen to his stories. Clurichauns are fabulous wordsmiths, and love nothing more than sharing a drop of whiskey with a friendly ear in exchange for their wonderful tales. Be careful though, as their constitution is such that thy can drink the most seasoned drinker under the table and still weave a tale.
DON’T: Anger a Clurichaun. They may be small but they can be fierce. Their cheery and laid-back attitude makes them slow to anger but, once angry, their vindictive fury can be terrifying to behold. They are likely to;
DON’T: Try to get away from them. If you find yourself plagued by a Clurichaun, the likelihood is that if you try to move house to get away, or try to otherwise get rid of him, it will have the opposite effect. Clurichauns are loyal creatures, and tend to attach themselves to families, mostly noble as they are the ones with the best wine cellar.
However, as Yeats writes, “some suppose [a clurichaun] is merely a leprechaun on a spree”.
For the most part, leprechauns are considered mythical creatures, but there are others, like Kevin Woods, who claim that they are real. Tanis Helliwell, a Canadian who teaches spiritual development, spent a summer in County Mayo, Ireland where she rented a country cottage. Her plan was to find solitude for contemplation following the breakup of a long relationship, but things didn’t go according to plan. The first sentence of her book, Summer with the Leprechauns, reads “Ten years ago, I spent a summer living in an old cottage occupied by leprechauns.”
When she first stepped inside the cottage, she was astonished to see a small man, a small woman and two children watching her. The man was barely four feet tall, dressed in an old fashioned green waistcoat, clogs and a black top hat. The woman wore a long skirt, clogs and a hat that reminded her of those worn by New England pilgrims. The man told her that they have lived in the cottage for over a century and are what humans call leprechauns. Over the summer, this leprechaun, who calls himself Lloyd (not his real name since leprechauns don’t reveal their names to humans) teaches her about elementals, of which leprechauns are a part. Elementals are nature spirits, fairies, water sprites, etc. attuned to natural elements, air, earth, fire and water. The reason leprechauns can’t be seen by most humans is because humans live in the 3rd dimension, while leprechauns and other elementals live half a dimension away and have higher vibrations. Lloyd explains that leprechauns and other elementals are dying out due to human destruction of the earth. As a result, there is a dire need for humans and elementals to work together in order to save the planet.
Helliwell relates how Lloyd and his family would sometimes show up for breakfast and she’d serve them soda bread with butter, honey and tea. She found it fascinating how they could consume the food and tea by breathing in the essence of it and leaving the physical part behind. As for the love of alcoholic beverages, leprechauns do have that. However, as Lloyd points out, it is sweetness in food and drink that they most enjoy. Lloyd bemoans the fact that humans don’t make mead nowadays as they once did, a drink that leprechauns loved. But modern leprechauns have found that a pint of Guinness is a reasonably good substitute.
In the book’s appendix, Helliwell offers two lists of suggestions; Ten Ways for Humans to Work with Elementals and Ten Ways for Elementals to Work with Humans.
The Elves of Lily Hill Farm is another eye opener that, like Summer with the Leprechauns, some readers might take with a grain of salt. In 1987, Penny Kelly and her husband bought a 57 acre farm in Michigan which had several acres of old Concord grape vineyards. Anxious to become grape growers, the couple used conventional chemical pesticides and fertilizers for the first three years. Despite all the hard work and money they put into it, their harvests were minimal. But that was before Kelly met the elves. Two of them - Avey and Kermots - were males and Mairlinna was female. They were about two feet tall, with very large ears and wide smiles. They told Kelly that they’d been very unhappy about the methods she’d been using to grow the grapes. Sprays and poisons should never be used, they told her. With their help and encouragement (as well as that of a strange man who appears to have little horns under his hat, and hooves for feet) she and her husband stopped using chemicals, and started using natural methods taught to them by the elves and the strange man. As a result, their produce became much healthier and more plentiful. Kelly writes about how unhealthy much of the food produced in the U.S. is because it is grown in unhealthy soil. She makes an excellent case for the importance of organic farming to the health of humans, animals and the planet. In her final chapter she offers suggestions for communicating with elves, and devas (nature spirits who live in gardens). Apparently, having “a green thumb” is much more than just an expression.
One last note. From what I’ve read, persons with Celtic ancestry are most likely to be successful at seeing leprechauns and other elementals. So for those of you who have it, keep an eye out!
- by Elka R. Frankel, West Windsor Branch
Word got around. Many were skeptical that O’Hare had actually found the remains of a leprechaun, and considered it nothing more than “a hoax concocted by bored jokers after one too many pints of Guinness”, according to the Irish Post article, The Bizarre Story of the Last Leprechauns of Ireland.
Kevin ‘McCoillte’ Woods, a Carlingford local, was one of the few who didn’t completely dismiss the possibility that leprechauns existed. In 2002, he discovered gold coins that he claims enabled him to communicate with some leprechauns who informed that there were only 236 leprechauns left in Ireland, most having died off due to the loss of their natural habitat. Since then he has become known as the “Leprechaun Whisperer”. Over the years, Woods was able to get a portion of land in that area recognized by the E.U. as a natural habitat for the protection of “Plants, wild animals, and Leprechauns.”
The video The Naked Leprechaun of Carlingford features an interview with Mr. O’Hare talking about his discovery.
Leprechaun legends have endured in Irish mythology and folklore since at least the 8th century. The early legends are related to water spirits or sprites called luchorpan, meaning “small body” or sprite. Another Gaelic word with a similar meaning is leipreachan, which some believe could be the origin of the term leprechaun. According to other researchers, leprechaun actually comes from the Irish term ‘leath brogan’ which means shoemaker.
It is generally agreed that leprechauns are small entities that usually look like an old man in a green or red coat who busy themselves making shoes. They are known to be mischievous little misers who hoard their gold coins in a pot kept at the end of a rainbow. In other instances, the pot of gold is buried in the ground somewhere close by, but which humans never manage to find thanks to the leprechaun’s trickiness. In his 1831 work, Legends and Stories of Ireland, the novelist Samuel Lover depicted them as men who wear red outfits with tri-cornered hats. William Butler Yeats writes that all leprechauns once wore red, but sometime in the 18th century they started wearing green. Yeats, in Irish Fairy and Folk Tales, characterized leprechauns as solitary fairies (as opposed to sociable ones) “who make shoes continuously and have grown very rich, and who are also great practical jokers among the good folk.”
Here I should also mention Clurichauns, best known for taking up residence in wine cellars and boozing it up. Below is an explanation of Clurichauns from the Leprechaun Museum blog:
It just so happens that getting very drunk is the favourite pastime of one of Ireland’s lesser-known folklore creatures; The Clurichaun.
A Clurichaun is the mythological first-cousin to the Leprechaun, meaning that they are often compared to and even confused with each other.
Clurichauns, and the stories about them, are most often found in Munster, Ireland’s southern province. More specifically, however, they are found in wine cellars. If you were to leave your drinks store unlocked, unattended, and unbarred, you would soon find it dry if there was a Clurichaun about!
With that in mind, here are the dos and dont’s when dealing with a Clurichaun
DO: Double check whether it is a Clurichaun or a Leprechaun. A Leprechaun would be very insulted if accused of being one of their drunken cousins. A Clurichaun however, is easily differentiated by his attitude and fashion sense. They favour reds and plums over the earth tones of their Leprechaun counterparts and have the attitude of a ragged fop rather than the honest worker. They also tend towards having a healthy dose of facial hair, whereas the typical Leprechaun is clean shaven.
DON’T: Take your eyes off him. One of the reasons they are confused with the Leprechaun is that they share the same trait of disappearing if you look away for even an instant. The difference though, is that where a Leprechaun will simply vanish, a Clurichaun will vanish and take your wine and beer with him!
DO: Listen to his stories. Clurichauns are fabulous wordsmiths, and love nothing more than sharing a drop of whiskey with a friendly ear in exchange for their wonderful tales. Be careful though, as their constitution is such that thy can drink the most seasoned drinker under the table and still weave a tale.
DON’T: Anger a Clurichaun. They may be small but they can be fierce. Their cheery and laid-back attitude makes them slow to anger but, once angry, their vindictive fury can be terrifying to behold. They are likely to;
- Turn your milk sour
- Stop your hens from laying
- Cause your family and household to come down with a pox
- Make your cattle fall ill
- Make your sheep break their pens
- Beat you so badly that you will be bedridden for three weeks (in a particularly vicious story). So, it’s best to stay on a Clurichaun’s good side at all times, if you want to avoid these fates.
DON’T: Try to get away from them. If you find yourself plagued by a Clurichaun, the likelihood is that if you try to move house to get away, or try to otherwise get rid of him, it will have the opposite effect. Clurichauns are loyal creatures, and tend to attach themselves to families, mostly noble as they are the ones with the best wine cellar.
However, as Yeats writes, “some suppose [a clurichaun] is merely a leprechaun on a spree”.
For the most part, leprechauns are considered mythical creatures, but there are others, like Kevin Woods, who claim that they are real. Tanis Helliwell, a Canadian who teaches spiritual development, spent a summer in County Mayo, Ireland where she rented a country cottage. Her plan was to find solitude for contemplation following the breakup of a long relationship, but things didn’t go according to plan. The first sentence of her book, Summer with the Leprechauns, reads “Ten years ago, I spent a summer living in an old cottage occupied by leprechauns.”
When she first stepped inside the cottage, she was astonished to see a small man, a small woman and two children watching her. The man was barely four feet tall, dressed in an old fashioned green waistcoat, clogs and a black top hat. The woman wore a long skirt, clogs and a hat that reminded her of those worn by New England pilgrims. The man told her that they have lived in the cottage for over a century and are what humans call leprechauns. Over the summer, this leprechaun, who calls himself Lloyd (not his real name since leprechauns don’t reveal their names to humans) teaches her about elementals, of which leprechauns are a part. Elementals are nature spirits, fairies, water sprites, etc. attuned to natural elements, air, earth, fire and water. The reason leprechauns can’t be seen by most humans is because humans live in the 3rd dimension, while leprechauns and other elementals live half a dimension away and have higher vibrations. Lloyd explains that leprechauns and other elementals are dying out due to human destruction of the earth. As a result, there is a dire need for humans and elementals to work together in order to save the planet.
Helliwell relates how Lloyd and his family would sometimes show up for breakfast and she’d serve them soda bread with butter, honey and tea. She found it fascinating how they could consume the food and tea by breathing in the essence of it and leaving the physical part behind. As for the love of alcoholic beverages, leprechauns do have that. However, as Lloyd points out, it is sweetness in food and drink that they most enjoy. Lloyd bemoans the fact that humans don’t make mead nowadays as they once did, a drink that leprechauns loved. But modern leprechauns have found that a pint of Guinness is a reasonably good substitute.
In the book’s appendix, Helliwell offers two lists of suggestions; Ten Ways for Humans to Work with Elementals and Ten Ways for Elementals to Work with Humans.
The Elves of Lily Hill Farm is another eye opener that, like Summer with the Leprechauns, some readers might take with a grain of salt. In 1987, Penny Kelly and her husband bought a 57 acre farm in Michigan which had several acres of old Concord grape vineyards. Anxious to become grape growers, the couple used conventional chemical pesticides and fertilizers for the first three years. Despite all the hard work and money they put into it, their harvests were minimal. But that was before Kelly met the elves. Two of them - Avey and Kermots - were males and Mairlinna was female. They were about two feet tall, with very large ears and wide smiles. They told Kelly that they’d been very unhappy about the methods she’d been using to grow the grapes. Sprays and poisons should never be used, they told her. With their help and encouragement (as well as that of a strange man who appears to have little horns under his hat, and hooves for feet) she and her husband stopped using chemicals, and started using natural methods taught to them by the elves and the strange man. As a result, their produce became much healthier and more plentiful. Kelly writes about how unhealthy much of the food produced in the U.S. is because it is grown in unhealthy soil. She makes an excellent case for the importance of organic farming to the health of humans, animals and the planet. In her final chapter she offers suggestions for communicating with elves, and devas (nature spirits who live in gardens). Apparently, having “a green thumb” is much more than just an expression.
One last note. From what I’ve read, persons with Celtic ancestry are most likely to be successful at seeing leprechauns and other elementals. So for those of you who have it, keep an eye out!
Bibliography and Related Reading
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| Aldhouse-Green, Miranda. The Celtic Myths: A Guide to the Ancient Gods and Legends |
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| Conron, Leslie. Irish Fireside Tales: Myths, Legends, Folktales |
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| Jacobs, Joseph. Celtic Fairy Tales |
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| Losure, Mary. The Fairy Ring or, Elsie and Frances Fool the World |
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| Lover, Samuel & Thomas Crofton Croker. Legends and Tales of Ireland |
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| Matthews, Caitlin & Olwyn Whelan (Illustrator). Celtic Memories |
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| Yeats, William Butler. Irish Fairy and Folk Tales |
- by Elka R. Frankel, West Windsor Branch
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