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MAGUS

20 (p.15) ‘There are the usual superstitions about fairies, gentle bushes, etc. in the autumn of 1836 a man in the townland of Bancran was, it seems, so annoyed by the fairies that he was obliged to desert his house. Though the annoyance may be explained by natural causes, yet the strong belief that exists to the contrary serves to show the prevalence of the superstition. Copy of a memorandum made of O’Haran’s words, when examined on the subject of fairies. The full particulars of this event are as follows. They have been thought worthy of insertion as they serve to illustrate the habits of the people. Denis O’Haran of Bancran Glebe says that about 1 month ago his wife saw a white woman in the byre. She came in in a great fright and told him, but when he went out he saw nothing. 7 days afterwards he went out and saw the gentle people in the byre. Memorandum: as to these gentle people. He first said, when asked if there was room in the barn for any more of them, that he could not tell. Afterwards that “it was as full as it could hold,” which he said in answer to one of the bystanders, who explained and repeated the question. Yet he contradicted himself again saying that at first he did not understand the question, afterwards that he did. About 3 weeks after saying this, he saw, in company with another called Jemmy Burns of Derrynoyd, 3 hours after nightfall, the “people” again. They appeared like boys, 4 feet high with green jackets and caps. There were more than 60 of them. He saw them between 5 and 10 yards off, all in a body, in a little lane 6 feet wide; the boy Jemmy Burns (a full-grown man could not see them) in 4 days after this he deserted the house altogether. As for the wife, she saw the white woman one night in her own bedroom lying across her “weans”. She came back into the kitchen and fainted. Her husband went down and saw nothing. (Memo: contradiction again?) One of his neighbours says that he beat the children and then when the wife went to grip the white woman it felt like a roll of wool). At another time she was in the kitchen when the white woman came up to the room door, looked at her and went away again. She also heard a shout outside with voices and noises on the roof, and at the same time she heard a voice which declared that “for all the trouble he had been at in building the house, he maybe would not be alive that day 12 months,” she also heard music like the sound of pipers. 3 days after this O’Haran pulled down the house, though he had solemnly promised another person to set up again in it “to make trial once

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