Cryptid Folklore: The Leprechaun fairy
In honor of St. Patrick's day, this week's episode explores the legend of the Leprechaun. There is more to this wonderful mythical creature than meets the eye.
Photography By Tom Kollmer
The Leprechaun; Small in stature, large in renown. These mythical creatures are notorious around the world. With Saint Patrick’s day being celebrated this week, we figured we would immerse ourselves in a little Irish folklore and see what oddities we can discover. Is the leprechaun an actual cryptid, or just an interesting Irish myth? Join us on our quest to find out!
We hope everyone is holding up well this week! The bars and pubs here in Kentucky were actually closed this week, so we hope you’ve had the chance to drink a few green beers at home, and just celebrate St. Patrick's day the best way you can! That brings us back to tonight’s topic, the mythical trickster, the leprechaun.
The word Leprechaun is actually a term taken from old irish, luchorpan, which translates to “little body” (Learn more here!). Many people don’t realize that Leprechauns are actually fairies of the Aos. Aos Si "ees shee" is a term, that when translated means “The people of the mound” which generally refers to all the fairy kin collectively. It is said you can find a leprechaun by listening for the sound of their banging hammer, as traditionally they were cobblers, menders of shoes. Although they are mostly depicted in green, it is said that they can change outfits, and dress rather plainly to disguise themselves. Most of us know of the delightful tale of these mythical cryptids who hide all of their gold and treasure at the end of the rainbow. It is even said that if you catch a leprechaun in exchange for his freedom, he will grant you three wishes... But, what if it’s not just based on just stories? And what if those stories are just watered down hallmark holiday crap? Lets dig a little deeper to find out if there's more than just the commercial holiday Leprechaun lore.
According to a really interesting article in the Irish Post, in 1989 an extremely small suit, so tiny it could only be described as a leprechaun suit, was discovered on Carlingford Mountain in County Louth. Even more strange they found small bones near the suit, along with four gold coins. The community was somewhat divided when it came to this very bizarre discovery. Some thought it was a joke, or an elaborate hoax. But a small group of believers saw this as evidence that perhaps there was a grain of truth within the age old fairytale folklore stories. A local, Kevin ‘McCoillte’ Woods, who many referred to as the leprechaun whisperer, began spearheading the search for truth. (READ THE FULL STORY HERE).
PICTURE TAKEN FROMWoods began his search in 1989 and continued searching Carlingford mountain for more evidence of leprechauns and other fairy folk until 2002. According to an article from the last leprechauns of Ireland.com, “… he found the gold coins in a stone wall on Ghan Road which enabled him to communicate with “Carraig” the elder of the 236 surviving leprechauns. By 2009 they were afforded protection by the E.U. under the European Habitats Directive. In 2010 he actually published his first book “The Last Leprechauns of Ireland” based on their lives.” Now I realllly liked this little story. It’s mysterious and wild, and has a happy ending. I get this imagine in my head of these modern people traipsing across a mountain in Ireland looking for leprechauns and fairy folk and it’s pretty awesome. I hope he’s not the last leprechaun hunter, and that other curious folk will continue the search for that elusive cryptid. The land on the mountain is now protected, so if fairy folk do still exist today, this seems like exactly the kind of thing they would approve of. Find Out More about the Leprechaun whisperer HERE
Overall, I think the leprechaun we think of today are truly nothing like the legends tell us. They were small creatures about 3 ft tall, with old withered faces, and actually wore brown, black or even red. They were fairies, so it would not be impossible for us to see one in the us, Kentucky even.
Tom mentions some really interesting stories about Leprechauns in the podcast this week, check out more of what he mentioned in these links;
The Doctor and the Little Fellow
Cheroke Trail of Tears
The Cheroke Legend of Little People
San Pedro Mountain Mummy
I also found a newspaper article from April 20th of 1908 which tells about a possible leprechaun sighting in Westmeath, Ireland. The article reads, “In North Westmeath, especially Delvin district, an odd story was told on Friday. It runs that a strange creature has been observed for some days in the district of Killough, which is between Killucan and Delvin. Several persons, mostly children from the school, are reported to have seen it, and they describe it as a little creature resembling a man of dwarfish proportions, clad in a red jacket, and suiting the traditional description of a leprechaun.” (Full Article from the Irish Time)
The report goes on to say, “As soon as one of the school children called the attention of a comrade to the creature the informant ceased to see it, whilst the informed could clearly observe it.” The report proposed that the “creature” may have been an escaped monkey, “However, the more fanciful are inclined to invest it with a far more mysterious and uncanny character.” Sounds like a leprechaun to me. This clipping was found in the Irish Times. The article is really quite intriguing, especially from a cultural standpoint. I’ll post a link on the blog if you’d like to read the full article. Once, not too long ago, the belief in fairies, leprechauns, and other beings of that mysterious order was something taken very seriously, and held very dearly to those who believed.
Here is an amazing quote from a documentary called Searching for Fairies;
“Seeing…means a lot of things, to a lot of
different people. I don’t think we can photograph them, though lots of people
have claimed to have done just that. But I think we can see them in other ways.
Something either exists objectively outside of ourselves in the physical world,
or something doesn’t exist. I’m just wondering whether the realm of the
imagination, the realm in which fairies dwell, is in fact a sort of intermediate
realm, neither completely in your head, neither completely in the world. But
somehow crossing over transcending the two, belonging to both, and yet
belonging to neither.”
I think this quote is absolutely enlightening because it allows you to be object while keeping an open mind that believes in all things, and in none.
Here are some CRAZY photographs of some of the things we mention in this weeks episode. Be sure to go listen to the FULL EPISODE on castbox, spotify, google, stitcher, or where ever you listen to PODCASTS. We Love ya'll amazing listenin' folk!
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