Googling "fey" yields this dictionary definition:
   - giving an impression of vague unworldliness.
    "his mother was a strange, fey woman"
    -    having supernatural powers of clairvoyance.
    -    Scottish
         fated to die or at the point of death.
        "now he is fey, he sees his own death, and I see it too"

I think the Globe is wrong to apologize on John Doyle's behalf.