morning the bride was found safe in her bed.
Finnbheara is also known to love horses, and he is usually seen riding a black horse with flaring red nostrils. Some-times he would invite young men to ride with his fairy host.
In Co. Limerick the fairy king Donn of Knockfierna is well remembered. There is a large earthern fort on his hill and a number of dolmens known as the 'Giants Graves'. You can see the entrance to his fairy palace. Donn is the ancient Celtic god of the Dead who rules the rocky islands to the south west on the Atlantic coast. Donn is also known in Co. Fermanagh as the ancestor of the Maguires, whom he helped in their battles. Sometimes he is seen riding on a white horse on stormy nights, when people would exclaim: "Donn is galloping in the clouds tonight". Donn now more closely resembles a medieval Irish landlord than a god. He rules quite strictly but will aid his people when needed. He is also believed to fight against rival hosts in other counties, the winner carrying off the best potato crop for that year.
It will be noted that the fairy queens and kings are in fact the old pagan gods and goddesses 'in disguise' who have long been revered by the Irish. I once heard someone state that the Celtic gods of Ireland had long been wiped out, buried under the sway of Catholicism. Yet anyone who has been to the Emerald Isle, or listened to her many folk tales can see for themselves that this is very far from the reality. The old gods live on in folk tales as the giants of the hill; the Gobhan Saor who built all the bridges of Ireland; the Gille Decair, a clown and trickster; the carl (serf) of the drab coat and many others. The old deities were once worshipped throughout Ireland, however it is in the west that they are best remembered now, the east having been more Christianized and anglicised, and subject to more invasions. By contrast, the west of Ireland, to which the native Irish were driven ("to hell or Connaught") has held on longer to her ancient heritage.
FAIRY WOMEN OF SCOTLANDThere are many similarities to be found in the fairy lore of Scotland, no doubt due to the migration of peoples back and forth between Scotland and Ireland. Most people know about the last wave of Gaelic incomers into Scotland from Ireland in the fifth century, but for many centuries before this the Irish were intermarrying with the Cruithne (Picts) of Scotland and this is mentioned in some early texts. Thus there has been a long interchange between the two lands which has led to a mingling of folklore and belief.
The most well known of the fairy women both in Ireland and Scotland has to be the Bean Sidhe, the Banshee. In Ireland she is the ancestress of the old aristocratic families, the Irish clans. When any death or misfortune is about to occur in the family, she will be heard wailing her unearthly lament. It was considered something of a status symbol to have a banshee attached to your family! She is more often heard than seen, though if you do catch sight of her she may be combing her long hair with a silver comb. She is also known as the bean chaointe, the wailing woman, and also as badhbh chaointe. Badhbh is the Irish for a scald crow, but more interestingly it is the name of one of the Celtic war goddesses who would shriek over the battlefields in the form of a crow.
In the Highlands of Scotland this type of banshee is known as the bean tighe, the fairy housekeeper, or in some places as the Glaistig Uaine, the Green Lady, who is often sighted in the rooms and the grounds of the old castles of the Scottish clans, keeping watch over everything. There is also the wilder type of banshee found in the remoter places. This type of banshee wanders through the woods and over the moors at dusk, luring travellers to their doom.
The gruagach is the fairy woman who watches over the cattle fold at night and protects the goodness of the milk. On Skye, Tiree and other islands are to be found 'gruagach stones', stones with hollows in where libations of milk were poured as an offering to her. If this daily offering was neglected, the bes