Maherslieve & The Fairy Funeral

An interesting story I came across in the Irish Schools Manuscripts is one relating to a Fairy funeral making its away over the Maherslieve Mountain (below) near Kilcommon in North Tipp as follows:

"On the 3rd April 1931 a funeral was seen crossing the side of a high hill called Moher Cle, situated in the parish of Templederry about ten miles from Nenagh. That same evening Mrs. Burke of Coumnagella was dead. The funeral which consisted of white horses & common cars commenced ...in Coumnagella and after passing over the side of Moher Cle disappeared at Bray's Lough. There were about 50 cars all together and in some cases the drivers of the cars could be seen whipping the horses. The evening was clear & bright & the time about 7 o'clock."

http://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4922143/4856170/5015385

What got me thinking about this story again was a blog article on facebook linking this to a phenomena called Charles Bonnet Syndrome. I'm not convinced really whether by giving it a name does it really explain it away but the whole thing is fascinating.

http://www.strangehistory.net/…/fairy-armies-medical-expla…/

Comments

Hag Stones, are they an example of authentic Irish folklore or a neo-pagan import?

By Darkone CC BY-SA 2.0 The first time I ever heard of Hag-stones was this year. They are more commonly known as Adder stones and described on wikipedia as follows: " An adder stone is a type of stone, usually glassy, with a naturally occurring hole through it. Such stones have been discovered by archaeologists in both Britain and Egypt ." In Britain they are also called hag stones , [1] witch stones , serpent's eggs , snake's eggs , or Glain Neidr in Wales , milpreve in Cornwall , adderstanes in the south of Scotland and Gloine nan Druidh ("Druids' glass" in Scottish Gaelic ) in the north. In Germany they are called Hühnergötter ("chicken gods"). In Egypt they are called aggry or aggri . Adder stones were believed to have magical powers such as protection against eye diseases or evil charms, preventing nightmares , curing whooping cough , the ability to see through fairy or witch disguises and traps if looked at ...

The Origins of the surname Ryan

NOTE: This is currently a work in progress and I ask for any feedback on what I have written. Ryan is one of the top ten surnames by population / number of people in Ireland. It would be nice if there was a simple explanation as to the meaning of the surname Ryan, unfortunately to my knowledge there isn't. The most likely explanation is that it goes back to a King or Chief of Idrone circa 900AD named Rian or Rien. It was around this time that the Irish began taking on surnames and it may be that it was after him his descendants began to be called, O or descendent of Rian. We are not sure how or when exactly the O'Mulryan name came about. It is likely that it means "descendent of the followers of Rian". However, this is not certain. We will see further down in this article that the genealogies suggest they are both descended from the same ancestor circa 900AD. Although other evidence does contradict this. Just what Rian means is not known for sure. Explana...

Ryan Family Nicknames

Over 500 individual Ryan Family nicknames - many with townlands associated with them. Click Here

The Tipperary Antiquarian

Search This Blog