Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms and Superstitions of Ireland

Lady Wilde gathers Irish legends and traditional beliefs concerning fairies, banshees, changelings, witches, the dead and the power attributed to words. Stories include fairy music and dances, the evil eye, the Phouka, the leprechaun, the Banshee and legends of the Western Islands. Accounts of death signs, wakes, curses and fairy justice sit alongside tales of saints, sacred relics and holy wells.

The book also records charms and folk cures associated with herbs, illness, love, protection, animals and everyday dangers. Its later sections turn to festivals, marriage rites, the Sidhe race, sacred trees, Irish antiquities and early Irish art, bringing supernatural tradition together with Lady Wilde’s sketches of Ireland’s legendary and cultural past.