There's a bit of an argument going on in Waterford between an American Pharmaceutical company and local historians...the Americans are building a new factory and have declared their plans to raze a local ring-fort to the ground because it's in the way...
Had that been the idea of a local farmer, all hell would have broken loose among the local big-wigs...not that any self-respecting Irish farmer would demolish a ring fort in the first place...he'd be far too afraid of the consequences.
Unfortunately, the man who has been the most vocal in his concern was described as ' Story teller and local friend of the Fairy' by the press...oh please...I do so wish that the media wouldn't make people out to be dippy when they're anything but. His photograph was taken from an angle which achieved the effect of making him look as mad as a bag of wet cats...all long hair and wild eyed.
I've written often enough about the ring forts...there isn't much to see...simply a circle of a man-made earthen bank is all that remains of most of the ring-forts in Ireland. Most of the banks now have trees growing from them so what you see as you drive past is a circle of mature trees...
When they were in use they were simply small farms...there'd have probably been a wooden fence on top of the earthen bank, not to keep people out, but to keep the animals in. A single storey timber house with a roof thatched with reeds... this was home to a couple of families.
The West of Ireland has the most ring-forts...the rest of Ireland has them, but they tend to be scattered.
Very few have ever been excavated...there are simply too many, but there are exceptions, for instance the one just down the road from us was excavated prior to the new by-pass being built...amber beads were unearthed which indicates some trading went on...fragments of later pottery were also found along with the usual sheep and pig bones from the communal hearth.
It's known they were still in use here until the end of the fifteenth century and maybe even later in some areas...
But folklore decrees that ring-forts have the entrance to the Other World concealed within them...those great marble halls where the Tuatha de Danaan lie sleeping...their swords by their side. You'll recognise the parallel tale of King Arthur and his Knights... and there's an ancient Japanese tale which is virtually identical...
There are literally hundreds of stories about the people who fell asleep in a ring fort and woke a hundred years later...
Getting back to the Faerie though...it needs to be remembered they can be spiteful and are quick enough to seek revenge if man destroys or damages their homes...the ring forts. So anyone daft enough to call their bluff and plough one into the soil or send in a bull-dozer to lay a concrete car park needs to be aware.
Where did the stories about being the home of the Faerie originate...probably from the frequency of the souterainns found in the majority of ring forts...those long narrow tunnels once used for storing foodstuffs in the winter. Easy enough to visualise those tunnels as leading down into the core of the earth itself, where you'd find yourself plied with honeyed cakes and sweet wine until your wits had gone completely...
For those of us who have a strong belief in something beyond our ken, the thought of vandalising the home of Faerie beings is regarded with something akin to pure horror...
Researching Other Peoples Family Trees...Has Pitfalls
By special request from two very broadminded ladies(yes Ladies ????)
