Annie Kidnapped by the Fairies September 14, 2017
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern , trackback
A very short post today as Beach has to deal with some pesky leprechauns.
Annie McIntire, a venerable county Derry woman, has a sublime faith in the fairies. When being examined at a meeting of the Limavady Pension Committee as to her age, she fixed the time of her birth as Hallowe’en in 1839 giving for her recollection of the fact the startling reason that she had been ‘stolen by the fairies’. In reply to the chairman the woman said she was as certain of her abduction by the fairies as the she was alive. After carrying off the infant, she continued, the ‘wee people’ indulged in revels and dancing, in the wood at Carrowkeel, which were fortunately overheard by her brother when returning from Carndomagh. The brother had a book [a Bible? difficult to see the fairies being frightened off by a penny dreadful], which he threw into the wood, and scattered the fairies when he lifted his baby sister in his arms and carried her back in triumph. Further questioned the witness said her mother relatives were overjoyed at her safe return and gave themselves up to feasting and merriment. This was the only incident by which witness was able to determine her age, of which no record appeared in the census of 1841 or that of 1851. Preston Herald (14 Aug 1909), 13
Beach is glad to report that the committee gave Annie her pension.
It would be interesting to know how late such changeling stories were told in Ireland: changeling tales are one of the first part of fairy beliefs to disappear because they make fairies so unsavoury. We have cases of ‘changelings’ being abused in Ireland as late as 1896. There is no obvious reason why an old woman in the 1950s or 1960s could not remember how they were taken by the fairies as a child: save of course, for ridicule, and the decline of Irish fairy belief. When were the last Irish fairy changeling stories told? Beach would guess, without any proof, around the time of the Great War. But he looks forward to being contradicted… drbeachcombing At yahoo DOT com
PS this story sounds familiar, is there something like this from Scotland?
Chris S with this beautiful thought, 29 Sep 2017: Something to consider regarding the dearth of changeling yarns after the Great War. Perhaps the continental Good Folk were decimated, only for the remainder to wind up in Hitler’s furnaces, or starve under Stalin, a mere 21 years later. As for Eire’s extant population, they created Sinn Féin, won independence then kept Eire neutral throughout World War 2 for the sake of self-preservation under the guise of nationalism. Wiser with experience, the Good Folk chose to live separate but equal and never spirit away an infant for their inscrutible purposes.
