Meeting the Other Crowd: The Fairy Stories of Hidden Ireland

Lenihan's prefatory remarks deserve a quote:Yet I am not so sentimental as to imagine that people can be other than creatures of their time and place. And our time and place is a world, a society that emphasizes the technological rather than the personal (despite what advertisers might have us believe), the superficial and fleeting rather than the profound, the commercial at the expense of the communal. All these changes have their price, and the casualties we can see all around us. (12)Here, Lenihan speaks for all of us who witness the recent decades that have transformed the physical and spiritual Irish landscapes irrevocably. Lenihan's compilation of oral testimony, mainly gathered from the region, witnesses a less manicured environment. There, ringforts survive as fairy redoubts, lights dance and dust puffs as evidence of fairy activity, and those of us who dare to cross to their side live shortly or longer afterwards, seemingly at the whim of beings diminished in size but not in power. Speaking Irish, hurling, dancing, they represent the survival of a "hidden Ireland" refusing to capitulate to the modern age, just as Daniel Corkery wrote, perhaps romantically I admit, of the 18c bards clinging to the their remnants of an indigenous Munster mentality. Lenihan's collected accounts of rural informants tell us of an era that may, I hazard, hearken back to a "race memory" of the Iron Age, as the indigenous people retreated before the triumph of the unbending ax and the steely blade, so that their descendants the Tuatha de Danaan cringe before the mower's scythe or the spalpeen's knife, while we flee from their nocturnal hegemony across flowing water to at least temporary refuge.Many who read these stories in urban Ireland or abroad, as Lenihan observes, hide their unease by scoffing at--or denying these tales as those of--a skittish and inebriated peasantry. The storyteller takes pains to gradually let these reactions surrender to, at least in an older generation, the revelation of their own rumours, those of a friend of a friend, that often parallel the encounters he has gathered over the past quarter-of-a-century, He tells us that his audience has to be able to remember a time before 1970 or so to recall any such tales.This reminded me of the sign I saw at the National Irish Folk Museum outside Castlebar. It requested visitors to fill out forms if they wanted to share their own rural memories, specifying, however, that these needed to be prior to 1960. Between Lenihan and the National Museum system, we notice the great division between those (like myself) who remain cut off from the other side of the water, living always in a land where television silenced the seanachai, and the tales of the dark faded when, as you can see on your evening stroll, the blue light emitted from the box in every room near at least one window of nearly every electrified domestic interior.In the depopulated hinterlands, the old folks tell their stories of the other side (the "wee folk" or its like never finding an expression in these respectful pages.) Lenihan analyses each account in an afterward combining deftly a folklorist's skill and a reciter's interpretation. He avoids skepticism and enthusiasm admirably, balancing his sympathy with the vanished culture these tales capture with a frank admission that this culture will never revive.(Excerpted and edited from a review article in the on-line Belfast-based journal The Blanket.)

Great collection of faery stories told to the author from across Ireland. There are all so strange and intriguing that I couldn't put the book down. Another author I like from Ireland said the same thing about the book, how he too couldn't put it down, so I decided to buy a copy for myself as I've been fascinated lately with faeries and I see why now he said that, it's a very enjoyable collection of tiny stories that are quite thought provoking because of how unusual they are. This is the first book I've bought on faeries and I'm really happy with it. I've never been to Ireland before and my language is American-English but I found the stories to be understandable, so it's not too heavy in Irish-English to be confusing to American readers. There are plenty of Irish terms and place names used but it doesn't block the meaning and fluidity of stories. The author can be seen in a documentary called "The Fairy Faith" so I would suggest you watch that too.I thought of reducing a star for the book quality though. The ink should have been a little darker and some pages have these spots where the paper has no tooth and appear thinner as if they were pressed flat yet the spots lack any machine-like shape to them. The top of the spine has slightly caved in from an air gap in the binding. The inside margin should be a hair wider but it's not bad, especially compared to other books where words start getting lost into the trench. But the spine still seems sturdy and the covers have a crease zone pressed in place so to not ruin in them. I would say the book is well bound for a paperback, and the book is an inch thick. The paper type and book thickness give a pillow-like quality to it, but it looks like the type of paper to yellow over time and the covers will wear at the edges. I would suggest buying the hardcover version of this book but the paperback is good enough for the low price.

Roger Clark (voice of Arthur Morgan Red Dead Redemption 2) sounds evil, angry, monotone, and stern while Eddie is effervescent, exciting, engaging, and much more "authentically rougher" with his speech.The stories are still great and worth hearing and the book is still worth purchasing, but it is not as good as the ones Eddie reads himself:Storyteller 1 & 2, St. Patrick was a Gentleman, and Six Terrible Women.

Love the stories and the way the are told. Good description of the people and the time.

Four pages were not printed from the beginning of the book but that isn't the fault of the seller, it was a misprint that wasn't noticed by the publisher. I went ahead and read the book and couldn't put it down.

Love Eddies story collection! Bought the audio book and you should as well.This is an incredible huge collection of stories we should all listen to.

Eddie Lenihan is a killa thrilla dilla storyteller. This is (probably) his most accessible book, but it's so clear and it's so awesome that it made me want to go out and get the rest of his stuff. And I mean storytelling skills that can stand the test of centuries, probably. Stories told in tall buildings with electric lights or stories told out in the woods across firelight, Mr. Lenihan has the skills to draw you in and listen.

Thank you!

I would highly recommend reading this book. When I bought this book first I thought I would only be able to read a few chapters before I got bored with it. This was certainly not the case. Once I started reading I just couldn't put it down. It was very addictive. I remember seeing Eddie Lenihan on Irish TV many years ago and always enjoyed his stories but thought that the very essence of these stories he told on TV would never be captured by book. I was pleasantly surprised once I started reading. This book has been passed on to other family members to read and we all agree that it is highly enjoyable. I will certainly be buying more of Eddie's books.

Entertaining

Love this book

What a lovely book such an interesting read

A great read made all the better by the fact of mt senior years as I had heard a lot of them in my youth.I did have an issue with the first copy sent as the pages were all jumbled up clearly a printing problem.However I was sent a correct copy a week later at no cost to me.tom Q