Irish Ghost Tales (17 page)

Those who became fairy doctors, or wise women, often gained their gift through an illness that caused them take the journey to the other world. This would be called a ‘near-death experience' today. Their soul or spirit energy would leave their body to wander the spirit world. Upon their return to health they found that they had gained supernatural knowledge.

The fairy doctor or wise woman never used any invasive treatment, such as surgery. Charms, herbs, chants, healing stones and crystals were the tools of their trade. Their knowledge of herbs and where to find them was incredible. Some of those who had travelled to the spirit world also returned with the gift of clairvoyance. They were, however, forbidden from passing on the secrets of their gift until they were dying and then only to their oldest child.

It was said that if a child suddenly began to wither or fail in health for no apparent reason, then that child had been struck by the fairies and a fairy doctor had to be called upon straight away. These unfortunate children were said to be ‘wanted by the fairies' and they would soon fade away and die unless treated. This could have been caused by the evil eye or the fairy wind; the fairy doctor would be able to tell which of these malign influences had caused the ailment.

A person who sought the services of the fairy doctor could not pay with money. However, payment in kind was acceptable. This might include gifts of food or drink that the person seeking advice and help could afford.

Biddy Early was a famous Irish seer and healer, a wise woman of the nineteenth century often identified as ‘Biddy, the Healer'. She was also known as ‘the Wise Woman' or ‘the Witch'. Much of what we know of her has been passed down in the oral tradition and has now become part of Irish mythology and folklore. However, this has resulted in a certain amount of ‘poetic licence' being taken when people have described her life. It seems certain though that Biddy Early did have at least some genuine powers of healing and clairvoyance as she was widely consulted for her knowledge of cures and her council. It was also believed that she was one of the
Sidhe
(fairies).

Born Bridget Ellen Connors in Lower Faha near Kilanena, County Clare in 1798, Biddy was the daughter of a small land farmer, John Thomas Connors, and his wife Ellen Early. Biddy was described as small in stature and pretty, a woman who kept her good looks throughout her life. Although she married four times, Biddy always used her mother's maiden name, believing that her gifts were inherited through the female line. Her mother taught her all about herbs and how to make potions, just as her mother before her had taught her.

At the age of 16, both her parents died and Biddy was evicted from their home and forced to take work as a serving girl in the nearby towns of Feakle and Ennis. At another time, her name went on the books in the workhouse in Ennis, which was known as the House of Industry. If Biddy later gained a reputation for being a hard woman, it's not surprising given the harsh nature of her early life. Biddy would have worked long hours at menial tasks, but it was here that she was taught to read and write by another worker.

In 1817 she met and married widower Pat Mally, a middle-aged man from Gurteenreagh, who died a short time later. After the death of her first husband, she married his son (her stepson), John Mally, with whom she had a son called Paddy. Unfortunately her son Paddy died when he was just 8 years old of typhus, a common illness in those times. It was after this tragedy that Biddy began to use her healing powers. She started handing out herbal cures tied up in small sachets and liquid potions in little bottles with strict instructions on how they should be used. Later, it was said that the politician Daniel O'Connell visited her in 1828 to ask her advice on seeking election in Clare.

Biddy's powers of clairvoyance are credited to a mysterious dark bottle. How this ‘magic' bottle came into her possession has become part of her myth and legend. Some believe that her late husband Pat Mally gave it to her before he died or it may have been given to her by her son John before he died; others believe that it was given to her by the
Sidhe
(fairies). There are some stories that suggest that she lived amongst the fairies for a time when she was a child. It was also said that Biddy could see and talk to the
Sidhe
in their language and it was then that they taught her how to use her gifts.

Biddy was told that by looking into the bottle with one eye and keeping the other eye open, she would be able to see what ailed people and view the future. In exchange for this ability, she was never to charge money for her services or she would lose her powers. She could accept gifts, but was to give away whatever was left over after her own needs had been met. She could never allow others to look into the bottle or they would go mad or die. By using the bottle, Biddy always knew when a person was about to visit her and whether they had gone to a doctor or a priest first. If they had, then she usually refused to treat them unless she was in a very good mood.

In 1840, her second husband died of a liver ailment, most likely due to an excess of alcohol. Biddy quickly married again. Her third husband was Tom Flannery from Carrowroe in County Clare. They moved into a cottage on Dromore Hill in Kilbarron. The house overlooked Kilbarron Lake, which soon became known locally as Biddy Early's Lake. By this time Biddy's reputation as a healer and seer had spread. It was here on Dromore Hill that she created many of her most powerful cures. Hundreds of people came to see her and it was said that the road to her cottage was always busy.

However, it wasn't just humans that Biddy helped; she also brought relief to animals and treated them with great care. In the time of Biddy Early, the death of an animal could bring great hardship to people living in rural farming communities. Animals were relied on heavily and to lose one could lead to eviction if farm work could not be completed. Many of the stories about Biddy include tales of her healing a family's most important horse or cow. She also helped many people to restore their wells, often the only sources of clean drinking water, or to solve problems that women ran into while churning their butter. Water and butter were vital to a peasant's everyday life.

During the nineteenth century, superstitious belief in fairies and all things apparently supernatural was very strong. When something happened that seemed miraculous but had nothing to do with the Church, it was commonly attributed to witchcraft and the devil. As such, the local Church viewed Biddy with suspicion and all the local clergy were opposed to her. As her fame spread, they tried to warn people off to stop them visiting her.

In 1865, while visiting friends in Ennis, Biddy was charged with witchcraft under the 1586 statute; however, the case was dismissed due to a lack of sufficient evidence. Many of the local people stood their ground against the clergy, maintaining that Biddy did nothing but good works.

In 1868, her third husband died. By this time Biddy was 70 years old, although she still looked fifty, and a year later she married her fourth husband, Thomas Meaney. However, he too got sick and died within the year (he was in his thirties). Many believed that he, too, died from alcohol abuse as a lot of people gave Biddy whiskey and other strong drink (such as poteen) as payment. Her husbands never needed to work as Biddy provided them with everything through her healing work. After her last husband died, Biddy's own health started to deteriorate and she died in April 1874 with a rosary around her neck and her mysterious dark bottle wrapped in a red shawl beside her.

Before her death and despite their many differences, Biddy was befriended by one of the local priests, Fr Andrew Connellan, who anointed her on her deathbed. She asked him not to let her bottle fall into the wrong hands when she died. According to her last wishes the priest took her bottle and hurled it into Kilbarron Lake. Since that time, such was the strong belief in the legendary powers of Biddy Early that many attempts have been made to trawl the lake in search of the bottle but it has never been found.

Is this fact or fiction?

That Biddy Early was a real person is beyond doubt, but living in an age when education was minimal (except amongst the genteel and priestly class), most of the folk who knew Biddy were illiterate so no reliable record of her life was written down. However, such was her reputation that stories about her life were passed down through the local oral tradition. Twenty years after her death, Lady Isabella Augusta Gregory (a friend of W.B. Yeats) sought out people who had known Biddy. She recorded their stories in her study of Irish folklore,
Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland
(1920).

A modern story, presumably started by poor losers, concerns the Clare hurling team. It was suggested that the reason the team kept losing in the final was due to a curse put on the team by Biddy Early. This curse was held responsible for stopping them from winning the All-Ireland for more that eighty years. It took a letter to
The Irish Times
, written by an Ennis man called Bill Loughnane, to finally put the myth to rest.

It was after Clare ‘broke' the curse by winning the 1995 championship. He wrote:

Biddy Early is fondly remembered in Co. Clare as an extraordinary woman who devoted her time to comforting and healing the sick. She is not known ever to have cursed anyone. She experienced some difficulty with one local clergyman of the day who, for reasons of his own, would have her labelled a ‘witch' … Biddy Early died in 1875 before the foundation of the GAA and long before there was any inter-county competition!

L
ighthouses are lonely places, places of desolation, solitude and danger. Those who live in them often find themselves trapped by some of the harshest conditions on earth. Some lighthouse keepers were allowed to be accompanied by their wife and children, sometimes with tragic results as, for example, when children were swept from the rocks by an unexpected wave, doomed to join other lost souls drowned at sea. Some keepers were condemned to work with assistants they may not have liked, or perhaps grew to hate, for long periods of time.

Can you imagine being trapped in such circumstances, slowly driven mad, the waves crashing ceaselessly on the rocks, without access to the mainland for extended periods of time? There were none of the modern conveniences available today. The keepers lived in damp, dark conditions that were often cramped. Is it any wonder that the spirits of the lighthouse keepers, their families and even those souls lost at sea remain behind to haunt the places that were responsible for their unhappiness? There are many stories that have been told over the years of jealousy, tragedy and despair. Which were based on true events and which were made up by lonely or bored keepers for their own amusement, we will never really know.

One story concerns a lighthouse perched high on a desolate piece of rock off the coast of County Mayo. It was almost impossible to get to the island during the long winter months and once you were there it became your prison until the boat from the mainland arrived in the spring. This story concerns Fergal O'Malley, who was found guilty of poaching by the local magistrate, who was also a local landowner. O'Malley was given the option of transportation for life or the job of keeper of the lighthouse, where he would have to remain for the rest of his days. O'Malley chose the latter, stupidly believing that it couldn't be as bad as people made it out to be. He had recently married and could take his wife with him, so he'd have a bit of company.

The following day O'Malley and his young wife were taken by boat to the island. They were allowed to take with them only what they could carry, together with the supplies provided by the landlord. O'Malley knew his wife would feel lonely on the island so he brought a tin whistle for her to play. He was unable to read music but his wife, who was better educated, could so he presented her with the whistle and a sheet of music that had upon it just the one tune. She was delighted. Once they had settled in and lit a fire they began to feel quite happy with themselves and she played her tin whistle, much to O'Malley's delight. The late summer turned into autumn and the nights grew longer. The weather began to turn and stormy nights kept them imprisoned within the stone walls of the lighthouse. O'Malley's young wife played her tin whistle over and over again, the same grinding tune slowly driving him insane. Even when he suggested that she played something different, she continued to play the same tune over and over again.

Eventually he could take no more. Reaching for the axe he used to chop wood for the fire, he tore the whistle from her hands and smashed it to pieces. She screamed in protest and turned upon him in desperation, trying to wrench the whistle from him. In a rage, he hit her with the axe. He could hear the tune in his head as he brought the axe down on her again and again. Once his rage began to leave him, he realised what he had done but by then it was too late. She lay upon the stone floor, her dead eyes staring up at him. He went up to the lighthouse platform and took down one of the ropes that hung upon the wall. He fashioned a noose from it, placed it around his neck and stepped over the edge. A couple of days passed before the people of the mainland noticed that the light had gone out. They realised something must be wrong and went to the local landlord. He ordered that on the first calm day a boat should be sent to the island to find out why O'Malley was failing to carry out his duties. As they approached the island they saw his partly decomposed body swinging in the wind. Inside they found his wife lying where he had killed her.