Did you know that:
- Irish ‘fairies’ are sexy and like to wear revealing, gossamer-style outfits?
- Banshees are actually a form of Vampire?
- Ireland swarms with werewolves?
- Ireland is awash with proverbs of great wisdom that no Irish person has ever heard of (but which turn up regularly in English-language articles on Irish culture)?
Nope. Me neither.
So what’s actually happening? You might want to read on.
Working in the Irish culture, history and ‘mythology’ sector over the past three decades, I’ve come across some pretty crazy notions and claims on the internet, of which the above are just the tip of the iceberg. Some of the claims made by self-proclaimed internet experts on ‘Irish Mythology’ and/or ‘Celtic Mythology’ can be very amusing but the sheer level of ignorance and intentional misrepresentation of Irish culture (particularly with respect to ‘Irish mythology’) is becoming more and more of a concern.
The key reason it’s a concern is that misrepresentation of Irish culture on such a global scale (the type that occurs over the internet) has the long term effect of diminishing and eroding our culture. In effect, that means that all those sites and all those individuals who post inaccurate or misinformed claims about Irish culture, history, ‘mythology’ etc., are, unfortunately destroying it by a thousand cuts. I don’t believe they’re doing this intentionally (they only know what they think they know) but the long-term impact remains the same.
Much of the main Irish cultural misinformation out there tends to originate from non-Irish writers who use W.B. Yeats as a source of information or who produce fantasy books in the dubious “Celtic Mythology” genre. That said, there’s also plenty of inaccuracies and falsification from mar dhea ‘pagan’ and ‘spiritual’ sites, and from overseas entertainment companies as well.
Fortunately, over the past five or six years, there’s also been an increasing trend of Irish people standing up to criticise and call out the worst offenders. That’s definitely something to be thankful for.
It’s important, therefore, to call out inaccurate cultural representation when you see it. The problem, of course, is that unless you work in academia, cultural studies, or have a very good working knowledge of Irish history and culture, its quite hard to tell when the outrageous claims being made are correct or not.
For that reason, I thought it might be useful to develop a set of basic ‘criteria’ to help work out the authenticity of the Irish/ Gaelic/ Celtic article/ post you’re reading/watching. The criteria are quite simplistic but, hopefully, will go some way to helping you determine if what you’re reading/looking at, is fact or fantasy.
(1) Using W.B. Yeats as a source of information
If you’re reading anything on Irish/’Celtic’ mythology that cites W.B Yeats or uses his work as a reference, you’d be better off edging carefully away. Yeats was a very talented poet and an artist and should be recognised for that, but Irish culture and native cultural beliefs formed only a small part of his overall interests. Predominantly fascinated by mysticism, spiritualism, and occultism, he adapted much of what he came across in Irish folklore/culture to align to these alternative belief systems. As a result, the resulting ‘facts’ he wrote about are more often a complete nonsense than not.
Despite the marketing material of vested interests in the commercial and tourism world, there’s a reason Yeats is not used in university Celtic Studies programmes.
(2) Use of the word ‘Fae’ or ‘Faerie’ or some other such derivative
The words ‘Fae’ or ‘Faerie’ are predominantly derived from old words in Continental European languages. In the English context, these words are found mostly in old books by long-dead writers (because they actually spoke like that) or in the books of more contemporary writers who want to make the word ‘fairy’ sound more ancient or ‘otherworldy’.
Some of the best names in fiction have done this at some stage and as a writing technique, there’s really nothing wrong with it as long as it remains within the realm of fiction/fantasy. If, however, someone is attempting to claim Irish cultural authenticity while using these terms, you really need to take those claims with … well, a pinch of ‘fairy dust’!
In essence, the word ‘fairy’ is just as inaccurate as ‘fae’ or ‘faerie’ in that they’re all words created from a mish-mash of different cultural concepts that have become warped over time and lacking in meaning. Again, there’s nothing wrong with that in the context of fiction/fantasy but be very careful when you see it being used in terms of authentic Irish culture.
(3) Lack of genuine familiarity with the Irish language
To understand a culture, you really have to have at least some comprehension of the language the people of that culture communicate(d) with. Without that understanding, it’s incredibly difficult to appreciate how people in that society thought, how they lived, how they loved, what values they held dear and so on.
Anyone who speaks more than one language knows that there are often concepts in one language for which there’s no direct equivalent translation in another language. These cultural concepts generally have to be explained in a different way (usually involving a lot more words) or the word from the original language is used. Examples of this might include ‘schadenfreude’, ‘déjà vu’ or even a little bit of ‘craic’.
Having some familiarity with the Irish language is an absolute minimum in understanding the full context of Irish history, culture and ‘mythology’. For example, on occasion, because I speak Irish, I find that I often get a better sense from a particular Irish story or cultural piece than a non-Irish speaker might get from the same material. This is not because I’m smarter or more insightful, it’s simply because I have a better cultural context to understand it.
There are limitations to this particular criterion of course. The Irish I speak today is not the same as the Irish spoken by our ancestors (Old Irish or Middle Irish) so my contextual understanding of material from that time is necessarily limited. Having a grasp of the language will not ensure your comprehension of Gaelic/Irish culture by any means – but it will certainly help.
Hopefully these criteria will give you some idea of the traps to look out for when you’re browsing the internet on Irish history, culture, or ‘mythology’. Over the next twelve months, we’ll be releasing some more detailed material on how to recognise Irish culture and better understand Irish ‘mythology’ and ‘folklore’ and how that works (the Irish Mythology 101 project) but, in the meantime, I hope these criteria are useful.
Although I’ve spent thirty years advising on Irish culture and trying to explain Irish cultural concepts, by myself I’m unable to oppose the tidal waves of misinformation currently flowing through the internet. Any help you can offer in that regard would be greatly appreciated however as a starter, please share this article with anyone you think might find it helpful.
Go raibh maith agat.
