" I now asked John what sort of a race the ' good people ' are , and where they came from , and this is his reply : ' People killed and murdered in war stay on earth till their time is up , and they are among the good people . The souls on this earth are as thick as the grass ( running his walking - stick through a thick clump ) , and you can 't see them ; and evil spirits are just as thick , too , and people don 't know it … The old folk saw the good people here on the Hill a hundred times , and they 'd always be talking about them . The good people can see everything , and you dare not meddle with them . They live in raths , and their houses are in them . " " He was once Ireland 's richest man , with a fortune of € 4 . 7bn , before his huge gamble on Anglo Irish Bank shares toppled him into bankruptcy . But for some … the downfall of Séan Quinn has more to do with the wrath of the fairies than risky business moves . According to these locals , it was the decision to move a megalithic burial tomb 20 years ago which led to the fall of his cement , hotels , and insurance empire … Following a full excavation of the site , it was moved - stone by stone - and relocated in the grounds of Mr . Quinn 's Slieve Russell Hotel on the other side of the village . And if any one was to fall asleep within the liss himself , he would be taken away and the spirit of some old warrior would be put in his place , and it 's he would know everything in the whole world . There 's no doubt at all but that there 's the same sort of things in other countries . Sure these can go through and appear in Australia in one minute . But you hear more about them in these parts , because the Irish do be more familiar in talking of them . That 's a fine big liss at Ryanrush , and people say they hear things there , and sometimes a great light is seen - no wonder these things should be seen there , for it was a great place for fighting in the old centuries , and a great deal of bones have been turned up in the fields . There was an open passage I remember into the liss , and two girls got a candle one time and went in , but they saw nothing but the ashes of the fires the Danes used to make . The passage is closed up now I believe , with big stones no man could lift . And all about Coole House she knew as if she spent her life in it . I 'd have picked a lot of stories out of her but my mother got nervous when she heard the truth coming out , and bid me be quiet . She had a red petticoat on her , the same as any country woman , and she offered to cure me , for it was that time I was delicate and your ladyship sent me to the salt water , but she asked a shilling and my mother said she hadn 't got it . " You have , " says she , " and heavier metal than that you have in the house . " So then my mother gave her the shilling , and she put it in the fire and melted it , and says she , " After two days you 'll see your shilling again . " But we never did . And the cure she left , I never took it ; it 's not safe , and the priests forbid us to take their cures - for it must surely be from the devil their knowledge comes . But no doubt at all she was one of the Ingentry , that can take the form of a woman by day and another form at night . After that she went to Mrs . Quaid 's house and asked her for a bit of tobacco . " You 'll get it again " she said , " and more with it . " And sure enough , that very day a bit of meat came into Mrs . Quaid 's house . She was known to be a woman that had died nine years before ; and she would sometimes come into the sister 's house , and bid her keep it clean . But one time the sister 's husband went to burn the inside of the fort , and the next morning his barn where he had all the wheat of the harvest and near a ton of hay and two or three packs of wool , was found to be on fire . And his own little girl , about eight years of age , was in the barn , and a labouring man broke through and brought a wet cloth with him and threw it over her and carried her out But she was as black as cinders and dead . Vexed they were at him burning the fort . Did they get help to make those forts ? You may know well that they did . There was an engineer here when that road was being made - a sort of an idolater or a foreigner he was - anyway he made it through the fort , and he didn 't last long after . Those other engineers , Edgeworth and Hemans beyond at Ardrahan when the railway was made , I 'm told they avoided such things . There were two brothers taken away sudden , two O ' Briens . They were cutting heath one day and filling the cart with it , and a voice told them to leave off cutting the heath , but they went on , and a blow struck the cart on the axle . And soon after that one of the brothers sat down in his chair and died sudden . And the other was one day going to market , I was going to it that day myself , and he wasn 't far beyond the white gate when the axle of the cart broke in that same place where it had got the blow , and so he had to go home again , and near the river where they 're cutting the larch he turned in to talk to a poor man that was cutting a tree , and the tree fell , and top of it struck him and killed him . And it was last March that happened . There was one Leary in dough had the land taken that 's near Newtown racecourse . And he was out there one day building a wall , and it was time for his dinner , but he had none brought with him . And a man came to him and said " Is it home you 'll be going for your dinner ? " And he said " It 's not worth my while to go back to dough , I 'd have the day lost . " And the man said , " Well , come in and eat a bit with me . " And he brought him into a fort and there was everything that was grand , and the dinner they gave him of the best , so that he ate near two plates of it . And then he went out again to build the wail . And whether it was with lifting the heavy stones I don 't know , but ( with respects to you ) when he was walking the road home he began to vomit , and what he vomited up was all green grass . I knew twin sons , Considines , and one was struck with madness in England , and one at home - Pat in England Mike in Connacht - at the one time . Both were sent to Ballinasloe Asylum , and got well in eight months , and that was ten year ago , and one of them is married and rearing a family . The mother used to be doing cures with herbs ; it is likely that is the reason but she gave it up after they were struck . When I was in Clare there was a fort , and two or three men went down it one time , and brought rushes and lights with them . And they came to where there was a woman washing at a river and they heard the crying of young lambs , and it November , for when we have winter , there is summer there . So they got afraid , and two of the men came back , but one of them stopped there and was never heard of after . The best of things they have , and no trouble at all but to be eating ; but they have no chance of being saved till the Day of Judgment . I knew another fort that two men watched , and at night there came out of it two troops of horses , and they began to graze . But when the men came near them they made for the forts , and all they got was a foal . And they kept it , and it was a mare - horse , and it had foals , and the breed was the best that was ever seen m the country . There did strange things happen in that wood , noises would be heard , and those that went in to steal rods could never get them up on their back to bring them away . But there was one man said whatever happened he 'd bring them , and he got them on to his back , and then they were lifted off it over the wood . But they fell again and he got them and carried them away ; I suppose they thought well of him having so much courage . But one side of a wall is luckier than another , all the old people will tell you that there was a big Stone in the yard behind our house and my husband thought to blast it , for it was in the way , and my mother said " I 'm in the house longer than you , and take my advice and never touch that stone , " and he never did . But there was a man built a house close by and he wanted to close a passage , and one morning he came early and was laying hands on that stone to take it . But I was out when I heard him and drove him away . And the house never throve with him , he lost two or three children , and then he died himself . So at last the priest put a stop to it . And there was an old woman with me in the barracks at Burren , and she told me she remembered well when she was a young girl and the time came when the pattern used to be , the first year it was stopped her father put her up on a big high wall near the well , and bid her look down . And there she saw the whole place full of the gentry , and they playing and dancing and having their own games , they were in such joy to have done away with the pattern . I suppose the well belonged to them before it got the name of St . Patrick . There 's a small little house not far down the road where they used to be very fond of going . And a woman in the town asked the old woman that lived in it what did they look like . And she said " For all the world like people coming in to Chapel . " I have a great little story about a woman - a jobber 's wife that lived a mile beyond Ardrahan . She had business one time in Ballyvaughan , and when she was on the road beyond Kinvara a man came to her out of a fort and he asked her to go in and to please a child that was crying . So she went in and she pleased the child , and she saw in a corner an old man that never stopped from crying . And when she went out again she asked the man that brought her in , why was the old man roaring and crying . The man pointed to a milch cow in the meadow and he said , " Before the day is over he will be in the place of that cow , and it will be brought into the fort to give milk to the child . " And she can tell herself that was true , for in the evening when she was coming back from Ballyvaughan , she saw in that field a cow dead , and being cut in pieces , and all the poor people bringing away bits of it , that was the old man that had been put in its place . There is poison in that meat , but no poison ever comes off the fire , but you must mind to throw away the top of the pot . The fort where I heard the talking long ago , and left my can , it 's only the other day I was telling Pat Stephens of it that has the land . And he told me he put a trough in it to catch the water about a month ago . And the next day one of his best bullocks died . It 's a bad piece of the road that poor boy fell off his cart at and was killed . There 's a fort near it , and it 's in that fort my five children are that were swept from me . I went and I told Father Carey I knew they were there , and he said " Say your prayers , my poor woman , that 's all you can do . " When they were young they were small and thin enough , they grew up like a bunch of rushes , but they got strong and stout and good - looking . Too good they were , so that everyone would remark them and would say , " Oh , look at Ellen O ' Brien - look at Catherine - look at Martin ! So good to work and so handsome , so loyal to their mother . " And they were all taken from me , it never was in my family or in the father 's , and how would they all gone now but one . Consumption they were said to get , but get it without some provocation ? Four of them died with that , and Martin was drowned . One of the little girls was in America and the other at home , and they both got sick , and at the end of nine months both of them died . Only twice they got a warning . Michael that was the first to go was out one morning very early to bring a letter to Mr . Crowe . And he met on the road a small little woman , and she came across him and across him again , and then again , as if to be humbugging him . And he got afraid , and told me about her when he got home . And not long after that he died . And Ellen used to be going to milk the cow for the nuns morning and evening , and there 's a place she had to pass , a sort of enchanted place , I forget the name of it . And when she came home one evening she said she 'd go there no more , for when she was passing that place she saw a small little woman , with a little cloak about her , and her face not the size of a doll 's face . And with the one look of her she got a fright and ran as fast as she could , and sat down to milk the cow . And when she was milking she looked up , and there was the small little woman coming along by the wall . And she said she 'd never like to go up there again . So to move the thought out of her mind I said " Sure that 's the little woman is stopping up at Shamus Mor 's house . " " Oh , it 's not , Mother , " said she ; " I know well by her look she was no right person . " " Then my poor girl you 're lost , " says I , " for I know it was the same woman that my husband saw . " And sure enough , it was but a few weeks after that she died . There wasn 't much change in them before their death , but there was a great change after . But a boy of the neighbours came after that and called to him , and I was making the little dinner for him , and I didn 't see him from the door . And I never knew he was gone till when I went out of the house the girl from next door looked at me some way strange , and then she told me two boys were drowned , and then she told me one of them was my own . Held down he was , they said , by something under water . They had him followed there . It wasn 't long after he died I woke one night and I felt some one near , and I struck the light and then I saw his shadow . He was wearing his little cap but under it I knew his face and the colour of his hair . And he never spoke and he was going out the door and I called to him and said " Oh , Martin , come back to me and I 'll always be watching for you . " And every night after that I 'd hear things thrown about the house outside , and noises . So I got afraid to stop in it , and went to live in another house , and I told the priest I knew Martin was not dead but that he was living . And about eight weeks after Catherine dying , I had what I thought was a dream . I thought I dreamt that I saw her sweeping out the floor of the room , and I said , " Catherine , why are you sweeping ? Sure you know I sweep the floor down and the hearth every night . " And I said " Tell me where you are now ? " And she said , " I 'm in the fort beyond . " And she said " I have a great deal of things to tell you , but I must look out and see are they watching me " ; now wasn 't that very sharp for a dream ? And she went to look out the door , but she never came back again . Sure we know there were some in the forts in the old times , for my aunt 's husband was brought away into one , and why wouldn 't they be there now ? He was sent back out of it again ; a girl led him home , and she told him he was brought away because he answered to the first call and that he had a right only to answer to the third . But he didn 't want to come home . He said he saw more people in it than he ever saw at a hurling , and that he 'd ask no better place than it in high heaven . The Banshee always cries for the O ' Briens . And Anthony O ' Brien was a fine man when I married him , and handsome , and I could have had great marriages if I didn 't choose him , and many wondered at me . And when he was took ill and in the bed , Johnny Rafferty came in one day , and says he " Is Anthony living ? " and I said he was . " For , " says he , " as I was passing , I heard crying , crying , from the hill where the forts are , and I thought it must be for Anthony , and that he was gone . " And then Ellen , the little girl came running in , and she says , " I heard the mournfullest crying that ever you heard just behind the house . " And I said " It must be the Banshee . " And Anthony heard me say that where he was lying in the bed , and he called out , " If it 's the Banshee it 's for me , and I must die today or tomorrow . " And in the middle of the next day , he died . One time I was passing by a fort down there , and I saw a thick smoke coming out of it , straight up it went and then it spread at the top . And when it was clearing away I saw two rows of birds , one on the one side and one on the other , and I stopped to look at them . They were white , and had shoulders and heads like dogs , and there was a great noise like a rattling , and a man that was passing by looked up and said " God speed you , " and they flew away . There were five boys of the Callinans , and they rich and well - to - do , were out in a boat , and a ship came out from the shore and touched it and it sank , and the ship was seen no more . And one of the boys held on to the boat , and some men came out and brought him to land . But the second time after that he went out , he was swept . I knew an old man was in here was greatly given to card - playing . And one night he was up on the hill beyond , towards Slieve Echtge , where there is a big fort , and he went into it , and there he found a lot of them playing cards . Like any other card - players they looked , and he sat down and played with them , and they played fair . And when he woke in the morning , he was lying outside on the hill , and nothing under his head but a tuft of rushes . Old Hanrahan one time went out to the fort that 's in front of his house and cut a bush , and he a fresh man enough . And next morning he hadn 't a blade of hair on his head - not a blade . And he had to buy a wig and to wear it for the rest of his life . I remember him and the wig well . And it was some years after that that Delane , the father of the great cricketer , was passing by that way , and the water had risen and he strayed off the road into it . And as he got farther and farther in , till he was covered to better than his waist , he heard like the voice of his wife crying , " Go on , John , go on farther . " And he called out , " These are John Hanrahan 's faeries that took the hair off him . " " And what did you do then ? " they asked him when he got safe to the house , and was telling this . And he said , " I turned my coat inside out , and after that they troubled me no more , and so I got safe to the road again . " But no one ever had luck that meddled with a fort , so it 's always said . There 's a bad bit of road near Kinvara Chapel , just when you get within sight of the sea . I know a man has to pass there , and he wouldn 't go on the driver 's side of the car , for it 's to the right side those things are to be seen . Sure there was a boy lost his life falling off a car there last Friday week . One night passing the big tree at Raheen I heard the sound of a handsaw in the air , and I looked up and there in the top of a larch tree that 's near to a beech I saw a man sitting and cutting it with the handsaw . So I hurried away home . But the next time I passed that way I took a view of it to see might it have been one of the Dillons that might be stealing timber ; and there was no sign of a cut or a touch in it at all . There was a man on the road between Chevy and Marble Hill , where there is a faery plumb - stone , that stands straight up and it about five feet in height , and the man was building a house and carried it away to put above his door . And from the time he brought it away , all his stock began to die , and whenever he went in or out , night or day , he was severely beaten . So at last he took the stone down and put it back where it was before , and from that time nothing has troubled him . Myself and two of my brothers were over at Inchy Weir to catch a horse , and growing close by the water there was a bush the form of an umbrella , very close and thick at the top . So we began fooling as boys do , and I said , " I 'll bet a button none of you will make a stone go through the bush . " So I took up a pebble of cow - dung and threw it , and they all threw , and no sooner did the pebble hit the bush than there came from it music , like a band playing . So we all ran for our lives , and when we had got about two hundred yards we looked back and we saw something moving round the bush , first it had the clothes of a woman and then of a man . So we stopped to see no more . There are many forts around , and in that one beyond , there is often music heard . The smith 's father heard the music one time he was passing and he could not stop from dancing till he was tired . I heard him tell that myself . And before he went to work he went on his two knees , and he wished that whatever harm might come from it might come on her , and not on himself . And so it did , and her hands got crippled and crappled . And they travelled the world and could get no relief for her , and her cattle began to die , and she died herself in the end . And the daughter and the son - in - law had to leave that house and to build another , for they were losing all the cattle , and they are left alone now , but the daughter lost a finger by it . Ghosts are to be heard about the forts . They make a heavy noise , and there are creaks in their shoes . Doing a penance I suppose they are . And there 's many see the lights in the forts at Newtown . One time I was cutting bushes up there near the river , and I cut a big thorn bush , I thought it no harm to do it when it wasn 't standing by itself , but in a thicket , and it old and half - rotten . And when I had it cut , I heard some one talking very loud to my wife , that was gathering kippeens down in the field the other side of the wall . And I went down to know who it was self some one was talking , for I heard his voice where you were , talking to her . And when I asked her she said " No , it 's to yourself someone was talking , for I heard his voice where you were , and I saw no one . " So I said , " Surely it 's one of them mourning for the bush I cut , " for the sound of his voice was as if he was mad vexed . I think it 's not in the tree at the corner there 's anything , it 's something in the place . Not long ago there was one Greeley going to Galway with a load of barley , and when he came to that corner he heard the sound of a train crossing from inside the wall , and the horse stopped . And then he heard it a second time and the horse refused to go on , and at the end he had to turn back home again , for he had no use trying to make the horse go on . There were ash trees growing around the blessed well at Corker , and one night Deeley , the uncle of Pat Deeley that lives beyond , and two other men went to cut them down , to get the makings of a car - body . And the next day Deeley 's lip was drawn down - like this - and water running from it for the rest of his life . I often see him ; and as to the two other men , they died soon after . And there was another man went and cut a bush not far from the Kinvara road , and with the first stroke he heard a sort of a cough or a groan come from beneath it , that was a token to him to leave it alone . But he wouldn 't leave off , and his mouth was drawn to one side all of a sudden and in two days after he was dead . Surely , one should leave such things alone . I had a fall myself in Galway the other day that I couldn 't move my arm to play the pipes if you gave me Ireland . And a man said to me - and they are very smart people in Galway that two or three got a fall and a hurt in that same place . " There is places in the sea where there is drowning , " he said , " and places on the land as well where there do be accidents , and no man can save himself from them , for it is the will of God . " But it 's by the big tree outside Raheen where you take the turn to Kinvara that the most things are seen . There was a boy living with Conor in Gort that was out before daylight with a load of hay in a cart , and he sitting on top of it , and he was found lying dead just beside the tree , where he fell from the top of the cart , and the horse was standing there stock - still . There was a shower of rain fell while he was lying there , and I passed the road two hours later , and saw where the dust was dry where his body had been lying . And it was only yesterday I was hearing a story of that very same place . There was a man coming from Galway with a ton weight of a load on his cart , and when he carne to that tree the linching of his wheel came out , and the cart fell down . And presently a little man , about two and a half feet in height , came out from the wall and lifted up the cart , and held it up till he had the linching put up again . And he never said a word but went away as he came , and the man came into Gort . And I remember myself , the black and white dog used to be on the road between Hanlon 's gate and Gort . It was there for ten years and no one ever saw it , but one evening Father Boyle 's man was going out to look at a few little sheep and lambs belonging to the priest , and when he came to the stile the dog put up its paws on it and looked at him , and he was afraid to go on . So next morning he told Father Boyle about it and he said " I think that you won 't see it any more . " And sure enough from that day it never was seen again . I told what I saw the same evening to an old woman living near and she said , " Whatever you saw keep it secret , or some harm will come upon you . " There was another thing I saw besides the riders . There were crowds and crowds of people , standing as we would against walls or on a stage , and taking a view . They were shouting , but the men racing on the horses said nothing at all . Never a race like that one , with the swiftness and the welting and fine horses that were in it . What clothing had these people ? They had coats on them , and on their back there were pictures , pictures in the form of people . Shields I think they were . Anyway there were pictures on them . Striped the coats were , and a sort of scollop on them the same as that screen in the window ( a blind with Celtic design ) . They had little blue caps , such as wore them , but some had nothing on the head at all ; and they had blue slippers - those I saw of them - but I was afeared to take more than a side view except of the racers . Cloran 's father was living over at Knockmaa one time and his wife died , and he believed it was taken into the hill she was . So he went one morning and dug a hole in the side of the hill . But the next morning when he went back to dig again , the hole was filled up and the grass growing over it as before . And this he did two or three times . And then some one told him to put his pick and his spade across the hole . And so he did , and it wasn 't filled up again . But what happened after I don 't know . Below on the map is marked Fuerty fairt fort , where they say a young fellow was struck dumb after falling asleep on it and hearing music not for his ears . While you 're enjoying this site you might also enjoy a little Celtic and Irish music to set the mood , or just the one or two songs if you 're not interested in the whole albums . Don 't forget you can get some very nice Irish jewelry for yourself or someone else as well , or for the craftier maybe make your own ! There was a prince in Ireland a long , long time ago , back when Ireland still had princes , and O ' Donall was his name . A brave fellow he was , and powerful , but given to risk and heedless thrills in his hunting and leaping and running and swimming , all the better to impress his friends . He was lord of a wide land , and he wasn 't hard on the poo . . . [ more ] A woman was out one day looking after her sheep in the valley , and coming by a little stream she sat down to rest , when suddenly she seemed to hear the sound of low music , and turning round , beheld at some distance a crowd of people dancing and making merry . And she grew afraid and turned her head away not to see them . Then close by her stood a you . . . [ more ] James Mac Neill was as strapping a young fellow as you could hope to meet , and likely with it . Never did he walk away from a tussle or a drink , and never far from his hand was his shillelagh . He had no fears save the lacking of a pint , no cares except for who would pay for it , and not a thought in his head but how to have fun after it .