Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Leprechauns

Options
  • 15-03-2015 6:17pm
    #1
    fits
    Registered Users Posts: 13,288 ✭✭✭✭


    So. Why are these a thing? A German friend of mine asked me about them last week but I didn't know much. I cant say they featured in my childhood much at all but people majorly associate them with Ireland. Why is that? The faeries were far more important in Irish storytelling and legend I would have thought.


«1

Comments

  • Options
    #2
    kneemos
    Registered Users Posts: 20,416 ✭✭✭✭kneemos


    They trick you or take you away if your young is the traditional thing I've always heard.

    Not to be trusted.


  • Options
    #3
    gormdubhgorm
    Registered Users Posts: 18,374 ✭✭✭✭gormdubhgorm


    fits wrote: »
    So. Why are these a thing? A German friend of mine asked me about them last week but I didn't know much. I cant say they featured in my childhood much at all but people majorly associate them with Ireland. Why is that? The faeries were far more important in Irish storytelling and legend I would have thought.

    All the stereotypes you need for your foreign friends are answered in the film "Darby O'Gill and the Little People" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darby_O%27Gill_and_the_Little_PeopleI am sure it will be shown yet again on Paddy's Day.

    Here is a taster of it's brilliance:


    Begorrah....!

    :D

    Guff about stuff, and stuff about guff.



  • Options
    #4
    fits
    Registered Users Posts: 13,288 ✭✭✭✭fits


    I mentioned Darby o gill alright but there has to be more to it than that !


  • Options
    #5
    qt3.14
    Registered Users Posts: 262 ✭✭qt3.14


    Always thought leprechauns were one of the fairy folk. Ours don't have wings after all.


  • Options
    #6
    conorh91
    Registered Users Posts: 3,328 ✭✭✭conorh91


    Don't most European civilizations have imps/ trolls/ goblins in their mythological heritage?

    Same in Ireland, we just call them leprechauns and tweak their dress, mode of speech, and traits to reflect our own circumstances and our own interests.


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #7
    fits
    Registered Users Posts: 13,288 ✭✭✭✭fits


    conorh91 wrote: »
    Same in Ireland, we just call them leprechauns and tweak their dress, mode of speech, and traits to reflect our own circumstances and our own interests.

    Do we though? Do they actually feature in Irish culture at all pre Darby o gill?

    I would have thought they are more like gnomes than anything else.


  • Options
    #8
    punisher5112
    Registered Users Posts: 24,647 ✭✭✭✭punisher5112


    Kiss me I'm Irish.

    Stroke me clover ;-)


  • Options
    #9
    conorh91
    Registered Users Posts: 3,328 ✭✭✭conorh91


    fits wrote: »
    Do we though? Do they actually feature in Irish culture at all pre Darby o gill?
    Ah yeah. They are part of our mythology. Although perceptions of the centrality of leprechauns to Irish mythology probably have have been jacked up by Hollywood and the advent of television.


  • Options
    #10
    Paramite Pie
    Registered Users Posts: 1,312 ✭✭✭Paramite Pie


    fits wrote: »
    So. Why are these a thing? A German friend of mine asked me about them last week but I didn't know much. I cant say they featured in my childhood much at all but people majorly associate them with Ireland. Why is that? The faeries were far more important in Irish storytelling and legend I would have thought.

    Perhaps because leprechauns are exclusively part of Irish folklore and do not appear in other countries stories? There is no other leprechaun countries!!!

    When I was a kid in the 90s we had books about leprechauns, can't remember the name of the books but they were funny! In general, they were associated with repairing shoes more than anything else, but also causing mischief/pranks. Not to mention the pot of gold.

    Traditionally they wore red waistcoasts (in the 1800s & older), not green which is a modern (& political addition). The modern appearance of leprechauns has little to do with the folklore itself, and seems to borrow stereo-types-of-the-day from Punch magazine.


  • Options
    #11
    fits
    Registered Users Posts: 13,288 ✭✭✭✭fits


    Paramite Pie wrote: »
    Perhaps because leprechauns are exclusively part of Irish folklore and do not appear in other countries stories? There is no other leprechaun countries!!!
    what about the typical garden gnome then? they look exactly the same.
    When I was a kid in the 90s we had books about leprechauns, can't remember the name of the books but they were funny! In general, they were associated with repairing shoes more than anything else, but also causing mischief/pranks. Not to mention the pot of gold.

    Traditionally they wore red waistcoasts (in the 1800s & older), not green which is a modern (& political addition). The modern appearance of leprechauns has little to do with the folklore itself, and seems to borrow stereo-types-of-the-day from Punch magazine.

    Yeah the shoe making and the red waistcoats ring a bell for me too! We probably had the same childrens book.


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #12
    the_syco
    Registered Users Posts: 37,295 ✭✭✭✭the_syco


    kneemos wrote: »
    They trick you or take you away if your young is the traditional thing I've always heard.

    Not to be trusted.
    So... they're catholic priests? :pac:

    =-=

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leprechaun
    quite a beau in his dress, notwithstanding, for he wears a red square-cut coat, richly laced with gold, and inexpressible of the same, cocked hat, shoes and buckles


  • Options
    #13
    fits
    Registered Users Posts: 13,288 ✭✭✭✭fits


    From that wiki link.
    Leprechaun-like creatures rarely appear in Irish mythology and only became prominent in later folklore.

    Modern depictions of leprechauns are largely based on derogatory 19th century caricatures and stereotypes of the Irish.[2]


  • Options
    #14
    oppenheimer1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,084 ✭✭✭oppenheimer1


    To be honest I have always been fonder on the Clurichaun.


  • Options
    #15
    The_Valeyard
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,452 ✭✭✭✭The_Valeyard


    I remember some childhood story of a leprechaun and you could not move him if you tried to. He becomes heavier than a rock or something.


  • Options
    #16
    fits
    Registered Users Posts: 13,288 ✭✭✭✭fits


    oppenheimer1 wrote: »
    To be honest I have always been fonder on the Clurichaun.

    Clurichaun?


  • Options
    #17
    The Th!ng
    Registered Users Posts: 464 ✭✭The Th!ng


    There's one living in the Phoenix park at the moment, recently a trainee naturalist wrongly identified it as a midget parasite.


  • Options
    #18
    fits
    Registered Users Posts: 13,288 ✭✭✭✭fits


    The Th!ng wrote: »
    There's one living in the Phoenix park at the moment, recently a trainee naturalist wrongly identified it as a midget parasite.

    Ha hilarious you are.


  • Options
    #19
    Rosy Posy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,666 ✭✭✭Rosy Posy


    There's a book called 'Summer with the Leprechauns' which is apparently a 'true' story of an American woman who met a leprechaun and told her how to save the world. It's some serious hippie crap but a scary number of people believe it! http://www.tanishelliwell.com/the-leprechauns-page/


  • Options
    #20
    oppenheimer1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,084 ✭✭✭oppenheimer1


    fits wrote: »
    Clurichaun?

    The Leprechaun's alcoholic cousin who enjoys riding sheep and dogs at night. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clurichaun.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clurichaun


  • Options
    #21
    conorhal
    Registered Users Posts: 6,987 ✭✭✭conorhal


    conorh91 wrote: »
    Don't most European civilizations have imps/ trolls/ goblins in their mythological heritage?

    Same in Ireland, we just call them leprechauns and tweak their dress, mode of speech, and traits to reflect our own circumstances and our own interests.

    Doesn't it put a nostalgic tear in your eye to remember the days when trolls, imps and goblins lived under bridges rather then all over the bloody internet.....


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #22
    topper75
    Registered Users Posts: 5,942 ✭✭✭topper75


    Paramite Pie wrote: »
    Traditionally they wore red waistcoasts (in the 1800s & older), not green which is a modern (& political addition).

    Given that it is a mythical creature, could I decide that they have blue coats with pink spots, and be perfectly within my rights to do so?

    They were killed off, along with all other piseogary, by the Electricity Supply Board.


  • Options
    #23
    kopfan77
    Registered Users Posts: 324 ✭✭kopfan77


    Was on a business trip to Boston a few years back and a pick up had been arranged from the airport by the company with a local provider. Anyhow, a lovely lady picked me up from the airport, asking loads of questions about Ireland etc. She then went quiet for a while and after a while asked me if she could ask an unusual question. I said fire away and then nearly choked when she asked me "what the story is with leprechauns?"!!
    I said what do you mean to which she asked, well whats with them....are they like, people who are mentally ill, or just really short people or how do they become leprechauns!
    To say I was gobsmacked would be such an understatement....she genuinely thought leprechauns were real and I had to explain that they are just a folk tale!! She looked gutted!


  • Options
    #24
    Pumpkinseeds
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,635 ✭✭✭Pumpkinseeds


    Leprechauns are just an Irish gimmick. Every country has their own cultural variation of faeries but Ireland is the only one with leprechauns. Begosh and begorrah crap that appeals to tourists who will buy any old tat.:D


  • Options
    #25
    endacl
    Registered Users Posts: 22,252 ✭✭✭✭endacl


    I'm a leprechaun. Fire away there with any questions. I'm not busy till tomorrow.


  • Options
    #26
    Menas
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,318 ✭✭✭✭Menas


    Pumpkinseeds wrote: »
    Leprechauns are just an Irish gimmick. Every country has their own cultural variation of faeries but Ireland is the only one with leprechauns. Begosh and begorrah crap that appeals to tourists who will buy any old tat.:D


    I am going to go out on a limb here and guess that you are not planning to spend tomorrow settling down to watch Darby O Gill and the little people whilst drinking warm porter from a bottle and eating bacon and cabbage?


  • Options
    #27
    delw
    Registered Users Posts: 2,655 ✭✭✭delw


    :D:D
    There was an item on Ireland AM this morning with this fella

    https://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCAQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thelastleprechaunsofireland.com%2Fpage_3106212.html&ei=HdUGVZenMcrW7Aazn4DwCg&usg=AFQjCNEAHBRk6cAtrPvLftVOpUK0RRaa-A&sig2=VNxmZV6-zoR-sU5Mm5TV1w


  • Options
    #28
    Gavster1982
    Registered Users Posts: 73 ✭✭Gavster1982


    Anyone ever seen any of the Leprechaun horror films...classics


  • Options
    #29
    Vex Willems
    Registered Users Posts: 503 ✭✭✭Vex Willems


    Gavster1982 wrote: »
    Anyone ever seen any of the Leprechaun horror films...classics

    I'm really struggling to find a reason why I have not watched these yet.


  • Options
    #30
    Pumpkinseeds
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,635 ✭✭✭Pumpkinseeds


    Trigger Happy wrote: »
    I am going to go out on a limb here and guess that you are not planning to spend tomorrow settling down to watch Darby O Gill and the little people whilst drinking warm porter from a bottle and eating bacon and cabbage?

    You're right on all counts, although I might have a couple of Jameson nightcaps.:D


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #31
    WoollyRedHat
    Registered Users Posts: 10,462 ✭✭✭✭WoollyRedHat


    Rosy Posy wrote: »
    There's a book called 'Summer with the Leprechauns' which is apparently a 'true' story of an American woman who met a leprechaun and told her how to save the world. It's some serious hippie crap but a scary number of people believe it! http://www.tanishelliwell.com/the-leprechauns-page/

    Eh yeah, that's like a true story. It's people like you that have the world like it is, trying to keep the little man down, kept in the dark!


Advertisement