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106-574: Aos sí ( pronounced [iːsˠ ˈʃiː] ; English approximation: / iː s ˈ ʃ iː / eess SHEE ; older form: aes sídhe [eːsˠ ˈʃiːə] ) is the Irish name for a supernatural race in Gaelic folklore , similar to elves . They are said to descend from the Tuatha Dé Danann or the gods of Irish mythology . The name aos sí means "folk of the sí "; these are

212-517: A glow worm every Sunday after church at a place called Pen y Bonc. They even joined the sprites in their revels. The legend survives in a rhyme: "With the fairies nimbly dancing round / The glow-worm on the Rising Ground." John Rhys recorded a Welsh tale in 1901 that tells of a man who supposedly lived on the side of the Berwyn , above Cwm Pennant, in the early 19th century. The man destroyed

318-547: A unique dialect of Irish developed before falling out of use in the early 20th century. With a writing system , Ogham , dating back to at least the 4th century AD, which was gradually replaced by Latin script since the 5th century AD, Irish has one of the oldest vernacular literatures in Western Europe . On the island, the language has three major dialects: Connacht , Munster and Ulster Irish . All three have distinctions in their speech and orthography . There

424-430: A 19th-century tale from Carmarthenshire . A common element to these recoveries is that the rescuer must wait a year and a day from when the victim entered the ring. Mortals who have danced with the fairies are rarely safe after being saved from their enthrallment. They often find that what seemed to be but a brief foray into fairyland was much longer in the mortal realm, possibly weeks or years. The person rescued from

530-717: A bargaining chip during government formation in Northern Ireland, prompting protests from organisations and groups such as An Dream Dearg . Irish became an official language of the EU on 1 January 2007, meaning that MEPs with Irish fluency can now speak the language in the European Parliament and at committees, although in the case of the latter they have to give prior notice to a simultaneous interpreter in order to ensure that what they say can be interpreted into other languages. While an official language of

636-575: A better future for Ireland and all her citizens." The Strategy was produced on 21 December 2010 and will stay in action until 2030; it aims to target language vitality and revitalization of the Irish language. The 30-page document published by the Government of Ireland details the objectives it plans to work towards in an attempt to preserve and promote both the Irish language and the Gaeltacht. It

742-478: A cultural and social force. Irish speakers often insisted on using the language in law courts (even when they knew English), and Irish was also common in commercial transactions. The language was heavily implicated in the "devotional revolution" which marked the standardisation of Catholic religious practice and was also widely used in a political context. Down to the time of the Great Famine and even afterwards,

848-553: A degree course in the NUI federal system to pass the subject of Irish in the Leaving Certificate or GCE / GCSE examinations. Exemptions are made from this requirement for students who were born or completed primary education outside of Ireland, and students diagnosed with dyslexia . NUI Galway is required to appoint people who are competent in the Irish language, as long as they are also competent in all other aspects of

954-460: A fully recognised EU language for the first time in the state's history. Before Irish became an official language it was afforded the status of treaty language and only the highest-level documents of the EU were made available in Irish. The Irish language was carried abroad in the modern period by a vast diaspora , chiefly to Great Britain and North America, but also to Australia , New Zealand and Argentina . The first large movements began in

1060-479: A group when encountered, and in Scotland and Wales in the late 20th century, stories about fairy rings were still common; some Welshmen even claimed to have joined a fairy dance. Victorian folklorists regarded fairies and witches as related, based in part on the idea that both were believed to dance in circles. These revels are particularly associated with moonlit nights, the rings becoming visible to mortals only

1166-436: A local "fairy doctor" breaks the curse. The farmer says that he dreamed that he must destroy the barn. Even collecting dew from the grass or flowers of a fairy ring can bring bad luck. Destroying a fairy ring is unlucky and fruitless; superstition says it would simply grow back. A traditional Scottish rhyme sums up the danger of such places: He wha tills the fairies' green Nae luck again shall hae : And he wha spills

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1272-447: A nest of rooks in a tree surrounded by a fairy ring. In gratitude, the fairies gave him a half crown every day but stopped when he told his friend, "for he had broken the rule of the fair folks by making their liberality known". Nevertheless, fairy boons are not without their curses, and tales often tell of the sprites exacting their revenge. Fairy rings have been featured in the works of European authors, playwrights, and artists since

1378-585: A paper suggested that within a generation, non-Gaeltacht habitual users of Irish might typically be members of an urban, middle class, and highly educated minority. Parliamentary legislation is supposed to be available in both Irish and English but is frequently only available in English. This is notwithstanding that Article 25.4 of the Constitution of Ireland requires that an "official translation" of any law in one official language be provided immediately in

1484-575: A pass in Leaving Certificate Irish or English, and receive lessons in Irish during their two years of training. Official documents of the Irish government must be published in both Irish and English or Irish alone (in accordance with the Official Languages Act 2003, enforced by An Coimisinéir Teanga , the Irish language ombudsman). The National University of Ireland requires all students wishing to embark on

1590-625: A religious context. An Irish translation of the Old Testament by Leinsterman Muircheartach Ó Cíonga , commissioned by Bishop Bedell , was published after 1685 along with a translation of the New Testament. Otherwise, Anglicisation was seen as synonymous with 'civilising' the native Irish. Currently, modern day Irish speakers in the church are pushing for language revival. It has been estimated that there were around 800,000 monoglot Irish speakers in 1800, which dropped to 320,000 by

1696-547: A result of linguistic imperialism . Today, Irish is still commonly spoken as a first language in Ireland's Gaeltacht regions, in which 2% of Ireland's population lived in 2022. The total number of people (aged 3 and over) in Ireland who declared they could speak Irish in April 2022 was 1,873,997, representing 40% of respondents, but of these, 472,887 said they never spoke it and a further 551,993 said they only spoke it within

1802-403: A ring, they continuously grow about the centre of this object. One of the manifestations of fairy ring growth is a necrotic zone—an area in which grass or other plant life has withered or died. During a dry year, these zones are caused by the mycelia, which coat the roots of grasses and other herbs in meadows . After some time, they are removed by biotic factors from the ground; at this stage,

1908-470: A tale from the Aberystwyth region, a touch from the metal causes a rescued woman to disappear. Some legends assert that the only safe way to investigate a fairy ring is to run around it nine times. This affords the ability to hear the fairies dancing and frolicking underground. According to a 20th-century tradition of Northumberland , this must be done under a full moon, and the runner must travel in

2014-520: A tale from the Llangollen region has to tie a rope around himself and enlist four men to pull him from the circle as he goes in to save his daughter. Other folk methods rely on Christian faith to break the enchantment: a stick from a rowan tree (thought to be the wood from which the cross of Jesus Christ was built) can break the curse, as can a simple phrase such as "what, in Heaven's name", as in

2120-493: A wider meaning, including the Gaelic of Scotland and the Isle of Man , as well as of Ireland. When required by the context, these are distinguished as Gaeilge na hAlban , Gaeilge Mhanann and Gaeilge na hÉireann respectively. In English (including Hiberno-English ), the language is usually referred to as Irish , as well as Gaelic and Irish Gaelic . The term Irish Gaelic may be seen when English speakers discuss

2226-499: A young age. A 20th-century tradition from Somerset calls the fairy ring a "galley-trap" and says that a murderer or thief who walks in the ring will be hanged. Most often, someone who violates a fairy perimeter becomes invisible to mortals outside and may find it impossible to leave the circle. Often, the fairies force the mortal to dance to the point of exhaustion, death, or madness. In Welsh tales, fairies actively try to lure mortals into their circles to dance with them. A tale from

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2332-685: A zone on the surface soil becomes visible. Patterns other than the basic ring or arc are also possible: circles, doubled arcs, sickle-shaped arcs, and other complicated formations are also formed by this process. Fungi can deplete the soil of readily available nutrients such as nitrogen , causing plants growing within the circle to be stressed, which leads to plant discoloration. Some fungi also produce chemicals that act like hormones called gibberellins , which affect plant growth, causing rapid luxuriant growth. Long-term observations of fairy rings on Shillingstone Hill in Dorset, England, further suggested that

2438-607: Is Irish for the "Fairy Faith", a term for the collection of beliefs and practices observed by those who wish to keep good relationships with the aos sí and avoid angering them. General belief in the Celtic otherworld, the existence of aos sí and the ability of the aos sí to influence the local area and its people are all beliefs characteristic of the Creideamh Sí . It is characterised as an aspect of Irish popular religion and exists syncretically with folk Christianity. Effort

2544-603: Is a Celtic language of the Indo-European language family . It is a member of the Goidelic language group of the Insular Celtic sub branch of the family and is indigenous to the island of Ireland . It was the majority of the population's first language until the 19th century, when English gradually became dominant, particularly in the last decades of the century, in what is sometimes characterised as

2650-452: Is also An Caighdeán Oifigiúil , a standardised written form devised by a parliamentary commission in the 1950s. The traditional Irish alphabet , a variant of the Latin alphabet with 18 letters , has been succeeded by the standard Latin alphabet (albeit with 7–8 letters used primarily in loanwords ). Irish has constitutional status as the national and first official language of

2756-511: Is divided into four separate phases with the intention of improving 9 main areas of action including: The general goal for this strategy was to increase the number of daily speakers from 83,000 to 250,000 by the end of its run. By 2022, the number of such speakers had fallen to 71,968. Before the partition of Ireland in 1921, Irish was recognised as a school subject and as "Celtic" in some third level institutions. Between 1921 and 1972, Northern Ireland had devolved government. During those years

2862-417: Is forbidden to view her lover; when she does so, her palace disappears, and she is left alone. Superstition calls fairy circles sacred and warns against violating them lest the interloper (such as a farmer with a plough) anger the fairies and be cursed . In an Irish legend recorded by Wilde , a farmer builds a barn on a fairy ring despite the protests of his neighbours. He is struck senseless one night, and

2968-465: Is helpless to leave the dance until, ten weeks later, another knight joins it and frees him. Fairy circles feature in works by several Elizabethan poets and playwrights. William Shakespeare alludes to them in A Midsummer Night's Dream , Act II, Scene I ("And I serve the fairy queen, / To dew her orbs upon the green" and "To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind"), and The Tempest , Act V, Scene I: ... you demi-puppets that By moonshine do

3074-687: Is made by those who believe to appease local aos sí through food and drink. The custom of offering milk and traditional foods—such as baked goods, apples or berries—to the aos sí has survived through the Christian era into the present day in parts of Ireland, Scotland and the diaspora. Those who maintain some degree of belief in the aos sí also are careful to leave their sacred places alone and protect them from damage through road or housing construction. Irish language Irish ( Standard Irish : Gaeilge ), also known as Irish Gaelic or simply Gaelic ( / ˈ ɡ eɪ l ɪ k / GAY -lik ),

3180-840: Is near Belfort in northeastern France. Formed by Infundibulicybe geotropa , it is thought to be about 300 metres (980 ft) in diameter and over 700 years old. On the South Downs in southern England, Calocybe gambosa has formed huge fairy rings that also appear to be several hundred years old. A great deal of folklore surrounds fairy rings. Their names in European languages often allude to supernatural origins; they are known as ronds de sorcières ("witches' circles") in French, and Hexenringe ("witches' rings") in German. In German tradition, fairy rings were thought to mark

3286-587: Is only in Gaeltacht areas that Irish continues to be spoken as a community vernacular to some extent. According to data compiled by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht , Sport and Media , only 1/4 of households in Gaeltacht areas are fluent in Irish. The author of a detailed analysis of the survey, Donncha Ó hÉallaithe of the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology , described

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3392-412: Is still spoken daily to some extent as a first language . These regions are known individually and collectively as the Gaeltacht (plural Gaeltachtaí ). While the fluent Irish speakers of these areas, whose numbers have been estimated at 20–30,000, are a minority of the total number of fluent Irish speakers, they represent a higher concentration of Irish speakers than other parts of the country and it

3498-529: Is that Tuath Dé tends to be used in contexts of legendary history and mythology. Writing in the 7th century, the Irish bishop Tírechán described the sídh folk as "earthly gods" ( Latin : dei terreni ). The 8th century Fiacc's Hymn says that the Irish adored the sídh folk before the coming of Saint Patrick . Due to the oral nature of Irish folklore, the exact origins of the fairies are not well defined. There are enough stories to support two possible origins. The fairies could either be fallen angels or

3604-666: The Fíor-Ghaeltacht (true Gaeltacht ), a term originally officially applied to areas where over 50% of the population spoke Irish. There are Gaeltacht regions in the following counties: Gweedore ( Gaoth Dobhair ), County Donegal, is the largest Gaeltacht parish in Ireland. Irish language summer colleges in the Gaeltacht are attended by tens of thousands of teenagers annually. Students live with Gaeltacht families, attend classes, participate in sports, go to céilithe and are obliged to speak Irish. All aspects of Irish culture and tradition are encouraged. The Act

3710-483: The leanan sídhe (the "fairy lover"), the cat-sìth (a fairy cat), and the cù-sìth (a fairy dog). The sluagh sídhe —"the fairy host"—is sometimes depicted in Irish and Scottish lore as a crowd of airborne spirits, perhaps the cursed, evil or restless dead. The siabhra (anglicised as "sheevra"), may be a type of these lesser spirits, prone to evil and mischief. However, an Ulster folk song also uses "sheevra" simply to mean "spirit" or "fairy". Creideamh Sí

3816-733: The Cambrian Mountains of Wales, current in the 19th century, describes a mortal's encounter with a fairy ring: ... he saw the Tylwyth Teg, in appearance like tiny soldiers, dancing in a ring. He set out for the scene of revelry, and soon drew near the ring where, in a gay company of males and females, they were footing it to the music of the harp. Never had he seen such handsome people, nor any so enchantingly cheerful. They beckoned him with laughing faces to join them as they leaned backward almost falling, whirling round and round with joined hands. Those who were dancing never swerved from

3922-631: The Republic of Ireland , and is also an official language of Northern Ireland and among the official languages of the European Union . The public body Foras na Gaeilge is responsible for the promotion of the language throughout the island. Irish has no regulatory body but An Caighdeán Oifigiúil , the standard written form, is guided by a parliamentary service and new vocabulary by a voluntary committee with university input. In An Caighdeán Oifigiúil ("The Official [Written] Standard ")

4028-507: The burial mounds in which they are said to dwell, which are seen as portals to an Otherworld . Such abodes are referred to in English as 'shee', 'fairy mounds', 'elf mounds' or 'hollow hills'. The aos sí interact with humans and the human world. They are variously said to be the ancestors, the spirits of nature, or goddesses and gods. In modern Irish, they are also called daoine sí ; in Scottish Gaelic daoine sìth ('folk of

4134-514: The sídhe ", has come to indicate any supernatural woman of Ireland who announces a coming death by wailing and keening . Her counterpart in Scottish mythology is the bean sìth (sometimes spelled bean-sìdh ). Other varieties of aos sí and daoine sìth include the Scottish bean-nighe (the washerwoman who is seen washing the bloody clothing or armour of the person who is doomed to die),

4240-532: The 12th century. In his History of the Goths (1628), Swedish writer Olaus Magnus makes this connection, saying that fairy rings are burned into the ground by the dancing of elves. British folklorist Thomas Keightley noted that in Scandinavia in the early 19th century, beliefs persisted that fairy rings ( elfdans ) arose from the dancing of elves. Keightley warned that while entering an elfdans might allow

4346-465: The 13th century. In his Arthurian romance Meraugis de Portlesguez , Raoul de Houdenc describes a scene clearly derived from Celtic fairy-ring lore: The title character visits the Château des Caroles and sees a circle of women and a knight dancing around a pine in the castle courtyard. Meraugis is unable to fight the intense desire to join in, thus freeing the previous knight from the spell. Meraugis

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4452-634: The 17th century, largely as a result of the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland , which saw many Irish sent to the West Indies . Irish emigration to the United States was well established by the 18th century, and was reinforced in the 1840s by thousands fleeing from the Famine . This flight also affected Britain. Up until that time most emigrants spoke Irish as their first language, though English

4558-789: The 1998 Good Friday Agreement , the language gradually received a degree of formal recognition in Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom, and then, in 2003, by the British government's ratification in respect of the language of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages . In the 2006 St Andrews Agreement the British government promised to enact legislation to promote the language and in 2022 it approved legislation to recognise Irish as an official language alongside English. The bill received royal assent on 6 December 2022. The Irish language has often been used as

4664-403: The 6th century, used the Latin alphabet and is attested primarily in marginalia to Latin manuscripts. During this time, the Irish language absorbed some Latin words, some via Old Welsh , including ecclesiastical terms : examples are easpag (bishop) from episcopus , and Domhnach (Sunday, from dominica ). By the 10th century, Old Irish had evolved into Middle Irish , which

4770-571: The Act all detailing different aspects of the use of Irish in official documentation and communication. Included in these sections are subjects such as Irish language use in official courts, official publications, and placenames. The Act was recently amended in December 2019 in order to strengthen the already preexisting legislation. All changes made took into account data collected from online surveys and written submissions. The Official Languages Scheme

4876-471: The European Union , only co-decision regulations were available until 2022, due to a five-year derogation, requested by the Irish Government when negotiating the language's new official status. The Irish government had committed itself to train the necessary number of translators and interpreters and to bear the related costs. This derogation ultimately came to an end on 1 January 2022, making Irish

4982-729: The Fairies around 1834. Images of fairies dancing in circles became a favourite trope of painters in the Victorian period. On the one hand, artists were genuinely interested in the culture such imagery represented, and on the other, fairies could be depicted as titillating nudes and semi-nudes without offending Victorian mores , which made them a popular subject of art collectors. Examples of Victorian fairy-ring paintings include Come unto these Yellow Sands (1842) by Richard Dadd and Reconciliation of Titania and Oberon (1847) by Joseph Noel Paton . In The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008) film

5088-785: The Fairy Ground,    Of which they have the keeping. Fairy imagery became especially popular in the Victorian era . Thomas Hardy uses a fairy ring as a symbol of lost love in The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886); the character Michael Henchard passes a fairy ring and remembers that he last saw his wife Susan there when he sold her to a sailor in a drunken rage. Victorian poets who have referred to fairy rings in their works include Elizabeth Barrett Browning , Eliza Cook , Robert Stephen Hawker , Felicia Hemans , Gerald Massey , and Alfred, Lord Tennyson . W. H. Cummings composed

5194-549: The Irish language policy followed by Irish governments as a "complete and absolute disaster". The Irish Times , referring to his analysis published in the Irish language newspaper Foinse , quoted him as follows: "It is an absolute indictment of successive Irish Governments that at the foundation of the Irish State there were 250,000 fluent Irish speakers living in Irish-speaking or semi Irish-speaking areas, but

5300-620: The Republic of Ireland ), new appointees to the Civil Service of the Republic of Ireland , including postal workers , tax collectors , agricultural inspectors, Garda Síochána (police), etc., were required to have some proficiency in Irish. By law, a Garda who was addressed in Irish had to respond in Irish as well. In 1974, in part through the actions of protest organisations like the Language Freedom Movement ,

5406-746: The beginning of the following academic year. For a number of years there has been vigorous debate in political, academic and other circles about the failure of most students in English-medium schools to achieve competence in Irish, even after fourteen years of teaching as one of the three main subjects. The concomitant decline in the number of traditional native speakers has also been a cause of great concern. In 2007, filmmaker Manchán Magan found few Irish speakers in Dublin , and faced incredulity when trying to get by speaking only Irish in Dublin. He

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5512-516: The brightness of the fairy ring comes not from the dancing of the fairies, who harm it with their feet, but from Puck , who refreshes the grass. A Devon legend says that a black hen and chickens sometimes appear at dusk in a large fairy ring on the edge of Dartmoor . A Welsh and Manx variant current in the 1960s removes dancing from the picture and claims that fairy rings spring up over an underground fairy village. These associations have become linked to specific sites. For example, "The Pixies' Church"

5618-455: The cantata The Fairy Ring , and William Butler Yeats wrote of them in The Land of Heart's Desire (1894). Fairy circles have appeared in European artwork since at least the 18th century. For example, William Blake painted Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing , depicting a scene from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream , around 1785, and Daniel Maclise painted Faun and

5724-549: The circles. In other parts of Europe, entering a fairy ring would result in losing an eye. Fairy rings are associated with diminutive spirits in the Philippines . Western European traditions, including English, Scandinavian, and Celtic, claimed that fairy rings are the result of elves or fairies dancing. Such ideas dated to at least the mediæval period; The Middle English term elferingewort ("elf-ring"), meaning "a ring of daisies caused by elves' dancing" dates to

5830-400: The cycle depended on the continuous presence of rabbits. Chalky soils on higher elevations in the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset in southern England used to support many meadow-type fairy rings. Rabbits crop grass short in open areas and produce nitrogen-rich droppings. Mushrooms need more soil nitrogen than grass does. A ring can start from only a few spores from which the mycelium develops;

5936-510: The descendants of the Tuatha Dé Danann ; in the latter case, this is equivalent with aos sí . In the former case, it is said that the fairies are angels who have fallen from heaven, but whose sins were not great enough to warrant hell. In many Gaelic tales, the aos sí are later literary versions of the Tuatha Dé Danann ("People of the Goddess Danu ")—the deities and deified ancestors of Irish mythology . Some sources describe them as

6042-410: The direction of the sun; to go widdershins allows the fairies to place the runner under their sway. To circle the ring a tenth time is foolhardy and dangerous. Keightley recorded a similar tradition from Northumberland in 1828: "The children constantly run this number [nine times], but nothing will induce them to venture a tenth run." A story from early 20th century England says that a mortal can see

6148-718: The education system. Linguistic analyses of Irish speakers are therefore based primarily on the number of daily users in Ireland outside the education system, which in 2022 was 20,261 in the Gaeltacht and 51,707 outside it, totalling 71,968. In response to the 2021 census of Northern Ireland , 43,557 individuals stated they spoke Irish on a daily basis, 26,286 spoke it on a weekly basis, 47,153 spoke it less often than weekly, and 9,758 said they could speak Irish, but never spoke it. From 2006 to 2008, over 22,000 Irish Americans reported speaking Irish as their first language at home, with several times that number claiming "some knowledge" of

6254-474: The end of the famine, and under 17,000 by 1911. Irish is recognised by the Constitution of Ireland as the national and first official language of Republic of Ireland (English being the other official language). Despite this, almost all government business and legislative debate is conducted in English. In 1938, the founder of Conradh na Gaeilge (Gaelic League), Douglas Hyde , was inaugurated as

6360-403: The fairies' ring Betide him want and wae. For weirdless days and weary nights Are his till his deein' day. But he wha gaes by the fairy ring, Nae dule nor pine shall see, And he wha cleans the fairy ring An easy death shall dee. Numerous legends focus on mortals entering a fairy ring—and the consequences. One superstition is that anyone who steps into an empty fairy ring will die at

6466-418: The fairy mounds'). In the Irish language , aos sí , earlier aes sídhe , means "folk of the fairy mounds". In Old Irish , it was áes síde . The word sí or sídh in Irish means a fairy mound or ancient burial mound, which were seen as portals to an Otherworld . It is derived from proto-Celtic *sīdos ('abode'), and is related to the English words 'seat' and 'settle'. David Fitzgerald conjectured that

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6572-483: The fairy ring is begun by a spore from the sporocarpus . The underground presence of the fungus can also cause withering or varying colour or growth of the grass above. The second theory, which is presented in the investigations of Japanese scientists on the Tricholoma matsutake species, shows that fairy rings could be established by connecting neighbouring oval genets of these mushrooms. If they make an arc or

6678-514: The fairy ring may have no memory of their encounter with the sprites, as in a story from Anglesea recorded in 1891. In most tales, the saved interlopers face a grim fate. For example, in a legend from Carmarthenshire , recorded by Sikes, a man is rescued from a fairy ring only to crumble to dust. In a tale from Mathavarn, Llanwrin Parish, a fairy-ring survivor moulders away when he eats his first bite of food. Another vulnerability seems to be iron; in

6784-560: The first President of Ireland . The record of his delivering his inaugural Declaration of Office in Roscommon Irish is one of only a few recordings of that dialect. In the 2016 census, 10.5% of respondents stated that they spoke Irish, either daily or weekly, while over 70,000 people (4.2%) speak it as a habitual daily means of communication. From the foundation of the Irish Free State in 1922 (see History of

6890-524: The following morning. Local variants add other details. An early 20th-century Irish tradition says that fairies enjoy dancing around the hawthorn tree so that fairy rings often centre on one. One resident of Balquhidder , Scotland, said that the fairies sit on the mushrooms and use them as dinnertables, and a Welsh woman claimed that fairies used the mushrooms as parasols and umbrellas. Olaus Magnus in Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus wrote that

6996-407: The fruiting bodies of the mushrooms appearing only later when sufficient mycelial mass has been generated to support them. Subsequent generations of fungi grow only outward because the parent generations have depleted their local nitrogen levels. Meanwhile, rabbits keep cropping the grass, but do not eat the fungi, allowing them to grow through their competition to tower, relatively, above the grass. By

7102-421: The grass depend on the type of fungus that is growing; when Calvatia cyathiformis is growing in the area, grass grows more abundantly; however, Leucopaxillus giganteus causes the grass to wither. About 60 mushroom species can grow in the fairy ring pattern. The best known is the edible Scotch bonnet ( Marasmius oreades ), commonly known as the fairy ring champignon. One of the largest rings ever found

7208-470: The grass of a fairy ring flourish, and crops sown from such a place prove more bountiful than those from normal land. A folk belief recorded in the Athenian Oracle claims that a house built on a fairy circle brings prosperity to its inhabitants. Likewise, a legend from Pont y Wern says that in the 13th or 14th century, the inhabitants of the town of Corwrion watched fairies dancing in a ring around

7314-588: The green sour ringlets make, Whereof the ewe not bites, and you whose pastime Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice To hear the solemn curfew ... Shakespeare's contemporary Thomas Randolph speaks of fairy rings in his Amyntas, or the Impossible Dowry (1638), and Michael Drayton describes one in Nymphidia: The Court of Fairy : And in their courses make that round In meadows and in marshes found, Of them so called

7420-449: The interloper to see the elves—although this was not guaranteed—it would also put the intruder in thrall to their illusions. The folklores of Britain and Ireland contain a wealth of fairy lore, including the idea from which fairy rings take their name: the phenomena result from the dancing of fairies. In 19th-century Wales, where the rings are known as cylch y Tylwyth Teg , fairies were almost invariably described as dancing in

7526-716: The language family, is derived from the Old Irish term. Endonyms of the language in the various modern Irish dialects include: Gaeilge [ˈɡeːlʲɟə] in Galway, Gaeilg / Gaeilic / Gaeilig [ˈɡeːlʲəc] in Mayo and Ulster , Gaelainn / Gaoluinn [ˈɡeːl̪ˠən̠ʲ] in West/Cork, Kerry Munster , as well as Gaedhealaing in mid and East Kerry/Cork and Waterford Munster to reflect local pronunciation. Gaeilge also has

7632-410: The language was in use by all classes, Irish being an urban as well as a rural language. This linguistic dynamism was reflected in the efforts of certain public intellectuals to counter the decline of the language. At the end of the 19th century, they launched the Gaelic revival in an attempt to encourage the learning and use of Irish, although few adult learners mastered the language. The vehicle of

7738-425: The language. For most of recorded Irish history , Irish was the dominant language of the Irish people , who took it with them to other regions , such as Scotland and the Isle of Man , where Middle Irish gave rise to Scottish Gaelic and Manx . It was also, for a period, spoken widely across Canada , with an estimated 200,000–250,000 daily Canadian speakers of Irish in 1890. On the island of Newfoundland ,

7844-582: The mid-18th century, English was becoming a language of the Catholic middle class, the Catholic Church and public intellectuals, especially in the east of the country. Increasingly, as the value of English became apparent, parents sanctioned the prohibition of Irish in schools. Increasing interest in emigrating to the United States and Canada was also a driver, as fluency in English allowed

7950-554: The most melodious music he had ever heard. Entering the ring on May Eve or Halloween night was especially dangerous. One source near Afon fach Blaen y Cae, a tributary of the Dwyfach, tells of a shepherd accidentally disturbing a ring of rushes where fairies are preparing to dance; they capture him and hold him captive, and he even marries one of them. In variants from Scotland recorded by Edwin Sidney Hartland in 1891,

8056-416: The mounds" (referring to the sídhe ). The aos sí are generally described as stunningly beautiful, though they can also be terrible and hideous. Aos sí are seen as fierce guardians of their abodes—whether a fairy hill, a fairy ring , a special tree (often a hawthorn ) or a particular loch or wood. It is believed that infringing on these spaces will cause the aos sí to retaliate in an effort to remove

8162-421: The mycelium). This breaks down larger molecules in the soil into smaller molecules that are absorbed through the hyphae walls near their growing tips. The mycelium moves outward from the center, and when the nutrients in the center are exhausted, the center dies, forming a living ring, from which the fairy ring arises. There are two theories regarding the process involved in creating fairy rings. One states that

8268-804: The name of the language is Gaeilge , from the South Connacht form, spelled Gaedhilge prior the spelling reform of 1948, which was originally the genitive of Gaedhealg , the form used in Classical Gaelic . The modern spelling results from the deletion of the silent ⟨dh⟩ in Gaedhilge . Older spellings include Gaoidhealg [ˈɡeːʝəlˠəɡ] in Classical Gaelic and Goídelc [ˈɡoiðʲelɡ] in Old Irish . Goidelic , used to refer to

8374-469: The new immigrants to get jobs in areas other than farming. An estimated one quarter to one third of US immigrants during the Great Famine were Irish speakers. Irish was not marginal to Ireland's modernisation in the 19th century, as is often assumed. In the first half of the century there were still around three million people for whom Irish was the primary language, and their numbers alone made them

8480-655: The number now is between 20,000 and 30,000." In the 1920s, when the Irish Free State was founded, Irish was still a vernacular in some western coastal areas. In the 1930s, areas where more than 25% of the population spoke Irish were classified as Gaeltacht . Today, the strongest Gaeltacht areas, numerically and socially, are those of South Connemara , the west of the Dingle Peninsula , and northwest Donegal, where many residents still use Irish as their primary language. These areas are often referred to as

8586-503: The other official language, if not already passed in both official languages. In November 2016, RTÉ reported that over 2.3 million people worldwide were learning Irish through the Duolingo app. Irish president Michael D. Higgins officially honoured several volunteer translators for developing the Irish edition, and said the push for Irish language rights remains an "unfinished project". There are rural areas of Ireland where Irish

8692-489: The others chlorinated. It is unclear whether these were metabolites or pollutants. Brominated compounds are unknown as metabolites from terrestrial fungi. There are two generally recognised types of fairy ring fungus. Those found in the woods are called tethered because they are formed by mycorrhizal fungi living in symbiosis with trees. Meadow fairy rings are called free because they are disconnected from other organisms. These mushrooms are saprotrophic . The effects on

8798-468: The people or objects that invaded their homes. Many of these tales contribute to the changeling myth in west European folklore , with the aos sí kidnapping trespassers or replacing their children with changelings as a punishment for transgressing. The aos sí are often connected to certain times of year and hours; as the Gaelic Otherworld is believed to come closer to the mortal world at

8904-473: The perfect circle; but some were clambering over the old cromlech, and others chasing each other with surprising swiftness and the greatest glee. Still others rode about on small white horses of the most beautiful form ... All this was in silence, for the shepherd could not hear the harps, though he saw them. But now he drew nearer to the circle, and finally ventured to put his foot in the magic ring. The instant he did this, his ears were charmed with strains of

9010-557: The political party holding power in the Stormont Parliament , the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), was hostile to the language. The context of this hostility was the use of the language by nationalists. In broadcasting, there was an exclusion on the reporting of minority cultural issues, and Irish was excluded from radio and television for almost the first fifty years of the previous devolved government. After

9116-492: The relationship between the three Goidelic languages (Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx). Gaelic is a collective term for the Goidelic languages, and when the context is clear it may be used without qualification to refer to each language individually. When the context is specific but unclear, the term may be qualified, as Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic or Manx Gaelic. Historically the name "Erse" ( / ɜːr s / URS )

9222-432: The requirement for entrance to the public service was changed to proficiency in just one official language. Nevertheless, Irish remains a required subject of study in all schools in the Republic of Ireland that receive public money (see Education in the Republic of Ireland ). Teachers in primary schools must also pass a compulsory examination called Scrúdú Cáilíochta sa Ghaeilge . As of 2005, Garda Síochána recruits need

9328-647: The revival was the Gaelic League ( Conradh na Gaeilge ), and particular emphasis was placed on the folk tradition, which in Irish is particularly rich. Efforts were also made to develop journalism and a modern literature. Although it has been noted that the Catholic Church played a role in the decline of the Irish language before the Gaelic Revival, the Protestant Church of Ireland also made only minor efforts to encourage use of Irish in

9434-439: The ring is replaced by a cavern or an old mill. Freedom from a fairy ring often requires outside intervention. A tactic from early 20th-century Wales is to cast wild marjoram and thyme into the circle and befuddle the fairies; another asks the rescuer to touch the victim with iron. Other stories require that the enchanted victim simply be plucked out by someone on the outside, although even this can be difficult: A farmer in

9540-555: The site of witches' dancing on Walpurgis Night , and Dutch superstition claimed that the circles show where the Devil set his milk churn. In Tyrol , folklore attributed fairy rings to the fiery tails of flying dragons; once a dragon had created such a circle, nothing but toadstools could grow there for seven years. European superstitions routinely warned against entering a fairy ring. French tradition reported that fairy rings were guarded by giant bug-eyed toads that cursed those who violated

9646-408: The sprites without fear if a friend places a foot on that of the person stepping beyond the circle's perimeter. Another superstition says that wearing a hat backward can confuse the fairies and prevent them from pulling the wearer into their ring. Although they strongly associate doom, some legends paint fairy circles as places of fertility and fortune. Welsh folk believe that mountain sheep that eat

9752-531: The subject of much folklore and myth worldwide—particularly in Western Europe. They are often seen as hazardous or dangerous places, and linked with witches or the Devil in folklore. Conversely, they can sometimes be linked with good fortune. The mycelium of a fungus growing in the ground absorbs nutrients by secretion of enzymes from the tips of the hyphae (thread-like branching filaments making up

9858-886: The survivors of the Tuatha Dé Danann who retreated into the Otherworld when fleeing the mortal Sons of Míl Espáine who, like many other early invaders of Ireland, came from Iberia. As part of the terms of their surrender to the Milesians , the Tuatha Dé Danann agreed to retreat and dwell underground. In folk belief and practice, the aos sí are often appeased with offerings and care is taken to avoid angering or insulting them. Often, they are not named directly, but rather spoken of as "The Good Neighbours", "The Fair Folk", or simply "The Folk". The most common names for them, aos sí , aes sídhe , daoine sídhe (singular duine sídhe ) and daoine sìth mean, literally, "people of

9964-520: The time a circle of mushrooms reaches about 6 metres (20 ft) in diameter, rabbit droppings have replenished the nitrogen levels near the centre of the circle, and a secondary ring may start to grow inside the first. Soil analysis of soil containing mycelium from a wood blewit ( Clitocybe nuda ) fairy ring under Norway spruce ( Picea abies ) and Scots pine ( Pinus sylvestris ) in southeast Sweden yielded fourteen halogenated low molecular weight organic compounds, three of which were brominated and

10070-553: The times of dusk and dawn, the aos sí correspondingly become easier to encounter. Some festivals such as Samhain , Bealtaine and Midsummer are also associated with the aos sí. A sídh (anglicized 'shee') is burial mound ( tumuli ) associated with the aos sí . In modern Irish, the word is sí (plural síthe ); in Scottish Gaelic it is sìth (plural sìthean ); in Old Irish it is síd (plural síde ). These sídhe are referred to in English as 'fairy mounds', 'elf mounds' or 'hollow hills'. In some later English-language texts,

10176-726: The vacancy to which they are appointed. This requirement is laid down by the University College Galway Act, 1929 (Section 3). In 2016, the university faced controversy when it announced the planned appointment of a president who did not speak Irish. Misneach staged protests against this decision. The following year the university announced that Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh , a fluent Irish speaker, would be its 13th president. He assumed office in January 2018; in June 2024, he announced he would be stepping down as president at

10282-441: The word sídh was synonymous with "immortal" and is compared with words such as sídsat ("they wait/remain"), síthbeo ("lasting"), sídhbuan ("perpetual"), and sídhbe ("long life"). In most of the tales concerning the sí , a great age or long life is implied. In medieval Irish literature, the names aes síde and fír síde (folk of the síd ) are equivalent to the terms Tuath Dé and Tuatha Dé Danann . The only difference

10388-486: The word sídhe is incorrectly used both for the mounds and the people of the mounds. For example, W. B. Yeats , writing in 1908, referred to the aos sí simply as "the sídhe ". However, sidh in older texts refers specifically to "the palaces, courts, halls or residences" of the otherworldly beings that supposedly inhabit them. The Aos sí are known by many names in Ireland, among them: The banshee or bean sídhe (from Old Irish : ban síde ), which means "woman of

10494-594: The work of such writers as Geoffrey Keating , is said to date from the 17th century, and was the medium of popular literature from that time on. From the 18th century on, the language lost ground in the east of the country. The reasons behind this shift were complex but came down to a number of factors: The change was characterised by diglossia (two languages being used by the same community in different social and economic situations) and transitional bilingualism (monoglot Irish-speaking grandparents with bilingual children and monoglot English-speaking grandchildren). By

10600-479: Was a rock formation in Dartmoor surrounded by a fairy ring, and a stone circle tops Cader Idris in northern Wales, believed to be a popular spot for fairy dances. Many folk beliefs generally paint fairy rings as dangerous places, best avoided. American writer Wirt Sikes traces these stories of people trespassing into forbidden territory and being punished for it to the tale of Psyche and Eros . In it, Psyche

10706-531: Was also sometimes used in Scots and then in English to refer to Irish; as well as Scottish Gaelic. Written Irish is first attested in Ogham inscriptions from the 4th century AD, a stage of the language known as Primitive Irish . These writings have been found throughout Ireland and the west coast of Great Britain. Primitive Irish underwent a change into Old Irish through the 5th century. Old Irish, dating from

10812-668: Was enacted 1 July 2019 and is an 18-page document that adheres to the guidelines of the Official Languages Act 2003 . The purpose of the Scheme is to provide services through the mediums of Irish and/or English. According to the Department of the Taoiseach, it is meant to "develop a sustainable economy and a successful society, to pursue Ireland's interests abroad, to implement the Government's Programme and to build

10918-500: Was establishing itself as the primary language. Irish speakers had first arrived in Australia in the late 18th century as convicts and soldiers, and many Irish-speaking settlers followed, particularly in the 1860s. New Zealand also received some of this influx. Argentina was the only non-English-speaking country to receive large numbers of Irish emigrants, and there were few Irish speakers among them. Fairy ring Fairy rings are

11024-474: Was passed 14 July 2003 with the main purpose of improving the number and quality of public services delivered in Irish by the government and other public bodies. Compliance with the Act is monitored by the An Coimisinéir Teanga (Irish Language Commissioner) which was established in 2004 and any complaints or concerns pertaining to the Act are brought to them. There are 35 sections included in

11130-637: Was spoken throughout Ireland, Isle of Man and parts of Scotland . It is the language of a large corpus of literature, including the Ulster Cycle . From the 12th century, Middle Irish began to evolve into modern Irish in Ireland, into Scottish Gaelic in Scotland, and into the Manx language in the Isle of Man . Early Modern Irish , dating from the 13th century, was the basis of the literary language of both Ireland and Gaelic-speaking Scotland. Modern Irish, sometimes called Late Modern Irish, as attested in

11236-442: Was unable to accomplish some everyday tasks, as portrayed in his documentary No Béarla . There is, however, a growing body of Irish speakers in urban areas, particularly in Dublin. Many have been educated in schools in which Irish is the language of instruction. Such schools are known as Gaelscoileanna at primary level. These Irish-medium schools report some better outcomes for students than English-medium schools. In 2009,

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