BANSHEE: A female spirit that is heard to cry when the death of a member of an Irish family is imminent. Although it is claimed that she presages the death only of those with Ó or Mac in their surnames, in practice many names of non-Gaelic origin are included…

CEASAIR: Fictional lady, leader of the imagined first ever settlement in Ireland. The narrative of her story claims she was a granddaughter of Noah and that she came to Ireland to escape the Deluge. She arrived 40 days before the Flood, with 49 other women and just three men, two of whom soon died. The third, FIONNTAN, left alone with all the women felt inadequate and fled. Ceasair died from a broken heart on account of his absence and was buried at Cúil Ceasra.

CROMWELL, OLIVER: The Royalist party in England claimed that a tapestry of the devil hung in the room where he was born. This developed in Irish folklore into the claim that when Cromwell drilled his soldiers in a field, he had a picture of the devil hanging on the gate at the entrance, and every time he himself passed through the gate, the devil bowed to him. Royalist cartons of his own time in England usually represented Cromwell in the company of the devil, and an echo of this in Irish folklore is the story of how a friar once encountered Cromwell, who was mounted on a fine horse. The terrified friar saluted the ‘two gentlemen’, and when Cromwell queried who the other gentleman was, he found that the devil could be seen riding behind him.
 

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ELIZABETH I: Later folklore accounts claim that Elizabeth slept with a different man each night, and in the morning had each of her lovers sent to the block.

PATRICK: Several versions of Patrick’s biography were written by Anglo-Norman scholars in the Middle Ages. The most striking innovation in these is the notion that the saint banished snakes from Ireland. This motif first became attached to him in the twelfth century, and various explanations of it have been suggested. Ireland was well-know for its lack of snakes from ancient times, and the Greek writer Solinus referred to the fact over a century before Patrick was born. Early medieval writers, such as Isidorus and Bede, also mention it as a scientific fact and with no reference to any tradition involving Patrick. The connection with the saint seems to have been due to the fancy of hagiographical writers….

TARA: The centre of the HIGH-KINGSHIP in Irish tradition. A fine view of the centre of Ireland is available from this vantage point, and as an important burial place from the second millennium BC, it was highly valued long before Celtic culture became general throughout the area.

WILD GEESE: A metaphoric term used for exiled Irishmen fighting in Continental armies. It originated as a code word used for recruiting young men to go abroad into the French army in the early eighteenth century. Wild geese being migratory birds, the promise of a return to Ireland was held out, thus giving the code word an aura of secrecy and subversion of English power.