Dr Gillian Kenny

And the Tuatha Dé Danann were said to have acquired magic in the Northern Islands before coming to Ireland.

So they are what you might know as the fairies, and a lot of this activity is listed in an actual book we have called The Book of Invasions, because we don't forget.

Like most Irish people.

They are beings who are immune to our charm.

They can be very malevolent.

They can love us.

They live alongside us in the invisible realm.

So the fairy, though, doesn't even begin to describe them.

Fairy is a later English name for them.

Their original name is the Aes Si, and that means people of the Hollow Hills.

In Irish tradition, you never call them by their name.

because you don't want to get their attention.

They provide a very handy mechanism within Gaelic medieval Ireland for explaining bad stuff.

So if someone died, unfortunately, if you had problems with livestock, if you had crop failures,

That's the fairies.

You've annoyed the fairies.

Of course, you've got famous fairies, like the Banshee, for example, who predicted people's deaths by crying out and screeching at them or their loved ones.

So the thing about the Banshee is, if you hear it, you're not going to die, but someone you know is.

Just putting that out there.

But they're not the only ones who will turn up for people because fairies would do you a bad turn if you did one for them.