Interview with the Author on the Background to Leannán Sidhe

What is a Sidhe?

The word ‘Sí’ (or ‘Sidhe’ in old spelling) originally meant a ‘mound’. The initial Celtic settlers to Ireland associated the Neolithic mounds and tumuli scattered around the country with a community of magical beings called the Tuatha Dé Danann (the people of the Goddess Dana). The Tuatha Dé Danann were an otherworldly people who lived on a separate plane to humans but who interacted with them on occasion. The mounds and other sites were believed to be areas where the two planes could overlap at certain times of the year. Over time, the Tuatha Dé Danann became referred to as the ‘Sidhe’.

Unlike the English fairies, the Sidhe were not small, flower-hopping creatures that lived at the bottom of the garden. The Sidhe in Ireland were the same size as mortals (albeit with a diverse range of giants and smaller creatures thrown in). Although at times they were benevolent, the Sidhe could also be extremely vindictive and potentially hazardous. For this reason they were treated with caution and feared (particularly by the rural population) right up to recent times.

So what the hell is a Leannán Sidhe?

The Tuatha Dé Danann were believed to bestow arts, skills and healing powers to ordinary mortals. For this reason, there are many stories associated with artists and poets falling asleep on sacred mounds who wake up with new powers of creativity.

The Leannán Sidhe, was a variant of this theme. “Leannán”, literally, means “lover”. Hence a “Leannán Sidhe” was a “fairy lover” or “otherworld lover”, a muse that inspired creativity in its sexual partners. In this respect you could say that she was a looser cousin to the Bean Sidhe (the banshee).

From the 1850s onwards, poetic and literary convention (particularly W.B Yeats and his contemporaries) transformed the Leannán Sidhe into a vampire-like creature who preyed on artists and poets, feeding off their life force in return for providing them with inspiration (along the lines of ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’). According to this interpretation, the Leannán Sidhe enchanted the human partner to such an extent that they wasted away and died when she left them. Some people really need to get out more!

So why use it as a title of a book?

Leannán Sidhe is the title for the first story in the collection. This particular story was originally entitled ‘Stone Wall Muse’ but the parallels of the main character with the Leannán Sidhe from folklore were too strong to ignore.

Where was the cover photo taken?

This photo was taken on Oileán Baoi (Dursey Island) which is just off the tip of the Beara Peninsula and accessed predominantly by cable car. The road in the photograph leads up the township of Ballynacallagh (Baile an Chalaidh - which means “town of the landing site” [this is an island]). I took the photo myself about ten years ago. The place hasn’t changed much since.

Are you really Irish?

I was born and grew up in Cork city in the south of Ireland. My father is from the Beara Peninsula in West Cork, my mother from Grenagh. I left Ireland when I finished university in 1986. Oddly enough, many New Zealanders ask me what part of the States I come from (a common occurrence according to other Irish people living here who’ve experienced the same thing). I usually just answer ‘Cork’ and they nod knowledgeably.

Are you a Gaelic speaker?

Yes, but not a native speaker. English is my first language as I wasn’t brought up in a Gaelic speaking household back in Ireland. Having said that, we speak a bizarre combination of Gaelic, Reo and English at home in Wellington much to the surprise of visitors new to the house. When we don’t want the kids to understand, my partner and I speak in French.

You enjoy speaking other languages then?

Yes. Studies in Ireland have indicated that children who study more than one language at school tend to do better, overall, in their other subjects. In addition, speaking more than one language helps to make us less blinkered and more tolerant of people who are different to us. For these reasons, it’s a bit of a worry that so few foreign movies are shown on New Zealand television (with the exception of Maori Television).