Every article on this site names its sources, gives Irish names with a guide to saying them, and separates old tradition from later additions. This page explains how we research, write, and correct our work.

Who We Write For

We write for curious readers rather than specialists: people who met a banshee in a childhood story, a púca in a novel, or the Morrígan in a video game and want to know where they really come from. We keep the writing clear and the stories lively, but we hold every article to the standards of a reference work. A reader should be able to trust what we say and check it for themselves.

How We Research

Our articles draw on three kinds of source. The first is the medieval Irish manuscript tradition, read in published editions and translations. The second is the work of the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century collectors, such as Thomas Crofton Croker, Patrick Kennedy, and Douglas Hyde, who wrote down stories from the people who told them. The third is the National Folklore Collection, including the Schools’ Collection of the 1930s, alongside modern scholarship on all of the above.

We check facts before we write them, not after. Where possible, we name the text, the collector, and the date behind a claim. When sources disagree, we say so rather than quietly picking one, and when a detail can’t be traced to any early source, we say that too.

Old Tradition and Later Additions

Irish folklore built up in layers over more than a thousand years. A story told today may combine medieval material with details added by Victorian writers, and with inventions that are younger still. None of these layers is worthless, but readers deserve to know which one they are looking at.

So we separate them wherever we can. We note when a familiar detail first appears in print, when a popular idea comes from a novel, a play, or a film, and when a belief belongs to modern practice rather than old tradition. We aim to do this without sneering. Modern retellings and modern paganism are part of the story of Irish folklore too, and we describe them fairly.

How We Retell the Stories

We want these stories to be a pleasure to read, so we tell them with as much life as we can. What we never do is change what happens in them. We don’t alter a plot, invent a character, or add a detail for effect. Our retellings follow published versions of each tale, and where versions differ from one region or one teller to the next, we say which version we are following.

Irish Names and Pronunciation

We give names in Irish first, followed by a simple English respelling to help with pronunciation, such as POO-kuh for púca. Where a name is better known in an English form, we give both. Irish is spoken differently in Munster, Connacht, and Ulster, and where pronunciation varies in a way that matters, we try to note it. Corrections from Irish speakers are always welcome.

Sources on Every Article

Each article ends with a list of its main sources under Sources and Further Reading. These are real, published works that a reader can find in a library or online. We are working through our older articles to bring them up to this standard.

Corrections

We will sometimes get things wrong. If you spot an error, please tell us through our Contact page, with the name of the article and a description of the problem. We review every report. When a correction changes an article in a meaningful way, we update the article and note the change at the end of the page.

Advertising and Independence

This site may carry advertising, which helps pay for the research and writing. Advertisers have no say in what we write, which topics we cover, or what our articles conclude. If an article ever includes affiliate links, such as links to books or tours that earn us a small commission, we say so on that page.

Who Writes Here

Our articles are written by John Nolan, together with a small group of writers and folklore enthusiasts. Every article is checked against its sources before it is published. You can read more about the site on our About page.