Dear Editor,

Do today’s Irish men and women still occasionally encounter leprechauns, phookas, banshees or any of the other various Irish fairies’ kith and kin? Or has modernity banished the fairy folk to the shadowlands of legend and lore?

In 1959, historian Dermot Mac Manus published The Middle Kingdom, in which he collected first-hand accounts of then living individuals who recounted having actual encounters with Irish fairies. To my knowledge no attempt has been made since then to determine if such encounters still occur in today’s Ireland.

In the hope of learning whether fairies still haunt the Irish countryside or lurk within secluded urban byways, I am attempting to conduct what might be called an Irish Fairy Census throughout Ireland. I wish to invite your readers to share with me any first-hand encounters they may have experienced with Irish supernatural beings in any of their elusive and fascinating forms. I may be contacted by email at mlyon@hauntedisles.com or by post at 12364 Summit Ridge Drive, Nevada City, California 95959 USA.

Sincerely,

Mark Lyon.