They are located at Ravensdale Drive, St Martins Drive/Bangor Road, Clogher Road, Cashel Road Clonmacnoise Green and O’ Dwyer Road, these fairy trees are related to lockdown and the fairies come every few nights to keep an eye on the trees and to ensure the trees are being looked after by the local children. Before the end of the month I hope to locate and photograph the other five trees.
Traditionally fairies are connected with the Irish traditional belief in the Otherworld. Fairy forts and hawthorn trees, also known as fairy trees, are places where fairies are thought to reside. Thus, to tamper with these sites is seen as hugely disrespectful to the fairies. There are several trees sacred to Ireland, but the lone hawthorn (aka the "may" tree) is particularly considered a fairy haunt, and patches underneath where the grass have worn down are reputed to be due to fairies dancing. Though literary fiction more than folklore, two consecutive poems by Samuel Ferguson, "The Fairy Thorn" and "The Fairy Well of Lagnanay" describes the lone Fairy Hawthorn (The Whitethorn).
