Irish Voice Over Michael Ryan.
Its always a delight to bring to life old Irish folklore using my Irish voice over skills. This is a story, which I narrated for the YouTube channel “Encounters with the Good People”. We see the This story, written in 1938 is about a tree situated close to a faerie fort in Shanwally, County Galway in Ireland. The creator of this channel, Kitty Phelan, explains the context to this story. “Do the Faerie care if we bulldoze a hill to make way for a new highway, or cut down a tree because it’s casting too much shade on our garden? If we release our waste into the ocean, drain a lake or redirect a river, do the Faerie even notice? Some believe that our treatment of the natural world has no effect on Faerie and they couldn’t care less what we do! But others believe the natural landscape sustains the Faerie as it does us and that they will, and do, take extreme action to actively protect the environment from Humans.” As an Irish voice over, I was proud to be able to help resurrect this story after all these years.
For other exciting and beautiful videos featuring real stories of the Good People, please see the following playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrHlR9hg2RT_ztiDFZvH4W-EWdymiveuF
You will no doubt come across other stories that needed an Irish voice over.
Transcript of the story.
One day, a man named Jack Kelly was out fencing, and in the evening he had
still not enough of bushes. This Fairy tree was nearby, and he went to cut a few
branches off it for his fencing. He did so, and continued working again. When he
went home that evening, he passed no remarks to anyone as to how he had cut
some branches off the Fairy tree for fencing.
That night, at about twelve o’clock, when he was in bed, he was awakened by a
light, and a knock at the window, and he heard an angry voice abusing him. But
he could not understand what the voice was saying to him. He got up, opened
the door, and looked outside to see who was at the window. But when he went
out, he couldn’t see anyone.
The next day he continued his fencing and cut a few branches off the Fairy tree
again. That night, the same light and knock and the angry voice came to the
window. The voice was angrier that the night before.
The third day, he made up his mind not to interfere with the Fairy tree and he
continued his fencing. When he stopped cutting this Fairy tree, he never saw
the light, or heard the knock or the angry voice at the window any more.
This Fairy tree still stands in the same place as it was when this man cut its
branches for his fencing. The marks of the instrument that he had cutting it are
still to be seen, and they are as fresh as the day he cut it.
People say that it is not right to touch even a stick or a stone in old forts, let
alone a branch on a Fairy tree.
*
A “Fairy path” runs through John Rorke’s house. The Fairies travel on this path
after night. They go in the door of the house and no matter how they lock or tie
up the door at night it is always open in the morning.
*
There is an old ruined mill by the river in Rockvale, opposite Redstone Well, the
local water supply. The reason the mill is only half built is that some Fairy people
used to come every night and throw down the walls of the mill. The masons
always returned the next day, and built the walls higher, but to no avail, as the
walls were thrown down again the next morning. It was eventually accepted the
mill had been built on a Fairy path and it was abandoned.
*
One time in this parish there was built a lovely, new house but it was built on a
Fairy path, which was leading to a fort, known to be home to the “Good
People”.
The folk who built it could never live in the house on account of harassment by
the Fairies. One night a crowd of young men agreed to remain up all night and
see what was the matter. This they did.
At first, they heard a constant rattling. They locked the doors and all at once
they heard howling and growling outside the door. What broke the door in but
an enormous old bull, who bellowed in such a way that they thought it was an
earthquake. Out the young men ran in great terror, glad enough to have
escaped with their lives. The little house has stood ever since unoccupied.
Had they observed the old custom of testing the site in the following way they
would never have built it.
Step one: Cut foundation.
Step two: Gather a heap of stones.
Step three: Over the stones, lay a shovel and spade in a cross on each corner of
the property.
Step four: If they are knocked down in the morning do not build as it is on a
Fairy Path.
*
‘Once while I was fishing from a ledge of rocks that runs out into the sea, a
dense grey mist began to approach the land, and I thought I had best make for
home while the footpath above the rocks was visible.
When getting my things together I heard what sounded like a lot of children
coming out of school. I lifted my head, and behold ye, there was a fleet of Fairy
boats each side of the rock. Their riding-lights were shining like little stars, and I
heard one of the Little Fellas shout, “Poor times and dirty weather, there’s
herring enough at the people of this world, but nothing at us”.
Michael Ryan. Irish Voice over. Voice of Irish Wit and Charm.
To hear more of my voiceover narrations, go to; https://michaelryanvoiceover.com/demos/