Ireland's Darkest Folklore

<p><strong>*TW: This episode contains discussions and themes of infertility.</strong>*</p><br><p>Fairies have long been part of Irish folkloric history, with its landscape dotted with thousands of 'fairy forts'. But there's a dark side to these beliefs.</p><br><p>Changelings are thought to be evil fairies who steal humans from families, taking them to the fairy world and replacing them with weak, disfigured fairy lookalikes.</p><br><p>It taps into a dark history of disease, poverty and even murder.</p><br><p>Joining Anthony and Maddy today is Cecily Gilligan, author of <em>Cures of Ireland: A Treasury of Irish Folk Remedies</em>, to take us back to Ireland's unique and dark folk history.</p><br><p>Edited by Tomos Delargy. Produced by Stuart Beckwith. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.</p><br><p>Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at <a href="https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><u>https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe</u></a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><br><p><u>You can take part in our listener survey</u><a href="https://insights.historyhit.com/history-hit-podcast-always-on" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><u> here</u></a><u>.</u></p><br><p>All music from Epidemic Sounds.</p><br><p>After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.</p> <hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>