28/08/2018
The Fairies Horses
Our folklore is not only intertwined with our archaeological heritage but also with the flora and fauna that inhabit the island. One example is the Ragwort plant, or fairy horse, a handsome and useful plant loved by pollinators, useful as a cure used in folk medicine, and hated by many farmers, and perhaps rightly so, which we will come to later.
Growing up in rural Ireland, they were called the fairies horses or more commonly Buachalans, (Pronounced Boo ka lawns) In some parts of the country Buachalan Bui (Bwee meaning yellow) We were warned not to touch them as they were the sacred horses of the fairies, and dire consequences would befall anyone who interfered with these handsome little flowers.
In different parts of the country tales abound of night time abduction, waylaid travellers forced to ride fairy steeds for miles and miles with a fairy horde, all throughout the dark hours, only to awake next morning exhausted and clutching a buachalan in their fist.
There are also warnings against hitting a cow with a buachalan switch, as the fairies would steal it’s milk.
The following tale from Duchas.ie is from the late 1930’s.
“ In the downland of Geevagh there lived a man named Thomas Layden. One night when he was coming home from gamboling he took a short cut through the fields. By doing this he had to go through a field of "Buachalan's". No sooner had he entered the field than he saw hundreds of fairies.
They all spoke to him and said "Céad míle fáilte Romhat." (A hundred thousand welcomes) Then each pulled a "Buachalan" in turn and instantly the plants were changed into white horses. They told Tomas to do the same and so he did.
They ordered him to follow them and not to speak a word. He did as they told him until he came to "Carraig ltí Ghealaigh," a huge rock near Kilronan. Here he swore on oath that he would be killed, and as he broke the fairies command, the horse disappeared and he fell to the ground.
There he was found the next morning by a passer-by.”
Ragwort contains toxic compounds that can pose a real danger to most livestock if consumed in large quantities in a short period or in small amounts over a longer period of time. Most livestock avoid the bitter tasting ragwort but unfortunately, overstocking and overgrazing can lead to desperate feeding, and also the plant retains it’s toxic element when dried in hay.
Ragwort (Buachalans) are classified as a noxious w**d and their numbers must be controlled under the Noxious Weeds Act 1936. Landowners have been, and continue to be prosecuted for allowing these yellow flowering plants to thrive on their land.
I can only think when faced with enforcement of this legislation, some farmers must have faced a dilemma of who to get on the wrong side of, the law of the land, or the Fairy folk.
Folklore tale from Crosshill County Roscommon by Mr Henry J. Mc Dermott, accessed from Duchas.ie available at: https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4758453/4745367
Ragwort image by Christain Fischer accessed from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SenecioJacobaeaJacobaea.jpg
