New lease of life for Eddie’s six terrible women

FOR years, Eddie Lenihan has been keeping old folklore stories alive and his latest CD, Six Terrible Women, recounts the tales of six women, whose names go down in history for putting the fear of God in people.
It is a rerelease of a tape he compiled about 12 years ago.
“Essentially, the CD is six stories about terrible women – four from Clare, one from West Limerick and one from Waterford. There are two Biddy Earley stories and one story from East Clare about a woman called Aoibhinn or Aoibheall, who was the Dalcassian banshee, one of the 25 Clare banshees. The fourth Clare story is about The Lady in White, based at O’Brien’s Castle in Crusheen,” Eddie explained.
The West Limerick story is about Spiorad na mBarna or Moll O’Shaughnessy, while the Waterford story tells of Mary Hannigan or Petticoat Loose.
Biddy Earley was one of Clare’s best known ‘wise women’, born in Faha, close to Feakle. It is claimed that Biddy had powers to cure or to curse and could foretell events. The church of the 1840s was not tolerant of such activities and Biddy was denounced from the altar. Biddy’s bottle, the source of all cure or ill was kept in her dresser.
The Dalcassian banshee, Aoibheall ruled a sidhe in North Munster but little is known about her before she became deminatured into fairy status by popular folklore. She became the guardian spirit of the Dál gCais, otherwise known as the Dalcassians or O’Brien clan. Her home was at the Craig Liath, or gray rock, which was located two miles north of Killaloe. Folklore has it that she possessed a magic harp that she gifted to Meardha and it was believed that whoever heard the harp’s music would not live long afterward.
The story about The Lady in White tells of how a man digging for treasure at O’Brien’s Castle in Crusheen found more than he was bargaining for, Eddie said.
“Spiorad na mBarna is based in Barna, Newcastle West and tells of Moll O’Shaughnessy. She was hanged there after she is believed to have killed her husband. It’s a twisted story with some truth, I believe,” he added.
Eddie commented that it took him quite some time to find the stories and have them told accurately to him.
“I recorded them all about 12 years ago on tape. They are wonderful stories and I really wanted to record them again on CD to bring them to more people,” he remarked.
He said the topic of terrible women intrigues him. “It probably would have been easier to find six terrible men, because everyone hears about strong men. But these six women and many more, were strong, tough women who were politically minded too. If I’m doing it again, I would include Granuaile, who was a truly amazing woman. I think part of the appeal of these stories is that women haven’t really had a proper mention in history because it’s always been written by men but folklore keeps these stories alive. They are moralistic stories, which put these women up as how someone would not want their daughter, or sister, or wife to be. But at the end of the day, they are only seen as terrible women because they challenged men with their strength,” he remarked.
So, were these six women really terrible? “That’s open to individual interpretation. The book of the same stories several years ago was called Six Defiant Women. One thing is for sure, they were terrible for men because they upset the balance and stood up to them. People don’t like to acknowledge the power of women in the past. These stories tell of a different time in a very vivid way,” Eddie commented.
Currently, Eddie is working on bringing out a Biddy Earley CD and book. “I’ve brought out a book about Biddy Earley before but in the next edition of the book, I’ll include her death certificate, which proves once and for all that she existed. I found her death cert in the court records and she died in April 1874,” he says.
His next recording will be The Small Book of Weasels. “The weasel is the animal that most stories are told about. It is known as the Dane’s Cat because the belief is that the Vikings brought the weasel to Ireland as their cat. The CD is in preparation. Eight stories are ready, including one I recorded this Monday for a TG4 recording to be used as part of a programme on West Clare Railway,” he added.
Six Terrible Women is available in music and book shops.