Fairy Child Poisoned in Co. Donegal

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foxglove

‘A child ‘in the fairies’ if washed with water in which fox-glove is steeped the possession is broken. Such a child in modern times was put out on a shovel on the dunghill. A child I rescued and put in hospital some three years ago, was taken home by her parents it was ‘in the fairies’ and it died. No proceedings could be taken in the case, it was so delicate, and proof of neglect was difficult. But the facts are as I state.’ J. Cooke ‘Irish Folklore from Connaught, Collected Chiefly in North Donegal’, Folklore 7 (1896), 299-301 at 300.

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