The Little People are the Irish Fairies and Leprechauns are their shoe makers. The Banshee is an Irish house fairy and the Fairy Maid of Ireland, also known as the Will-o-the-Wisp or Jack-O-Lantern is a spirit of the bogs and marshes who leads astray travellers.
It is, ofcourse, the goblins, also known as hob-goblins or boggarts in Scotland, you have to watch out for who live in private houses and the chinks of trees. Elves, fairies of diminutive size and not to be confused with pigwidgeons who are very tiny fairies, like all faeries, are fond of practical jokes and should not be confused with gnomes who are guardians of mines and quarries.
A puck, not to be mistaken for a Devonshire pixie, is a merry little fairy spirit, full of fun and harmless mischief, also known as Robin Goodfellow and should never be confused with an imp, who is a little demon and spirit of mischief, or a hamadryad, who is a wood nymph. Each wood nymph lives in their own tree and dies when the tree dies.
Where on earth would we be on St Patrick's without the marvellous Dictionary of Phrase and Fable by E. Cobham Brewer? A wise man who can be relied upon to illuminate our ignorance about the inhabitant of Fairy Land.
Personally, I feel you can always rely on gnomes. They believe in love and laughter, abhor violence and believe that Man can live in harmony with nature and that wars should be lost deep in the pages of history.
Many people, when asked about gnomes, think of them as garden mascots guarding rockeries and ponds. But there is a higher explanation for Man's fascination with gnomes throughout the ages.
The word gnome is derived from the Greek verb meaning to know and this is why gnomes have always been thought of as small people with great knowledge and magical powers.
I was introduced to a community of them by my dear friend Colin Stone and, as far as I know, they still lives beneath Dragonlair Hill in the Middle Lands of England.
Gombolo, their king, Nostragnomas, Paradoc, Curlygrow, Nippergnome, Gastrognomus and Ludwig Von Metrognome. It was always Colin's wish before he died that the stories he and I wrote about them would be told to children all over the world.
But I keep the stories safe knowing that they will one day be found and shared.
As we gather at dusk with friends to celebrate St Patrick's, I shall raise a glass of Black Velvet to the waxing moon and think fondly of Colin, of the fairy blacksmiths, Nostragnomas's library where the squirrels scurry among the shelves fetching and replacing his books and of the range fire blazing merrily in Gastognomas's grotto.
But I shall keep an eye out for the goblins. You just never know what they might get up to.
