Ireland's Darkest Folklore
*TW: This episode contains discussions and themes of infertility.*
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.
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.
It taps into a dark history of disease, poverty and even murder.
Joining Anthony and Maddy today is Cecily Gilligan, author of Cures of Ireland: A Treasury of Irish Folk Remedies, to take us back to Ireland's unique and dark folk history.
Edited by Tomos Delargy. Produced by Stuart Beckwith. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.
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 https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.
You can take part in our listener survey here.
All music from Epidemic Sounds.
After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.
After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal
This is After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds and the Paranormal. The podcast that takes you to the shadiest corners of the past, unpicking history’s spookiest, strangest, and most sinister stories.
Join historians Anthony Delaney and Maddy Pelling, every Monday and Thursday to take a look at the darker side of history. From haunted pubs and Houdini, to witch trials and weird UFO sightings.
After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds and the Paranormal - a podcast by History Hit, the world's best history channel and creators of award-winning podcasts Dan Snow's History Hit, Gone Medieval, and Betwixt the Sheets.
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 https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.
- No. of episodes: 185
- Latest episode: 2025-07-03
- History True Crime
Where can you listen?
