Biddy Early - The Most Famous Witch In Ireland

Biddy Early - Most Famous Witch In Ireland

My family originate from Ireland, and over the past five years I have made it my avocation to visit as much of the beautiful island as I can, whilst over visiting my family.

Always eager and looking for new adventures and places to explore, I stumbled upon a story about a *witch* who seems to have been something of a legend in her day. She was born Bridget Connors, but who was more commonly known as Biddy Early.

According to legend, when she was a young girl, she was babysitting for a neighbours baby, and the faeries swapped the child for a changeling. The changling child grew attached to Biddy, and in return for her kind nature, one day gave her a magic bottle which had the power to cure any illness.

Her potions and remedies to cure both man and beast became widely acclaimed, but she never accepted money for her concoctions. Instead she would only accept whisky or food in return for her magic cures. The house where she lived still stands today, although it is in a state of almost destitution. However, people still visit it and leave her a small cup of whisky if she will grant their wishes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biddy_Early

I think I will pay the house of Biddy Early a visit on my next trip to Ireland, they say that there is still a very strong presence there, and that she does not like cars being parked on the road in front of her homestead (all kinds of car problems being caused, flat tyres etc) and so it is advisable to walk back half a mile with the car parked safely out of harms way.

Although the Catholic Church tried to convict her of Witchcraft, nobody seemed eager to testify against her in court and she was acquitted on all charges, returning to her pagan practices until her death. The magic bottle was never found after her death, and according to folklore, the faeries came to collect it after she had no further use for it.

I loved this story .. I'm looking forward to meeting her!

Biddy accomplished a great deal of success in the face of oppression and hardship, during a time when her religion and heritage were the subject of discrimination by the rulers of Ireland. The best evidence of her success is the fact that she is the only individual Irish healer from previous centuries who is remembered today despite Ireland's long history of folk medicine.

Great story....I enjoyed reading about her...

[7luminaries]

Coolest legend ever.

I tell my son the neverending story of old "mum", the wise woman who had just the medicine you describe. In fact, only she was renowned amongst the Fey since she too could concoct the medicine you describe. As likwise only the sagest Fey wizard and his apprenctice could do. She was given the recipe by elderly Turkish healers she'd trained under, who in turn had received it from a caliph or sultan many years past in return for saving his life. Certain of the ingredients could be found either in the remote green areas of India, Nepal, Tibet & the Shangri la region...or else in the Fey forest lands which shared the same dimensional space as Ireland and Wales but were accessible directly from many ley points in the UK. She herself having relocated to blood family in Thetford Forest .

Thing being, she was known to the Fey as the first in human history who had unlocked the particular requirements of combining the ingredients -- info which itself was arcane and was not committed to the recipe itself, which was the stuff of legends itself and most could not say if it had ever existed or not. In fact, only healers of a particular ancestry, her ancestry...which itself was unknown and indeterminate...could activate the ingredients, even if otherwise performed "correctly". That is, you must be able to work alchemic magick on the potion, of the most fundamental and authentic variety.

So in my story, she has lived for several hundred years secretly on her own potion whilst traveling the known world and plying her trade, until finding descendants whom she could train up and with whom she could trust the existence and knowlegde of the potion. Which otherwise would result in only war, murder, and bloodshed. Character, essential incorruptibility, and absolute secrecy were required...hence she comes over to childmind whilst parents on detail for the king's battles overseas and takes on 3 relatives, children from the forest village, as apprentices on her travels and adventures. Tons of those...

But this is who it is...She was REAL
Biddy, the untold story...hahaha!
LOL

Peace & blessings,
7L

That is a fascinating story, I hadn't heard it before. Thank you for sharing!