Survival of the Fair Folk: How Land Memory and Christian Missionary Work Kept Pre-Christian Ireland Alive
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Authors
Keller, Kay
Issue Date
2025-04-03
Type
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Abstract
Description
For centuries, Ireland's relative isolation on European Christianity's northwestern fringe
influenced its domestic religious culture and shaped its relationship with Catholic authorities
far-away in Rome. This geographical circumstance raises key questions for scholars interested in
the Christianization of the island, the role of Church authorities in that process, and the
persistence of indigenous beliefs from the outset of the conversion in the fifth century to the
Norman conquests of the late twelfth century. My study synthesizes textual accounts of
missionary activities and archaeological findings from the region of Ulster in order to explain
how cultural investment in beings known as the Áes Síde (what we call "fairies" today) survived
the conversion; and to show how many complementary aspects of Ireland's pre-conversion belief
system were preserved through early medieval efforts to synchronize traditional Irish literature
and geological sites with Christian themes. I argue that missionaries understood the importance
of sacred sites in traditional Irish thought and thus centered their conversion efforts on recasting
sacred natural landmarks as sites imbued with Christian significance. This continued investment
in holy places, albeit under an amended context, helped to both hasten conversion and preserve
popular investment in the Áes Síde. The long-term scope of this investigation bears relevance
beyond medieval Irish history. It offers scholars of religious studies—particularly those
interested in the homogenizing processes of globalization—with a model for the inherent
plasticity of indigenous beliefs in the face of cultural upheaval and conversion at the hands of
external powers.