NARRATOR:
Ireland. This lush, green island
in the North Atlantic has a history of human activity dating back
more than 33,000 years. Numerous cultures
have called Ireland home, from the early Beaker People,
to the Celts and the Gaels. And the island has
a rich tradition of folklore that has spread
throughout the world. But perhaps most notable
is that Ireland boasts some of the oldest
structures on the planet. Massive earthen mounds, many of which date back
more than 5,000 years. TOK THOMPSON:
These mounds are constructed.
They're not natural hills. These are
megalithic constructions involving, in the larger sites,
an enormous amount of man hours and labor. These would have been,
when they were made, just very,
very impressive sites. CHILDRESS: These mounds were
an ancient earth work that had a tunnel
going through it, with stones on either side,
and stones on top and then covered with earth. THOMPSON:
Ireland has a tremendous
amount of these mounds. These are some
of mankind's oldest, large structures in the world. And they anchor
all the land together. Usually if you visit one
on top of a hill, you go up, you find one, and you can do
a line of sight to the next one. There was almost a network,
almost across the entire island
of these sites. NARRATOR:
The oldest known
writing in Ireland dates to the sixth century AD, more than 3,000 years
after the ancient mounds are believed to have been built. With no written record
about the mounds' construction, archaeologists and historians
can only speculate as to who made them,
and for what purpose. THOMPSON:
These things
were built to go inside, where presumably very, very
important rituals took place. We don't know,
but much later on, these sites would have been
used for gatherings, for rituals, and sort of
keeping the society together. These were enormously long-lived
sites of cultural importance. It was enormously
long-lived societies that used these as focal points. NARRATOR:
30 miles north
of Dublin in County Meath is Ireland's largest and oldest
mound, called Newgrange. The ancient structure
consists of over 200,000 tons of stone, and has a passageway
leading to a central chamber, in which human
bone fragments have been found. But archaeologists say
Newgrange also has an undeniable connection
to the cosmos. Spiral petroglyphs thought
to symbolize the universe are found all around it,
and the passageway and chamber form a cruciform shape
that researchers believe is based
on the constellation Cygnus. At the time Newgrange was built, it was presumed
to be the largest structure that mankind
had ever built in the world. Now, one of the most interesting
things about Newgrange is its celestial alignment. This is still
very, very popular. If you go
at the winter solstice, you have this sun dagger that it cuts
tremendous distance, all the way in to brighten up
the inner chamber. NARRATOR:
Newgrange is unique
among Ireland's mounds in its sophistication,
and was clearly designed for ritualistic activity. But according
to ancient Irish texts, the mounds
serve a more profound, and mysterious purpose,
as the dwelling places of otherworldly beings traditionally called
the "sidhe." JENNY BUTLER: The word "sidhe,"
it can mean the mounds, and also can mean
the otherworld people, the people of the mounds. In Irish tradition,
it's bad luck to use the word "sidhe"
to directly refer to these otherworld people. So, there are
many different names. We have the English word
fairy folk, also elves. NARRATOR:
Stories of fairies,
elves, and even leprechauns, are rooted
in the ancient folklore of what the Irish
called the sidhe. But for many Irish people, the sidhe are not
merely mythological figures. MARTY MULLIGAN:
Fairies and leprechauns and all
that sort of stuff, like, too many people kind of laugh
and joke about it at times. But it's knowledge
that had been passed on for thousands
and thousands of years. We have the terrestrial world, and the sub-terrestrial world,
the human world, and the superhuman
or other world. These worlds exist in parallel. Occasionally, however,
there is communication between the two worlds. NARRATOR:
The mounds are often
referred to as fairy forts, as are stone circles
and tree clusters that are considered
the property of the sidhe. This strong cultural belief
that these features are the domain
of otherworldly beings has kept them intact
for thousands of years. And the Irish say
that when they are disturbed, bad luck always follows. MULLIGAN:
Sean Quinn was
the wealthiest man in Ireland. He lost everything
because he moved a fairy fort. He damaged a fairy fort, and he moved it
to another place. DeLorean car manufacturers,
they came to Belfast and were making the DeLorean car
up in Northern Ireland. And they built the factory
on the site of a fairy fort. And it all came crashing down. The local people would say, "Well, you know,
what do you expect?" Ask any Irish person,
"Would you damage a fairy fort? What would happen
if you damaged a fairy tree?" If you gave me ten million bucks and a Cadillac and a helicopter and a beautiful house
on Sunset Boulevard, and said all I had to do
was chop down a fairy tree, I'd be handing that money
straight back to you. I wouldn't do it, no one
I know would do it either. So, do we believe
in the fairies in Ireland? We do.
