Are Angry Fairies Sabotaging an Irish Highway?

An Irish road is in a bad state because their builders have offended the fairies.

That, at least is the line coming from an Irish politician this week, when asked to explain continuing problems with subsidence on a road in the country’s Southwest. The dip in the N22 had been repaired, but then re-appeared—according to road department, because of “a deeper underlying subsoil/geotechnical problem.” But Danny Healy-Rae, an Independent TD (a member of the Irish parliament’s lower house) had another suggestion. He told the Irish Times that problems with the N22 were due to “numerous fairy forts in that area.” Reflecting a folk belief that these sites are best left alone, Healy-Rae said that “anyone that tampered with them back over the years paid a high price and had bad luck.”