Margaret's Pages
Honoring Eddie Lenihan,  Teacher & Storyteller
Seanchai Eddie Lenihan has always stated the the Fairy Tree of Latoon, near Newmarket-on-Fergus, was the stopping place for the Connacht fairies on the way back from their great battles with the Munster fairies.
It would seem that fairies buried their dead on the way back to Connacht.
This little tree survives in the centre of the road construction site below the Clare Inn on the Ennis to Limerick road, County Clare.
In recent times, Eddie was able to convince the local council to re-route the highway around this rare fairy thorn tree.  The road works threatened a 15 foot hawthorn bush (sceach) and Eddie warned that its destruction could bring misfortune to those using the new road.  It is claimed that the sceach was a marker in a fairy path.
Edmund (Eddie)  Lenihan is part of a very large Curtin dynasty.
He was born about 1951 in Brosna, Co Kerry, to John & Rachel Lenihan.  John, known as Jack,  was the local Harnessmaker in the village of Brosna, having been born in Mt Collins, Co Limerick in 1912.  Rachel died in 1969 and John, the harness maker died in 1978.
Eddie ended his secondary schooling in Abbeyfeale, Co Limerick.  After qualifying as a secondary school teacher himself, he moved to Co Clare.  He still lives there with  his wife Mary and 6 children.

This branch of the Lenihan family were long connected with horses and harness-making.
Jack, the harnessmaker was a son of Michael Lenihan (1876-1955) and his wife, Catherine Sullivan who married in 1903 in the Mt Collins area of lower Co. Limerick.

Michael, the harnessmaker was a son of Ellen Curtin of Brosna, Co Kerry, and Michael Lenihan of Mt Collins.  They married in the Chapel of Mt Collins Church on 30th March 1868, when Ellen was 16 years of age.  Michael died in a horse accident, and Ellen married again to a John Lenihan.  By both husbands, she had  large families  and died in 1930 and is laid to rest in the Mt Collins graveyard.

Ellen Curtin born in 1852 was the youngest of many children born to William Denis Curtin and Margaret Fitzgerald in Brosna Parish.  William farmed land  in the townlands of Ahane and Twogneeves during his life time.  The farmlands are still in Curtin family hands to this day.

William  Denis Curtin and his brother John  Denis Curtin (John of Ahane 1806-1890) had good land-holdings in the parish and both had large families.  They were sons of Denis John Curtin born about 1775 and his wife Margaret Guiney who married in 1805.  A headstone in the Brosna graveyard shows Margaret died in 1819. Denis died in 1820.
Denis John Curtin was one of the sons of John Curtin known in the Brosna Parish during the 1700's.
Page made 10 March 2002
Eddie Lenihan of Crusheen, Co Clare is one of Ireland's greatest living storytellers.  He is a Teacher, forklorist, and author.  He is a celebrated storyteller and author of many many books and audio-tapes  both for children and adults.
He is also a collector of very old Irish tales and legends and teaches school in nearby Co Limerick.
Eddie loves Irish culture and forklore, and his television programme "Ten Minute Tales" ran for 3 consecutive years  in Ireland.  Audiences also enjoy his live presentations.
Some of the names given to the fairies by the Irish are The Good people, Them, The Wee Folk and The Other Crowd.  Given honour for their gifts and feared for their wrath, fairies remind us all to respect the world we live in and forces that we just can not see.  Eddie tells of this invisible world with such passion and bluntness with his tales of fairy forts, fairy trees, ancient histories, and even modern true-life encounters with The Wee Folk.
He feels the need to protect the delicate balance between the human and fairy worlds.
Eddie entralls with historical tales, that are humurous, tragic and magical.  A true Legend in his time.