My first curmudgeonly post of the new year ✨️ I hate fairy doors. Mossy old trees are magical enough without having some bit of tat nailed to them. Besides, Irish faeries are not like Tinkerbell. Even an agnostic like me knows not to mess, they will absolutely fuck you up. - ThreadSky

neiljackman.bsky.social • 60 days ago

My first curmudgeonly post of the new year ✨️

I hate fairy doors.

Mossy old trees are magical enough without having some bit of tat nailed to them.

Besides, Irish faeries are not like Tinkerbell. Even an agnostic like me knows not to mess, they will absolutely fuck you up.

Comments

liamd79efc.bsky.social•60 days ago

Ah feck off you thief of joy, Neil !!

neiljackman.bsky.social•60 days ago

brenda012.bsky.social•60 days ago

They’re cutesy nonsense! Not even a traditional cultural practice, but imported from makey uppey land!

markdowling.bsky.social•60 days ago

They can make your face your arse, and your arse your face! https://youtube.com/shorts/qjGJEvGt0HI?si=K8UY5s01M0y7ULdx

markdowling.bsky.social•60 days ago

Forgot to tag @killersundy.bsky.social there

lynnok.bsky.social•59 days ago

That's nothing. Renville park in Galway near oranmore has a whole section of the woods now covered in doors, mini houses, plastic shite, painted wood, horrendous. Every tree has multiple 'fairy houses' in varying degrees of rotting.

photaculous.bsky.social•60 days ago

Totally agree, the wooded walk in Cahir is littered with them now.

paulmwatson.com•60 days ago

People NAIL them to trees IN FRONT of their children? That’s crazy. We made one from some wood and moss and laid it at the base of a tree.

sophiagrene.bsky.social•59 days ago

In Avondale? We found one like that there a while back and it made me and my daughter so happy.

paulmwatson.com•59 days ago

In Dublin many years back, but happy to hear there are more

anniewestdotcom.bsky.social•60 days ago

Some idiot went to Hazelwood (HAZELWOOD of all places) with about 20 stupid doors, a bunch of long screws and a screwdriver. Thought he was great. Haven't heard anything about him since but I'm told the rash never really cleared up

paulmwatson.com•60 days ago

Don’t mess with faeries.

gaslady210471.bsky.social•60 days ago

voxhib.bsky.social•59 days ago

I blame Enya.

neiljackman.bsky.social•59 days ago

You usually do 😅

freyalyn.bsky.social•58 days ago

To be fair, Shakespeare had a lot to do with the idea that fairies are 'little'...

voxhib.bsky.social•58 days ago

Don't TALK to me about that lad. He put a bastardised St Patricks Purgatory into Hamlet. It all starts with him. And then, Enya.

freyalyn.bsky.social•58 days ago

Exactly. I love his words, but his ideas that then became so pervasive!

ebidwell.bsky.social•59 days ago

Ah yes I remember her song:
Fairy doors
Fairy doors
Fairy doooors

jjjeffspencer.bsky.social•60 days ago

It's littering. I blame the adults, not the children.

neiljackman.bsky.social•60 days ago

Oh 100%! Not the kids fault at all

hughsheehyo6o.bsky.social•60 days ago

What the heck is that thing? Someone nailed that to a tree? That's barbaric.

vulcan800.bsky.social•60 days ago

Twice just so you get the message!

cedarandhoney.bsky.social•59 days ago

I kind of wish Nature or the fae would bare their teeth and clap back at us once in a while to show us who’s really boss.

neiljackman.bsky.social•59 days ago

I think they might be!

occularmandibles.bsky.social•59 days ago

In fairness I got a figurine of a wee mouse wearing a saddle and put it in my garden and a week later a massive rat just waddled up to me and waddled off again so I think the fairies liked that particular gift 😁

3mma.bsky.social•60 days ago

Hate is a strong word but it would be better putting them in the garden or home for the kids, than on old trees

pwea.bsky.social•60 days ago

I don't mind some of the doors, but I never mess with Grey folk.

irishwol.bsky.social•60 days ago

Fairy doors are a massive example of 'less is more'. One door in a wood, one you'd miss at first glance, is intriguing. After that, the ratio of sense of wonder to profusion of tat nailed to trees is a geometric progression of diminishing returns.

bibliorefuses.bsky.social•60 days ago

💯

brennafiona.bsky.social•60 days ago

They need to be stomped on by an Ent!

neiljackman.bsky.social•60 days ago

Absolutely mulched by one

cristinleach.bsky.social•60 days ago

I’m with you.

jacqbetula.bsky.social•60 days ago

I have no hesitation in 'relocating' them (as long as nobody can see me). I've removed every one of them from one wood I walk through regularly and quite a few elsewhere.

liamd79efc.bsky.social•60 days ago

Ones kids put up with their parents????

jacqbetula.bsky.social•60 days ago

I don't know who put them up, but if parents are showing their children how to hammer nails into living trees, it sets a poor example.

liamd79efc.bsky.social•60 days ago

If I put one up with my children with the blessings of the authorities, as these parks allow, and caught you ripping it off, I promise you, I'd show you a poor example 👍

jacqbetula.bsky.social•60 days ago

Nice!
https://www.trees.org.uk/Help-Advice/Public/Will-hammering-a-nail-into-a-tree-kill-or-harm-the

ebidwell.bsky.social•60 days ago

Yes yes yes.

grainneblair.bsky.social•60 days ago

Always refer to them as ‘little people’ never cut down a Hawthorn tree or touch a ringed area in a field.

grainneblair.bsky.social•60 days ago

Great to see you here and not curmudgeonly at all proper order. Too

freyalyn.bsky.social•58 days ago

Little doors like this are 'twee' and nothing good ever came from tweeness.

skoca.bsky.social•60 days ago

Totally in agreement.

ambrosen.bsky.social•60 days ago

Yep, cutesy painted pebbles nestled between the roots: fine.
Nailing something to the trunk: not fine.

merrycygnet.bsky.social•60 days ago

It is the commodification of folklore.
One has to buy something to enjoy it.

ambergal47.bsky.social•60 days ago

Absolutely agree.

zanbreathnach.bsky.social•60 days ago

The Sidhe would never come through a door like that! We’re losing the lore

decadencedancer.bsky.social•60 days ago

Exactly this. And they always have plastic beads and glitter glued to them 😡

mamaaliadeastra.bsky.social•59 days ago

Those little doors are like the false horn Amalthea gets stuck with by Mommy Fortuna. Not everybody can SEE magic without obvious cues. However, it's easier to find the actual doorways when you know where to look. We need more Fae-based curriculum, clearly.

maeveflanagan.bsky.social•60 days ago

And they live in a lios which has NO doors.

wordhoarding.bsky.social•59 days ago

They bring me out in hives, and yet there is a village committee out there right now deciding a trail of them is the best bet for growing tourism.

wyl.bsky.social•59 days ago

I searched for at least one contrary reply to the litany of curmudgeonly whining but alas there seems to be none.

Until now.

I absolutely love fairy doors.

I've brought my now 9 years old twin boys umpteen times through Tonmafinogue forest and their love for forests stems from these.

neiljackman.bsky.social•59 days ago

I don't mind so much if there is a well maintained fairy trail, but random doors nailed to trees and then neglected? Just ends up as whimsical trash in a natural space.

wyl.bsky.social•59 days ago

Fair point. The one in Tonmafinogue is just on one big oak tree.

mulcs85.bsky.social•59 days ago

In the Picos de Europa in Asturias and Cantabria in northern Spain you sometimes come across little doors in the rock face when you are walking - not fairy tiny, but sometimes only cupboard sized - it's where the locals mature Cabrales blue cheese - has a salty mineraly flavour

acidrains.bsky.social•60 days ago

cutesy trash and teaching kids completely wrong attitude to the natural world (and yes, also to faeries!)

nessao.bsky.social•60 days ago

Quite right, Neil.

cdeacy.bsky.social•60 days ago

Totally agree 👍

dovergirl.bsky.social•60 days ago

Joining curmudgeon club

nienordragon.bsky.social•60 days ago

anyone nailing doors to trees inviting fairies through knows nothing of our little folk🫥

vaskrag.bsky.social•60 days ago

Régis Loisel would argue that even Tinkerbell would absolutely fuck you up. 🐊🌹

rubymcrae.bsky.social•59 days ago

I posted a pic on FB of an old guitar slung over a tree branch. Some people found it cool, whle others, like me, prefer that the woods remain natural and free of man made clutter. Also, don't fuck with fairies is sound advice.

neiljackman.bsky.social•59 days ago

I agree, the guitar might look interesting for about a week, but after it starts to get battered by the weather, it just becomes yet more rubbish in a once natural space.

rubymcrae.bsky.social•59 days ago

And sets a precedent for more junk. Pink flamingos?

joe-yousta-be.bsky.social•59 days ago

It’s wild to me how brazen to deface a tree people are? Was it even a tree on their land?

neiljackman.bsky.social•59 days ago

No, this is in a public forest.

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