Beware of Leprechauns! Drink Responsibly on St. Pat’s Day!

Leprechauns are a species of Faerie Folk. Often portrayed as Pixies (think Lucky Charms cereal) in reality they are spiteful and unpredictable creatures. Their magic may amuse you one day and kill you the next.

Leprechauns appear as elderly men with beards, wearing green coats (earlier lore in red) with black buckled shoes, sporting a pointed cap or top hat, often smoking a clay pipe. Leprechauns are always male (which raises several issues.)

Though Leprechauns are associated with hoards of gold most are humble cobblers. Their name perhaps derived from the Irish “leath bhrogan” translated as shoemaker.  (What if they’d prefer to be lawyers, or bakers, or farmers???)This must be a thriving vocation in Faerieland as each Leprechaun has his own pot of gold hidden at the end of a rainbow.

The Leprechauns cannot be trusted and deceive at every turn. Legends abound of people lucky enough to come across a Leprechaun and imprison him. The furious creature barters three wishes for his freedom, however interfering with Leprechauns is a risky proposition. In a heartbeat they’ll manipulate your wishes and wreak vengeance worse than your mother in law.

Leprechaun legends are morality tales. These fables warn against the stupidity of get rich quick schemes, taking what is not yours, and the gravest crime…interfering Faerie Folk (as a whole called "The Good People") or other supernatural creatures.

The stubborn Irish have been always annoyed by the Leprechaun’s ethnic stereotyping, particularly the American Leprechauns who seem to only appear in inebriated dreams on Saint Patrick’s Day. Do Leprechauns exist? Who knows for sure. However they amuse and delight us and will for many centuries to come.