‘Irish Catholicism has many mansions, but one of them includes a good bedrock of paganism, or animism. I've never heard the banshee knock on my door in the night to announce that someone in the family would soon die, but I think I would know the sound if I heard it. I don't have a fairy fort in my garden, but if I did I wouldn't allow it to be removed, and if it were removed I would expect bad luck, and soon. (My neighbors have one, and it won't in our lifetime or any foreseeable lifetime be bulldozed, although it is in the way.)' 📖 A Guest at the Feast: Essays by Colm Tóibín, p. 215 #bookstodon #quote