Editor’s Note: this passage relates to Dromintee, County Armagh in Ireland where Father Donellan was based. Evans-Wentz describes the father as a ‘friend’. This episode presumably relates to 1907-1909 when Evans-Wentz travelled through Ireland and ‘Celtic’ Britain.

Father Donnellan and I called next upon Thomas McCrink and his wife at Carrifamayan, because Mrs. McCrink claims to have seen some of the ‘good people’, and this is her testimony: — Nature of the ‘Good People’ — I’ve heard and felt the good people coming on the wind ; and I once saw them down in the middle field on my father’s place playing football. They are still on earth. Among them are the spirits of our ancestors; and these rejoice whenever good fortune comes our way, for I saw them before my mother won her land [after a long legal contest] in the field rejoicing. Some of the good people I have thought were fallen angels, though these may be dead people whose time is not up. We are only like shadows in this world : my mother died in England, and she came to me in the spirit. I saw her plainly. I ran to catch her, but my hands ran through her form as if it were mere mist. Then there was a crack, and she was gone.’ And, finally, after a moment, our percipient said: ‘The fairies once passed down this lane here on a Christmas morning ; and I took them to be suffering souls out of Purgatory, going to mass.’ Evans-Wentz, 1911, 75-75