From the Schools’ Collection of folklore from the 1930s, which you can view at duchas.ie.
Belief in Fairies.
There is a fairy ring in the demesne of Blessington. It is a great big round circle of earth.
I don’t know if it’s the right place for the following story, but it seems like it could be:
Blessington.
Reports of the presence of fairies have caused a stir in Blessington. Two men working on night shift in a sandpit adjoining a “fairy moat” were disturbed by noises which were described as resembling the thunder of horses’ hoofs and it is claimed that several of the “little people” were seen. The men were genuinely affected by their experience.
Some accounts said that lights were seen and strange unearthly music was heard.Sceptics hold that the collapse of a sand bank caused ground vibration and gave rise to unfounded fears. The men were working a “scraper,” which draws out sand in preparation for the following day’s loading, when they had their unusual experience. It is commonly believed that those who violate a “fairy ring” will meet with ill-fortune at the hands of the “good people.”
A minority of Blessington residents still hold to the old beliefs but most of those who spoke with our representative scoffed at the idea of fairies.
A story that the fairies were playing hurling with the “new” ball may, our representative learns on the very best authority, be discounted.
From the Leinster Leader, 8th October 1949. (I’m not sure what the ball refers to yet). Terrible pun alert for the next article:
The fairies have put Blessington in the headlines, but such notoriety has had a very mixed reception. One rational explanation is that the fairy (or multiples of them) was an oil barrel which thundered to the base of the pit in a fall of gravel and gave the two night workers wrong ideas. The barrel was found among the gravel next morning and it was not empty. It contained – no, not a fairy – oil.
In any case the fairy rath still stands undamaged, the wind-blasted bush which crowns it outlined against a daily darkening sky. Winter comes on and as the forces of modern mechanical progress draw nearer the sacred hill the fairies may be preparing to show their hand one more.
“Fairy rath” became fiery wrath when an irate pit owner was asked for his opinion on the matter. Our representative just escaped with his skin.
Leinster Leader, 15th October 1949.