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Paper short abstract

This paper analyses the unique demonology of an Irish priest, Eddie Bheairte Ó Confhaola. Composed from an admixture of sources and in response to present needs, this demonology offers both a spiritual diagnosis and a remedy for a range of contemporary social ills.

Paper long abstract

Eddie Bheairtle Ó Confhaola is a priest, healer, and seanchaí (vernacular historian) from the west of Ireland, widely regarded for his repertoire of seanchas (oral tradition) and for his gift of healing through verbal charms. While most of Eddie Bheairtle's beliefs and expressive culture are well-attested in Irish folklore, he has developed a striking demonology with no obvious precedent in native tradition which outlines the hand of seventeen distinct devils at work in various social ills. This demonology seems to have arisen in response to the present needs of Eddie Bheairtle's parishioners and to contemporary threats against God's wider community. The remedies and proscribed actions for countering these malign forces offers a path toward salvation and a window into Eddie Bheairtle's worldview.

We might be tempted to think of Eddie's devils as "supernatural characters", but this would presuppose a concept of the natural which his worldview does not contain. Drawing especially on the work of Irving Hallowell, I argue that Eddie Bheairtle's demonology is best understood as a personalistic theory of causation, grounded in a conception of "persons" that includes both human and other-than-human beings and envisions a gradation of power among them.