Róisín White

Cross the Child’s Palm with Silver, a blessing of good fortune for the new-born child. A piece of metal stitched into the child’s baptismal garment as means for the child to protect itself from being taken by the fairies and changeling left for the mother.

In Irish folk tradition there is a deep anxiety around pregnancy and childbirth, which was rooted in the many unknowns and risks associated with pregnancy in an Ireland before modern medicine. The myth and folklore that surrounds women and their offspring tends to be connected to the need to protect them from harm and essentially try and secure that they grow up to be healthy and “normal”. Many stories perpetuate the creation of “the Other”, an otherworldly explanation for a child that was different.

In Ireland the Changeling myth is ever present in the early weeks, months, and even years of a child’s life. The fear that a mother might take her eyes off her new child for even a moment and in that time the child would be swapped for a changeling, a fairy child that looked and sounded like the real child. But soon they would notice differences, changelings tended to be sickly children, distressed and upset, often malformed and disfigured.

The parents would have to try and “trick” the changeling to reveal its true nature, and if they suspected that the child was a changeling, they would often try and kill it to try and have their real child returned. Changelings were usually killed by burning or drowning. Changelings were usually male children, but adults could also be taken.

Cross the Child’s Palm with Silver examines the folk tradition in Ireland from fertility and conception, to pregnancy, childbirth and the protection of young children from harm from spirits or otherworldly interference. The folklore is deep rooted in sympathetic magic, stories told and customs followed in order to protect from real risks.

The project is an exploration of Irish Folklore and the artist’s fascination with the “root” of the magic, by trying to understand why we tell these stories as a way to try and dispel her own fear of what surrounds the stories. Why were women praying to a fertility goddess? Why were children baptised so quickly after birth? Why were children who appeared to be different branded as Changelings? Why were men not seen as unclean or tainted after childbirth, but women were? Why do we tell our children not to follow music into distance? Where exactly were you when you were “away with the fairies”?

Róisín White is an Irish visual artist based in Dublin. She studied photography at Dublin’s Institute of Technology, graduating in 2015. She has further education in ceramics, sculpture and drawing from the National College of Art and Design, Ireland. Her work incorporates archival and found materials along with her photographic work. White’s work was selected for the third edition of New Irish Works in 2019, as well as the BlowPhoto “Fuse” photobook residency. White was selected for the Emerging Artist Residency at The Darkroom in Dublin, and the Emerging Artist Grant from DLRCC (Ireland). Róisín has exhibited her work across Ireland and Europe.