This interview is from Issue 5 (Autumn 2022). You can buy a copy of it at https://paganireland.com/buyissues

Lorraine comes from a family with a Bean Feasa tradition and has explored a variety of esoteric paths over several decades, although she is a very much steeped in Witchcraft. She’s also involved in eco-tourism and storytelling. Lorraine lives and works in Co. Wexford.

PI: How did you first become involved in Witchcraft?

LO’D: I think it was always there, my Great Great Granny was a Bean Feasa just outside Enniscorthy. Married to the Blacksmith, she made tablets from dried herbs and beeswax and sold iron nails for protection against the fairies. Now she died long before I was born, but it was in the family. Her daughter (my Great Aunt) Eithne taught me about the fairies and how you needed to keep your garden wild to attract them. My mum was sending us to school with crystals to protect us and while like most other child growing up in the 70s and 80s in Ireland, I attended a Catholic school. But unlike most other kids, we went on nature walks instead of Mass and I couldn’t recite any prayers, much to St. Eileens annoyance!

By the time I reached my teens I would have, rather arrogantly, called myself a Witch. The reality was I had an awful lot of training ahead of me! Over the last few decades I have learnt so much and only now am beginning to feel fully comfortable in calling myself the next Bean Feasa in the family.

I have been blessed to have received various levels of Training, from Druidism to Coven Work and today that training continues, to be honest, I don’t think we ever stop learning!

My path is a hereditary one, and very solitary so I go along with what is sent to me. But its always nature based, very much guided by my Ancestors, and much of it isn’t so much learning as remembering. If that makes sense!


PI: You’ve been involved in Celtic Wicca, how did that come about?

I wouldn’t say I am a Wiccan, I found it too regimented, too formal. I think its a lovely religion but, for me, it had too many similarities to the Church with the hierarchy and the rules involved. But about 15 years ago or so I dipped my toes in it. Perhaps it was the Coven I joined, and the individuals involved. But it never sat right in my mind. I had learnt to create an alter using using feathers, twigs from certain trees, a piece of muck and some saliva, But now I was meant to use formal tools, defer to whomever was leading the ritual, cast circles in a particular way. The whole time it felt like it was taking me away from the energy of the earth. Separating our mutual connection instead of working in flux with the natural energies.

I really don’t want to be too hard on Wicca but in my experience, it drew out the worst in people. Lots of Ego, personal drama and an awful lot of cac tarbh! Someone said to me that they don’t call it Bitchcraft for nothing, and in my experience, I have to agree!


PI: You’re involved in eco-tourism in South-East Ireland can you tell us about what you do?

Before Covid I worked as a driver guide, mainly for Americans and Canadians. It was a job I enjoyed but it was hard work, long hours and hard earned money. When Covid arrived it gave me the opportunity I needed to change what I was doing. By the end of 2019 I found my Pagan skills being drawn in more and more. Quite often a set tour would change and I would end up with my group doing barefoot mountain walking or visiting an old stone circle. When Covid shut us all down, I had two years to develop my guided woodland walks and all the workshops. So today I do a 2.5 hour woodland walk that looks at the spiritual aspects of the trees, the medicinal uses of our native plants and gives the listener an insight into the world of our ancestors from the Brehon Laws to iron-age tree worship.

For many of my customers, they are newbies to it all. Having found solace in nature during the lockdowns, it awakened something in them. Due to years working with tourists, stupid questions don’t bother me either! Even that old classic, “so are you a white witch or…?” There is so much nonsense out there, and an awful lot of gate keeping. The way I see it, the more people we have on any sort of a Pagan path, the more eco warriors we have! People worshipping the earth are more likely to rewild their gardens, plant trees, eat organic, etc etc. So I see my job now as more of a vocation. Irish people want to know what our ancestors believed before the arrival of Christianity, Americans want to connect with the land of their ancestors.

My walk includes a stop at one of the oldest high crosses in Ireland, it was used to convert people to the new religion, I use it to convert people back! I tell people about the old festivals, the folklore that passed through the centuries. Encourage them to honour the festivals again, bring back old traditions and basically create a safe space to ask questions, to get further information and start their own path to a pagan spirituality.

I run workshops too on everything from soap making to herbal medicine. Looking at and hugging trees is fine, and lovely but take the Elder tree. How do you really know the tree if you have never made a syrup from the flowers or the berries? Or nettles, making nettle tea is great, but do you know the difference between the male and female plant, what the seeds provide, made string from the stalks? Using a plant in this way takes you to a deeper level of respect for it plus doing something that your ancestors did. You are much less likely to pull up nettles growing in your garden when you know how useful they can be!


PI: Does your guiding interfere with your Pagan path at all?

A little, its been a long time since I had a Samhain or a Bealtaine to myself! I am a fairly well known Storyteller and Witch within the Tourism Industry. I am often asked by Failte Ireland to promote Halloween in Ireland on American TV, and I host an Open Night on Samhain, hosting a bonfire and a harvest feast, so the house is always packed!

It took me a long time to come out of the ‘Broom Closet’ professionally. I like many other older Pagans was called all sorts over the years, Heathen, Devil Worshipper, a bit mad… those names hurt and I and had since spent years building up a very solid business reputation. So I worried if I would be seen differently. Plus there was also a big part of me that was very uncomfortable at monetising my beliefs and practices. But at the end of the day, the bills must be paid, and people wanted me to teach them. So I got over it.

And it does annoy me that many places want to celebrate Halloween and not Samhain, so I run talks over the festivals explaining their roots. I work with Taste Wexford, our regions food tourism initiative and have a had some success in getting dairy based food producers to recognise Imbolg and we had a massive Lughnasadh Feast as part of the Rockin Food Festival and another Samhain Feast the following October.

Having said all that, I still make time to hold my own rituals, to mark the wheel of the year. And the great part of it is, I had the perfect excuse to transform my garden into a Pagans Dream Garden! In order to teach effectively I have areas that reflect the various elements, a medicinal garden, meditation zone, fire pits and I get to enjoy it when I’m off the clock!


PI: As a teacher of the craft, what do you think is the most important thing to teach students?

Enjoy it. I have found, many people are coming to this path after a lifetime of Catholic teachings. Strict rules,religious holidays and holy days were you have to observe even more rules, lots of hushed tones and respectful kneeling. The idea that it’s a deeply personal path can be difficult for some people to get their head around at first. I get asked all the time, what books should I read, where can I meet other Pagans, do you know of any Pagan churches that run rituals on the 4 quarter festivals. I always tell them to read whatever they find, as it will all make up part of their journey, but don’t believe everything as everyone has their own take! I also tell them to host their own events, to invite friends and family to join in. Or start a Moot if they can’t find one to attend. Show up to your local stone circle or dolmen, mound, whatever on Bealtaine night and you never know who you might meet! But most of all enjoy the journey, it lasts a lifetime. Don’t take it too seriously, laughing when you mess up, shifts the energies and raises a little extra power! Don’t listen to anyone who tells you you’re doing it “wrong” there is no right way, non of us are experts!


PI: You’ve been involved in the campaign to save the local woodlands, is environmentalism important to you?

Massively, and to be honest, I fail to see how you can call yourself Pagan and not be fighting to save the planet! Last year my Green Tourism Award moved up from Bronze to Silver. People travel to see me, so the least I can do is try to offset some of the carbon generated by that. I don’t do much foraging these days as I have cultivated so many of the wild plants at home. Its difficult because I see the damage up close everyday, dead bees, dying trees, littering… My woodlands is not just at threat by local businessmen, but coastal erosion too. Somewhere around 10-15 square miles of it have washed away over the last hundred years. So yeah, environmentalism is not just important its an essential part of who I am!


PI: What is one particular message you’d like to convey to readers?

Learn how to find and dry Meadowsweet, Broadleaf or Ribwort Plantain and Selfheal. A tea of these three wild herbs cures everything, I’m pretty sure that’s what was in Biddy Early’s blue bottle!


Since the magazine started, at the Autumn Equinox 2021, it has featured a 3 page interview. The Editor (Luke Eastwood) conducted 20 exclusive interviews of leading members of the Irish Pagan community over a period of 5 years:
Author and practitioner Harmonia Saille, Author and practitioner Amantha Murphy, Author, poet, practitioner John Paul Patton,
Teacher and practitioner Louise Hanley, Teacher, tour-guide and and practitioner Lorraine O'Dwyer, Shop owner and practitioner Craig Osric,
Authors and practitioners Janet Farrar & Gavin Bone, Academic and Author Dr. Jenny Butler, Author and tour-guide Anthony Murphy,
Academic, tour-guide and practitioner Rachel Scoazec, Elder and practitioner Bev Richardson, Academic, teacher and author Dr. Karen Ward,
Teacher and practitioner Martin Duffy, Author and survivor Maureen Sullivan, Spirit Drummer, publisher and practitioner Al Cowan,
Academic and author Morgan Daimler, Temple priest and practitioner Tom Swinburne, Poet, healer and activist Laura Murphy,
Blacksmith (An Gobha) Tom King, Druid Karen Tetteroo.