lady francesca speranza wilde

Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, And Superstitions Of Ireland
by Lady Francesca Speranza Wilde

For practitioners of Wicca, the fairy lore, supernatural knowledge and magickal worldview of the ancient Celts hold enduring fascination as a primary root from which the living vine of modern Wicca springs. No work better captures both the clear facts and the numinous spirit of Irish pagan belief than this 1887 classic of Celtic folklore and magic. 

About the author:

Lady Jane Francesca Agnes Wilde (born Jane Francesca Elgee) 1821(c.) - 1896 was born in Dublin. She married Sir William Wilde in 1851, and they had three children: William, Oscar (the famous Irish playwright, poet and author) and Isola. She was a poet and gifted linguist, and translated works from French and German. A strong supporter of the nationalist movement in Ireland, she wrote for the revolutionary Young Ireland movement in the 1840s and published poems under the pseudonym of Speranza (meaning 'hope') in the paper The Nation. The paper was shut down by the British authorities following anti-British and pro-Irish independence writing. In 1879, following the death of her husband in 1876, she moved to London where her two sons lived.