Biddy Early (c.1798–1874) was a *bean feasa*, a wise woman or seer, who lived in a small mud cottage above Kilbarron Lake near Feakle in County Clare. People walked for days to reach her door, seeking cures for themselves and their animals, and she is said to have turned no one away — taking no money, only a measure of poitín or whiskey in return.
The story
The heart of her legend is the blue bottle into which she would gaze, like a clairvoyant with a crystal ball, to see the cause of an affliction or the face of an enemy. Every account agrees that the bottle came from the fairies, and that her uncanny knowledge of things she could not have known by ordinary means set her apart and frightened those in power. When her cures crossed the wishes of the landlords and the Catholic clergy she was denounced and even charged with witchcraft, though no conviction held.
When Biddy died, the famous blue bottle was thrown into the lake below her cottage, and though it has been searched for many times it has never been found — the Good People, it is said, took it back. W. B. Yeats and Lady Gregory gathered stories of her, and she remains one of Ireland's most beloved and ambiguous figures, hovering forever between witch and healer.