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He is about three feet high, and is dressed in a little red jacket or roundabout, with red breeches buckled at the knee, gray or black stockings, and a hat, cocked in the style of a century ago, over a little, old, withered face.Leprechauns average about three feet in height according to Irish folklore, but they will be larger than life this weekend, thanks to St. Patrick’s Day.Leprechauns vary in size, ranging from 3 inches to 8 inches, depending on their age. A leprechaun’s pot of gold is approximately half the height of the leprechaun and is made from delicate glass. Irish leprechauns only speak Gaeilge (Irish).
Contents
How tall are real Leprechauns?
Leprechauns average about three feet in height according to Irish folklore, but they will be larger than life this weekend, thanks to St. Patrick’s Day.
How tall do Leprechauns get?
Leprechauns vary in size, ranging from 3 inches to 8 inches, depending on their age. A leprechaun’s pot of gold is approximately half the height of the leprechaun and is made from delicate glass. Irish leprechauns only speak Gaeilge (Irish).
Is the leprechaun a boy or a girl?
Leprechauns are often described as wizened, bearded old men dressed in green (early versions were clad in red) and wearing buckled shoes, often with a leather apron.
How short do you have to be to be a leprechaun?
Tales of these small creatures first emerged in the 8th-century, when legends about tiny water-dwellers began circulating among the Celts. Their name is thought to come from the word “luchorpán,” meaning small body- no surprise there as they are said to be only 2-3 feet tall.
Are leprechauns real yes or no?
In our opinion, the answer to this age-old question is a resounding “no.” Leprechauns are not real; they’re just fun, fictional characters with whom you probably enjoy celebrating St. Patrick’s Day.
How old is the leprechaun?
In Leprechaun, the Leprechaun says that he is 600 years old (though he may or may not have been lying). In Leprechaun 2, which takes place one year after the events of the first film, he says that he is 2,000 years old.
What kills a leprechaun?
Patrick’s Day, the four-leaf clover, leads to his demise. But if you don’t have a four-leaf clover lying around, you can also slay the thing with iron. In the Leprechaun sequel, the little creature is out for blood, and a lady to marry, as his celebrates his 1,000th birthday.
How long do leprechauns live 15 years old?
As the young Leprechaun grows, a mate is picked by a local matchmaker. The Leprechauns learn to love each other and generally these marriages last. The life expectancy for a Leprechaun is 15 years4. This is due to living underground causing them to die younger.
How fast can a leprechaun run?
With a click of his heels, a Leprechaun can travel at the speed of light.
Do leprechauns have babies?
because of their shape and disposition,” TheFW.com reported. No word on how leprechauns reproduce either, but apparently they do, because an area called “The Sliabh Foy Loop” near the town of Carlingford is apparently home to 236 of them, and they are protected under European law, according to Irish Central.com.
Why are leprechauns evil?
Some say their tendency to over-indulge in the home-brew is what makes them so belligerent and unpredicatable and turns even the friendliest wee chap into an evil leprechaun.
Do leprechauns live forever?
We are not quite sure how the leprechauns managed to survive over all those years, but our guess is fairies just don’t rely on traditional procreation (or they simply live forever).
Can a leprechaun be a girl?
There are no female leprechauns
According to the book ‘A History of Irish Fairies,’ there is no record in Irish folklore of leprechauns having a female counterpart in their ranks or even a solid record of how they procreate or reproduce.
Is leprechaun good or bad?
According to David Russell McAnally the leprechaun is the son of an “evil spirit” and a “degenerate fairy” and is “not wholly good nor wholly evil“.
Are leprechauns nice or mean?
According to legend, leprechauns are unfriendly and aloof. They make shoes and live alone. Leprechauns can be nasty, lustful, capricious creatures whose magic might impress you a lot, but kill you if you fail to please them.
What happens if you touch a leprechaun?
But if you ask for too much, the whole leprechaun kingdom is likely to hear about it, and when they do, there’s no end to the mischief they might cause you until you give it all back. Fair is fair— if you catch a leprechaun, you’re entitled to one pot of gold. Use your other two wishes for a big house and a jet plane.
What is a female leprechaun called?
There are no female leprechauns
According to the book ‘A History of Irish Fairies,’ there is no record in Irish folklore of leprechauns having a female counterpart in their ranks or even a solid record of how they procreate or reproduce.
How tall is a fairy?
Fairies are said to be of human size or smaller, down to a height of 3 inches (7.5 cm) or less. Female fairies may tell fortunes, particularly prophesying at births and foretelling deaths.
How fast can a leprechaun run?
With a click of his heels, a Leprechaun can travel at the speed of light.
Leprechaun – Wikipedia
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What happens if you touch a leprechaun
What kills a leprechaun
What is a leprechaun name
How tall is a fairy
Do leprechauns have powers
Do leprechauns eat
Why do leprechauns pinch you
Is a leprechaun a God
What would a leprechaun say
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Leprechaun
Irish legendary creature
This article is about the creature in Irish folklore. For other uses, see Leprechaun (disambiguation)
Leprechaun A modern depiction of a leprechaun of the type popularised in the 20th century Grouping Legendary creature
Pixie
Sprite
Fairy
Aos Sí Country Ireland
A leprechaun (Irish: leipreachán/luchorpán) is a diminutive supernatural being in Irish folklore, classed by some as a type of solitary fairy. They are usually depicted as little bearded men, wearing a coat and hat, who partake in mischief. In later times, they have been depicted as shoe-makers who have a hidden pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Leprechaun-like creatures rarely appear in Irish mythology and only became prominent in later folklore.
Etymology
The Anglo-Irish (Hiberno-English) word leprechaun is descended from Old Irish luchorpán or lupracán,[1] via various (Middle Irish) forms such as luchrapán, lupraccán,[3] (or var. luchrupán).[a]
Modern forms
The current spelling leipreachán is used throughout Ireland, but there are numerous regional variants.
John O’Donovan’s supplement to O’Reilly’s Irish-English Dictionary defines lugharcán, lugracán, lupracán as “a sprite, a pigmy; a fairy of a diminutive size, who always carries a purse containing a shilling”.[7][8][b]
The Irish term leithbrágan in O’Reilly’s Dictionary[10] has also been recognized as an alternative spelling.[8]
Other variant spellings in English have included lubrican, leprehaun, and lepreehawn. Some modern Irish books use the spelling lioprachán.[11] The first recorded instance of the word in the English language was in Dekker’s comedy The Honest Whore, Part 2 (1604): “As for your Irish lubrican, that spirit / Whom by preposterous charms thy lust hath rais’d / In a wrong circle.”[11]
Meanings
The word may have been coined as a compound of the roots lú or laghu (from Greek: ἐ-λαχύ “small”) and corp (from Latin: corpus “body”), or so it had been suggested by Whitley Stokes.[12][c] However, research published in 2019 suggests that the word derives from the Luperci and the associated Roman festival of Lupercalia.[14][15][16]
Folk etymology derives the word from leith (half) and bróg (brogue), because of the frequent portrayal of the leprechaun as working on a single shoe, as evident in the alternative spelling leithbrágan.[10][8][d]
Early attestations
A leprechaun counts his gold in this engraving c. 1900
The earliest known reference to the leprechaun appears in the medieval tale known as the Echtra Fergus mac Léti (Adventure of Fergus son of Léti).[17] The text contains an episode in which Fergus mac Léti, King of Ulster, falls asleep on the beach and wakes to find himself being dragged into the sea by three lúchorpáin. He captures his abductors, who grant him three wishes in exchange for release.[18][19]
Folklore
The leprechaun is said to be a solitary creature, whose principal occupation is making and cobbling shoes, and who enjoys practical jokes.
Classification
The leprechaun has been classed as a “solitary fairy” by the writer and amateur folklorist William Butler Yeats.[e] Yeats was part of the revivalist literary movement greatly influential in “calling attention to the leprechaun” in the late 19th century. This classification by Yeats is derived from D. R. McAnally (Irish Wonders, 1888) derived in turn from John O’Hanlon (1870).[24]
It is stressed that the leprechaun, though some may call it fairy, is clearly to be distinguished from the Aos Sí (or the ‘good people’) of the fairy mounds (sidhe) and raths.[26][27][28][f] Leprachaun being solitary is one distinguishing characteristic, but additionally, the leprachaun is thought to only engage in pranks on the level of mischief, and requiring special caution, but in contrast, the Aos Sí may carry out deeds more menacing to humans, e.g., the spiriting away of children.[26]
This identification of leprechaun as a fairy has been consigned to popular notion by modern folklorist Diarmuid Ó Giolláin. Ó Giolláin observes that the dwarf of Teutonic and other traditions as well as the household familiar are more amenable to comparison.
According to William Butler Yeats, the great wealth of these fairies comes from the “treasure-crocks, buried of old in war-time”, which they have uncovered and appropriated.[32] According to David Russell McAnally the leprechaun is the son of an “evil spirit” and a “degenerate fairy” and is “not wholly good nor wholly evil”.[33]
Appearance
Tourists with a novelty oversized Leprechaun in Dublin
The leprechaun originally had a different appearance depending on where in Ireland he was found.[34] Prior to the 20th century, it was generally held that the leprechaun wore red, not green. Samuel Lover, writing in 1831, describes the leprechaun as,
… quite a beau in his dress, notwithstanding, for he wears a red square-cut coat, richly laced with gold, and inexpressible of the same, cocked hat, shoes and buckles.[35]
According to Yeats, the solitary fairies, like the leprechaun, wear red jackets, whereas the “trooping fairies” wear green. The leprechaun’s jacket has seven rows of buttons with seven buttons to each row. On the western coast, he writes, the red jacket is covered by a frieze one, and in Ulster the creature wears a cocked hat, and when he is up to anything unusually mischievous, he leaps onto a wall and spins, balancing himself on the point of the hat with his heels in the air.[36]
According to McAnally the universal leprechaun is described as
He is about three feet high, and is dressed in a little red jacket or roundabout, with red breeches buckled at the knee, gray or black stockings, and a hat, cocked in the style of a century ago, over a little, old, withered face. Round his neck is an Elizabethan ruff, and frills of lace are at his wrists. On the wild west coast, where the Atlantic winds bring almost constant rains, he dispenses with ruff and frills and wears a frieze overcoat over his pretty red suit, so that, unless on the lookout for the cocked hat, ye might pass a Leprechawn on the road and never know it’s himself that’s in it at all.
This dress could vary by region, however. In McAnally’s account there were differences between leprechauns or Logherymans from different regions:[37]
The Northern Leprechaun or Logheryman wore a “military red coat and white breeches, with a broad-brimmed, high, pointed hat, on which he would sometimes stand upside down”.
The Lurigadawne of Tipperary wore an “antique slashed jacket of red, with peaks all round and a jockey cap, also sporting a sword, which he uses as a magic wand”.
The Luricawne of Kerry was a “fat, pursy little fellow whose jolly round face rivals in redness the cut-a-way jacket he wears, that always has seven rows of seven buttons in each row”.
The Cluricawne of Monaghan wore “a swallow-tailed evening coat of red with green vest, white breeches, black stockings,” shiny shoes, and a “long cone hat without a brim,” sometimes used as a weapon.
In a poem entitled The Lepracaun; or, Fairy Shoemaker, 18th century Irish poet William Allingham describes the appearance of the leprechaun as:
…A wrinkled, wizen’d, and bearded Elf, Spectacles stuck on his pointed nose, Silver buckles to his hose, Leather apron — shoe in his lap…[38]
The modern image of the leprechaun sitting on a toadstool, having a red beard and green hat, etc. is clearly a more modern invention, or borrowed from other strands of European folklore.[39] The most likely explanation for the modern day Leprechaun appearance is that green is a traditional national Irish color dating back as far as 1642.[40] The hat might be derived from the style of outdated fashion still common in Ireland in the 19th century. This style of fashion was commonly worn by Irish immigrants to the United States, since some Elizabethan era clothes were still common in Ireland in the 19th century long after they were out of fashion, as depicted by the Stage Irish. The buckle shoes and other garments also have their origin in the Elizabethan period in Ireland.
A life-size balloon leprechaun at Boston’s St Patrick’s Day Parade in 2018.
Related creatures
The leprechaun is related to the clurichaun and the far darrig in that he is a solitary creature. Some writers even go as far as to substitute these second two less well-known spirits for the leprechaun in stories or tales to reach a wider audience. The clurichaun is considered by some to be merely a leprechaun on a drinking spree.[41]
In politics
In the politics of the Republic of Ireland, leprechauns have been used to refer to the twee aspects of the tourism field in Ireland.[42][43] This can be seen from this example of John A. Costello addressing the Oireachtas in 1963—
For many years, we were afflicted with the miserable trivialities of our tourist advertising. Sometimes it descended to the lowest depths, to the caubeen and the shillelagh, not to speak of the leprechaun.[43]
Popular culture
Films, television cartoons and advertising have popularised a specific image of leprechauns which bears little resemblance to anything found in the cycles of Irish folklore. It has been argued that the popularised image of a leprechaun is little more than a series of stereotypes based on derogatory 19th-century caricatures.[44][45]
Many Celtic Music groups have used the term Leprechaun LeperKhanz as part of their naming convention or as an album title. Even popular forms of American music have used the mythological character, including heavy metal, celtic metal, punk rock and jazz.
Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman coined the term “leprechaun economics” to describe distorted or unsound economic data, which he first used in a tweet on 12 July 2016 in response to the publication by the Irish Central Statistics Office (CSO) that Irish GDP had grown by 26.3%, and Irish GNP had grown by 18.7%, in the 2015 Irish national accounts. The growth was subsequently shown to be due to Apple restructuring its double Irish tax scheme which the EU Commission had fined €13bn in 2004–2014 Irish unpaid taxes, the largest corporate tax fine in history. The term has been used many times since.[citation needed]
In America, Leprechauns are often associated with St. Patrick’s Day along with the color green and shamrocks.[citation needed]
The saga and Disney
The Disney film Darby O’Gill and the Little People (1959)—based on Herminie Templeton Kavanagh’s Darby O’Gill books—which features a leprechaun king, is a work in which Fergus mac Léti was “featured parenthetically”.[46] In the film, the captured leprechaun king grants three wishes, like Fergus in the saga.
While the film project was in development, Walt Disney was in contact with, and consulting Séamus Delargy and the Irish Folklore Commission, but never asked for leprechaun material, even though a large folkloric repository on such subject was housed by the commission.[47][g]
See also
Explanatory notes
References
Citations
Bibliography
Ellen’s Leprechauns & Fairies
Hi campers and families, Ellen here from the Loz!
This summer I have been telling you all about the leprechaun and fairy but for those campers and families who have missed part of the story/need to refresh themselves, I will be writing posts here to keep you updated.
Before we get started there are a few things you need to know about leprechauns!
Leprechaun Facts:
Leprechauns love to hang out at the end of rainbows. They usually try and sit on a nice tree stump with their pot of gold. A rainbow appears after it rains and the sun comes out and it disappears once the gold has been taken off the leprechaun. Leprechauns vary in size, ranging from 3 inches to 8 inches, depending on their age. A leprechaun’s pot of gold is approximately half the height of the leprechaun and is made from delicate glass. Irish leprechauns only speak Gaeilge (Irish). When you meet one, it will say ‘Dia duit’ [dee-ah gwitch] and you must respond with ‘Dia is Muire duit’ [dee-ah iss murah gwitch]. Once you’ve responded with the correct response, you have three seconds to take the pot of gold before the leprechaun and the rainbow disappear, otherwise it is gone forever. A leprechaun must remain untouched, otherwise they disappear. Rumor has it that the leprechauns live in a beehive hut in Tipperary. These huts are 1.5 meters (about 5 feet) high and have a narrow slit at the entrance. It cannot be proven that the leprechauns live there as if you touch a leprechaun, it disappears. Leprechaun gold has magical powers. If you make a wish on leprechaun gold, you will receive good luck! If you touch leprechaun gold, it will lose its magic and turn black immediately.
How I met the Leprechaun…
Just before Christmas, I was driving down the countryside with my Mam. It started to bucket down rain so we decided to pull the car over. Eventually, the rain stopped and, just as we were about to drive off, a beautiful rainbow appeared in the sky very close to where we were parked. I was so excited because I knew that when there is a rainbow, a leprechaun and a pot of gold appear at the end. We got there as fast as we could and parked near the rainbow. My Mam is really afraid of leprechauns but I managed to persuade her to come over with me. The two of us tip-toed over to the tree stump that was just beside the end of the rainbow. Sitting on top of the tree stump was … the leprechaun, AND his pot of gold! I was soooo excited to finally see a real leprechaun! I walked over to him and he said ‘Dia duit!’. I was so happy I knew how to respond to him, by saying ‘Dia is Muire duit’. His eyes immediately shot open wide as he didn’t expect me to be able to respond! He then opened his arms and showed me the pot of gold. My friend found a leprechaun before so I knew from her that I had just three seconds to get the pot of gold before it disappeared with the leprechaun and the rainbow. I reached in quickly and grabbed it nicely from him. At the same time, I asked my Mam to take a picture of the leprechaun with her camera so that I would always have a picture to remember him by. As you can see, he looks a little bit creepy!
Not all leprechauns look the same but they all have orange hair and a big beard! We ran back to the car as I was so excited to look at my gold. It was so shiny and sparkly. When I was planning my trip over to camp I told Miss Katie about my encounter with a leprechaun and she asked me to bring my gold over with me. I was afraid the lovely glass pot would break in my luggage so I scooped some of the gold out to put in a new container. Suddenly, the gold that I touched started to turn black!
My friend forgot to tell me that you absolutely cannot touch leprechaun gold as a human touch drains the magical powers from it and turns the gold black! Unfortunately, the gold that I touched is still black, but thankfully I had gold that I hadn’t touched and so could just pour into the container. This gold is now the gold that I can wish on to give me good luck! Another thing to look out for amongst the gold is the purple shell!!! All leprechauns love to play tricks and so they try to confuse people by putting a purple shell in with all the gold! If you wish on the purple shell, it will give you bad luck! Our very own counselor Aoife who works in the barn once wished on the purple shell and now she has a leprechaun stamp on her neck! Those trickster leprechauns!
Try and find some rainbows so you can have the chance to meet a leprechaun and get some gold!
Fairy time…
As well as leprechauns, we also have fairies who live in Ireland. These live in beehive huts just like leprechauns, except these huts are only 2 feet tall and there are always three or five of them together as these are magical numbers in Ireland. The fairies spend most of their time living in these huts, but also spend time living in Fairy Valley where they learn how to be the best fairy possible. Fairy Valley is run by Queen Kate and she trains and looks after all of the fairies until they are ready for their new home. When a fairy is ready for her new home, she has to listen really carefully for a fairy wish. This is done by humans who want a fairy to live near them. To make a fairy wish, you must cross your fingers on both hands, cross your legs and say ‘I wish a fairy lived here’ three times. The wish doesn’t always work and sometimes might need to be repeated. We made lots of fairy wishes in the Loz so we are really hoping that a fairy will move in soon! To tell if an Irish fairy has moved in, you have to look for the green fairy door with a shamrock. Along with the door you will find some stepping stones that your fairy uses to get into her house, a glass container with a tiny key, and a letter from your fairy explaining the fairy rules. Hopefully we will have our very own fairy soon!
Sióg is here!
The fairy has arrived! On Tuesday morning, I was walking to the Loz and I noticed that the main doors were open. This was very odd as I always close and lock the doors at night time. When I walked into the Loz, I was amazed to find a green fairy door, stepping stones, glass bottle, key and letter all down the very bottom of one of the walls. I couldn’t wait to show the campers during the day!
We read the letter from the fairy and it was a “Fairy/Family Lease Agreement”. It outlines the expectations and rules that both the humans and the fairy must follow to live happily together. We read through them and all agreed to the rules. Our fairy didn’t realise how many of us are now part of her family and so we couldn’t all sign our name on the agreement.
Instead, we signed our name on a big sheet of paper and left it beside the door over the weekend so that she could see it. The letter she wrote us said that once we have all signed the agreement, she will come back into the Loz, get the key out of its container and move all of her stuff into her new home. Hopefully when we come to camp next week she will have moved in and is ready to start writing us some letters. We also found out our fairy’s name – Sióg. It’s an Irish name and is pronounced [she-oe-g]. We are SO excited for our fairy to move in! Some of us even made some artwork to give to the fairy to make her feel at home!
Check back in next week to hear more updates on the fairy!
Leprechauns: Facts About the Irish Trickster Fairy
Leprechauns are a type of fairy, though it’s important to note that the fairies of Irish folklore were not cute Disneyfied pixies; they could be lustful, nasty, capricious creatures whose magic might delight you one day and kill you the next if you displeased them.
While leprechauns are mythical beings, a rare type of insulin resistance, sometimes called leprechaunism, is very real.
Leprechaun lore
Leprechauns are often described as wizened, bearded old men dressed in green (early versions were clad in red) and wearing buckled shoes, often with a leather apron. Sometimes they wear a pointed cap or hat and may be smoking a pipe.
In their book “The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures,” John and Caitlin Matthews trace leprechaun legends back to eighth-century legends of water spirits called “luchorpán,” meaning small body. These sprites eventually merged with a mischievous household fairy said to haunt cellars and drink heavily.
Other researchers say that the word leprechaun may be derived from the Irish leath bhrogan, meaning shoemaker. Indeed, though leprechauns are often associated with riches and gold, in folklore their main vocation is anything but glamorous: they are humble cobblers, or shoemakers. Shoemaking is apparently a lucrative business in the fairy world, since each leprechaun is said to have his own pot of gold, which can often be found at the end of a rainbow.
According to Irish legends, people lucky enough to find a leprechaun and capture him (or, in some stories, steal his magical ring, coin or amulet) can barter his freedom for his treasure. Leprechauns are usually said to be able to grant the person three wishes. But dealing with leprechauns can be a tricky proposition.
A trickster
The leprechaun plays several roles in Irish folklore; he is principally a roguish trickster figure who cannot be trusted and will deceive whenever possible. In her encyclopedia “Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins,” folklorist Carol Rose offers a typical tale of leprechaun trickery “concerning a man who managed to get a leprechaun to show him the bush in the field where his treasure was located. Having no spade [shovel], the man marked the tree with one of his red garters, then kindly released the sprite and went for a spade. Returning almost instantly he found that every one of the numerous trees in the field sported a red garter!”
In the magical world, most spirits, fairies and other creatures have a distinctive sound that is associated with them. Some entities — such as the Irish fairy banshee and the Hispanic spirit La Llorona — are said to emit a mournful wail signifying their presence. In the case of the leprechaun, it’s the tap-tap-tapping of his tiny cobbler hammer, driving nails into shoes, that announces they are near.
In his collection of Irish fairy and folk tales, W.B. Yeats offered an 18th-century poem by William Allingham titled “The Lepracaun; Or, Fairy Shoemaker” which describes the sound:
“Lay your ear close to the hill. Do you not catch the tiny clamour, Busy click of an elfin hammer, Voice of the Lepracaun singing shrill As he merrily plies his trade?”
The 1825 publication of a book called “Fairy Legends” seemingly cemented the character of the modern leprechaun: “Since that time leprechauns seem to be entirely male and solitary,” they note.
It seems that all leprechauns are not only shoemakers but also old male loners, which makes sense from a cultural standpoint, since that type of fairy is so closely associated with shoemaking, a traditionally male vocation. Though there is something curious about all leprechauns being cobblers (what if they want to be writers, farmers, or doctors?), this designation also fits in well with the traditional folkloric division of labor among fairies.
Leprechauns in popular culture
As with many old legends and traditions, the image and nature of the leprechaun has changed over time and has been updated (and in some cases sanitized) for a modern audience. Lucky the Leprechaun, mascot of the General Mills breakfast cereal Lucky Charms, is probably the best-known fairy of his type. The 1959 Disney movie “Darby O’Gill and the Little People” also influenced how many people think of the wee folk.
On the other end of the spectrum there’s the homicidal leprechaun Lubdan in the “Leprechaun” horror/comedy film series (played by “Willow” actor Warwick Davis). For generations, some Irish have been annoyed by leprechauns and the ethnic stereotypes they perpetuate, and for most Americans leprechauns only appear around St. Patrick’s Day.
Leprechauns offer a morality tale figure whose fables warn against the folly of trying to get rich quick, take what’s not rightfully yours or interfere with “The Good Folk” and other magical creatures. Belief in leprechauns and other fairies was once widespread on the Emerald Isle, and real or not they will continue to amuse and delight us for centuries more.
Genetic birth disorder
Leprechaunism, also known as Donohue syndrome, is an extremely rare disorder characterized by abnormal resistance to insulin. (Some researchers prefer Donohue syndrome because “leprechaunism” may be viewed as pejorative by families, according to the Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man, “an online catalog of human genes and genetic disorders.”)
It is a recessive genetic disorder, which occurs when an individual inherits two copies of an abnormal gene for the same trait, according to the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD).
Babies with the disorder are unusually small before and after birth, according to the National Institutes of Health. They experience failure to thrive, which means they have low birth weight and do not gain weight at the expected rate. They often lack muscle mass and may also have very low body fat under the skin.
Characteristics of the syndrome also include abnormally large, low-set and poorly developed ears; a wide, flat nose with upturned nostrils; large, thick lips and a large mouth; and widely spaced, bulging eyes. Affected babies may also have an abnormally small head, or microcephaly. There may be excessive hair growth.
Most affected individuals have a skin condition called acanthosis nigricans, in which certain patches of skin, such as body folds and creases, become thick, dark and velvety.
Donohue syndrome affects the endocrine system, which regulates the secretion of hormones into the blood system. Abnormalities include excessive secretion of insulin, which regulates blood sugar levels by promoting the movement of glucose into the body’s cells. According to NORD, babies with the disorder cannot use insulin effectively and may have high blood sugar levels, or hyperglycemia, after eating and low blood sugar levels, or hypoglycemia, when not eating.
Other hormonal effects include enlargement of the breasts and genitals. Other characteristics include intellectual disability, abnormally large hands and feet, an enlarged or distended stomach, enlarged heart, kidneys and other organs; and hernias, where the large intestine may protrude through the abdominal wall or into the groin. Affected babies are also more susceptible to repeated infections.
Donohue syndrome is extremely rare; only 50 cases have been reported in medical literature. It was first identified in 1948 by Dr. W.L. Donohue, a Canadian pathologist who wrote about it in the Journal of Pediatrics in 1954. In the reported cases, the disorder occurred twice as often in females as in males.
Treatment is usually directed toward the specific symptoms, according to NORD. Endocrinologists treat the hormonal issues, while dermatologists treat the skin problems, for example. Families may also receive genetic counseling.
Benjamin Radford is deputy editor of Skeptical Inquirer science magazine and author of six books, including “Tracking the Chupacabra: The Vampire Beast in Fact, Fiction, and Folklore.” His website is www.BenjaminRadford.com.
Additional reporting by Reference Editor Tim Sharp. Follow him on Twitter @TimothyASharp
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