Irish Fairy Tales is a classic Irish fairy tale collection by William Butler Yeats. I am often doubted when I say that the Irish peasantry still believe in fairies tales. People think I am merely trying to bring back a little of the old dead beautiful world of romance into this century of great engines and spinning-jinnies. Surely the hum of wheels and clatter of printing presses, to let alone the lecturers with their black coats and tumblers of water, have driven away the goblin kingdom and made silent the feet of the little dancers.