A few years ago, we went on a visit to Donegal, in the Republic of Ireland. It's a really nice place.We went for some long walks in the countryside. The landscape and country is so quiet and slow somehow; it's very green of course, and there's a timeless quality about it like it hasn't changed much since the Middle Ages or even the Stone Age.
Of course the roads are paved and everything, but even so, you seem to get a sense that in Donegal, in some way, there's a very thin veil between our world and a world of magic and legend. You almost feel that you could just step through. If a leprechaun jumped out from the hedge and started talking to you, you wouldn't be particularly surprised. When you're there, it's easy to believe they might exist.
Then when you get back to the noise and bustle of London, somehow it's harder to believe in them.
The point I'm making is that, if certain places make you feel like you believe in magic and other places don't, could it be that the decline in belief in such things could be caused simply by the fact that most people nowadays live in cities? That would make everyone less inclined to think they were true.
So the question is: Do leprechauns exist - or not?
