The majority of the tales presented in "Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry" were collected in the nineteenth century by such folklorists as William Allingham, T. Crofton Croker, Douglas Hyde, and Lady Wilde who was the mother of Oscar Wilde. The book transports its readers to the shadowy, twilit world of Celtic myth and legend. There, the mysterious fairy people work their mischief, priests and the devil wage an endless struggle for the souls of humankind, clever wives outwit murderous giants and druids cast spells.