One of the many vanished fairy thorns, but this was better known than most and has earned an international notoriety. The thorn was known to generations of mill workers in Dunmurry, once a centre for the linen industry. It was said that mill girls on their way to an early shift had actually seen the fairies dancing beneath it.
Enter modern industry, and John De Lorean’s proposals for a new factory to produce the ultimate sports car. The thorn was in the way. Local workers refused to destroy the tree – outsiders had to be brought in.
Some of the executives were American, ready to accept local belief in the thorn and the dangers of harming it so when the final commercial failure came there were people on both sides of the Atlantic ready to tell the tale; and suggest that the venture was ill fated from the start: modern entrepreneurs are not immune to old magic.