Editing Leprechaun (section)

===Appearance===
[[File:Menwithleprechaun.jpg|thumb|upright|Tourists with a novelty oversized Leprechaun in [[Dublin]]]]
The leprechaun originally had a different appearance depending on where in Ireland he was found.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://old.emigrant.ie/article.asp?iCategoryID=189&iArticleID=1463 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20070729204811/http://old.emigrant.ie/article.asp?iCategoryID=189&iArticleID=1463 |archive-date=29 July 2007 |title=Little Guy Style |url-status=dead |access-date=30 August 2016}}</ref> Before the 20th century, it was generally held that the leprechaun wore red, not green. [[Samuel Lover]], writing in 1831, describes the leprechaun as,<blockquote>... 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.<ref>From ''Legends and Stories of Ireland''</ref></blockquote>

According to [[Yeats]], the solitary fairies, like the leprechaun, wear red jackets, whereas the "trooping fairies" wear green. Yeats' leprechaun wore a jacket with seven rows of buttons with seven buttons to each row. Yeats describes that on the western coast, the red jacket is covered by a [[frieze (textile)|frieze]] one, whereas 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.<ref>From ''Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry''.</ref>

According to McAnally the universal leprechaun is described as follows:

{{blockquote|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 [[Frill (fashion)|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 varied by region. In McAnally's account there were differences between leprechauns or Logherymans from different regions:<ref>McAnally, ''Irish Wonders'', [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19486/19486-h/19486-h.html#toc67 140–142].</ref>
* The Northern Leprechaun or Logheryman wore a "military [[red coat (British army)#History|red coat]] and white breeches, with a broad-brimmed, high, pointed hat, on which he would sometimes stand upside down".
* The Lurigadawne of [[County Tipperary|Tipperary]] wore an "antique slashed jacket of red, with peaks all round and a [[Jockey's cap|jockey cap]], also sporting a sword, which he uses as a magic wand".
* The Luricawne of [[County Kerry|Kerry]] was a "fat, pursy little fellow whose jolly round face rivals in redness the [[Cutaway (coat)|cut-a-way jacket]] he wears, that always has seven rows of seven buttons in each row".
* The Cluricawne of [[County Monaghan|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:
<blockquote>...A wrinkled, wizen'd, and bearded [[Elf]],
Spectacles stuck on his pointed nose,

Silver buckles to his hose,

Leather apron&nbsp;— shoe in his lap...<ref>[http://faerylands.org/faerie/poems/Lepracaun.html William Allingham – The Leprechaun] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100501133608/http://faerylands.org/faerie/poems/Lepracaun.html |date=1 May 2010 }}</ref></blockquote>

The modern image of the leprechaun sitting on a [[Mushroom|toadstool]], having a red beard and green hat, etc. is a more modern invention, or borrowed from other strands of European folklore.<ref>A dictionary of Celtic mythology</ref> 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.<ref>Andries Burgers (21 May 2006). "Ireland: Green Flag". Flags of the World. Citing G. A. Hayes-McCoy, A History of Irish Flags from earliest times (1979)</ref> 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 Americans|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.