"The Brandsma Review is a conservative Catholic bimonthly magazine in Ireland. While not totally traditionalist, its editor (Nick Lowry) and many of its contributors are members of the Latin Mass Society of Ireland (www.latinmassireland.org). The BR did much to popularise the term 'Pixie' and 'Pixie Chick' among Irish trads and it has some international currency - Royal knew what Askel was talking about when he said the Riverdance girls weren't Pixie Chicks.

Ok. A Pixie is a Cornish fairy, the Cornish equivalent of a leprachaun. Cornwall, though in the south west of England (I beg your pardon if you are a Cornish nationalist - some people in Cornwall do not consider themselves English), is Celtic with a lot of similarity to Wales and Brittany and more distantly to Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man and Gallicia. But a pixie is the Cornish functional equivalent of an Irish leprachaun. That is the origin of the term.

The application of the term in the BR/LMSI context is quite different. It is based on the acronym for the Society of St Pius X: SSPX. A leading figure in the LMS of England & Wales who regularly was liaising with the original LMSI secretary, Nick Lowry, (editor of the BR) was heard to refer to SSPX supporters as Pixies (there had been a showdown between 'pixies' and moderates at an LMS E & W general meeting c.2002). The BR editor quite liked the term and it began appearing frequently in BR columns and more frequently in conversations among LMSI members, which spilled over to general Irish traditionalists. So pixie was a common term for 'SSPX adherent'.

In early 2003, the LMSI launched its campaign to get the Mass in Cork City and there was a well attended traditional Mass in Ss Peter's and Paul's. There were a number of SSPX adherents at Mass. The LMSI general meeting followed later in Jury's Inn and the LMSI Board had its dinner later, following a session or two in the hotel bar. The appearance of a number of female SSPX adherents was referred to, as some of these ladies appeared more like they were on their way to a mosque than a church (we know of a case in Macroom where a parishioner asked a priest who had said a traditional Mass who the two Moslem ladies in church were). At the time, the American girls' band, the Dixie Chicks were protesting against President Bush'es policy on war in Iraq and did so by appearing naked in Rolling Stone (not accomplishing anything in the process). The contrast was not lost on the LMSI officers, one of whom suggested the excessively modest young women at the Mass might be called the 'Pixie Chicks'. And before anyone knew it, references to Pixie Chicks began appearing in the BR, and any Irish trad knew what they meant, even after the Dixie Chick protest was forgotten.