School: Béal Átha 'n Fheadha (B.)

Location:
Ballina, Co. Mayo
Teacher:
D. P. Ó Cearbhaill
Browse
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0146, Page 578

Archival Reference

The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0146, Page 578

Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.

See copyright details.

Download

Open data

Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

  1. XML School: Béal Átha 'n Fheadha (B.)
  2. XML Page 578
  3. XML “At the Wedding”

Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.

On this page

  1. A long time ago there lived a poor farmer in County Sligo named Séamus Mc Gowan and one evening in Spring as he was crossing over his fields he saw a few small men among some rushes. So he went up to them and bid them "Good evening" and found they were very friendly. After a while chatting they told him that they were going to a wedding party and asked him to accompany them. So he being very fond of such fun he agreed to accompany them. When it was just getting dark they decided to start off. The leader told Séamus to pull one "Thraneen (blade of grass) himself and the others doing likewise and the "Thraneens" turned into horses fine chargers. They then rode away through the night until they at last arrived at the house where the wedding party was held. The leader ordered all to dismount, and as soon as they did, the horses turned into Thraneens again. He then led them into the house through the keyhole of the door where they could not be seen and all hid in the rafters right over the table where the wedding party were feasting. After some time the bride sneezed and the leader of the little men whispered to Séamus saying that if she sneezed
    (continues on next page)
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    Topics
    1. agents (~1)
      1. supernatural and legendary beings (~14,864)
    Language
    English
    Collector
    Patrick Coen
    Gender
    Male
    Address
    Ballina, Co. Mayo
    Informant
    Jack Conway
    Gender
    Male
    Address
    Ballysadare, Co. Sligo
    Informant
    Mr T. Coen
    Gender
    Male
    Address
    Ballina, Co. Mayo