School: Beitheach (Beagh) (roll number 14001)
- Location:
- Beagh, Co. Donegal
- Teacher: Maitiú Mac Suibhne
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1048, Page 9
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“The belief that seals are transformed human beings is very common in this locality...”
The belief that seals are transformed human beings is very common in this locality and in fact in all European Countries along the seaboard.
The following which I got from an old fisherman who said his father was one of those concerned in the capture of the young seal, is firmly believed in this district.
About 1851 a young seal was caught and killed on the shores of Loughromore bay. That night as the men who killed it were hauling up their boat, they distinctly saw, in the moonlight, the old seal coming up out of the water and crawling on to the same bank on which its young one was killed.
It then began to cry out: -- "Ó mo leanbh. mo leanbh. my leanbh"
This went on for three nights in succession and then ceased, and from that night on, a seal has never been known to enter the bay.
- Informant
- Ben Molloy
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 76
- Address
- Ardara, Co. Donegal