School: Sean Bhaile Árd (roll number 14663)

Location:
Shanballard, Co. Galway
Teacher:
Tomás Ó Murchadha
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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0083, Page 326

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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0083, Page 326

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  1. XML School: Sean Bhaile Árd
  2. XML Page 326
  3. XML “The Fairy Tune”

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  1. (continued from previous page)
    and he began to play the tune on his pipes. He had not gone for when his mother began to scream and she preached him to stop playing. He did so and she told how his father many years before has heard the same tune from the skies while standing beneath the old hawthorn. He also had heard the same threat but began playing the tune on his way home. He soon regretted it for the fairy ghost gathered round him and beat him unmercifully so that he was hardly able to walk home and he did not recover the use of his limbs for three months. She coaxed Shaun never again to play the dreadful tune and at last he promised her not to play it anymore. He did his best to forget about it and at the end of two years the fairy tune no longer held any attractions for him. Soon after he was invited to a wedding in the district and he took his pipes with him to play. When he arrived there were two fiddler in it also. During the night a dispute arose between the musicians as to which of them had the most tunes. The dispute became so heated than Shaun forgot the promise he had given his mother and he started playing the fairy reel. He had hardly begun when a great wind swept through the room. The lamps was quenched, chairs and tables were scattered and overturned and the cups and dishes were broken; people ran hither and thither and everything was in confusion. In the midst of this turmile shaun was taken by invisible hands and with the
    (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
    Arabella Melody
    Gender
    Female
    Address
    Clooncah, Co. Galway
    Informant
    Mrs Margaret Melody
    Gender
    Female
    Address
    Clooncah, Co. Galway