School: Cill Mhuire (C.), Oileán Ciarraí (roll number 10395)
- Location:
- Kilmurry, Co. Kerry
- Teacher: Máiréad Pléimeann
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0449, Page 020
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
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
- Bean Sidhe is supposed to announce the death of a member of an old Irish family. when an O Connor, an O Brien, an O Rourke, a McCarthy, or a Murphy, or a member of several other families dies in Kerry, people are on the alert for the Bean Sidhe. She usually comes not more than a week before the death. She may be heard ag caoineadh round the house, or in the neighbourhood of the sick person.
About 45 years ago a man was already dead, and was being waked in his own house. Not later than 10 o'clock, a summer's night, all the people at the wake heard the lonely wail about a half a mile away. It was evidently on the bohereen and coming towards the house.
Some of the younger members of the family said it was surely a certain brother in law, coming to the wake already drunk. They set out in the direction of the wail to thrash him, but it suddenly stopped, and there was nobody to be seen on the bohereen; nor in the adjacent fields.An old woman, her son, and the man who told the story, were sitting around(continues on next page)
- Informant
- Paddy Donoghue
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 55
- Address
- Ballybane, Co. Kerry
