School: Rostellan (roll number 12661)

Location:
Rostellan, Co. Cork
Teacher:
Máiréad, Bean Uí Choileáin
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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0393, Page 122

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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0393, Page 122

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  1. XML School: Rostellan
  2. XML Page 122
  3. XML “The Ship Called the White Cow”

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  1. It is said that during the reign of the O'Briens in Rostellan Castle a ship dropped anchor off the harbour under the name of the White Cow. The castle flag was down on the flag staff which was a sign that the master of the castle was out. Then a small boat from the ship pulled up on the strand. The boat men numbering five knocked at the door of the castle. The servant came. They asked was any of the O'Briens in. The maid said "no", that the sons were in Cork, where the mother was. And the father was out walking. He would not be long in returning. The men said that they had not time to delay. They knocked the girl against the wall and when the other servants and the butler came in they were all murdered. The servant that they knocked against the wall was the only one allowed live. They handcuffed her. One of the soldiers was badly wounded by the knife that was in the Butler's hand and after a time died. He is supposed to be the haunted soldier of Rostellan Castle. The other soldiers returned to the ship with the servant girl and
    (continues on next page)
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    Language
    English
    Collector
    Seán Laoghan
    Gender
    Male
    Informant
    Bean Uí Lewis
    Relation
    Grandparent
    Gender
    Female
    Age
    c. 75
    Occupation
    Oibrí tí
    Address
    Rostellan, Co. Cork