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The Main Manuscript Collection

This collection includes every aspect of the Irish oral tradition. More information

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  1. A Fairy Tale

    CBÉ 0463

    Once upon a time a man who lived near Boyle was out feeding his cattle on his farm. On his way home he met a fairy man who spoke to him. He told him that the Irish fairies were playing a football match in Scotland against the Scotch fairies on the following night. He said that the Scotch fairies had a Scotchman playing with them & unless the Irish fairies had an Irishman playing with them who could beat the Scotchman They would lose the game. He also told him that if they won the game the Irish fairies would reward him. The farmer agreed to go with them & asked the fairy where he would meet them the next evening. The faily told him that they would meet on the spot where they were then standing. The fairy then disappeared & next night the farmer met them at the appointed place. The fairies were all

  2. (no title)

    “There was a man wan time and he was a bit silly in his mind.”

    CBÉ 0221

    but the fairy came out no more so he went home, but he wasn't satisfied so the next night he set off again for the mound. He waited for some time and at last he saw a fairy comin' towards him. It was a real fairy this time. The man waited until the fairy was within a few feet of him and then he made a grab at him and caught him in his two hands and held him tightly. "I have you now" says he to the fairy, and I won't go home until you show me where the gold is." "Very good" says the fairy "but we will have ta hurry out of this place for I see your wife comin' with a great big stick." The lad looked an' he couldn't see his wife at all. When he looked back again the fairy was after disappearing out of his hand altogether. So he was about without his gold for another spell.

  3. (no title)

    “There was a man wan time and he was a bit silly in his mind.”

    CBÉ 0221

    When he went home he was tellin' the neighbours that he had a fairy in his hands and when he took his eyes off him the fairy vanished. They told him that if he got a fairy in his hands he should keep his eyes on him all the time, or if not he would never lead him to the crock of gold.
    So he started off again in seach of fairies, and after about six months he happened on another. Wan night he was comin' home from a wake an' he wasn't expecting fairies at all, when he saw one of them goin; down the lane before him. He ran after it an' he caught it and took it up in his arms and never took his eyes off it, although the fairy did all in its power to make him do so. He kept asking the fairy for the gold all the time but the fairy told him that he

  4. (no title)

    “There was a man wan time and he was a bit silly in his mind.”

    CBÉ 0221

    He was married too, like every silly man, and the wife used to rule him with a rod of iron. Somebody told him that if he could catch a fairy he would get a crock of gold. So he used be out every night looking for fairies. He was out every night for two years and he never saw the sign of a fairy although he went to places where fairies are supposed to be seen. He went around to all the old raths and forts and sat out all night, but no sign of a fairy could be seen in any of those places. All the people of course we're making fun of him , but still an' all they were keeping him at it. They told him if he would go to such an such a place he would find fairies galore. So he went to

  5. (no title)

    “There was a man wan time coming home from the fair...”

    CBÉ 0221

    the fairies saw him coming they all began to laugh and says they "here is the man who wouldn't believe in fairies now. We'll let him know that there are such things as fairies. So they started to beat the head off him and to whallop him all over the body with little wands they had. When they had him fairly well exhausted they let him alone, and they kept him in the rath for nine days and nine nights. Every day some of the fairies would come along and give him a hell of a beating. On the ninth day he found himself walking out of the rath and up and up and at last he was at the top and when he was leaving the rath he heard all the fairies saying you'll never say that there is no fairies again. When this man got home his own people didn't know him he was so much changed

  6. Another Tale of the Moate of Regorey

    CBÉ 0220

    fairy walks out and comes out to the drunken man and leads him in to the moate. In he goes anyhow and there before was the most beautiful place he ever saw. On a golden throne sat the queen of the fairies and all around her sat the rest of fairies and they all dressed in golden robes and the roof was full of gold and also the floor and there was about forty thousand little lamps humming birghtly around the palace as that is what it was. Well the fairy-queen asked the drunkard to sing what he was singing out on the road, so he stands up as straight as he could and takes off his cap and he '[?]" the roof off the palace. Almost he sang so well all the fairies then started in to sing with him and when all were finishes the fairy queen stood up on her throne and cried out silence. Then everyone was silent and you could hear the grass growing. Then the fairy queen said. We will have to do something for this man as he has made our song a hundred times better than what it was. So they called a meeting and they went into another apartment and soon they came back and the Queen stood up

  7. (no title)

    “There was a man one time and he was coming home wan night...”

    CBÉ 0221

    for a long time, and he didn't know what to do about it. Things were going from bad ta worse with the poor man, and at last he had ta go to the priest and tell him all about it. The priest told him that the seven years were up and the fairies were at liberty again, and were doin all they liked on him especially when he wouldn't take the priest's advice and let the fairy rath alone. The priest told him to go home and have nothing ta do with the rath anymore, and he took the priest's advice and never did anything ta the fairies from that timeout. The next year he let the fairy rath alone and soon his luck came back ta him and he was as well off as ever. It isn't luck ta have anything to do with the fairies good or bad.

  8. Fairies

    CBÉ 0190

    There is a great belief in fairies in the Co Wexford. They are supposed to live in the forts or raths or "raws" as the people say.
    In Bannow the people say that there two different kinds of fairies, fairies and lucharachans. The fairies sit to themselves in the raths and the lucharachans to themselves smoking little pipes. The fairies don't smoke at all.
    A crowd of fairies came to a man's house down in Bannow riding on a bullock. They knocked at the door and asked for a nights lodgings. The man of the house let them in allright. There was a big pot of potatoes and cabbage and meat on the kitchen

  9. Fairies

    CBÉ 0190

    There was a man one time was coming home at about twelve o clock at night and he was passin by Kilquarn rath, he saw a lot of lights in it and saw all the fairies kickin football. As he was lookin on and listening to them the football came out to where he was and he kicked it back. The next place he found himself was in the middle of the fairies. The king of the fairies came over to him and told him they would call a match and have a good game of football. All the fairies were playing, the king was on one team and the queen was on the other. This man was playing on the queen's side

  10. (no title)

    “There was a man wan time and he was a bit silly in his mind.”

    CBÉ 0221

    the "fairy" was in the centre of it and they pulled it from wan to the other. It was fairly dark an ' nobody that wouldn't be up to the dodge would see the thread at all. They were practising at the pulling of the thread when they heard the man comin' So they stopped , but each of them held each end of the thread and they had the "fairy" in the centre of the rath. Me man, for it was no other came into the rath and the first thing he saw was was the little fellow in red. He was so delighted that he let a shout out of himself and says he "at last, at last me fortune is made" he made a grab at the fairy, but wan of the men pulled him into the bushes before he could catch him. He put his hand in after the fairy but the man in the bushes held him tight

  11. (no title)

    “There was a man wan time and he was a bit silly in his mind.”

    CBÉ 0221

    and the man that was looking for him couldn't get sight of him. He went out on the middle of the mound and he sat down, and he was downhearted enough, "Begor" says he "that bet the divil all out" so near an' yet so far". He was sittin there for some time when the "fairy" rushed across the mount and inta the bushes at the other side. He rushed her again, but he was too late. He sat down again, and he wasn't well sat down when the fairy rushed back again. This was goin' on for a long time, and he was kept busy running back and "edge" for a long time, when begot he happened to break the cord. The man on the other side then had ta pull the fairy inta his side of the mound, and then, begor he couldn't get him out any more. The man then watchin' the fairy waited for sometime

  12. (no title)

    “There is another story told of a man who was always drinking.”

    CBÉ 0221

    him, and they singing and dancing and in great humour entirely. When Tom wakened up he was brought in to the rath by the fairies. They went down in a little hole in the ground and Tom thought he would be squeezed to death if he went in the little hole, but when he was going down the hole opened up and Tom went down without any bother. When he went below he saw the grandest sight he ever say in all his life. There was a grand hall all done out in great style the like of which Tom had never seen in all his life. Everything was decorated in the grandest style. Tom saw the king and queen seated on two lovely thrones and a bodyguard of fairies all around them. Then there was a lovely band of music and it started to play and then all the little fairies began to dance and all the old fairies sat

  13. (no title)

    “It is very unlucky to leap from a ditch...”

    CBÉ 0221

    It is very unlucky to leap from a ditch in the middle of the night for the fairies might be passing and they might bring you away with them. There was a man one time and he jumped from a ditch and he never landed until he landed in the fairy rath. He was kept there by the fairies for seven years and then he was let out and the people didn't know

  14. (no title)

    “There was a cobbler wan time and it was said he was a fairy man.”

    CBÉ 0221

    There was a cobbler wan time and it was said that he was a fairy man. He used to call upon the fairies to help him when he would have too much work to do. Of course the fairies wouldn't help him at all if he wasn't busy. When he would ask for help he would want to have fifteen or sixteen pairs of boots to be mended. Then the fairies would come along and they would tell him to put the boots into the churn and turn it twenty one times. When he would have turned the churn twenty one times and all the boots that required mending in it, and all the wax and all the end thread and leather and all that would be wanted, he would open it and all the boots would

  15. (no title)

    “It is surprising what stories one hears...”

    CBÉ 0221

    It is surprising what stories one hears in this county about fairies and raths. Almost every rath or fort or lis in this country has has some history and it is the old folk's strong belief that fairies still live in them. They say that the fairies have certain paths or that they travel in Whirlwinds or they hold their meetings on mushrooms. When some of the old folk would be telling a story about fairies they would talk in a kind of a whisper as if they were afraid that the "good people" would hear them.
    There is a story told about a man that never believed in fairies at all and said it is all nonsense about them. He said that such things were only invented in order to frighten children. This man one time was building a house and

  16. Haunted House

    CBÉ 0265

    of it because they were taken by the fairies & he had broken the spell.

  17. When the Fairies Didn't Want a Good-Looking Girl

    CBÉ 0485

    but they couldn't, an' is the misht cleared up, they found themselves in a very sthrange place, an' there seemed ta be great amussment on it, for there was fiddles a playin an' all kinds o' diabaileacht goin on.
    The boy afther watchin the proceedins for a time began ta get afraid that maybe they meant ta keep him for good, for he knew well that it was the fairies that was havin' a little game on him, an fot was more he thought that he had losht the girl entirely, for she was sportin' around wit the little fairies, an' throwin' no heed at all on him, an' the wind up o' it was that he began ta get very jealous o' her, an' he made up his mind that he'd thry an' get out o' the place is besht he could, an' lave her there if she wanted to sthay.
    He went is far is fot he thought looked like the fairy king, an' he begged o' him, ta let him home to his mother, an' that he could keep the girl if he liked. The fairy king who was sittin up on a high perch like the branch o' a three never said a word only dhrew out from him, an' gave him a kick in the mouth, that made him yowl out wit apin, an' jusht the same is if every fairy in the place knew fot he was afther sayin, they all stharted ta shout out is loud

  18. (no title)

    “I heard another story about the fairies.”

    CBÉ 0190

    never had any more trouble with the fairies.
    There was a man went one time to cut bushes in a rath. He was advised by a lot of old people not to have anything to do with the fairies abode. He said that this was all nonsense, so he went and started to cut the bushes. He wasn't cutting very long when he got a pain in his stomach and it started to swell. He swelled up as big as a barrel and in a few days he died.
    It is also said that mushrooms grow in the fairy rings. People would often see mushrooms growing in the rings. They would say that the fairies have something to do with the mushrooms. It is said that they use them as seats in the

  19. Another Tale of the Moate of Regorey

    CBÉ 0220

    their nice tune, and he could see fire dancing in her eyes and all the fairies had the same appearance. The man said nothing in reply to the Fairy Queen. Then the queen again called a meeting and the object of this meeting was to find out some way in which they could punish the man. After sitting for about a quarter of an hour or so they came back again headed by the queen. "Well" says the queen "we have decided to punish you for destroying our song and the punishment is that you shall receive another hump on your back and with that a whole lot of the fairies left the palace and returned a few minutes later carrying the first man's hump. This hump was after growing since it left the other man and now it was almost twice its original size and it took almost forty of the fairies to carry it. They then got a big step ladder and placed it near to where the man was sitting and they lifted the hump up on to the ladder step by step. In the latter end however they got it to the top of the ladder and they let it fall down on top of the man's track might

  20. Fairies

    CBÉ 0220

    Fairies are said to be good people. Ballyhogue, a townland in the parish of Bree, is [?] some people say, of Baile Sideiz- the town of the fairies. There is also a tract of land between Galbally and Tomfarney know as "Sheeogs". At night-time, it is said, that people often go astray if they go into the sheeogo. One night a young man was coming home through the Sheeogo, and he was taken away by the fairies.
    When he came home next morning he got into bed and he died shortly after.
    It was said that the fairies living in the Ralt about here long ago.