1. dúchas.ie
  2. The Main Manuscript Collection

The Main Manuscript Collection

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

Filter results

Results

120 results

  1. Fairies

    CBÉ 0221

    he was kicking football and got his arm broken and he was in hospital for a few months with it. Of course the old people had their own stories and adviced everybody not to have anything to do with it. or with anything that belonged to the fairies, and when speaking of the fairies or the banshee at the present day the old people would always speak in low tone as if they were afraid that the good people would hear their conversation and come and have revenge on them.
    The old folk also say that fairies are more numerous than lepracawns or luaracawn It is said that there is a lepracawn in (Polksmith?) to the present day and another in Shan. a place not far from Killurin

  2. (no title)

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

    CBÉ 0221

    face and there was a limp on one side of it about as big as a good sized football. He got an awful fright and he didn't know what to do so he went to the priest and told him what he was after (serving?) and the priest told him not to plough the rath for he said it was very unlucky to have anything to do with the fairies so the priest said some prayers and then laid his hand on the swelling on the man's face and told him that he need not worry that he would soon be alright. He also told the man that he would banish the fairies for seven years and that they wouldn't trouble him anymore. So the man went home and he soon was alright. The next morning his face was back to normal.
    The priest banished the fairies not long after this

  3. (no title)

    “I heard another story about the fairies.”

    CBÉ 0190

    I heard another story about the fairies. There was a man living near Enniscorthy some years ago. He was a farmer. He used to wonder every morning why the horses in the stable would be so tired and life at all in them. He used to wonder at this for he used to feed them well. He didn't know what to do. One night he said to himself that he would stay up all night in the stable and watch them. He remained there until twelve o clock, and then he heard a great noise outside and then the stable door opened and in ran a whole crowd of fairies and jumped up on the horses ten or eleven of them on every horse, and galloped out in the stable door and away all in the space of a couple of minutes

  4. (no title)

    “I heard another story about the fairies.”

    CBÉ 0190

    The poor farmer didn't know what to say or do. He stopped there in the stable until five o clock and then the cocks began to crow. Immediately he heard a great noise of horses galloping outside and the stable door opened and all the fairies came in on the horses beating them frightfully. The fairies tied the horses and ran out and away in the direction of the rath. The poor farmer was in an awful state when he saw the poor horses and panting and perspiring. So he went to the priest and told him all about it. The priest came over and prayed over the horses and told the man that everything would be allright. The next morning the man went out to have a look at the horses and found them alright and he

  5. There was another man going out to shoot wan morning at four o clock...

    CBÉ 0190

    across the fields and the fairies went ahead and he saw no more of them or got no further account of them.

  6. Raths

    CBÉ 0220

    Barmoney, Co. Wexford

    There are several old Raths around Galbally. These ould raths were supposed to be fairy homes, whether it is true or not I dont know. There is a big rath in Barmoney; and long ago the old people said that the fairies used be seen dancing and feasting there and they all having very bright lights.
    Long ago the fairies used to take people away, and they used to make them very happy with themselves. When people got married the fairies used often try and steal the wife but they were often béat on it too.
    The old people used to say that one should never meddle with a rath. It was said that a farmer tried to level off the Rath in Barmoney, and make land out of it, but every time he went to dig it or level it it would be the same as every next morning.
    There was another man who tried to plough up a rath near Galbally, and the plough broke in bits and the horses took fright and ran away. The man went home and he was never the same after; and he died in a very short time. None of the people around here would like to meddle with a rath.

  7. Child Taken by the Fairies

    CBÉ 0220

    Years ago there was a child taken away by the fairies in Barmoney and there was something like a child left in its place.

  8. (no title)

    “The dead coach used to travel from Ballyhogue...”

    CBÉ 0221

    Bid Murphy wondered at herself that she wasn't more afraid of these people. But she found that she couldn't go away from them no matter what she'd do. When they were done dancing a great whirlwind came and took away all the fairies and Bid Murphy as well. She was kept with them for nine days and nine nights, and then a whirl wind came and all the fairies and Bid Murphy were landed back on the mound in the field again. Bid then went home and got in the bed and she got very sick. The priest and doctor were sent for and they did all they could for her but it was no use for nine days after she coming home she passed away. So the "Good people" ar'n't good sometimes.

  9. (no title)

    “There was a man one time and he had a hump on his back.”

    CBÉ 0221

    There was a man one time and he had a hump on his back. It was on his back from his infancy. One night he was out late and he was passing through a great wood when a crowd of fairies followed him, and they were saying “Dé Luain, Dé Máirt, Dé Céadaoin”. They were all saying this together and saying over and over again. Then they stopped altogether when they came near this fellow with the hump on his back, and then he said “Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday”. When he was finished speaking the hump left his back and he was the same as any ordinary man. He looked around and he could see no fairies at all so he went home, and you may be sure that he was delighted with himself, and all his friends were delighted and they were all gathered in his house that night and they danced away ‘till morning. Sometime

  10. (no title)

    “There was a man one time and he had a hump on his back.”

    CBÉ 0221

    after this, this man was coming home from town and he was talking to another man on the road, and this man had a hump on his back. He started telling him how he got rid of his hump and the other man was delighted, but he was a bit nervous of fairies, so he went to the nearest public house, and got a few drinks and came back and didn’t care where he was going. He went ahead anyhow until he came to a wood and he went into it. It wasn’t long until he heard the fairies coming along after him and they were saying “Dé Luain, Dé Máirt, Dé Céadaoin” and they were all saying it together. When they came up to the him they stopped and he said Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. He was a little merry and didn’t know what he was saying. When he was finished talking he heard a

  11. (no title)

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

    CBÉ 0221

    around smoking their pipes and chatting. The dance went on all night. In the middle of the night Tom a great big feed of the finest stuff he ever ate in all his life. Tom was kept in the rath for three weeks and he lost his memory and didn't know where he was at all. One night the fairies all went away and in the morning they came back and Tom noticed that they had a child with them. He looked close at the child and then he knew it was his son that was in it. Immediately his memory and his senses came back to him and he began to realise the position he was in. Tom saw where they put the child, and then noticed that there were five or six other children there also. The next time the fairies went out Tom went to go look for the hole where he came in and after some

  12. Head Left Crooked

    CBÉ 0265

    One night a young man was going to a dance in Ballycumber & he was going through Rathcot for a short cut when he heard the lovliest of music & singing in the rath which was all lit up. He saw a girl there that had been taken by the fairies & he went in & danced with her & had a great time. The fairies came to him with grapes and all kinds of fruit & eatables & wanted him to take them but she told him not to eat anything or he would be kept. She told him to go away & not to look back until he had crossed the

  13. Fairies

    CBÉ 0190

    fire. The woman of the house turned these out on the table and the fairies were asked over to their supper. They went to the table and got the spoons and forks and all in their hands, but they couldn't put a bit of food in their mouth. They got up from the table in an awful hurry and rushed for the door, but it was shut. Then some of them said, "hie, out in the keyhole, Hie, out in the keyhole. These then got out in the keyhole. The rest of the fairies said "hie, out in the keyhole", but they couldn't get out at all, and they had to stop there until the man of the house let them out.
    Another night they went into shop and robbed it, and when they were coming away the

  14. Fairies

    CBÉ 0190

    door was shut and they began to say "Hie, out in the keyhole, Hie out in the keyhole". They all then got out, only one, and he was saying "Hie, at the keyhole".
    There was a man one night in a graveyard and he was on the lookout for the bodysnatchers. He was sitting down on a tombstone smoking his pipe, it was a fine Summers night, when two fairies got up and danced on a tombstone in front of him. He looked at them for a long time and at last says he "Well done shuckey shark" and in a moment all was dark.
    The fairies used to take young children long ago and leave in their places "fairy changelings". A child was taken from Lough Duncormick one time and there was an ugly looking

  15. Fairies

    CBÉ 0190

    They fairies were supposed to travel in the whirlwinds hence the name she gees side gaovil.
    There is a rath in the parish of Kilmore and three fellows went to dig it one time and one of them died soon afterwards and the other got a hump on his back, and the other got bone disease. There is another rath called Rath Ronan and there are a lot of fairy ring around it. There was a family lived near it, three or four brothers and they had one sister, she used be taken away every night by the fairies and brought back in the morning. The brothers went to the priest about it and he told them to watch by here bedside all night. They did so but it was as much as

  16. Another Tale of the Moate of Regorey

    CBÉ 0220

    on her throne again and she spoke "Sir wo have decides to take that hump off your back" The drunkard felt the hump tumbling down off his back and when it fell off he fell on his face on the floor and about forty of the fairies lifted him up again and he found that he was a fine young subtle man and he had a brand new suit of clothes on him and all his pockets were loaded with money, gold, and silver. About twenty fairies caught the hump an dcarries it off and put it up on a shelf and left it there, and the man started for home. When he reaches home the wife didn't know him but he up and tould her all his story and they never naw the wind in the two door from that day out.
    Well the news spread rapidly until it came to the ears of another humpy backer man and he came to the man that was cured for advice. This man told him how he was cured and told him also that if he went there to right about twelve o'clock and waits until he'd hear them singing, and when they'd sing "Monday Tuesday, Monday Tuesday,

  17. Béaloideas from Galbally, Co. Wexford, Barony of Bantry, - Fairy Story

    CBÉ 0220

    There was a man wan time and he was passing by an ould rath where there were fairies. Just as he came near the rath he heard music. The grandest music you ever heard. He stood for some time listening and as he was coming away he passed some remark about the music. As soon as he did the fairies came out of the rath and ran after him. Wan of them gave him a bottle of water and they told him to keep shaking it all along on his way home.
    He went on and kept shaking the water as they told him, but before he came to his own house he had it all wasted. When he came to his own gate the whole lot was gone.
    Just at his own gate there was a car track and in this car track there was a little water. He stooped down to get some water out of the car track, and just as he stooped he fell into the track and was drowned.

  18. Superstitions

    CBÉ 0220

    On May Eve some people put up a quicken berry branch on the gates and doors to keep the fairies away.
    More old people wouldn't like to give a drop of milk away on May Day. They say it would be unlucky.
    People long ago used to redden the sock of the plough on May Eve and put it in under the churn, when the churning would be ready.
    This was to keep the fairies out of the churning.

  19. (no title)

    “The dead coach used to travel from Ballyhogue...”

    CBÉ 0221

    There was a girl named Bid Murphy worked at a farmer's place named Sinnotts in Ballyhogue in the Co. Wexford. One evening she went out to milk the cows and there was a hill or a mound in the middle of the field and she saw a whole lot of little fellows dancing on the hill. She knew at once that there were the fairies for she had often heard of them. There were eight of them dancing and two or three little fellows playing the grandest music that Bid Murphy ever heard in all her life.
    The music got the better of her and she went right up to the mound where the fairies were sitting and then she saw the king and queen sitting side by side on two mushrooms and they looking on at the dancing.

  20. (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