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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. Adamstown

    CBÉ 0189

    disease. His son then tried to finish his father’s work. But he too was stricken by disease, so the attempt was then ended.
    On the hill of Camross, near Adamstown there is a stone seat. It is said to have been St. Abban’s seat, where the saint used to sit and rest, and look around at his seven churches. It is not exactly known where the saint is buried. Some say on Camross Hill, and others say in the grave yard in Adamstown. However, there is a large stone cross over the spot where he is supposed to lie in Adamstown.
    Old people say that anyone who is able to span this cross with outstretched arms, standing erect with his back to the cross, that that he will never have a backache. Long ago, on the

  2. Adamstown

    CBÉ 0220

    Adamstown, Co. Wexford

    There is a fine big mansion near Adamstown, it is held by Protestants now, but for generations it was held by Catholics. At wan time there was a man living in it by the name of Downey. He was a Catholic. The graveyard was in wan of his fields, and the fence was bad around it and the cattle used be breaking in to the graveyard. So Downey went to build a wall around it. The people objected and the priest objected. They had some row away, between Downey and the priest and Downey fired a shot at him. He didn't hit him, though. Some time after Downey got sorry for being so rash and he came beg the priest's pardon.
    "You are all right", says the priest, "but I tell you this much. Adamstown will yet be without the seed or breed of a Downey". And 'twas time for him. They melt away like the froth of the river. He had about two thousand acres of and it all went, and they (the Downeys) went too the place is owned now by a Protestant named Rockwell.

  3. Dick Humprey

    CBÉ 0460

    that he was well on his feet again.
    I just will recall wan thing that happened in a publichouse before I came back to Ireland.
    I was in this pub and I was telling them all there of the great man I was out there and how well I got on and all the money I made. They all thought I was a great fella and then some of 'em found out that I was from Ireland, and two of 'em began to tell me about all the travelling they did through Ireland. I asked 'em were they ever in the South of Ireland and they said they were. I asked them then did they ever travel through Wexford They said that they did. I asked them then did they ever see the Leap of Adamstown. They said they didn't ever hear of it. "Well said I to 'em "there is wan thing certain you fellas were never in the South of Ireland for it you had been you certainly have gone see the Leap of Adamstown." The two boys could say nothing at all.

  4. (no title)

    “There was a man named Mat Myler of Ballyvergin and he was dying...”

    CBÉ 0106

    to a dance in Adamstown. He came a long way, twenty miles or so. When he was dancing for a while somebody asked him had they got the new priest down there yet. "O no" says the man we don't want him, we done up the ould wan."

  5. Whitechurch

    CBÉ 0189

    up in a big faction fight.
    There used to be terrible fights bewteen the Staffords of Adamstown and the Kearns of Rockayle. They used to use sticks and stones on each other.
    An ould man of the Staffords had a fight there wan day with a man named Brien. Stafford was fighting with two sticks, and he was getting the better of him, when Brien threw away this stick and "killed" Stafford with a polltog of his fist.
    Stafford had a daughter a school teacher. She used to teach school in an ould outhouse near Adamstown. But she went away to America after.

  6. (no title)

    “There was a hedge schoolmaster in Adamstown...”

    CBÉ 0220

    Adamstown, Co. Wexford

    There was a hedge schoolmaster in Adamstown wan time. One night he had his class at reading. One of his pupils came to a difficult word and he couldn't pronounce it. The master didn't know the word himself. "Musha, pass over that" he says "you or I need no nothing about that word. That's a word for big society people".

  7. Adamstown Races 1870

    CBÉ 0221

    61
    the fences he did bound.
    But he was capsized and lost the Prize that day in Adamstown.
    VII
    Now I'll give a cheer to young Williams
    and likewise to Mr. West
    to valiant Day and noble Maher
    and Whitney I protest.
    Give a cheer to all the sportsmen
    that assembled on the ground
    till the end of time may Downs
    long shine in sporting Adamstown.
    Composed by Thomas Broaders
    Gort na buaile
    in the year of 1870
    There were two men at the races of Adamstown in 1870 and they didn't meet for nearly sixty years afterwards and says one of them to the other "begob Jim I never see anywan failed like you since we met last."

  8. Adamstown Races 1870

    CBÉ 0221

    59
    and it was with respect they did
    select, the lands of Adamstown.
    III
    Six noble steeds were mounted that had neither blemish or flaw
    They were .Hilltown, PoleStar, Brian
    O'Lynn and Williams from Glendaw.
    and several other horses whose name
    I have not found.
    Young Williams takes the farmer's
    stakes this day in Adamstown
    Brian O'Lynn spoke to his rider
    drawing nigh the winning post
    Saying if Pole Star had much
    farther to go
    he'd have nothing much to boast
    of or it is on the grass plain to be seen
    Before thousands on the ground
    the Glendaw lass this day I passed
    in sporting Adamstown
    IV
    The next appeared the handicap
    as you may understand.

  9. The Dead Coach

    CBÉ 0106

    There was a man named Michael Hickey of Misterin near Adamstown He was working with some grand gentleman, and this gentleman used to be away some nights. He used to travel around in some kind of a coach. Michael would often be waiting for his master to come home, and he would hear a great sound it coming to the hall door. He used to hear the horses trotting, and the driver urging them on. The coach would come to the edge of the house and stop. Then Michael would hear a whistle and would go out thinking of course that it was his master. When he would go outside he would hear nothing or see nothing. This happened him a lot of times, but one night he heard a very loud whistle and he ran to the window and looked out, and what he did see but the

  10. Strength

    CBÉ 0189

    There was a man by the name of Matta Faney, he lived between here and Adamstown.
    There was a big stone -limestone- up near a quarry there, and several used try to lift it. And it was a great strong man would just lift of the ground. Matta Faney put the stone into a car himself wanday, and he got a couple of tons of lime for doing it.

  11. Piseoga

    “In a certain district near Adamstown about twenty years ago...”

    CBÉ 0220

    In a certain district near Adamstown about twenty years ago there lived a woman and she was regarded as a very bad class. She was reforted to be seen out at night, Soupposed stealing and robbing, and doing harm to neighbours. Nobody cared much about her, and they never liked to see her coming about the place.
    One day she came into my grandfather's place. It happened that they were churning the same

  12. Faction Fights

    CBÉ 0221

    There used to be great fights and feuds between parishes and baronys long ago and Adamstown used to be a great place for that. About sixty seven or seventy years ago this used to take place. They used to fight on the fairs and at the races, especially when people would have a sup of drink taken for it was ? that time and nearly anyone would be able to buy what would make them drunk for a shilling. In fact they would never fight at all only when they had drink taken. Almost at every fair when the buying and selling would be over and the men would all go off to the public houses, the fighting would start. They would use big blackthorn sticks for the purpose and it is often people came home with their bones broken and had to stay in bed for a week or so.

  13. Faction Fights

    CBÉ 0221

    or maybe would have to go to hospital for treatment. The fighting took place almost at every fair and if there was no fighting there would be a great wonder. There was a fair one day about twenty years ago and it was about two o'clock and all the tramps were collected waiting for the fun and they were wondering that there was no fighting. "Begob" says one of them "that ? the ? it is two o'clock and not a stroke struck yet! There was a race in Adamstown about sixty seven years ago, and the fighting started between two parishes. They fought with sticks for a long time and then the sticks got broken and they took up the poles of the ? that people had them for giving out the tea and they also took up the poles that were which up here and there for the race horses

  14. People with Evil Eye

    CBÉ 0221

    There was a woman up in Adamstown and she had an evil eye. When she would go into a place she would never say "God save all here" or "God bless the cow" or anything of that kind.
    One day she came

  15. Dick Humprey

    CBÉ 0460

    for they had never been in Ireland at all. But it was I made the right end of 'em all for the Leap of Adamstown is no great shakes of a thing.
    Not long after this I came back to Ireland and lived on my money for that day to this.

  16. (no title)

    “There was once a man living in the parish of Adamstown.”

    CBÉ 0106

    There was once a man living in the parish of Adamstown. He was married and had one child. When this child was about ten months old, the father began to notice that it was very witty and had some very old sayings and nobody was ever able to make him cry. The father, Tom Murphy was his name, began to think that his child was “no right thing” and began greatly to fear that that it had something to do with the “good people”
    One day while Tom Murphy was ploughing he broke some part of it. He went to a lot of forges for miles around but none of the smiths were able to weld it. One morning he got up and told his wife that he would have to buy a new

  17. (no title)

    “There was once a tinker woman lived near Adamstown and she used to go around selling brushes an laces and delph.”

    CBÉ 0106

    There was once a tinker woman lived near Adamstown and she used to go around selling brushes an laces and delph. One day she was going down a lane to a farmer's house, where there lived a man by the name of Ned Brennan, When she was about half-way down the lane, didn't she meet Ned Brennan coming up the lane, and she asked him would he buy a brush. Ned was a very rough spoken man. "Bite me arse" says he. "Oh musha sir" says she "sure I haven't a tooth in me head"
    There was a man lived in Dungulf by the name of Tom Murphy. He was dying this time and the priest was sent for. When he came he knew the man wouldn't live long, so he told him it would

  18. (no title)

    “There were two sisters lived in Raheen near Adamstown.”

    CBÉ 0106

    There were two sisters lived in Raheen near Adamstown. One of them was a very pretty girl, and the other was a very ugly girl. Both of them fell in love with the same boy. One day he met the pretty girl on the road and they were talking for a long time and at last they went for a stroll. The end of the matter was that he fell in love with her and they used to meet constantly. The ugly girl got very jealous of her sister when she heard that the two of them were getting friendly with each other.
    Along with being ugly, she was a very bad hearted and very bad-minded girl. She did all in her power to make her sister and her beloved fall out. She told all

  19. Blessed Wells

    CBÉ 0106

    over his grave. The cross is about ten or eleven feet high, and the old people say it was five or six feet higher many years ago, but it was broken in the time of the Rebellion.
    Any person that would stand with his back to the cross and meet his hands around it would never have a pain in his back. The well that was beside the cross went dry one time and it rose up in a field a few hundred yards away from the graveyard, and it is known to this day as "cobar ban". There is also another well up in Adamstown called the "white well" and another well which is not a blessed well at all called "Fior-uisee well" pronounced "fee-rish eh"

  20. Adamstown - Misterin House

    CBÉ 0189

    to bring it back into the house again. After that the "ghosts" along with the armour were shut up in a room on top of the house, and they only made an occasional sally to frighten the inmates.
    Sometimes the candle would be knocked out of a person's hand when he'd be going to bed. The present owner of the house showed me a lump on his head which he got, he said, when he was about two years old by being thrown out of his nurse's arms as she was carrying him up the stairs one night.
    (Recorded by Miss Maire Sclanaf, Misterin Adamstown, age 20)