School: Skerdagh, Newport (roll number 3905)

Location:
Skerdagh Lower, Co. Mayo
Teacher:
James Deffely
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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0086, Page 66

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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0086, Page 66

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  1. XML School: Skerdagh, Newport
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  3. XML “Poll an Tairbh”

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  1. 66
    Poll a Tairbh
    Between Beltra Lake Glenisland, Castlebar, Mayo and the Guards Barracks Glenisland in a S.W. direction from the lake and about 100 yards therefrom there is a pool of water known as Poll an Tairbh About two hundred years ago on a summers evening a young man was herding his cattle in the immediate vicinity of this pool and a most beautiful milk-white bull arose out if its waters came on to the land and matched one of the cows. Then he returned back into the pool, disappeared under the waters and was never seen since. This pool previous to this time was not supposed to be enchanted. The bull was never known to be there before. The cow in due time had a calf and the first man to drink her milk after her calfing was a man named Brian Ruadh. From that time forth he could foretell the future.
    Some of the things he foretold were.
    (1) The coming of the Great Flood told in the preceding story
    (2) The building of the barrack in Glenisland and the coming of the police. In his time no one ever had heard of police or barracks.
    (3) The building of Bunawona bridge near the barrack which he said would be one of the strongest bridges in Ireland and would never
    (continues on next page)
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    Topics
    1. genre
      1. poetry
        1. folk poetry (~9,504)
    Language
    English