School: Ballyduff B. N. School
- Location:
- Ballyduff, Co. Kerry
- Teacher: Tadhg Ó Leathlobhair
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0415, Page 134
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- XML “The Mermaid”
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- About fifty-eight years ago, my grandfather and his crew were out fishing on the river Cashen. All of a sudden my grandfather saw the tail of a big fish. He told the oarsmen to turn for the shore, which they did. When they saw the mermaid in the net, they all started shouting and one of the men picked up an oar and killed her with it. When she died, a strange kind of stuff flowed out her mouth, and flowed into the water. They cut her up, and she was the same as any ordinary woman from half-way up, and the same as a fish from that down. About two or three days afterwards the same crew and the same boat were out in the long strand fishing, when their boat was capsized. My grandfather was the only swimmer in the boat, and he took the net and the pots which they had for catching eels, and the four oars and his godfather named Stack, out the mouth of the river, down the Cashen,(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Murtie Dowling
- Gender
- Male
- Informant
- James Crowley
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 71
- Address
- Leagh, Co. Kerry
