School: Rakeeragil (roll number 11568)
- Location:
- Rakeeragh, Co. Monaghan
- Teacher: P. Murray
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0958, Page 173
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
Download
Open data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- XML School: Rakeeragil
- XML Page 173
- XML (no title)
Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.
On this page
(no title)
“This is a version of the story of the...”
173
This is a version of the story of the Goban Sor which I heard told when I was a very small boy.It was the popular version told by the old story tellers on the border lands of Cavan and Monaghan.A long long time ago there was a great carpenter in Ireland named Goban Sor(That was the way the name was pronounced)and besides being the greatest worker in wood,he was also the greatest stone mason in all the land,but his renown as a mason and carpenter was altogether eclipsed by his great wisdom and forethought.He had a son,Shaun,a very good tradesman too,but otherwise was a soft easy going inonkin?and all Goban's lessons and lectures seemed lost on him.As they were proceedingto their work which was a considerable distance from their home,the Goban says to the son"shorten the road"
"Do you expect me to work wonders"?says the son.How can I shorten the road?
Tell a story,sing a song or whistle a tune and that will shorten the road,says the father.On one occasion Goban Sor sent his son to sell a sheep skin and he told him he must bring home the skin and the price of it.Of course the people laughed at the poor simpleton that expected to get the price of the skin and the skin with it.So he came home and told his father that he was only laughed at.Nevertheless,Goban sent him the next day on the same errand with the same result.On the third day,as he was proceeding to the place where hides were sold,a girl came out of a house on the roadside and asked(continues on next page)