School: Baile an Oileáin (B.) (roll number 2808)
- Location:
- Ballinillane, Co. Kerry
- Teacher: Eoghan Ua Muircheartaigh
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0460, Page 591
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- XML School: Baile an Oileáin (B.)
- XML Page 591
- XML “Fairy Forts”
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- (continued from previous page)recently in the system of "Mocking" when cattle were kept during the night in a field called a "Macha". Farmers used get up about four o'clock in the morning to drive the cattle out of the "macha", so that they could graze until milking time about nine o'clock.
Blackthorn trees and hazel trees grew in these forts. Birds used perch and rest on these trees. Bats, when prowling, used delay in the fort watching their prey - birds and rabbits. There is a fort in Knockanolort (Ballyhar parish, Co. Kerry). About sixty years ago a little boy going home from school thought he heard churning in this fort.
Many forts have now been tilled and the rings levelled. Some people believed that the Danes compelled the Irish that they had conquered to build these forts. If a worker collapsed through fatigue or hunger he was cast into the ditch of the fort and buried there. For this reason people thought it improper to till or to interfere in any way with a fort.(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Willie O' Leary
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Ballyhar, Co. Kerry
- Informant
- John Moriarty
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 74
- Address
- Leamnaguila, Co. Kerry
