School: Kilmacow (B.) (roll number 14187)
- Location:
- Kilmacow, Co. Kilkenny
- Teacher: P. Ó Loingsigh
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0843, Page 044
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- XML School: Kilmacow (B.)
- XML Page 044
- XML “The Gobán Saor”
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
- The Gobán Saor
Once there was a man called the Gobán Saor. He was a carpenter but he could not satisfy the people with the cars he made. One day one of his people said to him "I like the car that you made for me but other people find some fault with ot." The Gobán Saor answered "Isn't it all right when you are satisfied with it."
The two of them decided to make a big box and put four legs under it and to put it at the Chapel gates on the following Sunday and get into it and listen to what the people would say. When the day came they got into the box at the Chapel gates. When the people came they were looking at the box and one of them said "It is a fine box and no one could make it but the Gobán Saor but the legs are too long."
Others that came agreed with these remarks. When they had gone into the Chapel the Gobán Saor got his saw and cut the legs of the box a bit shorter. When the people came out of the Chapel they wondered what happened to the legs of the box and said that they were too short. When the people were gone the two of them put the box in the car and went home and the Gobán Saor said "I can't please everybody."
- Informant
- Patrick Walsh
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 50
- Occupation
- Railway worker
- Address
- Dangan, Co. Kilkenny
