School: Clochar na Toirbhirte, Cill Mochua (roll number 15632)
- Location:
- Kilmacow, Co. Kilkenny
- Teacher: Sr. M. Calasanctius
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0843, Page 189
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
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
- On one occasion when Saint Patrick was travelling through the south of Ireland he took up his abode in the townsland of Ballinacrea, situated in the parish of Slieverue.After a time he decided to build a church on a certain hill there. One evening while the building of the church was in progress he returned to the house in which he was staying. Patrick being footsore, weary and hungry asked for something to eat. The people of the house hoping to make a fool of the Saint killed a brindled greyhound and having cut the animal in small pieces so as to resemble meat set it to boil in a huge pot on the fire. When the hound was cooked the woman of the house set it before St. Patrick.St. Patrick knowing what the wicked people had done said the following words "I pray whatever animal this is may take human form". No sooner had he said the words, than the hound jumped from the table, ran through the door, travelled through the street of Slieverue, madly. On coming to a deep ravine it struck against a large rock and was killed leaving its mark there, which can be seen to the present day. St. Patrick in anger cursed the people and the place and said from that day there would always be an oinseac or an amadan in Ballinacrea. To this day it is a real fact that there is either an oinseac or an amadan in the district ever since St. Patrick pronounced the curse.(continues on next page)
