School: Goresbridge (B.) (roll number 800)

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1. Local Ballads - The Bees of Milltown (continued)

   

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   Ask anything of me that's just and in reason.
   And I will grant it that minute from God
   The drivers came after them skitting and laughing
   We fear the good Saint he don't hear you said they
   You ought to pray louder for maybe he is sleeping
   Or maybe he is out on a visit to day.
   At length when the drivers got tired of their mocking
   They gathered the cattle and drove them away
   And then they came on without meeting resistance
   Until they came down there to Ballytiglea
   And just as they were crossing the water
   Before you would have time to say "Peep in my eye"
   More bees than would fill all the hives in the country
   Came thundering down on their heads from the sky.
   And now I will tell you what happened
   The geese in their terror flew over the trees
   The cows and the pigs they went mad up through Miltown
   And left the poor bold drivers alone with the bees.
   And sure if the bees did not sting them "Nach bachleis"
   And sting them again until there was'nt a spot / All over their bodies
   But there was a lump on // As big as the praties is there in the foot
   A lie upon my soul its as sure as you are living
   Myself and the drivers going over the road
   More dead than alive in Mat Maughan's ould turf [?]
   And sure !twas themselves was the eligant load
   What end of the cows and the pigs and the cattle
   They made away home as fast as the wind

   (continues on next page)

   

   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Thomas Ryan

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Courtnaboghilla, Co. Kilkenny

   Informant

   Patrick Ryan

   Gender

   Male

   Age

   56

   Address

   Goresbridge, Co. Kilkenny