School: Drumacoon (roll number 351)
- Location:
- Drumacoon, Co. Monaghan
- Teacher: P. Ó Grianáin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0950, Page 367
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- About thirty years ago in the townland of Lisnagore there lived and still lives a man called Thomas James Finnegan. One night he was returning from a wake. As he was nearing his own home he went into a field with a lone bush in it. As he came to the bush a strange feeling came over him but he walked on. He could see the hedge about sixty yards from him but he could not get near it. On and on he walked but he could not reach the hedge. He did not know what to do. At last he lay down worn out by exhaustion. All night long he lay there listening to the lonely cry of owls and the other animals and birds of the night. Several times he thought he heard something pass him but he saw nothing. When day dawned he saw a pad round the field where he had walked all night. He arose and went to the hedge and got out of the field. He then went home and went to bed. He said after that it was the fairies that did it but he knows now that if ever he crosses a stray pad again to turn his coat inside out and he will come off safe. A stray pad is a trap set by the fairies to keep people from touching their haunts.
