School: Baile Theas (B.), Malla (roll number 4953)

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1. The Whisperer

   

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   The Ballyhoura mountains are a range of mountains which run from east to west through the north of Co. Cork and they were the scene of the following story which happened during the Penal Times in the end of the eighteenth century. In the Ballyhoura mountains a famous Rappree named OHare had his hiding-place and he owned a famous gray mare which was noted all over the country as being able to jump every obstacle and no other horse could surpass her as a race-horse and she had often helped OHare to escape from the soldiers.
   OHare had committed some attrocities and there was a regiment of soldiers stationed in Buttevant whose main object was to capture him and his mare.
   One day they surrounded him in a valley in the heart of the mountains and he knew that if he tried to escape on the mare as usual they would shoot her and he liked her so much that he would sacrafice his own life to save her so he hid her in some brush-wood and escaped himself on foot. After a time the soldiers searched the valley and discovered the mare. She was a very vicious animal and would leave no one ride her only OHare so the soldiers had to lead her to Buttevant and then they took her to The Curragh which was and is the military headquarters in Ireland and there she was claimed by one of the officers.

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Language

   English

   Informant

   Mr John Sheehan

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Ballygrady North, Co. Cork