School: Móin na nGé (C.), An Caisleán Nua (roll number 9402)
- Location:
- Rahanagh, Co. Limerick
- Teacher: Máire, Bean Uí Eachtigheirn
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0491, Page 236
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
- Sprid na Barna
A woman who lived in a fort called Lisheen at the top of Barna Hill about 150 years ago was called Sprid na Barna. Her maiden name was Molly O Shaughnessy. She murdered her husband and her unbaptised child and some time afterwards she herself died. After her death her spirit was often seen. She used to be sometimes seen in the form of a greyhound, and at other times in the form of a hare, and at times in the form of a woman. In the form of a greyhound she used to go around in the harvest time and tumble the haycocks that had been made during the day.
One night a priest met her, and he asked her what she had done that she had to this awful penance. She told him that she murdered her husband and her infant child.
She was causing such annoynace to the people that were out at night that the priest banished her for seven years and ordered her to remain between the bark and the pith of a tree. When When this period was finished she was seen again in the form of a hare but it was noticed that she could never cross a stream of water. Men that had to be out late at night(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Joan Conway
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Rathcahill East, Co. Limerick
- Informant
- Mrs Conway
- Relation
- Grandparent
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Rathcahill East, Co. Limerick
