School: Baile an Gharrdha (B.) (roll number 2909)

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1. The Local Forge (continued)

   

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   sick call at night Tom Fennell used to be going in to the footpath and the priest was always going on to him. The priest used to say if you saw what I see you would stop out of that path. The priest saw spirits in the path. Tom Fennell used to always make his own nails. He would make seven nails in 10 minutes for each shoe. There were seven nails for each shoe to be driven. The implements used for making a horse shoe are the hammer, the tongs, two punches and a vice. First the shoe is fitted and then it is driven and when it is driven it is clenched and filed down with a rasp. There is the ruins of a forge about a mile east of Ballingarry and it is haunted. Every night the smith would be working late in that forge he would be brought out of the bed at twelve o clock and would be made to shoe a black horse. When the horse would be shod he would disappear and he would never see the horse again until he was working late the next night.
   When the Holy family were going to Egypt, they called to a certain smith to make a nail for them. When the smith had the nail made the smith put into water to cool. Then Saint Joseph said that there would be a cure in forge water.

   

   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. activities
      1. economic activities
         1. trades and crafts (~4,680)
            1. smithing (~2,389)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   James Fennell

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Ballingarry, Co. Limerick

   Informant

   Fred Massey

   Gender

   Male

   Age

   68

   Address

   Ballingarry, Co. Limerick