School: Killmallock Convent School

Location:
Kilmallock, Co. Limerick
Teacher:
An tSr. Dimpna
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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0528, Page 232

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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0528, Page 232

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  1. XML School: Killmallock Convent School
  2. XML Page 232
  3. XML “Fairies of Knocksouna”

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  1. There's no doubt about it, the fairies are there. My own daughter saw them in a field near Knocksouna - a host of them, little people wearing red coats. Of course they never appear to people in sin, and they never harm the innocent.
    I was working as a young man in Thomastown with a Mr D[?] and his sister on a hundred-acres farm. One day he sent me to Charleville to hire a man for a few months. He was a bit mean about money but the sisters gave me 2/- to treat the man before I'd bring him home.
    I saw a fine hefty man on the street and settled with him. "Come down to Flaherty's now" says I "and we'll drink the two bob." We took three pints each (that was 1/-) and then he asked me as a favour to come down by Garrienderk. He told me he had been digging potatoes there with a man named Mr Carthy who was a great stick fancier. There was a moat near the farm and one day John Dunne (that was the man I had hired) saw a lovely black thorn which he thought would make a lovely walking stick for his [?]. He tried to cut it but his penknife wasn't sharp enough so he went in for another knife. When he returned he found the black thorn as crooked as a ram's horn. He got a terrible fright and left it alone of course. That was six months before I met him and he came to Thomastown by way of Garrienderk in order to have another look at the black thorn. We couldn't find a trace of it although we looked from one end of the moat to the other.
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    Topics
    1. agents (~1)
      1. supernatural and legendary beings (~14,864)