School: Mullach Buí (roll number 2793)
- Location:
- Castletowncooley, Co. Louth
- Teacher: Micheál De Búrca
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0658, Page 224
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
- (continued from previous page)the month of April, and far into it. Why, next Tuesday is May Day." "Well, that's only four days from now. You just make a good straw rope and have it ready for that morning. Rise before the sun, and an hour or so before your shoemaker leaves his bench. Take your rope with you and draw it in the dew until it is completely wet. Make a wide circle at first round where the cobbler sits, and make it narrower as you go round for nine times, repeating the words each time, "Sleep good people, Sleep." In the ninth round you will be beside your sleeping fairy, and you may then do with him as you wish. So, good evening and thank you. I must push on a bit further."
The old man left but Paddy did not forget his advice. On May morning before sunrise, Paddy Cassidy had the fairy shoemaker securely bound in his dew wet rope and he plunged him into the deep hole in Lochan an Ghreasai, from which the fairy steer used to emerge.As told by James O'Hanlon (aged about 60) of Castletown Cooley. Seamus is a poet, and writes occasionally for the newspapers.
- Informant
- James O' Hanlon
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- c. 60
- Occupation
- Poet
- Address
- Castletowncooley, Co. Louth
