School: Yellow Furze

Location:
Yellow Furze, Co. Meath
Teacher:
Síle, Bean Uí Leamhain
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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0684, Page 275

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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0684, Page 275

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  1. (continued from previous page)
    before the instalment of the system, bore witness to similar cases in their experiene, and my father spoke frequently to us of the "stray sod" of the Manor (the Manor is a townland two miles from Johnstown school.) He said it was of rather frequent occurrence that a belated homeward bound peasant or farmer, having to cross the "Manor fields" found them turned into a pathless, unfamiliar wilderness, by reason of that unlucky stray sod which his unwary feet encountered. Morning alone brought relief and sense of direction to the perspiring, weary, footsore victim of the "The Manor's fairy sod."
    Though these tiny denizens of the fairy raths were merely mischievous, and not baleful, the people did not care to encounter them, a fact which allowed the gruesome traffic in dead bodies to go on unchecked. Bodies were needed for post-mortem examination so that medical science might advance, and the "sack em ups" as these who pursued this awful avocation were called later on, could deliver their grim cargo unmolested. If they chanced to meet a benighted traveller, they passed silently as the fairy headless horses, and headless drivers - it required but little disguise to deceive the unsophisticated.
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    Language
    English
    Collector
    May Fennelly
    Gender
    Female