School: Dangan (roll number 878)
- Location:
- Dangan, Co. Meath
- Teacher: Brian Mag Fhógartaigh
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0692, Page 159
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- XML School: Dangan
- XML Page 159
- XML “The Devil and the Cards”
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
- Once there lived a man whose name was Michael Mooney. He was going to a neighbour's house to play cards. When he arrived, they were all waiting for him to bring the cards. They played cards till 12 o'clock in the night. When he was going the woman of the house told him not to bring the pack of cards "Why" said he "Because" said she "if you have a pack of cards after midnight the devil will appear" He laughed and went out.
As he was going home that night he was wondering was there any trugh in what the woman had said he heard a voice saying "Beware". He was frightened. Then he thought it was imagination and went on walking. Just as he was passing the churchyard two white clouds flashed across the road and he was knocked down. When he looked up again he saw a horrible looking figure. It had long horns, black face, two eyes like fire, a hooked nose, pointed chin, long arms, and skinny fingers with long nails. It was the devil. He blessed himself and then there was an unearthly roar and it dissappeared. He ran to the nearest house and told his story. They got the priest and he blessed the place.
- Informant
- Thomas Connolly
- Relation
- Parent
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 56
- Address
- Ginnetts Great, Co. Meath
