School: Carlanstown (roll number 884)

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1. Gudders

   

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   Robertstown, a couple of mile below the chapel of Kilbeg is a very ancient place also. There is an old graveyard there too. Long years ago most of the land in that locality was owned by a very bad, wicked man named Goddard, or "Gudders" as he was called by his badly-treated tenants. And indeed they were badly-treated for if any one of them said or did anything to displease their cruel landlord they would be hanged at once without even a pretence of a trial. At that time there was very little law or order in Ireland.
   The wicked man had a gallows erected on the top of a hill and to this day that hill is known as "Gallows Hill." Most people say that the gallows was put there specially to hang Catholics for he was a Protestant and very bigoted.
   "Gudders" had a daughter - the ugliest girl ever seen in Eire, and no man could be got who would marry her even thought a huge fortune would be his on the day he made her his wife. She seldom appeared in public so that even the nearest tenants had never seen her properly. Whenver she did venture out she kept her face hidden by a veil.
   Now, this girl's father had a dispute with a Catholic man named Chieftain O'Reilly over a portion of land. He threatened to hang him on a certain date and had him locked up in an evil-smelling dungeon meanwhile. One morning he ordered the prisoner to be brought before him and when it was done he said to O'Reilly: "You are a long time a prisoner in that dungeon; I will

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