School: Rathmeage, Hackettstown

Location:
Rathmeague, Co. Wicklow
Teacher:
Pádraig Ó Tuathail
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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0920, Page 241

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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0920, Page 241

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  1. XML School: Rathmeage, Hackettstown
  2. XML Page 241
  3. XML “Outwits Magistrate”

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  1. One time an old man named William Brien used to make a living by stealing potatoes and selling them. An old woman named Byrne used to keep her potatoes under a clump of turf for seed for the next year so one night she went out to look at them and the cloak ? litter around the clump. Brien was watching her all the time & when she went in to her house again he bored a big hole in the clump & took all the potatoes he was caught & summoned & charged the next day by Old Tom Ebbs & brought to Knockananna Barracks but he carried his sack of potatoes all the time. When he was brought into the barracks he emptied his bag of potatoes under the grate to crisp them then picked them up again & put them in his sack. When he was brought into court Ebbs swore against him that he would know the potatoes that they were American reds but Brien said his were American Blacks & when he emptied them out in court a big cloud of ashes & dust came out of the bag & the potatoes were all like soot.
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    Topics
    1. agents (~1)
      1. supernatural and legendary beings (~14,864)
    Language
    English
    Informant
    James Tyrrell
    Gender
    Male
    Address
    Rathshanmore East, Co. Wicklow