School: Dún Átha, Carraig an Chabhaltaigh
- Location:
- Doonaha, Co. Clare
- Teacher: Ed J. Headtromóin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0633, Page 312
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- People were going out from Carrigaholt fishing in the Shannon one night and brought potatoes with them in a pot as it was the custom to boil them while out in their boat. One of the boys, reached over the side with the empty pot to fill it with water when the pot slipped from him and fell into the sea. Nothing daunted however he decided to follow the pot and got his fellow fishers to tie a long rope securely round his waist and to hold one end securely.
When he came down under the sea he reached a town and saw a man smoking his pipe outside a house. The boy was offered a smoke of this pipe but refused it (If he had taken it he would have to stay down there).
Boy asked him if he had seen any pot which had fallen overboard. Man said he had heard a strange noise behind the house a few minutes previously. Boy went around and saw woman having his pot filled with fairy potatoes which she was about to boil - the woman asked him to leave her the pot for a while. But meantime the man in the boat who held one end of the rope thought it was time to pull him up; this, they did and up he came to the surface with his own pot and the fairy potatoes.
The men kept these potatoes and used them for seed and these are the seeds still in use in West Clare.
- Collector
- Denis Collins
- Gender
- Male
- Informant
- Martin Troy
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 80
