School: Bun Machan

Teacher:
Íde, Bean Uí Chobhthaigh
Browse
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0648, Page 238

Archival Reference

The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0648, Page 238

Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.

See copyright details.

Download

Open data

Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

  1. XML School: Bun Machan
  2. XML Page 238
  3. XML “The Grandmother's House, the Holy Well and the Fairy Bush”

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

  1. Once upon a time, many, many years ago there lived in a tiny mud cabin an old man and his wife. Their children had all left them and gone to earn their living in other lands so the old couple often felt very lonely. Close to their house there was a deep well and near by a tall tree. After some years the man died and the old woman was very lonely indeed because she had no friends near by. After a time no one knew exactly how it happened, the place got the name of being haunted. The figure of a man used to be seen very often near the well. One night the old woman herself saw a man walking around the well. He had a Prayer Book in his hand and a Rosary Beads around his neck. The woman screamed when she saw him and he said to her "Do not fear me old woman," and he began to talk to her like an ordinary man. When she saw him so kind her fear left her. She asked him what he was doing when she met him. He answered her saying, "My dear woman, it is a sad story. I was a priest when I was living and a crowd of selfish men killed me and burnt me on that bush there. I am praying for those people now," then he disappeared. The woman made known the story far and near and the bush was called the Fairy Bush; the well was the Holy Well,
    (continues on next page)
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    Language
    English
    Collector
    Bridget Fleming
    Gender
    Female
    Address
    Ballynarrid, Co. Waterford
    Informant
    Maurice Walsh
    Gender
    Male
    Address
    Knockmahon, Co. Waterford