Scoil: Cromadh (B.)

Ar an leathanach seo

1. (gan teideal)

   “There was an old man named Ned Kennedy in Croom.”

   

   Roinn Roinn Postáil

   Miscellaneous.

   There was an old man named Ned Kennedy in Croom. He died in 1915 and was then approaching 80 years of age. He used break stones for the roads. He was illiterate, something of an oddity, eccentric to a certain degree, in the matter of head-gear, but a storyteller born. He would wear no head covering, but a cap with many angles rising from it, and surmounted by a button. When stone-breaking on the roadside he would be furnished with three or four stone hammers and a sledge.

   As the boys came to or went home from school, Ned would provide them with hammers or a sledge, set them working, admire their skill, praise their strength and reward their efforts with a story. In his repertory were found the following tales: "Jenny green teeth", whose teeth protruded outside her mouth'"/ From here to Elleneen's cottage (Elleneen was a relation of his and lived more than a mile from the scene of his labours and his storytelling). "Ali Baba and the forty robbers", "Robinson the robber". "Conan maol agus Siomnac ar (Seancur) an teampall", and others.

   Unfortunately my informant who had rather been stonebreaking to Ned's flattery than listening to his stories cannot recall a single incident in any of his tales, but brought perfectly the Irish name. In spite of Ned's illiteracy, he could calculate to a remarkable degree of accuracy, the quantity of stones in a heap. He calculated in 'cubits', each cubit being a ton weight, and the number of cubits in a

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