School: Ballinkillen, Muine Beag

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1. Páirc an Linbh Caointe (continued)

   

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   Searches again proved futile and all hope was abandoned. The field contained no hiding-place nor cleft into which the child might have fallen. The countryside was amazed and frightened. Children were kept under constant observation lest the "hags" would get them. The cries were not heard again but the incident was kept alive in the minds of the peasants by the naming of the field. The explanation given or suggested afterwards of this tragic incident was that the child had been stolen by tinkers or gypsies, a few of whom were seen earlier in the day. At the time the cries were first heard, the kidnappers may actually have been making away, through that field, and as the searches only searched the immediate vicinity, did not see them. The subsequent crying is attributed to the overwrought state of the parents, who, as evening came on thought they heard their baby cry from the field in which its cry was first heard.

   

   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Language

   English

   Informant

   John Redmond

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Baile an Choillín, Co. Cheatharlach