Beside the fire : a collection of Irish Gaelic folk stories

Each story keeps the passage it was read from. Open one to read the passage as the book has it, and, where the companion has written its own telling, that too.

1. The Grave Opened at Claregalway and the Black Dog

   Claregalway · town · Galway

   Leeam O'Rooney returns after his supposed death and leads men to dig open his own grave in the churchyard, where instead of a body a big black dog leaps out of the coffin and flees. The dog is chased into a house which then sinks into the ground, leaving a hole still visible in Claregalway to this day.

   Read the passage

   The day on the morrow Leeam brought a lot of men with him to the churchyard, and they dug open the grave, and were lifting up the coffin, when a big black dog jumped out of it, and made off, and Leeam and the men after it. They were following it till they saw it going into the house in which Leeam had been asleep, and then the ground opened, and the house went down, and nobody ever saw it from that out ; but the big hole is to be seen till this day.

   When Leeam and the men went home, they told everything to the priest of the parish, and he dissolved the marriage that was between Leeam's wife and the servant boy.

   Internet Archive besidefirecollec00hydeuoft, Chapter 61

2. The king who hanged and mutilated his own daughter in the wood

   Ballinrobe · town · Mayo

   Enraged at discovering his daughter cutting grass on her mother's grave to prevent his remarriage, the king of Erin hangs her from a tree in a great wood and cuts off her hands and feet, leaving her for dead, until a passing gentleman rescues her.

   Read the passage

   He took the daughter with him to a great wood, and he hanged her on a tree, and then he cut off the two hands and the two feet off her, and left her in a state of death. When he was going out of the wood there went a thorn into his foot, and the daughter said: "Thatyou may never get better until I have hands and feet to cure you."

   The king went home, and there grew a tree out of his foot, and it was necessary for him to open the window, to let the top of the tree out.

   Internet Archive besidefirecollec00hydeuoft, Chapter 96

3. Paudyeen O'Kelly meets the gold-gathering weasel near Tuam

   Tuam · town · Galway

   Paudyeen O'Kelly, from near Tuam, County Galway, sheltered from a storm in a large house and witnessed a weasel bringing guineas one by one to the hearth. He stole the gold, and the weasel pursued him screeching, later killing his horse and cattle in revenge.

   Read the passage

   He had not gone more than three miles of the road when a great darkness came on, and a shower began falling. He saw a large house among trees about five hundred yards in from the road, and he said to himself that he would go to that house till the shower would be over. When he got to the house he found the door open before him, and in with him. He saw a large room to his left, and a fine fire in the grate. He sat down on a stool that was beside the wall, and began falling asleep, when he saw a big weasel coming to the fire with something yellow in its mouth, which it dropped on the hearth-stone, and then it went away. She soon

   All re^jl^c. Ace y^oi •oei^te^t) niiA>i]A •o'lmci^ p 'o'ei]M5 PAi"ofn, A>5U]' cui]A ]"e An meAt) 6\\\ a bf CjAUinmjce aici Min AfDocA, AjDf AinAc leif.

   Internet Archive besidefirecollec00hydeuoft, Chapter 50

4. The butler's confession and hanging for the castle murder

   Ballinrobe · town · Mayo

   The headless ghost reveals that his own butler murdered him for gold and hid his head under the hearth-stone; the ghost testifies at trial by appearing headless in court, and the butler confesses and is hanged.

   Read the passage

   " Go no farther, I am guilty ; I killed the man, and his head is under the hearth-stone in his own room." Then the judge gave order to hang the butler, and Trunk-without-head went away.

   The day on the morrow, Donal was married to the gentleman's daughter, and got a great fortune with her, and went to live in the castle.

   Internet Archive besidefirecollec00hydeuoft, Chapter 91

5. The Court of Crinnawn: a haunted ruin fated never to be roofed

   Ballaghaderreen · town · Roscommon

   The Court of Crinnawn is an old ruin on the river Lung near Ballaghadereen, dividing Roscommon and Mayo, said locally to have been built by the Dillon family. A local Irish prophecy foretold that 'no roof shall rise on Crinnawn,' which the people say was fulfilled, the place never having been inhabited or roofed, and it is associated with a tale of Crinnawn, son of Balor of the evil eye.

   Read the passage

   Page 142. The court of Crinnawn is an old ruin on the river Lung, which divides the counties of Roscommon and Mayo, about a couple of miles from the town of Ballaghadereen. I believe, despite the story, that it was built by one of the Dillon family, and not so long ago either. There is an Irish prophecy extant in these parts about the various great houses in Roscommon. Clonalis, the seat of the O'Connor Donn — or Don, .as they perversely insist on spelling it ; Dungar, the seat of the De Freynes ; Loughlinn, of the Dillons, etc. ; and amongst other verses, there is one which prophecies that "no roof shall rise on Crinnawn," which the people say was iulfilled, the place having never been inhabited or even roofed. In the face of this, how the story of Crinnawn, son of Belore, sprang into being is to me quite incomprehensible, and I confess I have been unable to discover any trace of this particular story on the Roscommon side of the river, nor do I know from what source the shanachie, Mr. Lynch Blake, from whom I got it, became possessed of it. Balor of the evil eye, who figures in the tale of " The Children of Tuireann," was not Irish at all, but a "Fomorian." The pattern, accompanied with such funest results for Mary Kerrigan, is a festival held in honour of the patron saint. These patterns were common in many places half a century ago, and were great scenes of revelry and amusement, and often, too, of hard fighting. But these have been of late years stamped out, like everything else distinctively Irish and lively.

   [This story is a curious mixture of common peasant belief about haunted raths and houses, with mythical matter probably derived from books. Balor appears in the well-known tale of MacKineely, taken down by O'Donovan, in 1855, from Shane O'Dugan of Tory Island (Annals. I. 18, and cf. Rhys, Hibbert Lect., p. 314), but I doubt whether in either case the appearance of the name testifies to a genuine folk-belief in this mythological personage, one of the principal representatives of the powers of darkness in the Irish sjod-saga. — A.N.]

   Internet Archive besidefirecollec00hydeuoft, Chapter 105

   As the companion tells it

   Coming through Ballaghaderreen, you have the river Lung, which divides the counties of Roscommon and Mayo. On that river stands the Court of Crinnawn, an old ruin. People say it was built by one of the Dillon family, and not so long ago either. There is an Irish prophecy about the great houses of Roscommon. It names Clonalis, the seat of the O'Connor Donn, and Dungar, the seat of the De Freynes, and Loughlinn, of the Dillons. Among the verses is one that says "no roof shall rise on Crinnawn." The people say this was fulfilled, for the place was never inhabited or even roofed. The story of Crinnawn, son of Balor, is puzzling. No trace of it could be found on the Roscommon side of the river. It came from a shanachie, Mr. Lynch Blake, but where Blake himself found it is unknown. Balor of the evil eye, who appears in the tale of the Children of Tuireann, was not Irish at all but a Fomorian. There was a pattern held here, a festival in honour of the patron saint, and it brought funest results for Mary Kerrigan. Patterns were common half a century ago, great scenes of revelry and amusement and often hard fighting. Like everything distinctively Irish and lively, they have been stamped out in later years. Balor appears in the tale of MacKineely, taken down by O'Donovan in 1855 from Shane O'Dugan of Tory Island. But it is doubtful whether the name testifies to genuine folk-belief in this mythological personage, one of the principal representatives of the powers of darkness in the Irish saga.

6. Leeam O'Rooney's False Death and Burial at Claregalway

   Claregalway · town · Galway

   An enchanter creates a false double of Leeam O'Rooney which dies and is buried in his place, while the real Leeam is kept away for seven days. The tale is remembered locally in Claregalway as a true folk memory of a man buried while still alive.

   Read the passage

   It was not long till the cry went out that Leeam O'Rooney was dead. The wife put down water, and when it was hot she washed the body and put it over the board {i.e.^ laid it out). The neighbours came, and they keened sorrowfully over the body, and there was great pity for the poor wife, but there was not much grief on herself, for Leeam was old and she was young. The day on the morrow the body was buried, and there was no more remembrance of Leeam.

   Leeam's wife had a servant boy, and she said to him : ** You ought to marry me, and to take Leeam's place."

   Internet Archive besidefirecollec00hydeuoft

7. The dying hag reveals herself as the weasel at the lakeside hovel

   Tuam · town · Galway

   Paudyeen's dog cornered the weasel in an old hag's hovel by a lake, and the hag confessed she was the weasel, having spent five hundred years gathering gold. She asked Paudyeen to pay for masses so she could be released from her suffering and die.

   Read the passage

   " I committed a great crime in my youth," said the hag, "and now I am to be released from my sufferings if you can pay twenty pounds for a hundred and three score masses for me."

   " Where's the money ? " says Paudyeen.

   Internet Archive besidefirecollec00hydeuoft

8. Chapelizod named for the 'weasel's chapel' in Irish tradition

   near Chapelizod · townland · Dublin

   An old shanachie told a long and extraordinary story about how Chapelizod, near Dublin, got its name from Seipeul-easog, the 'weasel's chapel' in Irish, contrary to the usual belief that it comes from the Princess Iseult of Arthurian romance.

   Read the passage

   Page 73. The weasel, like the cat, is an animal that has many legends and' superstitions attaching to it. I remember hearing from an old shanachie, now unfortunately dead, a long and extraordinary story about the place called Chapelizod, a few miles from Dublin, which he said was SeipeuL-eAfoj, the "weasel's chapel,'' in Irish, but which is usually supposed to have received its name from the Princess Iseult of Arthurian romance. The story was the account of how the place came by this name. How he, who was a Connachtman, and never left his native county except to reap the harvest in England, came by this story I do not know ; but I imagine it must have been told him by some one in the neighbourhood, in whose house he spent the night, whilst walking across the island on his way to Dublin or Drogheda harbour. The weasel is a comical little animal, and one might very well think it was animated with a spirit. I have been assured by an old man, and one whom I have always found fairly veracious, that when watching for ducks beside a river one evening a kite swooped down and seized a weasel, with which it rose up again into the air. His brother fired, and the kite came down, the weasel still in its claws, and unhurt. The little animal then came up, and stood in front of the two men where they sat, and nodded and bowed his head to them about twenty times over; "it was," said the old man, "thanking us he was." The weasel is a desperate fighter, and always makes for the throat. What, however, in Ireland is called a weazel, is really a stoat, just as what is called a crow in Ireland *s really a rook, and what is called a crane is really a heron.

   Internet Archive besidefirecollec00hydeuoft, Chapter 102

   As the companion tells it

   Somewhere around here is Chapelizod, a few miles from Dublin. You may know the usual story, that the name comes from the Princess Iseult of Arthurian romance. But an old shanachie, now dead, told a long and extraordinary story about this place, and he said the name was Seipeul-easog in Irish, the weasel's chapel. The story he told was the account of how the place came by that name. The shanachie was a Connachtman, and he never left his native county except to reap the harvest in England, so how he came by this story is a puzzle. The narrator supposed it must have been told him by someone in whose house he spent the night, whilst walking across the island on his way to Dublin or Drogheda harbour. The weasel is a comical little animal, and one might think it was animated with a spirit. An old man, described as fairly veracious, once said he was watching for ducks beside a river one evening when a kite swooped down and seized a weasel and rose up into the air. His brother fired, and the kite came down with the weasel still in its claws, and the weasel was unhurt. The little animal came up and stood in front of the two men where they sat and nodded and bowed his head to them about twenty times over. The old man said, "it was thanking us he was." The weasel is a desperate fighter and always makes for the throat. What is called a weasel in Ireland is really a stoat, just as what is called a crow is really a rook, and what is called a crane is really a heron.

9. Doves swallow the fleeing fairy-beetles at Pull-na-gullam near Cong

   Cong · town · Mayo

   After losing the battle, the defeated Munster fairy host turned into flying beetles and devastated the countryside until reaching Cong, where thousands of doves rose from a hole and swallowed the beetles, giving the hole its name, Pull-na-gullam.

   Read the passage

   It was not long till the two hosts took sides ; the ball was thrown up between them, and the fun began in earnest. They were hurling away, and the pipers playing music, until Paudyeen O'Kelly saw the host of Munster getting the strong hand, and he began helping the fairy host of Connacht. The Stongirya came up and he made at Paudyeen O'Kelly, but Paudyeen turned him head over heels. From hurling the two hosts began at lighting, but it was not long until the host of Connacht beat the other host. Then the host of Munster made flying beetles of themselves, and they began eating every green thing that they came up to. They were destroying the country before them until they came as far as Cong. Then there rose up thousands of doves out of the hole, and they swallowed down the beetles. That hole has no other name until this day but Pull-na-gullam, the dove's hole.

   When the fairy host of Connacht won their battle, they came back to Cnoc Matha joyous enough, and the king Finvara gave Paudyeen O'Kelly a purse of gold, and the little piper brought him home, and put him into bed beside his wife, and left him sleeping there.

   Internet Archive besidefirecollec00hydeuoft, Chapter 55

10. Burning the hag's hut after her death

    Tuam · town · Galway

    Following the dying hag Maurya nee Keerwaun's instructions, Paudyeen O'Kelly buried her gold, and a month later, after she died, he set a coal under her little hut and burned it as she had commanded.

    Read the passage

    " Go and dig under a bush that's over a little well in the corner of that field there without, and you'll get a pot filled with gold. Pay the twenty pounds for the masses, and yourself shall have the rest. When you'll lift the flag off the pot, you'll see a big black dog coming out ; but don't be afraid before him ; he is a son of mine. When you get the gold, buy the house in which you saw me at first. You'll get it cheap, for it has the name of there being a ghost in it. My son will be down in the cellar. He'll do you no harm, but he'll be a good friend to you. I shall be dead a month from this day, and when you get me dead put a coal under this little hut and burn it. Don't tell a living soul anything about me — and the luck will be on you."

    " What is your name ? " said Paudyeen.

    Internet Archive besidefirecollec00hydeuoft, Chapter 52

11. A fatal pattern-day tragedy connected to Crinnawn

    Ballaghaderreen · town · Roscommon

    The tale of Crinnawn is linked to a pattern (a festival held in honour of a patron saint) which had 'funest results' for a woman named Mary Kerrigan. These patterns were once common, being scenes of revelry and amusement but also of hard fighting, before being stamped out in later years.

    Read the passage

    Page 142. The court of Crinnawn is an old ruin on the river Lung, which divides the counties of Roscommon and Mayo, about a couple of miles from the town of Ballaghadereen. I believe, despite the story, that it was built by one of the Dillon family, and not so long ago either. There is an Irish prophecy extant in these parts about the various great houses in Roscommon. Clonalis, the seat of the O'Connor Donn — or Don, .as they perversely insist on spelling it ; Dungar, the seat of the De Freynes ; Loughlinn, of the Dillons, etc. ; and amongst other verses, there is one which prophecies that "no roof shall rise on Crinnawn," which the people say was iulfilled, the place having never been inhabited or even roofed. In the face of this, how the story of Crinnawn, son of Belore, sprang into being is to me quite incomprehensible, and I confess I have been unable to discover any trace of this particular story on the Roscommon side of the river, nor do I know from what source the shanachie, Mr. Lynch Blake, from whom I got it, became possessed of it. Balor of the evil eye, who figures in the tale of " The Children of Tuireann," was not Irish at all, but a "Fomorian." The pattern, accompanied with such funest results for Mary Kerrigan, is a festival held in honour of the patron saint. These patterns were common in many places half a century ago, and were great scenes of revelry and amusement, and often, too, of hard fighting. But these have been of late years stamped out, like everything else distinctively Irish and lively.

    [This story is a curious mixture of common peasant belief about haunted raths and houses, with mythical matter probably derived from books. Balor appears in the well-known tale of MacKineely, taken down by O'Donovan, in 1855, from Shane O'Dugan of Tory Island (Annals. I. 18, and cf. Rhys, Hibbert Lect., p. 314), but I doubt whether in either case the appearance of the name testifies to a genuine folk-belief in this mythological personage, one of the principal representatives of the powers of darkness in the Irish sjod-saga. — A.N.]

    Internet Archive besidefirecollec00hydeuoft, Chapter 105

    As the companion tells it

    As you come through Ballaghaderreen, the old ruin called the court of Crinnawn lies about two miles away, on the river Lung, which divides the counties of Roscommon and Mayo. Despite the story told about it, the court was likely built by one of the Dillon family, and not so very long ago. There is an Irish prophecy in these parts about the great houses of Roscommon, and one verse says, as the book has it, "no roof shall rise on Crinnawn." The people say this was fulfilled, for the place was never inhabited or even roofed. The story of Crinnawn, son of Belore, came from a shanachie named Mr. Lynch Blake, though the writer could find no trace of it on the Roscommon side of the river. The tale mixes peasant belief about haunted raths and houses with mythical matter probably derived from books. Balor of the evil eye, who appears in the tale, was not Irish at all but a Fomorian, one of the principal representatives of the powers of darkness in the Irish saga. The tale of MacKineely, in which Balor also appears, was taken down by O'Donovan in 1855 from Shane O'Dugan of Tory Island. The pattern connected to Crinnawn was a festival held in honour of a patron saint. These patterns were common in many places half a century ago, and were great scenes of revelry and amusement, and often too of hard fighting. The pattern had, as the book puts it, "funest results" for a woman named Mary Kerrigan. In later years these patterns were stamped out, like everything else distinctively Irish and lively.

12. The Prince of Coolavin at Lough Gara, famed healer

    near Lough Gara · lake or lakes · Roscommon

    The beggarman told the sick farmer's family that only Mac Dermott, Prince of Coolavin, living on the brink of Lough Gara in County Sligo, could cure him, being the best doctor in Connacht or the five provinces. The family travelled three days by cart to reach his house among the trees on the lake's edge.

    Read the passage

    The boccuch said when they were gone away : " I don't wonder at all that you're not getting better, if it's fools like those you have with you. There's not a doctor or a medicine-man in Ireland now that'll do you any good, but only one man, and that's Mac Dermott the Prince of Coolavin, on the brink of Lough Gara,the best doctor in Connacht or the five provinces."

    " Where is Lough Gara ? " said the poor man.

    Internet Archive besidefirecollec00hydeuoft, Chapter 45

13. The haunted big house bought cheap by Paudyeen O'Kelly

    Tuam · town · Galway

    Paudyeen bought a large house near Tuam cheaply because it had the reputation of being haunted by a ghost, said to be the son of the weasel-hag, living in the cellar.

    Read the passage

    " Go and dig under a bush that's over a little well in the corner of that field there without, and you'll get a pot filled with gold. Pay the twenty pounds for the masses, and yourself shall have the rest. When you'll lift the flag off the pot, you'll see a big black dog coming out ; but don't be afraid before him ; he is a son of mine. When you get the gold, buy the house in which you saw me at first. You'll get it cheap, for it has the name of there being a ghost in it. My son will be down in the cellar. He'll do you no harm, but he'll be a good friend to you. I shall be dead a month from this day, and when you get me dead put a coal under this little hut and burn it. Don't tell a living soul anything about me — and the luck will be on you."

    " What is your name ? " said Paudyeen.

    Internet Archive besidefirecollec00hydeuoft, Chapter 52

14. The Dove's Hole near Cong: a cavity fit for the marvellous

    Cong · town · Mayo

    Near the village of Cong in west County Mayo lies a deep cavity known as the dove's hole, where a thrown stone can be heard rumbling and crashing against the rocky walls as it descends until the sound fades. The narrator notes it is exactly the kind of place associated with marvellous and supernatural tales.

    Read the passage

    Page 89. Stongirya (fCAn^AiiAo), a word not given in dictionaries, means, I think, a " mean fellow." The dove's hole, near the village of Cong, in the west of the county Mayo, is a deep cavity in the ground, and when a stone is thrown down into it you hear it rumbling and crashing from side to side of the rocky wall, as it descends, until the sound becomes too faint to hear. It is the very place to be connected with the marvellous.

    Leeam O'Roonevs Burial.

    Internet Archive besidefirecollec00hydeuoft, Chapter 103

15. Burial of the seven vultures in the quarry near Ballyglas

    Ballyglass · townland · Roscommon

    The bishop is instructed by the hag to bury seven vultures that will be found dead outside the enchanted house in the quarry between the Wood of Driminuch and Ballyglas; when this is done the hags rise from the quarry as seven swans and vanish forever.

    Read the passage

    " A week from to-day," said the hag, " there will be seven vultures dead at the door of our house in the wood. Give orders to bury them in the quarry that is between the wood and Ballyglas ; that is all I am asking of you."

    " I shall do that if I am alive," said the bishop. Then she left him, and he was not sorry she to go from him.

    Internet Archive besidefirecollec00hydeuoft, Chapter 95

16. Third Giant Tricked into Killing Himself

    Dublin · city · Dublin

    The tailor, working as the last giant's servant, used a hidden sheepskin bag to fake swallowing broth, then tricked the giant into stabbing his own stomach with a knife, killing him. This completed the deaths of all three giants tied to the building of the king's court.

    Read the passage

    " I will," said the giant, giving such a prod of the knife into his own stomach, that he killed himself. That is the way he killed the third giant.

    He went to the king then, and desired him to send

    Internet Archive besidefirecollec00hydeuoft, Chapter 22

    As the companion tells it

    Dublin, and the road carries you past the place where the third giant met his end. The tailor, serving as his servant, had tricked him. The giant took the knife and drove it into his own stomach, killing himself. That was the way the third giant died. The tailor then went to the king and desired him to send.

17. Widow's sons and the landlord's rent near Galway

    Galway · city · Galway

    A widow and her two sons Dermod and Donal, large farmers in County Galway, are summoned by the landlord to pay a year's rent, prompting Dermod to send Donal to sell oats in Galway.

    Read the passage

    Long ago there was a widow woman living in the County Galway, and two sons with her, whose names were Dermod and Donal. Dermod was the eldest son, and he was the master over the house. They were large farmers, and they got a summons from the landlord to come and pay him a year's rent. They had not much money in the house, and Dermod said to Donal, " bring a load of oats to Galway, and sell it." Donal got ready a load, put two horses under the cart, and went to Galway. He sold the oats, and got a good price for it. When he was coming home, he stopped at the half-way house, as was his custom, to have a drink himself, and to give a drink and oats to the horses.

    When he went in to get a drink for himself, he saw two boys playing cards. He looked at them for a while, and one of them said : "Will you have a game."? Donal began playing, and he did not stop till he lost every penny of the price of the oats. " What will I do now ?," says Donal to himself, " Dermod will kill me. Anyhow, I'll go home and tell the truth."

    Internet Archive besidefirecollec00hydeuoft, Chapter 88

    As the companion tells it

    You're coming through Galway now, the city where a story from the old Gaelic tradition is set. Long ago, a widow lived in County Galway with her two sons, Dermod and Donal. They were large farmers, but when the landlord summoned them to pay a year's rent, there wasn't much money in the house. Dermod, the eldest and master of the house, told Donal to bring a load of oats to Galway and sell it. Donal loaded the cart, hitched two horses, and came here to the city, where he sold the oats and got a good price for them. On the way home he stopped at the halfway house, as was his custom, to have a drink himself and give the horses oats and water. Inside, he saw two boys playing cards. One asked him, "Will you have a game?" Donal sat down and played until he lost every penny of the oats money. He said to himself, "Dermod will kill me. Anyhow, I'll go home and tell the truth."

18. The old hag hanged for cruelty and deception

    Ballinrobe · town · Mayo

    After the truth of the stepmother's cruelty and lies is revealed before the king by his daughter and her three sons, the old hag who had persecuted the daughter is hanged the following day.

    Read the passage

    The day on the morrow he hanged the old hag, and he gave his estate to his daughter and to the gentleman.

    Internet Archive besidefirecollec00hydeuoft, Chapter 96

19. Pursuers Drowned Fleeing the Tailor Toward Galway

    Galway · city · Galway

    As the tailor and his wife fled toward Galway pursued by the lion, fox, garraun and the army of Dublin, the pursuers eventually gave up and returned. The narrator recounts that the pursuers found the ford and were drowned, while he escaped by the flash.

    Read the passage

    They all went from him then and returned. The tailor and his wife came home to Galway. They gave me paper stockings and shoes of thick milk. I lost them since. They got the ford, and I the flash ; * they were drowned, and I came safe.

    BRAN.

    Internet Archive besidefirecollec00hydeuoft

    As the companion tells it

    As you come through Galway, this is where the tailor and his wife came home after fleeing their pursuers. The lion, fox, garraun, and the army of Dublin chased them, but the pursuers found the ford and were drowned. The narrator escaped by the flash. The tailor and his wife gave him paper stockings and shoes of thick milk.