Irish Folk Tales

by Henry Glassie

  HUGH NOLAN FERMANAGH

  HENRY GLASSIE 1972

  Well.

  I have heard a gooddeal about the Ford of Biscuits battle.

  Do ye see: at that time there was no town in Enniskillen. There was only a fort.

  Do you know, when you’d stand there in Henry Street, and look across the lough, you see two things like round towers. Well, that was a fort on the edge of the lake, in the middle of the sixteenth century; that’d be somewhere in the fifteen-hundreds. Aye.

  Well, there was an English garrison.

  Do you see, the Plantation of Ulster, it took place in the early part of the seventeenth century. That would be very early, about sixteen hundred and nine.

  It ’twas after the Flight of the Earls. They were Irish gentry that had position and owned the property, the land like, in this country. So then they lost in the wars with the British, and they had to leave Ireland.

  And then, James the First was the king at that time. And he brought over a very large contingent. And he gave them the lands that these earls owned, do you know. So that was what they called the Plantation of Ulster.

  Well then, there was a garrison here at Enniskillen in days before that, while the O’Neills and the O’Donnells was in prominence.

  There was an English garrison here on the island of Enniskillen.

  So this garrison was attacked be Red Hugh O’Donnell; he was a Donegal chief.

  They were attacked.

  And nothing could get in or out because there was an army surrounded the castle.

  So finally, in the long run, there was a soldier got out.

  And he got into a boat.

  And he rowed the boat from Enniskillen to Belturbet up Lough Erne.

  Well, do ye see, the way it was at that time, the southern part of the country was in English hands, but the North wasn’t, because these earls that I have told you about, they held Ulster.

  And it was only an odd place that the English could get in—like getting in on this island in Lough Erne, Enniskillen.

  So he got to Belturbet anyway, and he got word sent to Dublin about this attack on Enniskillen castle.

  And it was ten weeks from the castle was attacked till the chief secretary got the word about it in Dublin.

  So anyway, when he heard the news, he formed a powerful great army, all over the other three provinces.

  There was Irish men on it too from Ulster, that started marching for Enniskillen.

  So then O’Donnell then, he raised an army in the North here for to intercept the Lord Lieutenant’s army.

  So they came on out through this country, O’Donnell’s army.

  And they took up their positions

  along the banks of the Arney River,

  from Drumane all up to Arney.

  So they waited there for the arrival of their opponents.

  And there went a man on a horse on as far up as Belturbet for to see was there any sign of the Lord Lieutenant’s army coming.

  And he came back,

  and there was a song about it,

  and his answer was put in verse.

  He told O’Donnell—there was a general the name of Duke, and he was leading the Lord Lieutenant’s forces, do ye see—so he told him:

  “I saw the plumes of Duke’s dragoons,

  south of Belturbet town.”

  So anyway, they remained here through this country, and all along the banks of the Arney River.

  And finally the Lord Lieutenant’s army arrived on the other side.

  That would be from Derryhowlaght down to Clontymullan, and all along there.

  And they wanted to get across the Arney River and get on to Enniskillen.

  So the other ones gave them battle there.

  And the battle, it was a running fight, along the banks of both sides.

  The English forces couldn’t get across the river because it was all fords; there was no bridges, do ye see, in them days.

  It was all fords.

  Every ford that they came to, they were guarded, do ye see, and they couldn’t get across.

  So there was one ford there in particular. It’d be a wee piece up from Drumane Bridge. According to tradition, the battle finished up there.

  It’s called the Biscuit Ford.

  The English had all sorts of food with them, do ye know, including a terrible go of biscuits.

  So the battle finished up there.

  And the English was beaten back.

  And a lot of the provisions that they had with them went into the river.

  So that’s known to this day as the Biscuit Ford.

  Aye.

  CROMWELL

  SÉAMUS Ó CEALLA GALWAY

  SÉAMAS Ó CATHÁIN 1937

  Cromwell was a big English general and a bad man. He’d stick the bayonet in the child and hold it up in the air until one of his officers would fire a shot through it. When he came into the County Clare, he never halted until he came as far as Spancel Hill and ’twas Cromwell that started the first horse fair in Spancel Hill on June twenty-third.

  Cromwell and his soldiers were marching along the road this day in some part of the County Clare and didn’t he see this poor countryman coming along the road and he having a creel of turf. The creel was made of rods in them times.

  He ordered the man to empty the creel on the side of the road. He did. Cromwell then put his hand in his pocket and gave him a good price for the turf. He ordered his soldiers to spill a barrelful of tar on the turf and they did as he told them. In a while’s time, they saw the crowd of people coming along the road, and Cromwell waited there for a while and he told his men to be ready and if it was an army that was coming to kill every one of them.

  They stood there with their swords in their hands until the crowd came closer to them and when it did, they saw that it was a funeral that was in it and four out in front and they carrying a crochar and a corpse above on it.

  “Halt,” says Cromwell.

  They halted and the terror of the world on them.

  “Leave down that corpse,” says he.

  They laid it down on the ground. Cromwell put his hand down in his pocket and pulled up a fistful of gold coins. He had English men and French men and Scotch men in his army. He turned to the English regiment.

  “Here,” says he, “is a fistful of gold for any one of ye that’ll throw that corpse on the tar and set fire to it.”

  None of them took the offer.

  “We’ll fight the living,” says they, “but we won’t molest the dead.”

  Then he made the same offer to the French regiment and it was the same story. They all refused to burn the corpse.

  Then he turned to the Scotch men and they said that they was soldiers as well as the other two regiments and that they would not molest the dead.

  “Here,” says Cromwell, turning to the friends of the dead person, “here is a handful of gold for any one of ye that’ll set fire to that corpse.”

  No sooner was the offer made than the Irish men made one rush for the corpse to see which of them would have it first so that he could earn his fistful of gold. Cromwell drew his sword, “Stand back,” he said, “and don’t touch the corpse.”

  Then Cromwell turned to his own army. “Now,” says he, “the day you see one Irish man ready to burn another for a fistful of gold, we can take Ireland that day with roasted apples!”

  CROMWELL’S BIBLE

  TADHG Ó MURCHADA KERRY

  SEAN O’SULLIVAN 1941

  One time Cromwell was planning to put a wall or a paling all around the coast of England. He thought that was the only way to keep an enemy out.

  He had a huge, black Bible—it would take a horse to draw it!—and he had a servant always with him to take care of the Bible. One day, himself and the servant set out and they never stopped until they reached the coast. It was a very warm day, and Cromwell was exhausted when he reached the sea. Drowsiness and sleep were coming over him, and he lay down on the strand to close his eye
s.

  “Now,” said he to the servant, “I’ll stretch myself for a while, and you’re to take care of the Bible until I awake. And as if your life depended on it, you’re not to open it. If you do, it will be the worse for you!”

  He lay down and it wasn’t long till he was snoring for himself. When the servant saw that he was asleep,

  “By heavens, it won’t be long now till I find out what power is in this Bible!”

  He opened it and, if he did, it wasn’t long until a small, stout man jumped out on the strand before his eyes, and then another and another until the strand was covered with them. None of them was the size of your thumb, and they all were running around and shouting: “Give me work! Give me work! Give me work!”

  The poor servant was terrified, I’d say, when he saw the huge crowd all over the strand, and his heart was full of fear that they would rouse Cromwell.

  “May the Devil take the pack of ye!” he shouted. “Where would I get work for ye? Why don’t ye start making ropes out of the sand?”

  They started making ropes out of the sand, but, of course, if they were at it since, they couldn’t make any ropes of it. They had to give up in the end, and told the servant that it was beyond their powers.

  “If that’s the way with ye,” said the servant, “I can’t help ye. Off ye go in the name of the Devil to wherever ye came from, and don’t be annoying me, yourselves and your work!”

  In they went, every single madman of them, into the Bible, and when the servant was rid of the last one of them, I promise you that it didn’t take him long to close the Bible on them. Nor did he open it again.

  When Cromwell had slept through, he sat up, took hold of the Bible and opened it, but, if he was opening it since, no help would come out of the Bible to him.

  “I’m afraid that you opened this Bible, fellow, while I was asleep,” said he to the servant. “And if you did, that leaves England without a paling!”

  PATRICK SARSFIELD

  GALWAY

  LADY GREGORY 1909

  Sarsfield was a great general the time he turned the shoes on his horse. The English it was were pursuing him, and he got off and changed the shoes the way when they saw the tracks they would think he went another road. That was a great plan.

  He got to Limerick then, and he killed thousands of the English. He was a great general.

  SARSFIELD SURRENDERS AND RORY TAKES TO THE HILLS

  DONEGAL

  SEUMAS MACMANUS 1952

  My uncle Donal used to tell me how his grandfather often told him that when Limerick at last surrendered to William of Orange and there looked nothing more to fight for, and that the French flag was set on one hill and William’s flag on another for choice of the Irish fighters as they marched out; and when these thronged solid to the French, with brave Patrick Sarsfield at their head, one rough fellow, Rory, who in the fighting had drawn everyone’s admiration, so reckless he was—this Rory struck away on his own. A captain of Sarsfield’s headed for King Louis’s flag, seeing Rory strike off by himself, called, “Rory, aren’t you coming with us to France?”

  “No!” Rory answered, shortly.

  “You’re surely not going to William?”

  “No, no!” said Rory.

  “In the Lord’s name, are you making no choice?”

  “I’m choosing Ireland.”

  “You’re mad. Ireland’s lost, and there isn’t a solitary soul left to fight for her.”

  “You’re standing on Ireland,” Rory said, like that. “And I’m to fight for her.”

  “But you haven’t even a handful behind you, and England has a hundred thousand.”

  “I’ll have behind me an army more plentiful,” said Rory, “than the hairs on your head.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Every angel God can spare He will strap a sword on and send to my helping—and England’s hundred thousand will melt like the mists before us.”

  “When?” asked the captain with a chuckle.

  “In God’s own good time. Maybe in a year, maybe five hundred years; but, be it soon or be it long, Rory wins.”

  And, his gun on his shoulder, Rory turned away and headed to the hills.

  BLACK FRANCIS

  HUGH NOLAN FERMANAGH

  HENRY GLASSIE 1972

  He was the leader of a highway gang that was in Fermanagh in days gone by.

  The way it was, do ye see, after the Williamite War, there was a lot of the Irish army went away to France.

  And they figured in a lot of wars that France had with other European countries.

  And they were known as the Irish Brigade.

  But then there was a section of them that didn’t leave this country, but they took to the hills.

  And they were called the rapparees.

  And what they followed up was: they used to rob the rich, and they used to give the money to poor people, do ye know.

  So that went on for a length of time.

  And they were in every county in Ireland.

  But this was a part of them was in Fermanagh, and whether this man was O’Brien or not, I just can’t remember, but I heard it anyway.

  But there was five of them.

  And there was one fellow,

  he was Corrigan.

  And he was a terrible jump

  or a terrible leap.

  It was supposed that it was Lisgoole Abbey that they were going to rob this night for some ones that wasn’t able to pay their rates, or meet their accounts. And they used to give the money to people like that, do ye see.

  So anyway, there was one of the gang and he insulted a girl that was in this house.

  And this Black Francis bid to have been clear, only for a lacerating that he gave this fellow for interfering with his girl.

  He was chastising this fellow for his bad manners, and for the crime it was for to interfere with a woman-person, do ye see.

  But anyway the word went to Enniskillen.

  And whatever kind of a post—whether it was military or whether it was the revenue men, I can’t just tell you which of the two it was—but they started out, and didn’t they get the length of the place before the gang got away.

  Only this Corrigan fellow.

  And this Corrigan fellow leapt the Sillees River.

  So Black Francis and the other ones, they were arrested.

  And there was a death penalty for robbery in them days.

  So anyway these ones were tried, and they were found guilty, and they were executed at Enniskillen, where the technical school is—that was the jail in them days.

  So anyway, the executions took place outside in them days.

  And this Corrigan fellow, he dressed himself up as a woman.

  And he came along.

  And when Black Francis was brought out for to be hanged, whatever way Corrigan managed it, he attracted his attention.

  So he made a very long speech, Black Francis did, about seeing his sweetheart in the crowd, and that he hoped she’d be able for to protect herself.

  Aw, it was a terrible speech. He was a very clever fellow, you know. And it was all on this supposed lady that was in the Gaol Square, as they called it.

  And the lady was his companion: Souple Corrigan.

  So anyway they were executed anyway, and Souple Corrigan made his way to America.

  SHAN BERNAGH

  CORMIC O’HOLLAND TYRONE

  ROSE SHAW 1930

  The Tories robbed the rich to give to the poor, and if they found that a body like ourselves had six bags of meal and McKeown’s out beyond there with all them childer had none—and they crying for meat—the Tories would take from us and give them plenty, and we daren’t say nothing at all.

  Shan Bernagh—he was a notable Tory in this country, and ’twas said that he came of the best of quality—were ye ever at Shan’s Stables? They’re away far out at the back of the mountain and sure ye’d lost yourself entirely if ye went to seek them your lone, and never find them at all maybe. He woul
d steal horses and cattle from the farmers going to the fair at Monaghan and ’twas in the Stables he kept his horses and he bid to make many a dublicate to save them from being tracked. He had his horses shod with the back of the shoe to the front of the foot so that no one would know which direction they had gone. The Stables are a deep dark hole like that that goes in under the mountain and many’s the cattle that does be lost in it, falling into the Tory Holes, as some people calls them, but thanks be to God I never lost none there yet.

  One Christmas Eve—it was in the bad old penal days, when the Government was hunting the priests like mad dogs—the people all gathered secretly to a midnight Mass in Barney Faddya Vhic’s Glen. It is a quare lonesome place right in the heart of the mountain, but the Yeomanry—the police of them days—heard about it and they came from Clogher to stop it. The priest was standing in front of the big stone just, that was used for the altar, and it having two candles upon it. When the priest’s head came before the light on the altar and darkened it they took aim and shot him dead. The priest’s name was Father Milligan; he was buried a piece behind the stone with a big hob of earth to mark the grave.

  Shan Bernagh swore that he would have a Yeoman’s life for this and sure didn’t he catch them up before they got the length of Lough More and he killed one of them and threw him in the lough.

  The Browns lived away beyond at Lough Anoyd that time and they laid a trap with the Yeomen to catch Shan Bernagh. They made a great dinner and with every sort of meat and drink in it and they invited the Tories to come to it in order to betray them. Shan Bernagh and his men sat down to eat and drink their fill, with their guns and swords and belts all off them.

  The servant girl that was hired at Brown’s looked out over the half-door and, lo and behold ye, there was the Yeomen from Clogher marching up the street. She was afeared the Browns would kill her if she gave a sign to the Tories so she snapped up the can like as if she was going to the well and jooked out of the house. As she went past the window she looked in at the Tories and she riz the chime of a song in Irish: “God love the herring that never was catched on a bait.” (By the same token, these were the very words that the servant used when he warned Saint Patrick not to eat the poisoned fish that he was offering to him.)