Irish Folk Tales

by Henry Glassie

  30 DANIEL O’CONNELL Seumas MacManus, Through the Turf Smoke (1899); two of the three stories on pp. 171–188. Tales of the wit of Daniel O’Connell (1775–1847), the Liberator, are common in Ireland. Other versions of the first of these tales can be found in Sean O’Sullivan’s books Folktales of Ireland (1966), pp. 231–232, and Legends from Ireland (1977), pp. 128–131.

  31 OWEN ROE O’SULLIVAN Eric Cross, The Tailor and Ansty (1964), pp. 204–208. The first of these stories about the Kerry poet O’Sullivan (1748–1784) is found told about Daniel O’Connell in Michael J. Murphy’s Now You’re Talking (1975), p. 54.

  32 ROBERT BURNS Unpublished. Tape-recorded from Peter Flanagan, November 12, 1972. He told the first and second of these tales, which he learned from two sisters named Farmer in South Fermanagh, on December 29, 1973. A 1979 telling of the first of Mr. Flanagan’s Burns stories appears in Passing the Time in Ballymenone (1982), pp. 709–710. On December 12, 1983, he told the second story again and added a new one in which a boy climbs a tree and sits eating a bun while watching Burns make love to a woman behind a bush. Burns tells him: “Go on, my son, and eat your bun./Nature’s work must be done.”

  33 TERRY THE GRUNTER Séamas Ó Catháin, Irish Life and Lore (1982), p. 78. Recorded for the Irish Folklore Commission by Bríd Ní Ghamhnáin. The first of Terry’s poems, which Peter Flanagan attributes to Robert Burns, is also attributed to Jonathan Swift in Ireland. See Michael J. Murphy, Now You’re Talking (1975), p. 60.

  34 THOMAS MOORE AND THE TRAMP Unpublished. Tape-recorded from Peter Flanagan, November 12, 1972. The tramp’s poem is attributed in Cork to a specific local poet. See D. K. Wilgus, “Irish Traditional Narrative Songs in English: 1800–1916,” in Daniel J. Casey and Robert E. Rhodes, eds., Views of the Irish Peasantry (1977), pp. 114–115.

  TALL TALES

  35 JOHN BRODISON AND THE POLICEMAN Unpublished. Tape-recorded from Michael Boyle, November 25, 1972. This tale, conceivably related to Aarne-Thompson international type 1529, which is not listed in O’Sullivan and Christiansen’s Types of the Irish Folktale, was also told by Mr. Buckley of Cork. See Eric Cross, The Tailor and Ansty (1964), p. 98.

  36 A BIG POTATO Unpublished. Tape-recorded from Hugh Nolan, November 28, 1972. This tale, which would be classed as Aarne-Thompson international type 1960D, was also told by Mr. Nolan on November 22, 1972, and August 14, 1978, and I recorded it from Michael Boyle, who also attributed it to John Brodison, on November 25, 1972. Mr. Nolan and Mr. Boyle are gone, but Joe Murphy learned their tale and, crediting it to Brodison, told it to me on December 13, 1983.

  37 THE FOX AND THE RANGER Samuel Lover, Legends and Stories of Ireland (first series, 1834 [1831]), pp. 229–234; (complete edition, 1875), pp. 142–146. I guessed Wicklow from the mention of Blessington and Lover’s home in Dublin. A good version of this tale—Aarne-Thompson international type 67**, found widely in Ireland—appears in George A. Little, Malachi Horan Remembers (1944), pp. 109–110.

  38 THE HORSE’S LAST DRUNK Eric Cross, The Tailor and Ansty (1964), pp. 79–80. I recorded this story—Aarne-Thompson international tale type 1911A—from Hugh Nolan, November 8, 1972, and June 16, 1977. The story, as O’Sullivan and Christiansen demonstrate in Types of the Irish Folktale, pp. 326–327, is common in Ireland. Other interesting texts can be found in Sean O’Sullivan, Folktales of Ireland (1966), pp. 249–252; Séamas Ó Catháin, The Bedside Book of Irish Folklore (1980), pp. 40–41.

  39 HARE AND HOUND Michael J. Murphy, “Folk Stories of Dan Rooney,” Ulster Folklife (1965), p. 85. This is connected to number 110 in Sean O’Sullivan’s catalogue of humorous tales in A Handbook of Irish Folklore (1963), p. 648.

  40 SLEEPY PENDOODLE Unpublished. Tape-recorded from Michael Boyle, October 26, 1972. Hugh Nolan also learned this tale from his neighbor Hugh McGiveney, and I recorded it from him on November 8, 1972, June 11, 1977, and June 22, 1977.

  41 A MEDICAL EXPERT FROM LISNASKEA Paddy Tunney, The Stone Fiddle (1979), pp. 102–103. This is Aarne-Thompson international tale type 660 remade into a tall tale, as in America. See William Hugh Jansen, Abraham “Oregon” Smith (New York: Arno Press, 1977), pp. 236–243.

  42 GEORGE ARMSTRONG’S RETURN Unpublished. Tape-recorded from Hugh Nolan, June 16, 1977. An earlier telling of this tale by Mr. Nolan appears in Passing the Time in Ballymenone (1982), pp. 51–54, and in Irish Folk History (1982), pp. 117–121. Tall tales are called “pants” in Ballymenone.

  OUTWITTING THE DEVIL

  43 THE LAWYER AND THE DEVIL Michael J. Murphy, Now You’re Talking (1975), pp. 116–117. Aarne-Thompson international tale type 1187, famous from its appearance in Greek myth, is found across Europe and is particularly common in Ireland. Samuel Lover built a sketch out of this tale, Legends and Stories of Ireland (first series, 1834 [1831]), pp. 141–156, which William Butler Yeats edited for inclusion in his Irish Fairy Tales of 1892. See W. B. Yeats, Fairy and Folk Tales of Ireland (1973), pp. 335–340.

  44 COALS ON THE DEVIL’S HEARTH Unpublished. Tape-recorded from Hugh Nolan, December 18, 1979. An earlier telling of this tale, which Mr. Nolan learned from James Quigley and which plays on the idea in Aarne-Thompson international tale type 1187, can be found in Passing the Time in Ballymenone (1982), pp. 538–540, and in Irish Folk History (1982), pp. 121–125.

  MYSTERY

  DEATH AND TOKENS

  45 NO MAN GOES BEYOND HIS DAY Robin Flower, The Western Island (1945), pp. 120–121. Ó Crithin is the same man as Tomás Ó Crohan (1856–1937), whose life unfolds through his grand autobiography, The Islandman (1935).

  46 A LIGHT TOKENS THE DEATH OF MR. CORRIGAN Unpublished. Tape-recorded from Hugh Nolan, November 15, 1972.

  47 A CLOCK TOKEN Lady Gregory, Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland (1970), p. 174.

  48 THE BANSHEE CRIES FOR THE O’BRIENS Lady Gregory, Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland (1970), pp. 266–267.

  49 THE BANSHEE CRIES FOR THE BOYLES T. G. F. Paterson, County Cracks (1945), p. 75.

  50 EXPERIENCE OF THE BANSHEE Unpublished. Tape-recorded from Joseph and Peter Flanagan, June 12, 1977.

  GHOSTS

  51 GRANDFATHER’S GHOST Ronald Buchanan, “Folklore of an Irish Townland,” Ulster Folklife (1956), p. 47. Ronald Buchanan generously supplied me with the name of the storyteller in a letter dated October 15, 1984.

  52 TERRIBLE GHOSTS Unpublished. Tape-recorded from Peter Flanagan, July 30, 1972. I recorded the second of these stories from Mr. Flanagan again on June 12, 1977.

  53 THE SOLDIER IN THE HAUNTED HOUSE James H. Delargy, “Clare Folk Tales,” Béaloideas (1935), pp. 25–27. Delargy comments that the tale is popular in Ireland. It seems related to Aarne-Thompson international tale type 326A*.

  54 DANIEL CROWLEY AND THE GHOSTS Jeremiah Curtin, Tales of the Fairies and of the Ghost World (1895), pp. 46–53.

  55 GHOSTS ALONG THE ARNEY Unpublished. Tape-recorded from Hugh Nolan, August 30, 1972. The last story in the sequence appears in Passing the Time in Ballymenone (1982), pp. 68–69. I first heard about the headless ghost of Arney from Hugh Patrick Owens, and recorded the story from Mr. Nolan again on Novembers 8, 1972.

  56 THE GRAVE OF HIS FATHERS Robin Flower, The Western Island (1945), pp. 55–57. Peig Sayers (1873–1958) has left us two autobiographical books: An Old Woman’s Reflections (1962), and Peig (1974).

  AWAY

  57 THE COFFIN Kevin Danaher, Folktales of the Irish Countryside (1967), pp. 70–72. This one among the stories of women who are away has received the number 990* in O’Sullivan and Christiansen’s Types of the Irish Folktale.

  58 THE CAPTURE OF BRIDGET PURCELL T. Crofton Croker, Fairy Legends (1862), pp. 39–41.

  59 TAKEN Robin Flower, The Western Island (1945), pp. 135–137. Ó Crithin is Tomás Ó Crohan, author of The Islandman (1935).

  60 HOW THE SHOEMAKER SAVED HIS WIFE Seán Ó hEochaidh, Fairy Legends from Donegal (1977), pp. 57–61.

  ENCOUNTERS WITH FAIRIES

  61 THE MOUNTAIN ELF Unpublished. Tape-recorded
from Peter Flanagan, July 30, 1972. You will learn about Peter Flanagan, the mummer, in All Silver and No Brass (1976).

  62 INISHKEEN’S ON FIRE Unpublished. Tape-recorded from Ellen Cutler, August 7, 1972. Inishkeen is an island in Upper Lough Erne. Mrs. Cutler said that steel tongs placed across the cradle would have protected the baby from the fairies. Irish tales repetitively display iron and steel as defense against supernatural forces. Mrs. Cutler’s story is O’Sullivan-Christiansen Irish folktale type 501*, found throughout Ireland. Another recent version of the tale appears in Linda-May Ballard, “Ulster Oral Narrative: The Stress on Authenticity,” Ulster Folklife 26 (1980): 35–37: See tale 79 in this collection for a parallel conclusion, tale 72 for a reversal of the conclusion.

  63 THE BLOOD OF ADAM Kevin Danaher, Folktales of the Irish Countryside (1967), pp. 41–42. This story, known widely in Ireland, is founded on the general belief that fairies are fallen angels. It is Christiansen migratory legend type 5050, common in Norway.

  64 WE HAD ONE OF THEM IN THE HOUSE FOR A WHILE Lady Gregory, Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland (1970), pp. 219–220. Mr. Kelleher’s story of “Geoffrey-a-wee” is structured like Aarne-Thompson international tale type 113A. See also tale 83.

  65 FAIRY PROPERTY Robert Gibbings, Lovely Is the Lee (1945), pp. 64–67. See also tale 92.

  66 THE BLACKSMITH OF BEDLAM AND THE FAIRY HOST Seán Ó hEochaidh, Fairy Legends from Donegal (1977), pp. 307–311.

  FAIRY TRAITS AND TREASURE

  67 FAIRY FORTHS Henry Glassie, Passing the Time in Ballymenone (1982), pp. 543–545.

  68 GORTDONAGHY FORTH Unpublished. Tape-recorded from Ellen Cutler, August 7, 1972. She told the first and last of these stories, dealing with the forth that stands next to her home atop Gortdonaghy Hill, again on June 22, 1977.

  69 THE FAIRIES RIDE FROM GORTDONAGHY TO DRUMANE Unpublished. Tape-recorded from Hugh Nolan, August 30, 1972.

  70 LANTY’S NEW HOUSE William Carleton, Tales and Stories of the Irish Peasantry (1846), pp. 76–77. This is Christiansen migratory legend type 5075.

  71 JACK AND THE CLURICAUNE Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall, Ireland (1850), 3: 35–37. The classic text of this popular story is Crofton Croker’s “The Field of Boliauns,” Fairy Legends (1862), pp. 102–105.

  72 BRIDGET AND THE LURIKEEN Patrick Kennedy, Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts (1866), pp, 130–131. After he presents this tale, Kennedy compares it with a Wexford version of a story like tale 71.

  73 FAIRY TALES Unpublished. Tape-recorded from Peter Flanagan, June 12, 1977. An earlier telling of the last in this sequence by Mr. Flanagan (which relates intriguingly to tale 111), can be found in Passing the Time in Ballymenone (1982), pp. 545–546. His brother, Joseph, also told me that tale on June 9, 1977.

  74 THE FAIRY SHILLING Seán Ó hEochaidh, Fairy Legends from Donegal (1977), pp. 138–143. This is connected to O’Sullivan-Christiansen Irish folktale type 580*. A comparable Donegal story of the rejection of fairy wealth appears in Sean O’Sullivan’s Folktales of Ireland (1966), pp. 174–175. There, p. 272, O’Sullivan notes parallels from Israel and Norway.

  75 THE BREAKING OF THE FORTH T. G. F. Paterson, Country Cracks (1945), pp. 74–75.

  76 DREAMS OF GOLD Lady Gregory, Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland (1970), p. 166. The second story is Aarne-Thompson international tale type 1645, known from Sweden to Turkey and as far east as Japan.

  77 THE CASTLE’S TREASURE William Wilde, Irish Popular Superstitions (1852), pp. 96–98.

  ENCHANTED NATURE

  78 THE AIR IS FULL OF THEM Lady Gregory, Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland (1970), pp. 211–212.

  79 THE FEET WATER Kevin Danaher, Folktales of the Irish Countryside (1967), pp. 127–129.

  80 THE FAIRY RABBIT AND THE BLESSED EARTH OF TORY Seán Ó hEochaidh, Fairy Legends from Donegal (1977), pp. 247–249.

  81 THE CATS’ JUDGMENT Robert Gibbings, Lovely Is the Lee (1945), pp. 72–73.

  82 NEVER ASK A CAT A QUESTION George A. Little, Malachi Horan Remembers (1944), pp. 143–145.

  83 CATS ARE QUEER ARTICLES Eric Cross, The Tailor and Ansty (1964), pp. 48–51. Especially common in Germany and Ireland, this is Aarne-Thompson international tale type 113A. I recorded it from Hugh Nolan on October 27, 1972, and June 11, 1977.

  84 TOM MOORE AND THE SEAL WOMAN Jeremiah Curtin, Tales of the Fairies and of the Ghost World (1895), pp. 151–154. This is Christiansen migratory legend type 4080, known in Norway and common in Ireland. Here are some other versions: Lady Gregory, The Kiltartan Wonder Book (1910), pp. 52–55; John O’Donoghue, In Kerry Long Ago (1960), pp. 124–126; Seán Ó hEochaidh, Fairy Legends from Donegal (1977), pp. 222–225.

  85 THE SWINE OF THE GODS W. B. Yeats, The Celtic Twilight (1902), pp. 113–114.

  ILLNESS AND WITCHCRAFT

  86 A PIG ON THE ROAD FROM GORT Lady Gregory, Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland (1970), p. 89.

  87 THE CROOKENED BACK T. Crofton Croker, Fairy Legends (1862), pp. 149–152. When the tale ended, the narrator’s grandson asked, “Granny, what was it?” She answered, “It was the Phooka.”

  88 MAURICE GRIFFIN THE FAIRY DOCTOR Jeremiah Curtin, Tales of the Fairies and of the Ghost World (1895), pp. 81–87.

  89 BIDDY EARLY Lady Gregory, Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland (1970), pp. 45–47.

  90 THE BLACK ART Henry Glassie, Passing the Time in Ballymenone (1982), pp. 535–536. In his notes to Lady Gregory’s Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland (1970), p. 302, W. B. Yeats remarks that the story of the witch who changes into a hare is “the best remembered of all witch stories” in Ireland.

  91 MAGICAL THEFT Séamas Ó Catháin, Irish Life and Lore (1982), pp. 25–27.

  92 PAUDYEEN O’KELLY AND THE WEASEL Douglas Hyde, Beside The Fire (1890), pp. 72–91.

  STRANGE SOUNDS AND VISIONS OF WAR

  93 ONE QUEER EXPERIENCE Clifton Johnson, The Isle of the Shamrock (1901), pp. 202–204. Johnson does not name the narrator. I gathered it out of a book by another American traveler: Samuel Bayne, On an Irish Jaunting-Car (1902), p. 78.

  94 MANY A ONE SAW WHAT WE SAW George A. Little, Malachi Horan Remembers (1944), pp. 30–32.

  HISTORY

  ANCIENT DAYS

  95 THE OLD TIMES IN IRELAND Lady Gregory, The Kiltartan History Book (1926), pp. 13–14. The text in the first edition (1909) contains a different middle section. The opening, shared in both editions, derives from the Book of Invasions of Ireland, for which see Douglas Hyde, A Literary History of Ireland (1967), pp. 281-292, and Thomas O’Rahilly, Early Irish History and Mythology (1976), pp. 75–170, 193–208.

  96 THE BATH OF THE WHITE COWS Patrick Kennedy, Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts (1866), pp. 304–307. The story seems to derive from Geoffrey Keating’s General History of Ireland.

  WAR

  97 THE BATTLE OF THE FORD OF BISCUITS Henry Glassie, Passing the Time in Ballymenone (1982), pp. 213–215. Contemporary accounts of the battle, which took place in 1594, agree basically with Mr. Nolan’s telling. See Ballymenone, pp. 630–633. A later telling of this story by Mr. Nolan appears in Ballymenone, pp. 656–659, and Irish Folk History (1982), pp. 41–44.

  98 CROMWELL Séamas Ó Catháin, The Bedside Book of Irish Folklore (1980), pp. 57–58. Recorded for the Irish Folktale Commission by Seán Ó Flanagáin. Oliver Cromwell’s violent Irish campaign of 1649–1650 engendered a great body of Irish legend.

  99 CROMWELL’S BIBLE Sean O’Sullivan, “Cromwell in Oral Tradition,” in Linda Dégh, Henry Glassie, and Felix Oinas, eds., Folklore Today (1976), pp. 479–480. While other versions of tale 98 have been found in Ireland (O’Sullivan provides one, pp. 477–478, and refers to others), this tale, though it incorporates international types (Aarne-Thompson type 1174, Christiansen migratory legend type 3020), has been recorded but once. Sean O’Sullivan supplies a pair of tales of Cromwell in Folktales of Ireland (1966), pp. 236–242. In letters of October 30 and November 19, 1984, Séamas Ó Catháin kindly supplied me
with the name of the teller of this tale and the recording dates for tales of his own that he has allowed me to reprint in this anthology.

  100 PATRICK SARSFIELD Lady Gregory, The Kiltartan History Book (1909), p. 18; (1926), pp. 46–47. Sarsfield was second in command at the defense of Limerick in 1690. Peter Flanagan sings a song commemorating his major success then: Passing the Time in Ballymenone (1982), pp. 694–695. The next year Sarsfield surrendered to the Williamite forces and left for France. Soon he was dead on the battlefield.

  101 SARSFIELD SURRENDERS AND RORY TAKES TO THE HILLS Seumas MacManus, Heavy Hangs the Golden Grain (1952), pp. 158–159.

  RAPPAREES

  102 BLACK FRANCIS Henry Glassie, Passing the Time in Ballymenone (1982), pp. 47–49. Black Francis was hanged at Enniskillen in 1782.

  103 SHAN BERNAGH Rose Shaw, Carleton’s Country (1930), pp. 69–74. The Irish outlaw displayed his nobility in his gifts to the poor, his deference to women, his defense of the priest. Black Francis (tale 102) comparably fights for the priest in Passing the Time in Ballymenone (1982), pp. 132–136.

  104 WILLIE BRENNAN Sean O’Sullivan, Legends from Ireland (1977), pp. 139–141. Recorded for the Irish Folklore Commission by Tomás Ó Ciardha. The first story is Aarne-Thompson international tale type 1527A; the second has attached itself to noble outlaws from Robin Hood to Jesse James, including Black Francis (tale 102): Peadar Livingstone, The Fermanagh Story (Enniskillen: Cumann Seanchais Chlochair, 1969), p. 131. Brennan has survived in memory from his time in the early nineteenth century to our own largely because of the folksong “Brennan on the Moor,” for which see Colm O Lochlainn, More Irish Street Ballads (Dublin: Three Candles, 1965), pp. 144–145, 147.