Irish Gothic Fairy Stories

by Steve Lally

  Sean couldn’t believe his eyes, he had only seen New York on postcards his siblings sent home. Sean got off the boat and was in total shock. He had never seen so many people in all his life. It was like fair day times a hundred. All the faces were of strangers and he didn’t know a soul. He felt everyone was looking at him. Sure all he had on him were rags and not a thing on his feet. A man walked up to him and said, ‘You look like a man I know called Sean Palmer from Rineen Ban.’ Sean recognised the man as Andy Pickett from the same road as him back home. Sure Sean remembered the young Pickett fella going to America to find work and if Andy was in America then Sean knew he was too. Andy walked on. Sean was pinching himself, half hoping to wake up but also enjoying the adventure. One of the men who took him over in the boat said, ‘Sean, you really are in America, you have a brother here in New York, have you not?’

  ‘I sure have,’ said Sean, ‘but New York is a big place, and how on earth could I find him, I don’t even know his address off by heart?’

  ‘Never mind,’ said the man. ‘Come along and we will find him.’

  Two of the men went with Sean and the other two stayed behind to guard the boat. They walked the streets of New York together. Sean couldn’t believe the height of the buildings. He felt like a little mouse. He said hello to passing strangers and thought how rude of them not to even answer. Sure this place wasn’t at all like Rineen Ban. Rineen Ban may be small and less busy but by God he thought it smelled a lot better and was a hell of a lot quieter and at least the people had the decency to say hello. He was beginning to wonder what took his brother and sister and half the lads and ladies he went to school with over the sea to such an unfriendly place with a million streets that made no sense – with numbers on signs – sure how would a man like him not get lost? Sure he couldn’t see a field or a blade of grass in sight. Finally, the two men stopped at a tenement. ‘Your brother Paddy lives in that house Sean, knock on the door and ask for him.’

  Sean knocked on the door and a stranger answered. ‘Does Paddy Palmer from Rineen Ban live here?’ Sean asked.

  ‘Yes he does, I will show you to his room.’ When Paddy saw him he went as white as a sheet. He thought that Sean had died and his ghost was visiting him from beyond. Stood before him was his brother whom he hadn’t seen in years. Sure Sean had no shoes or socks on his dirty feet and his clothes were in tatters, but he seemed real to Paddy all the same. ‘Sean are you dead?’

  Sean smiled and said, ‘No Paddy I am very much alive.’

  ‘How and when did you get to America’? Paddy asked, excited that his brother was alive and well and standing in front of him.

  ‘I landed about a quarter of an hour ago,’ Sean replied.

  ‘And when did you leave home?’

  ‘I left about half an hour ago,’ Sean said.

  Paddy was beginning to get worried, maybe his brother was not of sane mind. ‘Take a seat Sean and tell me what happened?’

  So Sean took a seat on the end of his brother’s bed. The room was small and overlooked grey buildings and rooftops with grass growing on top of some of them. Sean was relieved to see some green at last. He began to tell Paddy how he was dying for a smoke and how the egg woman didn’t show up, and he was getting on the wife’s nerves and so he decided to head for Sean The Locks’ shop and get himself some tobacco before he went astray in the head. ‘It was after nightfall and I didn’t even get the spuds into me because I was so hungry for a smoke.’ He then told him that when he reached Rineen Ban Quay he met two men at the pier who pointed him towards two other men who were in a boat. He said the men were fierce generous and gave him as much tobacco as he could handle. ‘Sure, I was in my element Paddy. I was in a haze of smoke and the next thing I knew the sails were up and there was lights in the distance.’ He told him how he thought it was the lights of the harbour near home when the four men began to laugh at him and told him they had reached New York. ‘Sure I couldn’t believe my ears Paddy, not half an hour ago I was sitting at the fire in the cottage and here I am standing in America.’

  Paddy couldn’t believe his own ears. Sean told him how he met Andy Pickett at the harbour and then he told him how two of the men from the boat led him to Paddy’s door. ‘I will tell you what Sean, you sit there and I will fix you some supper and I will run in next door to the store and get you some tobacco and when I get back you can put my good suit on and I will give you my best brogues.’

  Sean was overwhelmed and said, ‘Paddy, don’t be daft, I am grand as I am.’

  ‘No Sean, I insist – you look like a down-and-out and I can’t let you leave my house looking like that – what sort of a brother would I be if I done that?’

  Sean sat down and ate a big feed fit for a king; as they say in the countryside, it was enough to choke a donkey. Just as he was finishing, Paddy came back through the door with a large parcel of tobacco. Paddy said to him, ‘Now, Sean, here is half a year’s supply of tobacco.’ He then reached into his coat pocket and took out a fistful of dollars and handed them to him along with the parcel of tobacco.

  ‘I will not take all this from you Paddy,’ Sean said, embarrassed.

  ‘I insist,’ said Paddy with a smile. ‘I was going to send you money for Christmas anyway, and seeing as you are right in front of me sure it saves me the bother.’

  ‘Thank you, Paddy, that is real decent of you and I appreciate everything.’ He changed into the suit and thanked his brother once again. Paddy looked at him and said, ‘It was so lovely to see you Sean, and goodbye for now and God speed you.’

  Sean walked out onto the street and joined the two men who were waiting on him. ‘My Goodness Sean, you did well out of that visit: tobacco, a few pound and a brand new suit,’ said one of the men with a smile. ‘Give me the parcel and the cash and I will put it on the boat for you.’ Sean trusted the man and did as he was asked. Then the other man pipes up, ‘Sure, don’t you have a sister in Boston?’

  ‘I have, to be sure, I know she is somewhere in Boston but I have no clue where.’

  ‘I know where she lives,’ said the man. He told Sean how he would take him to see her while the other man took the goods his brother gave him to the boat. Next thing he knew he was in a different city. It wasn’t long before they reached a big blue door. It was clean and shiny with a gold knocker and flowers out the front. He remembered how his sister always loved tending to the garden back at the home place when she was a child.

  ‘Knock on the door Sean, your sister Cait will answer.’

  Sean took a deep breath and composed himself and gave the door a good confident knock. A middle-aged woman peeped through the door and asked who he was looking for. ‘I am here to see Cait Palmer.’

  The woman opened the door a little wider. ‘I am Cait Palmer.’

  ‘Do you not recognise your own brother?’ His sister reacted much the same as his brother Paddy had in New York City. She thought that Sean had died and was coming to say one last goodbye before he went to Heaven.

  ‘My God and all the saints! Sean Palmer why would you appear to me? Sure I am liable to drop dead along with you.’

  ‘No Cait, I am very much alive, sure I have been up with Paddy in New York – sure where do you think I got such a fancy get-up? Sure you know fine rightly that poor Sean Palmer wouldn’t have a suit as good as this or a pair of shoes like these.’ He waved his shoes towards her, proud he had a pair at all. Cait couldn’t believe what she was seeing. ‘Sure ask Paddy when you see him next.’

  Cait asked Sean how he got there and when and Sean retold the whole story about running out of tobacco and the next thing seeing the bright lights of New York City. Sure she had to take a seat on the steps to hear the rest. He told her how Paddy gave him money and tobacco as well as the suit and shoes. She opened her purse and took out a $20 note and handed it to him. ‘Take that home with you and I will send you some more at Christmas time.’ Sean didn’t want anything from her but thanked her all the same. He hugged her and told her to take good
care of herself and that he hoped to see her again soon. She went back in through the big shiny blue door with the gold knocker, still shaking from what she had just experienced.

  By this stage the second man had caught up with them and they were headed back for New York, and as they were approaching the city Sean realised he didn’t have the pipe. ‘I have lost the pipe,’ he said to the men in sheer panic. The men reassured him it was OK, sure they could replace it. One of the men then said to Sean, ‘Did you know a Cait ‘Strockaire’ O’Shea from the top of Lohar?’

  ‘I did indeed,’ says Sean with a broad smile, remembering what a beauty she was. He once had a notion to marry her and next thing he knew she moved to America. He told them the story and then said with a giggle, ‘The luck of the Irish.’

  ‘Would you like to see her now?’ said the other man. ‘She lives here on this very lane.’ Sean said he would very much like to see her, so the two men led him to the door of her house. It was a bit more rundown compared to his sister’s place but it was nice all the same and he was excited for he was going to see Cait after all these years. As he heard footsteps approaching the big black door with number 33 etched onto the top of it with faded yellow paint he wondered how much had she changed and if the years had been kind to her? Cait opened the door and was so surprised to see her old neighbour she threw her arms around him and it was like they never parted. She asked him what he was doing in America and how he got there. He decided to pretend he had been there a few months and was on his way home again and decided to look her up before he went back. He didn’t want to have to explain to anyone else that he left his house only an hour ago. He didn’t mind telling his brother and sister the truth, sure they always thought Sean was a bit touched, but he couldn’t let Cait ‘Strockaire’ O’Shea think his head had gone astray, or, even worse, think he was a ghost. He told her he was sailing back that very night. Cait was delighted to see him but sad he was leaving and for a few moments they talked about old times. She opened her purse and gave him a $20 note and asked him to give $15 to her brother Con, who still lived in the home place in Lohar, and she told Sean to keep $5 for himself. She said, ‘Have a drink for my health on your crossing home.’ Sean thanked her and said he would deliver the money to Con as soon as he got back on Irish soil. He was about to leave when Cait called him back. ‘By the way Sean, did you ever marry?’ He didn’t give her a straight answer and so she was left wondering. She said back to him, ‘Sure maybe we may both splice it up yet?’ ‘You could never tell,’ replied Sean, as he waved goodbye, ‘stranger things have happened.’

  Sean met up with the two men outside and they were eager to find out how he got on. Sean told them that they had a nice chat and that she had given him money to give to her brother and some money for him to drink to her health on the way home. The two men seemed happy for Sean but told him they would need to hurry back as time was running out. This worried Sean because he didn’t think there was a clock ticking and he wondered what would happen if time ran out. They got back to the boat and met with the other two men. They told Sean to hop on board. They spread the sails and they were off. They were hardly out to sea when Sean felt the pipe between his teeth. He said to the men, ‘This is the pipe I thought I lost.’ They told him if it was still red to puff away till his heart was content. Sean didn’t need much encouragement.

  ‘Ah,’ he exclaimed, ‘it is a true saying that.’

  ‘What?’ asked the men.

  ‘That a lucky man only needs to be born.’

  The men looked a bit puzzled but smiled all the same. In what seemed like only a few minutes Sean saw lights in the distance and this time he was sure it was the houses of Lohar. He was so confident he said it to the men.

  ‘Yes, they are,’ said one of the men, ‘this time you are correct.’

  Sean was baffled and said, ‘Well, that’s awful strange, one minute I am in New York and then Boston and then I am back at Rineen Ban Quay. Sure, you’d be slower in a dream.’

  Before long he had stepped out of the boat and onto dry land. He had his parcel in his hand and he was in great form and when he turned around to thank the men for such a pleasant trip they were gone. They had vanished – it was as if the sea swallowed them whole. He looked around him, the sky was dark and he could neither see nor hear a thing except a few candles lit in the windows of the houses up on the hill and a few birds chatting before they turned in for the night.

  He made his way home and knocked on the door. He could hear his wife shouting at their eldest daughter to open it; he could hear her say, ‘I presume it’s that father of yours who forgot to come home – I bet he was up all night playing cards and smoking his pipe at Sean The Locks’ shop.’

  When his daughter opened the door, she didn’t recognise her father, for the man before her was dressed in a new suit and shiny shoes and he held a parcel under his arm. She ran back in and her mother came out. She did recognise Sean straight away. She had seen him dressed like that once upon a time on their wedding day – that was a while ago, she thought to herself, but by God he looked every bit as handsome.

  ‘Where have you been Sean, and where in God’s name did you get that lovely suit?’

  ‘I have been in New York and my brother Paddy was kind enough to give me his suit and shoes – he didn’t like to see me in rags and shoeless walking the streets of New York. You know it’s not as clean as Rineen Ban.’

  Mary was beginning to worry at this stage. ‘Sit down Sean and I will get you a cup of tea. Did you fall on your head, or worse still did someone give you too much to drink?’

  ‘No Mary, I am grand and I had a great time without a drop of drink.’ He told her the whole story and how Paddy had given him tobacco and money and how his sister Cait in Boston had given him money and then he met with their old neighbour Cait ‘Strockaire’ O‘Shea, and how she had given him money to take home to her brother Con and told him to keep some for himself to not forget to have a drink for her. Mary was listening and soaking it all up and then she took a hold of the tobacco box and was able to read the label of the box and the date. She saw that it did indeed come from New York City. She couldn’t believe her eyes. She sat down and this time Sean made her a cup of tea, because to Sean and Mary tea fixed a lot of life’s problems, and this was no exception. She asked him how he managed to get there and back in such a short time. Sure he had no clue. They sat up half the night talking and trying to figure out what had actually happened.

  The next morning Sean awoke more tired than usual and was both relieved and surprised to see the suit his brother gave him draped over the chair at the foot of the bed. He got up and put it on in fear of it disappearing. He ate his breakfast while his daughter looked at him with a puzzled look upon her face. Sean then went out for a walk around his small farm. The sun was in the sky and he had a smoke of his pipe. He walked around in that suit for many years and decided that shoes would not be kept for special occasions. Sure to Sean Palmer life was a special occasion. He counted his blessings. He didn’t give old Cait ‘Strockaire’ O’Shea another thought because he saw before him the faithful and beautiful wife he did end up marrying. The neighbours began to talk and sure letters were coming home from America from the likes of Andy Pickett and Cait ‘Strockaire’ O’Shea, saying how they met with Sean Palmer in New York. Sure the neighbours just thought Sean went for a short visit to see his siblings but in actual fact he went with the fairies and was there and back in a few hours. He never did tell them the truth and his siblings made sure not to tell anyone. He never did forget his journey to America and was forever grateful to the ‘good folk’ for they sure were good to Sean Palmer from Rineen Ban.

  Co. Kerry: From the Irish Ciarraí, which comes from ‘The Ciarraighe’, an ancient race of people who settled in the region. They were also known as the people of Ciar (ciar-raighe), Ciar being the son of Fergus mac Róich, who gave his name to Co. Kerry. Co. Kerry is also known as ‘The Kingdom’. It is a beautiful county with breath-takin
g views and landscapes. Off its coast are the two Skellig Islands, Skellig Michael and Little Skellig. Early Christian monks once lived on Skellig Michael, and recently it became home to the Jedi Master Luke Skywalker of Star Wars fame. A couple of miles outside Killarney you can find Lissyviggeen Stone Circle. This is a small circle with seven uprights surrounded by a bank and two large stones outside the bank. They are known locally as ‘The Seven Sisters’. There are two stories connected with it, one being that the two outside stones are the parents and the seven stones inside the circle are the children. The second claims that the seven stones are sisters and the two larger stones are pipers. But the shared theme is that they were all turned to stone for dancing. Co. Kerry is also home to one of Ireland’s greatest seanchaí’s (storyteller), Eamon Kelly (1914–2001).

  THE FAIRY SPANCEL (CO. KERRY)

  We were given a book called Legends of Killarney (a reprint of Donal O’Cahill’s edited collection of 1956) by Steve’s aunt and uncle, Maureen and Donal O’Donoghue from Killarney, Co. Kerry. Maureen was a school teacher and music teacher and Donal was the headmaster of Faha National School in Co. Kerry. Donal was a great lover of literature, poetry and stories, and sadly he passed away in March 2017.

  Long ago in a time that was not now but existed when we did not, there was once a man called Terry Casey, a decent sort of a man who had inherited a bit of land that was left to him in some class of a will. The land stood at the foot of Mangerton Mountain in Co. Kerry.

  He was only 5 foot tall but it was big enough for him as you are big enough for yourself. He had the heart of a lion and no man in all of Kerry worked as hard as Terry Casey. But he had to, as the land was so full of stones that the birds did not dare catch a worm from it for fear that they might break their beaks and there were so many furze bushes the whole place looked like a wild head of hair.