School: Barradubh (Sixmilebridge)
- Location:
- Barraduff, Co. Kerry
- Teacher: Dómhnall Ua Donnchadha
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0457, Page 214
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“In a certain distant land 'tis the custom when a man dies to pay somebody who would watch from dark till dawn in the dead room.”
In a certain distant land 'tis the custom when a man dies to pay somebody who would watch from dark till dawn in the dead room. One night an Irishman was "watching" for the first time in his life because it was hard to get a man to take on that job but the poor Irishman could get no work in this foreign land and he was glad of anything.
About ten o'clock a minister came in and after praying beside the corpse he slipped something into the pocket of the garment which the dead man wore. When the minister was gone and there wasn't a sound anywhere the Irishman wanted to know what the minister had put into the dead man's pocket so he tiptoed over to the corpse and drew out a span new half-sovereign. Quick as you like he put the coin into his own pocket and replaced it with a button.
Next day when he was paid he enquired of the meaning of putting a coin in a dead man's pocket and when he was told that it was to pay the man's fare across the Jordan, he walked away but he wondered if the man the night before could swim.