School: Athgarvan, Curragh (roll number 13350)
- Location:
- Athgarvan, Co. Kildare
- Teacher: Bean Mhic Niocaill
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0776, Page 263
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- XML School: Athgarvan, Curragh
- XML Page 263
- XML “Scéal Eile”
Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.
On this page
- Sgeale eile.
Another person from our neighbourhood who consulted Biddy Early was a man named Griffin. His sister was married to my father's uncle.
When Griffin was about fifteen or sixteen - more than seventy years ago, his father sent him out one morning early before breakfast to look after some young cattle they had out on the mountain, a good bit away from the house. [Mountain in Clare means a moor]
The youngster returned in a dreadful state after an hour or two. He said that when he was on the mountain he met a black man the blackest man he ever say; and that without speaking a word the stranger caught him and beat him unmercifully. The youngster was put to bed but instead of improving he got worse and as usual the neighbour disposed "a fairy stroke," and advised a visit to Biddy Early.
When old Griffin reached Feable, Biddy was able to tell him what had happened to his son. She gave him a bottle of stuff which was supposed to cure the boy and she also told the father never to allow the child and of the house until he had eaten some food
From that time on Griffin never left his house fasting except when he going to Holy Communion and then he took care to have others with him.
- Collector
- Bríghid Bean Mhic Niocaill
- Gender
- Female
- Occupation
- Múinteoir
