School: Ball Áluinn (Balla) (roll number 1146)

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1. The Leipreachán (continued)

   

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   But if they meet anyone they have to give it back. One night a man who used to be out late card-playing was returning home. As he passed out a gap near a fort something was thrown into his hand. He took it home and found it was a baby. He put it in a box beside the fire and gave it milk. In the morning he heard that a neighbour's child was dead. He went to see the dead child. He saw it was like the one given to him the previous night. He told the man of the house. The man told him he was bad enough and not to fool him. But eventually he went to see the priest and brought him to the house where the foundling was. When the father looked at the child in the box it smiled up at him. They brought it to where the other child was. When they went in the dead child went out through the wall.
   A gate into the old demesne in Balla on the Castlebar road is called "geata na ha ha" because people used to hear ha ha from that gate if passing by it late at night although no one could be seen.
   The banshee has been reported to have been heard many times on the Balla Mayo road. The banshee is supposed to follow Fallons and Griffiths and other families in Ballymackeogh. Several

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. agents (~1)
      1. supernatural and legendary beings (~14,864)
         1. leprechauns (~1,007)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   P. Ó Maolanaigh

   Gender

   Male