School: Beale (1) (roll number 7660)
- Location:
- Beal, Co. Kerry
- Teacher: Martin Beasley
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0399, Page 057
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: Beale (1)
- XML Page 057
- XML “A Mermaid”
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
- 57
A Mermaid
A mermaid is supposed to be a woman. I never saw a mermaid but I heard the old people say that they often saw her. It is supposed that she is to be seen sitting in a rock combing her hair. A story is told about a man who saw a mermaid. It was a fine sunny day as he was walking a long the cliffs he saw the mermaid sitting on a rock combing her hair. When he approached he saw a red cap on the rock near her. He snatched the cap and ran home; when he arrived at the house he threw the cap up in a loft. It was not long when the mermaid came in after him. She married him and they had three sons. One day he threw down the cap accidentally. She snatched it and ran away. He followed her and begged her to come back. She only delayed to tell him that he would find a crock of gold for each child under the flag where the servant fell with a can of milk. Then as she leaped from the cliff she was heard to say "oh Kilstoheen, oh Kilstoheen" and then she disappeared beneath the waters. That is(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Martin Leahy
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Bromore West, Co. Kerry
