School: Monaghan (Christian Bros.) (roll number 16723)
- Location:
- Monaghan, Co. Monaghan
- Teacher: M. Ó Floinn
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0957, Page 219
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- (continued from previous page)head. The poor cattle jumped about like mad until the sun rose. They kept falling into pits and tumbling into rivers, they were so frightened. At last the farmer could not get a herds-man to mind his cattle no matter how much he gave them. The fairies were very happy now for they had no one to annoy them.
One day a wonderful piper named Larry Hoolahan came to the farmhouse. The farmers told him his trouble and Larry said "Shure, if that's all ails you may make your mind aisy." "If there were as many fairies as there are praty blossoms in Tipperary I would na fear to face them all. Shure I niver feared a grown man and do ye think I'm going to fly from a woman not the bigness of my thumb."
The farmer said he would keep Larry for the rest of his life if he would mind his cattle. So Larry went up to the hill the next night and sat down on a flat stone. He took out his pipes and began to play. At last the fairies came flying round him like a swarm of midges. Looking up Larry saw a big black cat standing before him. Then the cat changed into a big fish wearing a brand new pair of top boots. "Come along there," says Larry "dance and I'll pipe for you."(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Eileen Barton
- Gender
- Female
