School: Ínse Cloch (roll number 7101)
- Location:
- Inchiclogh, Co. Cork
- Teacher: Diarmuid Ó Críodáin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0284, Page 148
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: Ínse Cloch
- XML Page 148
- XML “Leipreachán or 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
- (continued from previous page)he smokes a large clay pipe with a stem six inches long. Wherever he heard any noise he always jumps to safety. One night a man stole on a Leipreachán and he caught him. He said he would not let him go until he got his gold. The field, where the Leipreachán was caught was covered with thistles, and he showed the man where the gold was buried under one thistle.
The man tied a cord round it while he went home for a spade and shovel. When he came to dig under the thistle he found a cord tied to every thistle. Therefore it was impossible to distinguish which thistle he had marked. The Leipreachán often played tricks on people.
The mermaid is half a woman and half a fish. She is sometimes seen perched on a rock in the sea. If a ship met a mermaid it was considered very unlucky. "Jack of the Lantern" was a supernatural being who travelled the country carrying a lamp. If he met a person at night he was supposed to lead them astray. Hence many people feared to venture outdoors at night.
- Collector
- John Harrington
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Skahanagh, Co. Cork
- Informant
- Mr Harrington
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 46
- Address
- Skahanagh, Co. Cork
