School: Gurranes, Bandon
- Location:
- Garranes, Co. Cork
- Teacher: Nóra O' Halloran
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0315, Page 072
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- XML “Crows in Pound”
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- This is a funny story about crows, which I got from the grandsons of old Horgan of Scariff.
Their grandfather was smith. He had a few fields also & tilled them very well. In one he had a very promising crop of wheat. About 1/2 mile away “as the crow flies” was Mountpleasant House & grounds belonging to the Baldwin family. The then owner was well liked & good to the people around.
Old Horgan complained to him several times about his crows pulling the wheat & to shoot some of them. Baldwin was very proud of the rookery & the crows. So to pacify the old smith he said he never saw them trespassing & if Horgan could catch them he could drive them into the pound in Bandon.
Horgan got 1/2 stone of wheat and a quart of poteen. He soaked the wheat in the liquid heaped it in a few places in the wheat field & put some of the poteen in a vessel near each little heap. The crows came along from the rookery, pitched in the wheat field, picked the soaked grain, drank the poteen & were so drunk they could only stagger about. Old Horgan arrived(continues on next page)
