School: Cnoc na Manach, An Mhainistir Bhán, Cionn tSáile (roll number 1391)

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1. Johnny Maher (continued)

   

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   pretended to do likewise and allowed Johnny lift the whole heap of straw. This went on all day till dinner time but poor Johnny never knew they were letting him do all the work. At dinner he said "poor Johnny must be getting weak as he is sweating very hard". That evening these two mean fellows got a good thrashing from the other workmen for wronging Johnny.
   He was a great singer and always sang a song about himself. He sometimes sat on a tomb in Tracton graveyard or on a lonely fence and sang this song.
   The farmers allowed him sleep in the barn or outhouse but he always asked them to leave the door of this house open as he feared he may get a start in the middle of the night and begin running around the fields.
   When he was dying he sang the last line of his song
   "Bold Johnny Maher lies cold in his grave"
   He then died and was buried at Carrigaline.
   This song is as follows:
   I
   My name is John Maher I'm a man that loves pleasure
   'Tis two dozen years since I first saw the light
   And like Samson I'm strong and of real Irish measure,
   I'm fully six feet and two inches in height.
   II
   When I came to my teens the Almighty thought proper
   To show His example and power of man

   (continues on next page)

   

   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. agents (~1)
      1. historical persons (~5,068)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Nora Barry

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Tubbrid, Co. Cork

   Informant

   Cornelius O Reilly

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Britfieldstown, Co. Cork

   Informant

   Patrick O Keefe

   Gender

   Male

   Age

   68

   Address

   Granig, Co. Cork