School: Inis Eoghanáin (B.) (roll number 1949)
- Location:
- Innishannon, Co. Cork
- Teacher: Seán Ó Fuartháin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0322, Page 113
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: Inis Eoghanáin (B.)
- XML Page 113
- XML “Scéal”
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
- In the townland of Sacrum, in the parish of Ballincollig and postal district of Ovens, there is situated a circular fort. Tradition has it that long ago there lived in this fort a huge serpent, who was the terror of the surrounding district. He used to sleep coiled up in the fort, and man or beast who came near the fort were attacked and devoured by him. The people decided that the locality should be rid of the monster, and the following plan was decided upon. A huge gate of iron was made with long sharp spikes on top, and placed in position about two miles from the fort at the cross roads at Ballygroman. The best horse in the district, was procured, and ridden by the bravest horseman, to within a mile of the fort. When the man and steed came within hearing distance of the fort he called:-
"An bhfuileann tú istigh, a Ghallaimh?"
"Táim agus aithneóchaidh tú é", ar san piast.
As soon as the man had called, he turned and rode like the wind towards the iorn gate. The serpent followed, every bound fifty spades long. Approaching the gate, he was closing in on the horseman, but the horse(continues on next page)
- Collector
- J. Forde
- Gender
- Unknown
- Address
- Innishannon, Co. Cork
- Informant
- Timothy Forde
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Ballymurphy South, Co. Cork
