School: St Columba's, Cloonagh, Granard (roll number 12813)
- Location:
- Cloonagh, Co. Longford
- Teacher: Peter O'Reilly
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0762, Page 275
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- Mr John Kiernan of Cloonagh in the Electoral Division of Mulinalacta and Barony of Granard who is 74 years of age told me the following story that he heard his father tell several times.
It was customary always in Ireland, as well as now, that the young men, when the work of the day was over, went a Ceilide to their neighbour's house, and some went long journeys each night.
Mr Kiernan had a sister married in Creevy, near Granard, and they kept a servant boy named John Shone.
John came each night, to Mr Kiernan's house, and it was a bad omen, if John did not arrive, that there must be something serious the matter, in Creevy to prevent him from coming.
As the distance from Creevy to Mr Kiernan's house was 5 miles or more, it was usually after midnight each night, when John returned to his Master's house. One bright moonlight night, as John was returning after the midnight hour, he saw a number of men kicking football, in a field beside the road, and the laughs of the men, attracted John to stand on the road, and look in across the ditch.
With that, the ball was kicked out on the road and John heard a number of voices shouting Who'll kick in the ball" and more voices answered "Who but John Shone." John took courage, and kicked in(continues on next page)
- Collector
- null
- Informant
- null
- Gender
- Male
