Irish Wonders: The Ghosts, Giants, Pooka, Demons, Leprechawns, Banshees, Fairies, Witches, Widows, Old Maids, and other Marvels of the Emerald IsleMcAnally, D. R. (David Russell)
General
Irish Wonders: The Ghosts, Giants, Pooka, Demons, Leprechawns, Banshees, Fairies, Witches, Widows, Old Maids, and other Marvels of the Emerald Isle
"Now I must tell ye wan thing. The blessed saint was at that time only a
young felly, though they don’t make ’em any betther than he was. When he
left home, he’d a shweetheart be the name o’ Kathleen, an’ she loved him
betther than her life, an’ so did he her in that degray that he’d lay down
an’ die on the shpot fur the love av her, but his juty called him fur to
be God’s priest, an’ he turned his back on father an’ mother an’ saddest
av all on Kathleen, though it was like tarin’ out his heart it was, an’
came to Glendalough. Kathleen was like to die, but afther a bit, she got
over it a little an’ went into a convent, for, says she, ’I’ll marry no
wan, an’ ’ull meet him in heaven.’ But Saint Kevin didn’t know phat had
become av her, an’ thried hard not to think av her, but wanst in a while
the vision av her ’ud come back to him like the mem’ry av a beautiful
dhrame.
"Now about this time, while the divil was layin’ about in the bushes
a-watchin’ the work, an’ the tower of the big church was liftin’ itself
above the trees, the blessed saint begun to be onaisy in his mind, fur,
says he to himself, ’Things is too aisy entirely. It’s just thim times
when all is goin’ on as smooth as a duck on a pond that the divil comes
down like a fox on a goslin’ an’ takes every wan unbeknownst, so wins the
vict’ry. I’ll have a care, fur afther the sunshine comes the shtorm,’ says
he. So that avenin’ he ordhered his monks to say a thousand craydos, an’
two thousand paters an’ aves, an’ afther that was done, he got in his boat
an’ crassed the lake. He climbed up to his bed above ye there, an’ said
his baids agin an’ went to slape, but the divil was watchin’ him like a
hawk, for he’d laid a thrap fur the blessed saint to catch him wid, that
was thish-a-way.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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