Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland, Second Series
General
Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland, Second Series
Atlantic Coast (Ireland) -- Social life and customs; Folklore -- Ireland; Ireland -- Social life and customs
One time I was working in England near Warrington, and I was walking
the road alone at night, and I saw a woman under an umbrella in the
mist and I said, "Is it a living thing you are or dead?" And she
vanished on the minute. And I sat down by the hedge for a while, and
I heard feet walking, walking, up and down inside the hedge, and I
am sure they were the same thing. And then two strange men passed
me, dressed in working clothes, but talking gibberish that I could
not understand, and I know that they were no right men. So I went in
towards the town and I met a policeman, and he took up his lamp and
made it shine in my face, for they carry a lamp in their belt and
they will take the measurement of your face with it, the same as by
daylight. And he said, "There never was a worse road for an Irishman
to walk than this one." It was maybe because of the land and the
rough people of it he said that.
_A Gate-keeper:_
My sister and her husband were driving on the Kinvara road one day,
and they saw a carriage coming behind them, and it with bright lamps
about it. And they drew the car to one side to let it pass. And when
it passed they saw it had no horses, and the men that were sitting up
where the drivers should be were headless.
There's many has seen the coach, in different shapes, and some have
seen the riders going over the country. Drumconnor is a great place
for these things. The Sheehans that lived in the castle had no peace
or rest. Mrs. Sheehan looked up one day she was outside, and there
was some person standing at the window, and in a moment it was
headless. And they'd see them coming in at the gate, sometimes in
the shape of a woman, and a sort of a cape in the old fashion and a
handkerchief over the head, and sometimes in the shape of a cow or
such things. And noises they'd hear, and things being thrown about
in the house and packs of wool thrown down the stairs.
And they had a good many children, and all the best and the
best-looking were taken. And at last they got the owner to build them
a house outside, and since that they have no trouble and have lost no
more children.
_Mrs. Madden:_
Rivers of Cloonmore one time when he was going to Loughrea, at the
fish-pond corner saw the coach. I didn't see it, but I saw him draw
aside and say to Leary not to let on they saw it.
Meagher another time saw it, and it full of children all in white.
But Egan beyond, he'd never let on to believe in such things and
would make them out to be nothing--he has such a gift of talking.
And one time in the night I and my husband woke and heard the car
rattling by, and we thought it was St. George going to Ballylee
Castle, till we asked in the morning. Four horses it has and they
headless, and sure and certain we heard it pass that night.
_Mrs. Casey:_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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