As promised, here's a Seán Ó hEinirí story from the book Scéalta Chois Cladaigh (published by the Comhairle Bhéaloideas Éireann in 1983 and so far as I know, profoundly out of print; I'm sharing it with you as Tom Bombadil shared the treasure of the Barrow Wight, but I pray instead of any spell being broken, a spell of interest in the language and the folklore might be cast. I share it solely to further interest in both the Irish language and the Irish people's folklore.)
Memorized it myself long ago and used to tell this story (and a few of the others) at Irish festivals and the like. Modern-day "professional" storytellers, many of whom tell stories to such gatherings in a fake "Irish brogue" never liked Seán's tales. They were too alien, I suppose, to dark for such audience as they catered to. (But that's just a guess.) Back in the 1980s I had an audio tape for these but that's been long lost, so I must observe that my long-mixed/wrecked 'Corca Dorcha' dialect wasn't an exact replication of Seán's.
Bean a Tugah As
Bhí bean i dtinneas clainne thoir i nGreannaí fad ó shin agus bhí sí go dona. Ní raibh aon dochtúir ann an uair sin ach mná ghún, an dtuigeann tú. Bhí bean ghlún istigh ann — ba sheo cailleach, ar ndóiche, a raibh cineál láimh aici ar an obair. Ach ní rabhthar ag déanamh aon mhaith.
Ach bhí fear istigh ann ina shuí ar, ar chloiche an bhaic, ar ndóiche, agus bhí an bhean a bhí sa leaba la bás — ní raibh aon mhaith le déanamh daoithi. Ach fuair sí bás.
Agus thimpeall is mí ina dhiaidh nó b’fhéidir sé seachtainí, an fear a bhí ina shuí ar chloich an mhaic, bhí sé i mBaile Uí bhFiacháin ag aonach beithíoch — bhí beithíoch le díol aige. Agus go díreach thuas i lár shráid an mhargaidh, shiúil an fear seo chuige agus chroith sé láimh leis.
‘Bhail, ní aithním thú,’ a dúirt fear Ghreannaí, ‘ach tá tú ag croitheah láimhe liom.’
‘Bhail, aithnímse thusa,’ a dúirt fear Bhaile Uí bhFiacháin. ‘Bhí tú i do shuí sa gclúid thíos i nGreannaí an oíche a fuair do bhean bás. Mise an fear saolta a bhí leis na, daoine uaisle na gcnoc an oíche sin. Agus dá mbeadh váschóta mhuinhilleach an fhir,’ a dúirt fear Bhaile Uí bhFiacháin, ‘ caite trasna ar chosa na mná an oíche sin, bhí an bhean sin beo ó shin,’ a dúirt sé. ‘Ach thug an tslua sí leofa í.’
Shin é anois an méid a mhoithigh mise. Sin scéala fíor.
An Abducted Woman
Long ago there was a woman in labour over in Graunny and she was very sick. There were no doctors then, only midwives, do you see. The midwife was there — this was an old woman, of course, who was a dab hand at the work. But they were doing no good.
The husband was sitting there on the hob and the woman in the bed was dying — nothing could bedone for her. And she did die.
About a month later, or maybe six weeks, the man who had been sitting on the hob was at a horse fair in Newwport — he had a horse for sale. And right in the middle of the market street, this man walked up to him and shook hands with him.
‘Well, I don’t know you,’ said the Graunny man, ‘though you are shaking hands with me.’
‘Well,I know you,’ said the Newport man. ‘You were sitting in the corner below in Graunny the night your wife died. I was th human man that the noble people of the hills had with them that night. And if the husband’s sleeved waistcoat,’ said the Newport man, ‘had been thrown over the wife’ legs that night that woman would still be alive,’ said he. ‘But the fairy host took her with them.’
That’s all I heard. That’ s true information. (Literally: ‘That story [is] true.’ An P)
Notes by Séamas Ó Catháin (Abridged):
Greanní is a sub-division of the townland of Corraunboy
Original disyllables frequenty retain the old ending, thus in ’Ach bhí fear istigh ann ina shuí’ the ’shuí’ would be ’si:jə’.
Waning vowels, of which there are a good many examples in these texts, are a feature of Seán’s Mayo dialect: ...’ní raibh aon mhaith le déanamh daoithi.’ [Daoithi is dóibh in standard Irish. (The verb 'déan plus the prep 'do' means provide for or render for; in this case, they couldn't render the poor woman any help for her desperate condition. An P)]
’Beithíoch mean ’a horse’ in this dialect wherea ’capall’ and ’láir’ are both used for mare
[The old word for hose was 'each' and closely related to the Latin 'equs'; it's not used too much in modern Irish except in 'fossilized' phrases although it is still used as the common word in Scottish Gaelic; 'capall' is the usual modern Irish for horse; maybe it is related to 'cavalry'? An P]
Women in childbirth were a favourite target for abudction by the fairies. The husband’s waistcoat thrown on the bed was generally believed to guarantee an easy and safe deliver.
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