Transcript

Bhí mé ag dul ' dtí aonach Chluain Meala sa mBealthaine ag díol (dorn) caoire a bhí agam. Nuair a bhí mé ag teacht abhaile im thráthnóna chuaigh mé isteach go dtí tigh ósta a bhí ar an mbóthar. Bhí fear bocht istigh romham agus é ag ól pionta leanna. Nuair a bhí an (...) óltha aige tháini' sé amach ar an mbóthar. Agus tháini' mise amach chun dul abhaile. Dh'iarr sé roinnt airgid orm chun lóistín na hoíche a cheannach. Dúirt mise leis go mba chórta dhó lóistín na hoíche a cheannach ar an airgead a bhí sé a chaitheamh sa tigh ósta.

"Ní bhaineas," arsa é sin liomsa, "an dora-... an (solas) dod dhoras riamh."

"Bhain-sa," arsa mise leis, "agus (...) an (áit) duit."

"Cad a bhí agatsa (...)?" arsa é sin liomsa.

"Bhí," arsa mise, "mo dhóthain prátaí, cabáiste geal agus bagún."

"An itheann tusa feoil?" ar sé sin liomsa.

"Dé chúis (...) an cheist sin orm?" arsa mise leis.

"Mór an seó orm," arsa é sin, "má itheann tusa feoil ná tachtfadh sé tú. Ní dóigh liom," arsa é sin, "go bhfuil prátaí ná bágún agat, ná (tigh os) do chionn."

Shin é mar a bhain dom féineach agus don bhfear bocht. Agus ní raibh sé ró-bhaoch díom nuair nár thug mé a thuilleadh airgid dó chun dul isteach go dtí an tigh ósta chun a thuilleadh leanna a dh'ól.

Translation

I was going to Clonmel Fair in May selling a few(?) sheep I had. When I was coming home in the evening I went into a public house that was on the road home. There was a poor man before me inside and he was drinking a pint of ale. When he had drunk (...) he came out onto the road. And I came out to go home. He asked me for some money to pay for lodgings for the night. I told him he ought to pay for his lodgings for the night with the money he was spending in the pub.

"I never," he said to me, "darkened your door."

"You did," I said to him, "and (...) the place to you (?)."

"What did you have (...)?" he said to me.

"I had," said I, "enough potatoes, white cabbage and bacon."

"Do you eat meat?" he said to me.

"Why do you ask(?) me that question?" I said to him.

"It amuses me," he said, "if you eat meat that it doesn't choke you. I don't think," he said, "you have potatoes or bacon, or a roof(?) over your head."

That's how it went between me and the poor man. And he wasn't very pleased with me when I didn't give him more money to go into the pub to drink more ale.

Commentary

This is a personal anecdote of the storyteller, and appears to have little folkloric content of note. It could be loosely related to the motif J1330 Repartee concerning beggars from Stith Thompson Motif-index of folk literature (rev. and enlarged ed., 6 vols, Bloomington, Ind., 1955-8).