Transcript

Tá áitreabh i dtaobh amuigh do Mhaigh Chromtha go dtugann siad Carraig an Phúca air. Do rugadh[1] agus do beathaíodh mé a(r) Carraig an Phúca. Do bhí drochainm ar an (...) (do bhí i dtigh ar an ball) gur tógadh mé agus (an) droichead Charraig an Phúca.

Ach ar aon chuma, do bhíodh na Ciarraígh an uair sin ag taisteal ó Chiarraí go Corcaigh le him ag teacht go dtí margadh an ime. Ach ar aon chuma, do tharla go rabhadar déanach aon oíche amháin. Agus b'fhéadair go raibh seisear nó mórsheisear nó b'fhéadair níos mó acu in éineacht.

Ach an chéad fhear a tháinig go dtí ceann an droichid, do chonaic sé rud éigin ar an ndroichead, ar lár an droichid. Agus toisc an drochainmne... an drochainme a bheith ar an mball do stop sé a chapall agus do stadadar go léir. Do bhí an... an... rud ann. Ach ar aon chuma, do chaitheadar staonadh agus do chuireadar le chéile fanúint ann go dtí go dtiocfadh breacadh an lae.

B'é toil Dé go dtáinig breacadh an lae ar aon chuma. Ach cad a bheadh ar lár an droichid is do choinnibh ann iad feadh na haimsire ná asal Dhiarmaid Jack, fear do bhíodh ag hucstaeireacht ann agus (ag) teacht go Corcaigh go minic, chomh minic agus ab fhéadair leis. Ach ar aon chuma, b'in é an sprid a bhí á fheiscint i gCarraig an Phúca, mar dhea, ach an t-asal dubh Dhiarmaid Jack.

Translation

There is a place outside Macroom they call Carrigaphooca. I was born and reared in Carrigaphooca. The (...) that was in a house in the place (?) where I was reared, and the bridge of Carrigaphooca, had a bad name.

But anyway, the Kerry people used to travel at that time from Kerry to Cork with butter to go to the butter market. And anyway, they happened to be late one night. And there were maybe six or seven or maybe more of them together.

But the first man who came to the foot of the bridge, he saw something on the bridge, in the middle of the bridge. And because of the bad name, because the place had a bad name he stopped his horse and they all stopped. There was something there. But anyway, they had to stop and they decided to wait there until daybreak came.

As God willed it daybreak came anyway. And what was it that was in the middle of the bridge and that had kept them there all that time but Diarmaid Jack's donkey, a man who used to peddle wares there and come to Cork often, as often as he could. But anyway, that was the so-called spirit that was seen in Carrigaphooca. It was only Diarmaid Jack's black donkey.

Footnotes

Commentary

This humorous story is related to a series of international folktales about fools or numbskulls, identified as ATU 1318, Objects thought to be ghosts in Hans Jorg Uther, The types of international folktales: a classification and bibliography (3 vols, Helsinki, 2004). It contains the motif J1785, Animals thought to be devils or ghosts, in Stith Thompson, Motif-index of folk literature (rev. and enlarged ed., 6 vols, Bloomington, Ind., 1955-8). It is a relatively popular tale in Ireland, with examples from all four provinces. See Seán Ó Súilleabháin and Rieder Th. Christiansen The types of the Irish folktale (Helsinki, 1968). It is related to another, extremely popular folktale type in Ireland, identified as ATU1321, Fools frightened.

It is worth mentioning that the placename identified in the story is Carrigaphooca, named after a fifteenth-century castle near Macroom in county Cork. See Denis Power, Archaeological inventory of county Cork (5 vols, Dublin, 1992-2007), vol. 3 (Mid Cork), 361. The name means 'the Rock of the Púca', the Púca being a type of spirit or ghost in Irish tradition. The narrator mentions that the place had a drochainm or 'bad name', and such supernatural associations may be presented as a reason for the trepidation of the Kerrymen in the story. For more on the Púca see Deasún Breathnach, 'The Púca: A multi-functional Irish supernatural entity', Folklore 104 (1993), 105-10.