Transcript

Mé in aimsir. Bhíos in aimsir is mé ag éirí suas. (Maireatánacht) ag Pailitíneach. Agus do chailleadh é i gcionn bliana. Agus bhí casóg mhór bhréid aige agus do bhí sí ag crochadh anuas. D'fhág sé ina dhiaidh insa tigh í.

Agus bhíos ann ar feadh dó nó trí bhliana ina dhiaidh san agus bhí an chasóg ann i gcónaí. Agus lá seaca tháinig sioc mór agus chuireas umam a chasóg agus do bhíos déanach amuigh istoíche agus d'fhágas umam a chasóg go dtí go dtána abhaile. Agus nuair a bhíos ag dul a chodladh bhaineas díom a chasóg agus do chaitheas ar na clárachaibh sa rúm í. Agus chuas a chodladh. Agus in achomaireacht tréis dom a dhul a chodladh chuala an scríobadh agus an réabadh mar a bheifeá... mar a bheadh bó Uí Laoghaire timpeall na casóige. Agus do chuireas mo lámha amach fén éadach agus do thógas meaits as póca mo veist a bhí ar an bhfuinneoig. Agus do lasas é agus d'éiríos agus n'fheaca aon ní. Bhí an chasóg ar an láthair gcéanna agus do mhúchas agus chuas a chodladh arís. Agus nuair a chuas a chodladh arís do thosnaigh sé ar bheith ag scríobadh timpeall na casóige arís. Agus do lasas an tarna huair agus ní fheicfinn aon ní... n'fheaca aon ruainne. Mhúchas an solas agus bhí sé timpeall na casóige ar feadh i bhfad ina dhiaidh. Thit mo chodladh orm is ar maidin nuair a dhúisíos ní raibh tuairisc ar an gcasóig le fáil is n'fheaca ó shin í.

Translation

When I was in service: I was in service when I was growing up. Living (?) with a Palatine. And he died after a year. And he had a big cloth coat and it was hanging down. He left it behind in the house.

And I was there for two or three years after that and the coat was still there. And on a frosty day a big frost came and I put the coat on me and I was out late at night and I left the coat on until I came home. And when I was going to sleep I took off the coat and threw it on the floorboards in the room. And I went to sleep. And shortly after I went to sleep I heard this scraping and ripping as if you... as if O'Leary's cow was about the coat. And I put my hand out from under the clothes and I took a match from the pocket of my vest which was on the window. And I lit it and I rose up and I didn't see anything. The coat was in the same place and I extinguished [the match] and went to sleep again. And when I went to sleep again it started scraping around the coat again. And I lit [a match] for a second time and I couldn't see anything... I didn't see a thing. I put out the light and it was around the coat for a long time after. I fell asleep and when I awoke in the morning there was no sign of the coat and I haven't seen it since.

Commentary

This is an example of a memorate, a story told from personal experience about a supernatural event. These stories can be formed by people experiencing a given situation, and interpreting it in accordance with certain beliefs, or with traditional narrative forms that are popular in their culture. See Juha Pentikainen, 'Belief, memorate, and legend', Folklore Forum 6 (1973), 217-41. The above story may be related to traditional ideas about the clothing of a dead person. It was required that a dead person's clothing be worn or brought to mass for three Sundays in a row after their death, or else anyone who wore them would come to woe. The fact that the former owner of the clothing was a Palatine, and therefore a Protestant, meant that it is unlikely that such a ritual was carried out on his clothing, hence the belief in the supernatural repercussions of wearing his coat. See Séamus Ó Duilearga, 'Meascra aniar andeas agus adtuaidh', Béaloideas 33 (1965), 163-80: 163. It may also contain the motif E236.1 Return from dead to demand clothing stolen from grave in Stith Thompson, Motif-index of folk literature (rev. and enlarged ed., 6 vols, Bloomington, Ind., 1955-8).