Transcript

Do bhí buachaill agus cailín ag feirmeoir i mBarr Iarthach na nae-... na Mangartan in aimsir ar feadh chúig mblian. Do phósadar ansan. Nuair a fuair sé go rabhadar pósta do chomhairigh sé a dtuarastal chútha agus dúirt sé ná coinneodh sé féinig níosa shia iad. Agus d'iompaigh sé amach iad.

Do fuaireadar cró gabhar a bhí ag duine dos na comharsanaibh agus do shocraíodar é. D'fhanadar ansan i dteannta a chéile agus i gcionn bliana do saolaíodh mac dóibh. Bhí sé ag obair ansan i measc na gcomharsan ar feadh bliana eile. Agus dúirt sé lena mhnaoi go raibh a sparán ag dul i laghad agus go raghadh sé i measc na bhfeirmeoirithe go contae Luimnigh mar go rabhadar saibhir ann. D'aontaigh sí leis.

Ar maidin amáireach do thiomáin sé leis agus níor stad sé go bhfuair sé isteach go contae Luimnigh. Chuaigh sé ansan isteach go tigh feirmeora agus d'iarr sé lóistín na hoíche agus dúirt bean an fheirmeora leis go bhfaigheadh. Do tháinig an feirmeoir isteach agus d'fháilthigh sé roimis. D'fhiafraigh sé dhe cé acu buachaill é do bhí ag cuardach máistir nó máistir do bhí ag cuardach buachalla. Dúirt sé leis an bhfeirmeoir gur buachaill é do bhí ag cuardach máistir.

"D'oirfeadh do leithéid 'om," ar seisean. "Cad air go bhfanfá im theannta," ar sin, "ar feadh bliana?" ar seisean.

"Deich bpúint fhichead," ar seisean.

"Tá sé sin ró-mhór," arsa an feirmeoir, ar seisean. "Tabharfaidh mé fiche púnt duit," ar seisean.

"Ní dhéanfadh sé an gnó," arsa an buachaill.

"Tabharfaidh mé chúig phúint fhichead duit," ar seisean.

"Táim sásta," arsa an buachaill, ar seisean.

Ar maidin amáireach d'éirigh sé ar a sé a chlog agus do bhí an feirmeoir ina shuí roimis. D'itheadar an bricfeast agus d'ardaigh an feirmeoir péire capall leis amach insa pháirc. Agus dúirt sé leis an mbuachaill dul ag treabhadh. D'imigh sé féin i bhfeighil a ghnóthan agus d'fhág sé a bhuachaill ag treabhadh. Tháini' sé im thráthnóna agus do chonaic sé obair an bhuachalla agus do bhí sé sásta go leor. Agus dúirt sé leis go raibh sé in am staid agus nár theastaigh uaidh bheith ag obair ' rith na hoíche i dteannta an lae. Ansan do thánadar abhaile agus do bhí a suipéar acu.

Translation

A farmer in Baurearagh in the Mangerton Mountains kept a boy and a girl as servants for five years. Then they got married. When he found that they were married he paid out their wages and he said he wouldn't keep them any longer. And he turned them out.

They found a goat shed belonging to one of the neighbours and they fixed it up. They stayed there together and after a year a son was born to them. He was working there with the neighbours for another year. And he told his wife his purse was dwindling and that he would go with the farmers to county Limerick because people were rich there. She consented.

The following morning he set off and he didn't stop until he got to county Limerick. Then he went into a farmer's house and he asked for shelter for the night and the farmer's wife told him he would get it. The farmer came in and he welcomed him. He asked him whether he was a servant boy who was looking for a master or a master looking for a servant boy. He told the farmer he was a servant boy looking for a master.

"I could do with someone of your kind," he said. "How much for you to stay with me," he said, "for a year?" he said.

"Thirty pounds," he said.

"That's too much," said the farmer, he said. "I will give you twenty pounds," he said.

"That won't do," said the boy.

"I will give you twenty-five pounds," he said.

"I'm satisfied," said the boy, he said.

The following morning he woke at six o'clock and the farmer was up before him. They ate breakfast and the farmer brought a pair of horses out to the field with him. And he told the boy to go ploughing. He himself went to look after his business and he left the boy ploughing. He came in the evening and saw the boy's work and he was happy enough. And he told him it was time to stop and that he didn't want to work during the night as well as during the day. And then they came home and they had their supper.

Commentary

There are many narratives in international folktales that revolve around a servant or farmhand taking up service for a period of time, but most contain some kind of motif, action or anecdote as part of the story. For example, stories classified under ATU 1000-1029 Labour contract concern arrangements, bargains or deals between a master and farmhand concerning a period of service. See Hans Jorg Uther, The types of international folktales: a classification and bibliography (3 vols, Helsinki, 2004). The current example, together with part 2, may be generally based on such a tale, but it does not seem to have any particular events of consequence as part of the plot. It simply gives the account of a young man who takes up service, earns money, and returns home to his wife after his contract has expired. This was the reality for some Irish people at the time of the telling of this tale, and migrant farm workers or servants would have formed an important part of the economy. See Cormac Ó Gráda, 'Seasonal migration and post-famine adjustment in the west of Ireland', Studia Hibernica 13 (1973), 48-76.