Transcript

Fadó is mé im gharsún óg. Ó thaobh Abhainn an Scáil ab ea mo sheanamhuintir agus do bhínn ana-mhinic ina bhfochair. Bhí bád mór aige[1] fear don áit i gcomhair leasaithe agus feamnaí do ghearradh le sceana.

Agus lá dhos na laethanta agus uair dos na huaireanna d'imíodar orthu agus d'ardaíodar mé féin 'na bhfochair. Bhí carraig mór in áit taobh leo mar a rabhadar a gearradh na feamnaí. Agus do chaitheadar na maidí a bhí spártha acu agus na téadáin a bhí spártha acu agus mise in airde ar an gcarraig gurbh ainm di Carraig Dhiarmaid Gabha.

Nuair a thit an tráigh síos do bhíos ag gliúmáil mórthimpeall na cloiche. Agus chuireas mo lámha i ndaigh agus do fuaireas portán. Mar do chínn na seandaoine ag iascach shlat le cleathacha agus do chumas ar aithris a dhéanamh orthu.

Do bhí rud ceangailthe ón gcleith a bhíodh ag teanntach an bháid (ag cos na gcloch) á choiméad isteach agus á choiméad amach i bhfoirm dubháin. Agus do bhuaileas an baidhte in (...) i gcrúca. Agus an téadán ruainní (a cheangailt) as an gcrúca as san go dtí an gcleith. Agus do scaoileas síos iad agus do chuireas an chleith - bhí sí róthrom - do chuireas i scoilt chloiche í.

Translation

Long ago when I was a young boy. My older kinsfolk were from Anascaul parish and I was very often in their company. A man of that place had a big boat used for cutting fertiliser and seaweed with knives.

And one of the days and one of the hours they went off and brought myself along. Any there was a big rock in a place near them where they were cutting seaweed. And they threw the spare oars that they had and the spare ropes that they had and me up on a rock called Dermot the Smith's Rock.

When the tide fell away I was fumbling around the rock. And I put my hand in a hollow and I found a crab. Because I used to see the old people rod-fishing with poles and I started trying to copy them.

There was a hook-shaped thing tied to the pole which held the boat for them amongst the rocks holding her in and holding her out. And I put the crab onto the hook. And I tied the hair rope from the hook to the pole. And I let them down and I put the pole - it was too heavy - I put it in a crack in the rock.

Footnotes

Commentary

Although this story is presented as a chronicate, or a personal account of an actual event, it may be based on international folktale ATU 1960B, The great fish. See Hans Jorg Uther, The types of international folktales: a classification and bibliography (3 vols, Helsinki, 2004). The story itself may be based around the motif X1301, Lie: the great fish. See Stith Thompson, Motif-index of folk literature (rev. and enlarged ed., 6 vols, Bloomington, Ind., 1955-8). The implication of the likely presence of this motif is that the storyteller is deliberately lying or exaggerating details in the story, for entertainment purposes or comic effect. This does not appear to be a hugely popular story in Irish tradition, although around 35 examples were found throughout the country by Seán Ó Súilleabháin and Rieder Th. Christiansen in their study entitled The types of the Irish folktale (Helsinki, 1968). For an analysis of this type of story in an international context, see Nancy Cassell McEntire, 'Tall tales and the art of exaggeration', Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 54:1 (2009), 125-34.