Transcript

Bean a bhí i mBéal Leice. Agus bhí (...) seanfhile. Agus tháinig file as Condae Mhaigh Eo le trioblóid a chuir uirthi agus caint a bhaint aisti. Agus nuair a tháinig sé isteach bheannaigh sé. Bheannaigh sé isteach. Agus shocraigh an bhean cathaoir aige agus dúirt sí leis tóin a chuir uirthi sin. Shuigh sé síos ar an gcathaoir. Agus nuair a shuigh sé ar an gcathaoir chuir sé tóin ar an gcathaoir... ar an gcathaoir mar bhí sé (shuí)... ina shuí uirthi. D'fhiafraigh sí dhó cén t-ainm a bhí air.

"Is mise, tá m'ainm faoi mo thóin," ar seisean, "agus mo shloinne faoi mo mhuineál."

"Céad fáilte romhat," ar sise, "a Chathaoir Uí Chába."

Ina dhiaidh sin d'fhiafraigh sí dhó cá rabh sé ag goil. Dúirt sí le-... Dúirt sé léithi gur siar... gur soir a bhí a tharraingt ach gur siar a bhí sé ag goil.

"Éirigh suas," ar sise leis an gcailín, "agus cuir (píp bhia chuig) an fhear seo."

Nuair a bhí an bia caití dúirt an fear tobac (léis píosa) ar bhean an tí a bhí ansin.

"(Gur stróinse)," ar sise, "dhá cheann nó trí. Is beag an (cíos) dó sin."

"Cuirfidh mise (...)," ar seisean, "tobac (...) (gur stróinse) (...) teach ná tíobhas," arsa seisean, "nár (...) té a chuir an (cíos) sin air."

"Cuirfidh mise tobac i do phíopa," ar sise, "agus tubaiste an tí seo ortsa."

Translation

There was a woman in Beleek. And there was (...) an old poet. And a poet came from County Mayo to torment her and to get her talking. And when he came in he saluted. He came in and saluted. And the woman fixed a chair for him and she told him to put his bottom on that. He sat down on the chair. And when he sat on the chair he put his bottom on the chair... on the chair because he was sitting on it. She asked him what his name was.

"I am, my name is under my bottom," he said, "and my surname about my neck."

"A hundred welcomes to you," she says, "Cathaoir Ó Cába."

After that she asked him where he was going. She said to... He told her that is was west... that it was east he was heading but that it was west he was going.

"Get up," she said to the girl, "and give a (...) of food to this man."

When the food had been eaten the man sought tobacco after a while from the woman of the house who was there.

"(...)," she said, "two or three. That is little (...) for him."

"I will put (...)," he said, "tobacco (...) house or home," he said, "which isn't (...) one who put that rent(?) on him."

"I will put tobacco in your pipe," she said, "and the tragedy of this house on you."

Commentary

Anecdotes about poets are common in Irish oral tradition, and popular themes in these stories include riddles and word play. The current narrative is an example of this, featuring the poet and musician Cathaoir Mac Cába (c.1670-1740), a native of Mullagh in county Cavan. It is based on a supposed incident where Mac Cába first met the famed Irish harpist Turlough Carolan, and Mac Cába used an amusing pun as a poetic allusion to his own name. The word play results from his first name having the secondary meaning 'chair', and his surname having the meaning 'cape, cloak or collar'. See Desmond McCabe, 'MacCabe (Mac Cába), Cathaoir (Cahir)', in James McGuire and James Quinn (eds), Dictionary of Irish biography (9 vols, Cambridge, 2009), vol. 5, 747-8. For the meaning of Mac Cába, see Patrick Woulfe, Irish names and surnames (Dublin, 1923), 324. A few examples of this anecdote have been collected throughout the country, stretching from county Donegal to county Cork. See Gearóid Ó Murchadha, 'Eachtraí, véursaí agus paidreacha ó iarthar Chorcaighe', Béaloideas 3:2 (1931), 212-39: 220. An example from county Donegal can be found in the National Folklore Collection, NFC 1185: 624.