Transcript

Bhuel, bhí beirt buachaill ag ól astoigh i dtoigh óstas insa mBlaic, baile beag atá le mo thaobhsa agus d'ól siad go raibh siad ar bogmheisce. Agus chuaigh siad amach chun an bhóthair. Agus nuair a tháinig siad amach chuig bearnaidh an chustaim, arsa duine dho na buachaillí leis an duine eile, "Ara, a chladhaire," ar seisean, "níl aon aonach inniu," ar seisean, "ach dhá mbeadh sealbhán caoirigh agam inniu chuir-... gheofainn amach iad gan custam," ar seisean.

"Thug tú d'éitheach," arsa an buachaill eile. "Ní ligfinnse dhuid a (gcuir) amach."

"Thug tusa d'éitheach! Cuirfidh mé amach (de d'ainneoin) iad," ar seisean.

"Amach libh!" arsa... arsa an buachaill.

"Isteach libh!" arsa an buachaill eile.

Bhí siad ag troid fá na caoirigh agus gan aon chaoirigh ná aon (aonach) ar bith.

Agus tháinig fear chucu agus ar seisean, "Goidé seo atá sibh[1] a dhéanamh anseo (ag) troid agus ag bruíon? Níl ciall ar bith in mur scéal," ar seisean.

"Fágaigí ar ráit[2] an chéad fhear a gheofas sibh suas leis socrú eadraibh[3]," ar seisean.

"Bhuel, dhéanfaidh[4] muid sin," arsa na buachaillí.

D'imigh leofa agus fuair siad suas le fear a raibh sac mine aige ar dhroim a bheathaigh, agus shiúil sé giota beag agus ar seisean, "Ní thig liom," ar seisean, "a shocrú eadraibh go dtigí[5] sibh giota beag eile."

Tháinig siad giota beag eile agus leag sé an sac anuas ó dhroim a bheathaigh agus leag sé ar bhalla an droichead é. Ghearr sé an sreangán ar bhéal an sac agus chraith sé an min síos ins an uisce agus bhuail sé an sac ar bhalla an droichead.

"Bhuel, an breithiúnas a bheireas mise oraibh," ar seisean, "níl unsa gcéille i gceachtar agaibh," ar seisean, "ach oirid is tá min in mo shac."

Translation

Well, there were two young men drinking in a public house in Blacklion, a little town near me and they drank until they were a little drunk. And they went out on the road. And when they came to the custom gap one of the young men said to the other, "Ah, you rogue," he said, "there's no fair today," he said, "but if I had a flock of sheep today I would put... I would get them out without (paying) customs," he said.

"You're a liar," said the other young man. "I wouldn't let you get them out."

"You are the liar! I will get them out regardless," he said.

"Out you go!" said... said the young man.

"In you go!" said the other young man.

They were quarreling about sheep and there were no sheep or fair there at all.

And a man came to them and he said, "What's this you're doing here quarreling and fighting? There's no sense to your story," said he.

"Leave it to the next man you meet to sort things out between you," he said.

"Well, we'll do that," said the young men.

They went off and caught up with a man who had a sack of meal on his horse's back, and he walked a little bit and he said, "I can't," he said, "sort things out between you until you come along another little bit."

They came along another little bit and he took the sack off his horse's back and laid it on the bridge wall. He cut the string around the mouth of the sack and he shook the meal down into the water and he placed the sack on the bridge wall.

"Well, my verdict is," he said, "both of you have as little sense," he said, "as there is meal in my sack."

Footnotes

Commentary

This is an example of an international folktale, ATU 1327 Emptying the flour sack. In international versions, a pair of fools argue, and a third empties his sack to demonstrate how little wit is in the heads of the first two. See Hans Jorg Uther, The types of international folktales: a classification and bibliography (3 vols, Helsinki, 2004). The story is not recorded at all in Seán Ó Súilleabháin and Rieder Th. Christiansen's The types of the Irish folktale (Helsinki, 1968), implying that it is a rare narrative in Ireland.

This story is transcribed in Heinrich Wagner and Colm Ó Baoill, Linguistic atlas and survey of Irish dialects (4 vols, Dublin 1958-69), vol. 4, 302-3, and in Róise Ní Bhaoill, Ulster Gaelic voices: bailiúchán Doegen 1931 (Belfast, 2010), 312-15. Cf. also Éamonn Ó Tuathail, Seanchas Ghleann Ghaibhle, supplement to Béaloideas 4:4 (1934), 17-18.