Transcript

Bhí fear thíos anseo ar an Fhallaigh a (bheirtí) an Fathach Mór Ó Cléirighean air. Bhí sé comh mór láidir go dtiocfadh leis crú úr capaill a bhriseadh le láidreacht a dhá lámh. Agus ba ghnách leis... Cha rabh duine ar bith ins an áit a rabh eagla ar na daoiní beaga bhua[1] ach an Fathach Mór Ó Cléirighean. Bhí an tír sin lán acu san am. Gachan[2] (dún dá) rabh ann bhí sé líonta acu. Agus bheadh siad ag tabhairt ar shiúl páistí óga sula mbaistfí iad.

Bhí aon lá amha-... aon oíche amháin aige[3] luí na hoíche agus bhí sé ag goil thart aige toigh beag a bhí ann agus chuala sé an callán thall insa... callán beag thall insa tsráid agus d'amharc sé thart agus bhí scata acu ina sheasamh. Agus (deir) aon nduine amháin leis an duine eile, "Ná labhair, for[4] sin an Fathach Mór Ó Cléirighean agus muirfidh[5] sé uilig sinn."

Fuaigh an fathach síos go dtí an toigh agus bhí fuinneog dhóideog ar an toigh agus d'fhiafraigh sé daofa, "Bhfuil an t-oidhre sin ar an tsaol go sea? Má tá, tabhairigí libh ar shiúl é i ndáil a bhaiste, for atá scata thall anseo ag feitheamh chun é a bheith leofa. Agus cuirigí ar shiúl (...) (fhad is atá mise ar an an tsráid) nó beidh sé leofa."

Translation

There was a man down here at Fallagh called the Big Giant O'Clery. He was so big and strong that he could break a new horseshoe with the strength of his two hands. And he used to... The little people were afraid of nobody in the district but the Giant O'Clery. That place was full of them at the time. Every ringfort there was full of them. And they used steal away young children before they were baptized.

This one day... one night at nightfall he was going by a small house that was there and he heard noise over in the... a little noise over in the street and he looked around and lots of them were standing (there). And one of them said to the other, "Don't talk, for that's the Giant O'Clery and he will kill us all."

The giant went down to the house and the house had a sod window and he asked them, "Is that heir born yet? If he is, take him quickly to be baptized, for there's a crowd over here waiting to take him away with them. And take him away (...) while I am on the street (?) or they will have him."

Footnotes

Commentary

The statement at the end of this story by the Giant Ó Cléirighean to get the newborn child baptised reflects a belief that was common in Ireland, namely that children could be abducted by the fairies. This motif is related in a general sense to a migratory legend, ML5085 The changeling. See Reider Th. Christiansen, The migratory legends (Helsinki, 1958). A more complete analysis of the story in an Irish context can be found in Séamus Mac Pilib, 'The changeling (ML5058): Irish versions of a migratory legend in their international context', Béaloideas 59 (1991), 123-31. Belief in changelings is not restricted to Ireland, and appears to be a European phenomenon. In Ireland, it was common practice for people to believe that sick children or adults were actually changelings, and the original person had been abducted by the fairies. The narrative also seems to incorporate a motif, F610 Remarkably strong man, which is of considerable antiquity and popularity in Ireland. See Stith Thompson, Motif-index of folk literature (rev. and enlarged ed., 6 vols, Bloomington, Ind., 1955-8). See also Tom Peete Cross, Motif-index of early Irish literature (Bloomington, Ind., 1952).

This story is transcribed also in Heinrich Wagner and Colm Ó Baoill, Linguistic atlas and survey of Irish dialects (4 vols, Dublin, 1958-69), vol. 4, 288-9, and in Róise Ní Bhaoill, Ulster Gaelic voices: bailiúchán Doegen 1931 (Belfast, 2010), 214-17.