Transcript

Bhí beirt fhear am amháin agus chaill siad caoirigh agus chuaigh siad síos go Gleann Fhinne dá gcuartú. Agus shiúil siad go rabh sé an tráthnóna agus tháini' ocras orthu. Chuaigh siad isteach anna[1] teach ag iarraidh bia agus d'ins[2] an bhean an toighe dófa nach rabh bia ar bith réidh aici a thiocfadh leis... a thiocfadh leofa a fháil.

"Pleoid... Dona go leor," arsa fear acu, arsa seisean, "agus (sin fonn nach rabh díol ar bith air) go bhfaigheadh sinn bás le hocras."

"Pleoid ortsa!" arsa an bhean an toighe. "(Dh)á labhairfeá an Ghaeilic ar tús báire gheofá bia go leor. Shíl sinne gur Albanaigh sibh."

Translation

One time there were two men and they lost sheep and they went down to Glenfinn looking for them. And they walked until it was evening and they became hungry. They went into a house looking for food and the woman of the house told them that she had no food ready that he... that they could have.

"Shame... it is bad enough," said one of them, said he, "and that is a wish that couldn't be paid (?) until we would die of the hunger."

"Shame on you!" said the woman of the house. "(If) you spoke Irish at the start you would get plenty of food. We thought that you were Scotsmen."

Footnotes

Commentary

This is a short anecdote where the woman of the house chastises visitors for using English when they could speak Irish, as she confused them with Protestants (lit. 'Scotsmen') and therefore refused to give them food. It may reveal some hostility to Protestants or to speakers of the English language on the part of the storyteller. It does not appear to be related to any international folk motifs.

This item is transcribed also in Heinrich Wagner and Colm Ó Baoill, Linguistic atlas and survey of Irish dialects (4 vols, Dublin, 1958-69), vol. 4, 293.