Transcript

Na bhí[1] mise i mo ghiorsach cha rabh a'n ndadaí[2] agam ach Gaeilic. Agus m'athair agus mo mháthair, char labhair siad a'n ndadaí ach Gaeilic. Agus chuir siad 'na[3] scoile mé na bhí mé cúig bhliana. Agus bhí na scoláirí uilig ag gáirí orm agus ag magadh[4] orm. Cha rabh a'n ndadaí agam ach Gaeilic. Agus thúsaigh mé ansin agus foghlaim[5] mé Béarla.

Agus bhí lá amáin[6] agus (shílfinn) nach rachainn 'na scoile ar chor ar bith. Agus chuaigh mé isteach sa phlantáil agus shuigh mé ansin go tráthnóna, go rabh na páistí eile ag go-... Tháini' mé amach ar an bhealach mhór na bhí na páistí eile ag goil 'na bhaile. Agus shiúil mé leofa go rabh mé i bhfogas don bhaile agus bhí m'athair, bhí sé ag baint phreátaí ag an bhealach[7] mhór. Agus d'inis siad dó nach dteachaigh[8] mé 'na scoile ar chor ar bith. Agus char úirt[9] sé a'n ndadaí an t-am sin go dtáinig sé isteach. Agus na tháinig sé isteach tráthnóna chuaigh sé amach agus ghearr sé slat agus tháinig sé isteach ansin agus ghearr sé mo... mo loirgneacha agus mo chosa leis an tslat agus bhí an fuil ag goil síos mo loirgneacha.

Agus chuir mo mháthair mé a luí. Chuir sí mé a luí agus chuaigh mé... I lár na hoíche thúsaigh mé ag brionglódaigh. Agus bhí mé ag caoiní-... ag caoineadh, agus bhí mé ag caoineadh i rith na hoíche (go bhfios domh). Agus d'éirigh siad ansin agus si-... chuir siad an t-uisce coisreactha orm agus chuir siad a luí aríst mé. Agus char mhoithigh mé a'n ndadaí nas[10] mó go dtí maidin. (Sin an rud a tharla domh. Níl a fhios agam) a'n ndadaí nas mó fá dtaobh de.

Translation

When I was a girl I spoke nothing but Irish. And my father and my mother spoke nothing but Irish. And they sent me to school when I was five years old. And all the pupils laughed at me and made fun of me. I spoke nothing but Irish. And then I started [school] and I learned English.

And there was one day I thought that I wouldn't go to school at all. And I went into the field and I sat there until evening, until the other children were go-... I came out onto the road when the other children were going home. And I walked with them until I was near home. My father was digging potatoes beside the road. They told him that I hadn't gone to school at all. And he didn't say anything at that time, [but waited] until he came in. And when he came in in the evening he went out and he cut a stick. And he came in then and he cut my shins and my legs with the stick and the blood ran down my shins.

And my mother put me to bed. She put me to bed. In the middle of the night I started dreaming. And I was crying. And I was crying all night I think(?). And then they got up and they put holy water on me and they put me to bed again. And I didn't feel anything else until morning. That's what happened me (?). I don't know anything else about it.

Footnotes

Commentary

This unfortunate tale appears to be a chronicate, or personal story recited from the author's experience. It does not seem to contain any major folkloric motifs. It relates to the author being persecuted for her lack of English, and the motivation for recalling such a tale is likely to have been the linguistic interest in the Irish language on the part of the organisers of the recording scheme.

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, 294, and in Róise Ní Bhaoill, Ulster Gaelic voices: bailiúchán Doegen 1931 (Belfast, 2010), 220-2.