DOI: 10.7925/drs1.duchas_4922063
title: Coill Beithne (C.), Baile Mhistéala

description: A collection of folklore and local history stories from Coill Beithne (C.), Baile Mhistéala (school) (Kilbeheny, Co. Limerick), collected as part of the Schools' Folklore Scheme, 1937-1938.
description: List of Irish Words That Have Been Adopted into English Speech in Kilbehenry -- Sites of Historic Interest in the Locality -- Ancient Roads -- Local Industries That Have Disappeared -- Hedge-Schools -- Agricultural and Industrial Implements and Household Utensils No Longer Used -- Ruling Irish Family in the District Before the Establishment of English Power -- Local Estate -- Faction Fights -- Folk Cures and Charms -- Legends Connected with Local Monuments -- Existence of a Rare Valuable Rock -- One morning in April in the year 1922 I was going to my work in Mitchelstown. / Connor, Paul O -- About 40 years ago my grandfather and another man had a contract taken of making drains in the Galtee Mountains. / Connor, Paul O -- There was a man coming from Mitchelstown one night about eleven oclock with a load of timber. / Sullivan, Eily O -- Once upon a time there lived a man and a woman. They had no family so they had to work very hard. / Noonan, Margaret -- There was a man working in a house in this parish. He was sleeping in a settle in the kitchen. / Fitzgerald, Peg -- There was in Kinbehenny a man who went for a long journey by train. / Fitzgerald, Peg -- Without title / Coshe, Josie -- There were once a showmaker and his wife. They went to bed one night. / Brien, Mary Kate O' -- This story which I am going to write about truly happened. / Connor, Maura O -- Long ago a man was alseep in bed. He heard someone calling at the window, he got up and went over to it. / Donnell, Margaret O' -- In our farm there is a lios. Long ago it was a graveyard. / Stanton, Bridie -- There is a lios near our house it is said to be haunted. The fairies are out around the lios every night. / Kiely, Hannah -- Not very far from home is a lios. In the olden times it was said that it was haunted. / Dwyer, Bridget O -- This is a true story that happened near here. A man was dying and he was leaving his wife and children after him. / Connor, Maura O -- Long ago a man was coming home with a load of oats. As soon as he was at the hollow... / Brien, Kate O -- One Sunday evening there were devotions in a church at half past seven. / Noonan, Margaret -- Near the village of Kilbehenny was a man dying so his brother went on horse back for the priest. / Sullivan, Eily O -- There is a burial ground at the back of Kilbehenny. One night a man was there on the way up to it and he saw... / Sullivan, Eily O -- Story of a Wolf / Walshe, Maura -- This story proves that there were wolves at the other end of the parish too. / Walshe, Maura -- Once upon a time there were two brothers and they used to go away cardplaying and one of them was jolly... / Walshe, Maggie -- Once upon a time there was a house near Shrove and a man and his wife and children lived in it. / Ahern, Maggie -- There was a man on his way to the town one day As he was passing the fort fairies danced round him. / Brien, Mary Kate O' -- There is situated near our house a glen which is said to be terribly haunted. / Birrane, Maura -- There was a certain man going along the road one night about twelve oclock. / Brien, Bridie O -- One day a man was working very hard so he went to bed early that night as he was very tired. / Noonan, Margaret -- A man and his wife lived middling happy together. It was November Night and the wife went lighting the candles... / Noonan, Margaret -- The ruins of the White Knight's castle are situated in our farm. / Noonan, Mary -- One day a man was standing in his yard near his house, when he saw seven wild geese flying towards him overhead. / Noonan, Mary -- One night at about twelve oclock a smith was in bed when he heard a knock at the door. / English, Biddy -- Long ago there was a church in Teampall-Mologa which is about four miles north west of Kilbehenny. / Myers, Maggie -- Long ago there was a man very fond of stealing timber. The night the Forester was waking the man said... / Myers, Maggie -- Some time ago a man was returning home at about ten o'clock one night when at a little distance from home... / Dwyer, Bridget O -- Once there was a man who was a great huntsman and sportsman. / Spillane, Rita -- In this neighbourhood a meitheal was once engaged digging potatoes. A number of girls did the picking. -- In the same district two men went rabbit hunting. A harvest moon was shining very brightly. -- When I was a small child I heard it as a true story. -- Two men on a Sunday evening went hunting on the mountain side. -- I heard this story as being perfectly true. A widow and her son were going to a pig market selling pigs. -- This is a true story that happened down in Ballinatona. A man was going home and it was late so he said... / Walshe, Maggie -- About twenty years ago two boys were coming home after being cardplaying. / Walshe, Maggie -- Our Lady's Well in Kilbehenny / English, Biddy -- Once upon a time there was a little boy who lived in County Limerick. / Flynn, Margaret -- A man and his wife lived there long ago. They were very poor. / English, Biddy -- About 10 o'c at night a certain man & his wife went out to see their cows in the stall as was their nightly custom. -- A neighbour was going home from the village of Kilbehenny to Shrove about 9'00 one night. -- A man called O'Brien was going home from a scoruidheacht in a neighbour's house. -- A man called Tom Shea from Carrigeen, Kilbchanny got married to a local girl + they made their home in Glanworth... -- The house - Usually there were only two rooms but some had three - two and the kitchen - all one storeyed. -- Farming -- Pedlars -- Hedge-School -- Both priests lived together then in this parish. Musicians were plentiful. -- Wakes -- Plants -- Two local men from Kilbehenny went to Longhanna poaching for rabbits. -- A certain farmer had a black donkey that had a habit of opening the stable door and walking in there. -- Two boys were hunting on a May morning in Cooleregan. They were out for some time but could rise no hare. -- This is another May eve story but I haven't any details of where it happened. -- Flax -- Marriage -- Fortunes -- Graves -- Nature -- Games -- The farmers often nursed + reared eagles for the landlord. -- Rents were very high. Any man having a good farm had his rent raised and for any improvements made by him... -- The Buffer Quirke was a famous gambler living in a place called Cathair gheal... -- A woman called Burke did the dairying for a farmer near Ballysheehan. -- Jacky the Lantern -- Béal Beag was a cnocán between Carrigeen + Knocknagalty. -- Tailors and Shoemakers -- Brat Bríde -- St Brigid's Crosses -- I was returning from a neighbour's house at midnight one night + when going up the boreen leading to my own house... -- Another night I was on the same boreen and heard what I thought was a lot of donkeys galloping... -- Headless Coach -- As a tailor I worked in the houses for the people... -- The present school house was a church in the olden times and it is thought by some, even to the present day... -- A man lived near a lios not far from Kilbehenny. One night a poor man called to him for a night's lodging... -- In 1840 the Protestant minister of Mitchelstown made an attempt to build a Prot. church in the present Catholic burial ground... -- A family names O Neill lived in Knockrour in Kilbehenny. The mother was paralysed and had been some years in the bed. -- Two men opened a grave in Kilbehenny at midnight seemingly to cure the daughter of one of them who was seriously... -- Two Kilbehenny men, Seán Owen and Dan Foley heard that "all who were to die within the year would have to visit... -- There was a pathway through the graveyard making a shortcut to Furrow. -- Where the Parish Proest of Kilbehenny now lives there lived about 140 years ago a gentleman by the name of Hayes. -- A poor man in Carhue could make no butter and it was supposed that a neighbour had made 'pishogues' for him. -- A man of this locality had an outside farm and had a dairy-woman employed there. -- One morning a man was on his way to a fair. As he was crossing a certain bridge in this locality... -- A Glenduff man was going to friends in Galbally to a christening on Xmas Day. -- Last night a young man a neighbour of mine called to my house. In the course of conversation the young fellow... -- The White Knight had a residence in Dungrud as well as in Kilbehenny. -- When the Castle here was inhabited all the surrounding country even as far as Ballyporeen was under the sway of the owner. -- This is a true story which happened a woman and a young child. / Lewis, Mary -- This is a true story about a man who lived in Kiltankin (in a settle bed) One night he was sleeping... / Lewis, Mary -- There was a lios near a river and every inch of it was full of trees. / Connor, Paul O -- A man who lived near here was going in the yard to his house he saw through the window a fine blazing fire. / Walshe, Maura -- This is a true story. There was one time a woman who got very ill and died after giving birth to a baby. / Mahony, Mary -- Once upon a time there lived a woman. And she lit the candles for the dead. / Noonan, Mary -- Some time ago my Grandfather was going to the fair in Chair. / Fitzgerald, Peg -- A man lived near Ballyporeen who had a great courage at night. He was often out late as he said that nothing would frighten him. / Fitzgerald, Peg -- A man was out at a neighbour's house one night. He was delayed too long and it was 12 oclock when he left. / Fitzgerald, Peg -- A long time age there was a woman living by herself and she used to iron shirts for a Priest. / Birrane, Maura -- There was once a man who had a hump on his back. / Spillane, Rita -- Lord Roche was a nobleman who lived at Old Castletown near Kildorrery at the time that the White Knight lived here. -- About 90 years ago there lived in Brackbawn a sloicitor named Fitzgibbon. -- There is a stone in Temple Hill (near here) which it is said was raised up by the Pagans of old before... -- The priests of their parish lived near Balladerrig in the olden times. -- Two men were ploughing in a field adjoining Lisagrane which is just across the river. -- A tailor was making clothes in a certain house. There was a baby in their house and day and night he never stopped crying. -- One evening a young girl of this locality took a walk down towards the river... -- About 20 years ago two men of this place were sitting outside in a field of a summer evening smoking and talking. -- In the olden times the ruling family here was OBrien and Beithne OBrien after whom Kilbehenny (Coillbeithne)... -- In the olden times there was a little chapel at the back of the old Castle the remains of which can be seen at present. -- Two young men went for the priest one night for a young girl of Carhue who was dying. -- A man from their locality went every night some time ago to a neighbour's house. -- Kitty McGrath or Kitty Katie as she was locally called was one of the Hedge-school teachers mentioned...
description: Supported by funding from the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (Ireland), University College Dublin, and the National Folklore Foundation (Fondúireacht Bhéaloideas Éireann), 2014-2016.