This incident of the Lost Goat actually happened …
sadly all the people concerned have passed on ….
It was in around the Carnegat area in the year of ’54 the word had got around that Mick Daley had lost his goat…
Hugh Magee from Martin’s Lane said that he would join the hunt as he knew the country – every inch of it around the Carnegat area.
Wee Ned Mullan from the Old Cross Roads also joined the chase saying that there was not a beast of hoof and hair that eludes himself.
Band Master Tommy Mulligan on his way to teach a band said the band will have to wait till we find Mick Daley’s goat.
Now this great band of hunters walk up the Camlough Mountains through all the fields and lanes – down through the Red Bridge area – and back home again.
Alas, that goat was never found though more searches did occur.
…
Now they say, around the Carnegat area, on dark and wintry nights close to the midnight hour, can be heard a bleating sound as the crack of hoof on road makes one’s blood run cold …
This phantom creature has eyes as red as fire coals and its breath blows forth like steam …
The demon beast bleats an eerie sound as it seems to leave the ground and rises, up towards the clouds where it goes on its celestial way.
Now if you ask some old timers who have trice seen this beast in flight, they will swear on a stack of Bibles that this animus animal is none other than Mick Daley’s goat…..
…
And still, of a winter’s night, they say
When the wind is in the trees,
When the moon is a ghostly galleon
Tossed upon cloudy seas
When the road is a ribbon of moonlight
Over the purple moor …