Pat Brannon was an old man who lived alone in a two-roomed cottage in the townland of Federagh. The house consisted of the kitchen and the room. Pat lived in the kitchen and never used the room. Sure he didn’t need it, didn’t he have all he required in the kitchen?
Folklore
Sold to the Divil
I heared meself of two men from this parish of Dromintee that sold themselves to the devil. Ay, there was one of them ony had to think of a thing and it happened.
He was watching Stephen McDonald’s ones putting pork for Newry market into a cart one Thursday morning. Says he to the mother standing there,
‘Wouldn’t it be a quare thing if they weren’t fit till get the pigs in the cart?’
An’ damn me if they cud: nor half the country cud lift the pigs into the cart.
Another time coming out of Newry he went into Caseys for a drink and there was a barmaid in it. Whether she said he had enough or whether he passed some remarks out of place, she said he’d get no drink. The bar was full. Says he till her,
‘For two pins, I’d leave ye standing on yer head on that counter!’
No sooner said nor done. Before the whole bar she was up on her head and who the hell was fit to get her down?
An’ when he’d be out rambling at night and neighbours would be in cracking with the mother, she’s the one would know before he arrived that he was on his way home. From a good distance away, the plates would start rattling.
‘He’s turning at the cross now’, she’d say.
Then the plates would start to hop and dance and hell knows what else.
‘He’s at Jemmy’s now!’ she’d say, for sure.
Half the kitchen would be hopping by the time he walked in the door.
Father Luke Donnellan
In the early part of the last century there was a prominent priest in
Wee Monkey of a Thing
Most of the fairies lived in underground caves [souterrains] having secret entrances in the fairy forths on the hillsides round about.
One such forth remains almost intact on McGreevy’s hill in the townland of Ballywinny [‘town of the ancient tree’] in the Cabra district. It is called Doras na Bruidhne [the palace entrance] which frankly, says it all.
Michael J : his art
The writers to whom he was most attracted at this early stage were Sean O Faolain (whom he always singled out as the best Irish short story writer), Liam O’Flaherty, Frank O’Connor, Peadar O’Donnell and Michael MacLaverty.
Michael J Murphy: influences
Although he was born in Liverpool, Michael had already, by the time he was taken home to Dromintee in 1922, been brought up in an atmosphere of storytelling.
Spirit of Spring
The mind’s eye sees it – the spirit of a spring morning – and the instinct senses it, quick as thought: a new presence which was not around the morning before, nor the night before – nor the day before.
The Fairy Thresher
Readers here will know of the respect I own for the late Ulster poet John Hewitt and also for the South Armagh folklorist Michael J Murphy.
The following poem was written by Hewitt in tribute to our ‘Last Druid’ Michael J Murphy.
It is entitled The Fairy Thresher.