Irish Folk Tales (21 page)

Now as to Brigit she was born at sunrise on the first day of the spring, of a bondwoman of Connacht. And it was angels that baptized her and that gave her the name of Brigit, that is a Fiery Arrow.

She grew up to be a serving girl the same as her mother. And all the food she used was the milk of a white red-eared cow that was set apart for her by a Druid.

And everything she put her hand to used to increase, and it was she wove the first piece of cloth in Ireland, and she put the white threads in the loom that have a power of healing in them to this day. She bettered the sheep and she satisfied the birds and she fed the poor.

And when she grew to be strong and to have good courage she went to her father Dubthach’s house in Munster and stopped with him there.

And one time there came some high person to the house, and food was made ready for him and for his people; and five pieces of bacon were given to Brigit, to boil them. But there came into the house a very hungry miserable hound, and she gave him out of pity a piece of the bacon.

And when the hound was not satisfied with that she gave him another piece. Then Dubthach came and he asked Brigit were the pieces of bacon ready; and she bade him count them and he counted them, and the whole of the five pieces were there, not one of them missing. But the high guest that was there and that Brigit had thought to be asleep had seen all, and he told her father all that happened.

And he and the people that were with him did not eat that meat, for they were not worthy of it, but it was given to the poor and to the wretched.

After that Brigit went to visit her mother that was in bondage to a Druid of Connacht.

And it is the way she was at that time, at a grass-farm of the mountains having on it twelve cows, and she gathering butter.

And there was sickness on her, and Brigit cared her and took charge of the whole place.

And the churning she made, she used to divide it first into twelve parts in honor of the twelve apostles of our Lord; and the thirteenth part she would make bigger than the rest, to the honor of Christ, and that part she would give to strangers and to the poor.

And the serving boy wondered to see her doing that, but it is what she used to say: “It is in the name of Christ I feed the poor; for Christ is in the body of every poor man.”

When she was a poor girl she was minding her cow one time at the Curragh of Lifé, and she had no place to feed it but the side of the road. And a rich man that owned the land came by and saw her and he said: “How much land would it take to give grass to the cow?” “As much as my cloak would cover,” said she. “I will give that,” said the rich man.

She laid down her cloak then, and it was spreading out miles and miles on every side. But there was a silly old woman passing by and she said: “If that cloak goes on spreading, all Ireland will be free.” And with that the cloak stopped and spread no more.

And Brigit held that land through her lifetime, and it never had rent on it since, but the English Government have taken it now and have put barracks upon it. It is a pity the old woman spoke at that time. She did not know Brigit to be better than any other one.

On the day of the battle of Almhuin, Brigit was seen over the men of Leinster, and Columcille was seen over the Ua Neill; and it was the men of Leinster won that battle.

And a long time after that again, when Strongbow that had brought great trouble into Ireland and that was promised the kingdom of Leinster was near his end, he cried out from his bed that he saw Brigit of the Gael, and that it was she herself was bringing him to his death.

But if Brigit belonged to the east, it is not in the west she is forgotten, and the people of Burren and of Corcomruadh and Kinvara go every year to her blessed well that is near the sea, praying and remembering her.

And in that well there is a little fish that is seen every seven years, and whoever sees that fish is cured of every disease. And there is a woman living yet that is poor and old and that saw that blessed fish, and this is the way she tells the story:

“I had a pearl in my eye one time, and I went to Saint Brigit’s well on the cliffs. Scores of people there were in it, looking for cures, and some got them and some did not get them.

“And I went down the four steps to the well and I was looking into it, and I saw a little fish no longer than your finger coming from a stone under the water. Three spots it had on the one side and three on the other side, red spots and a little green with the red, and it was very civil coming hither to me and very pleasant wagging its tail. And it stopped and looked up at me and gave three wags of its back, and walked off again and went in under the stone.

“And I said to a woman that was near me that I saw the little fish, and she began to call out and to say there were many coming with cars and with horses for a month past and none of them saw it at all.

And she proved me, asking had it spots, and I said it had, three on the one side and three on the other side. “That is it,” she said.

And within three days I had the sight of my eye again. It was surely Saint Brigit I saw that time; who else would it be? And you would know by the look of it that it was no common fish. Very civil it was, and nice and loughy, and no one else saw it at all. Did I say more prayers than the rest? Not a prayer. I was young in those days. I suppose she took a liking to me, maybe because of my name being Brigit the same as her own.”

S
AINT COLUMCILLE

Columcille.

Well, do ye see, he was a native of Donegal.

There’s a place in Donegal they call Glencolumcille, and I think maybe that’s where he’s from.

You see,

I don’t know what’s this man’s name was, but he wrote this religious book.

(I’m just not well up on this story.)

And I think that Saint Columcille got the book for to read.

And he took a copy of the book, do ye see.

So when he was giving back the book, as far as I can remember, he wanted to keep the copy, do ye see, that he had wrote.

So the man that owned the book, he wouldn’t agree to that.

And they wrangled and wrangled and wrangled for a long time about this.

So finally the case was referred to the high king.

There was a king in this country at that time.

So the way he decided it was:

So he give judgment in favor of this man that owned the book.

So then Saint Columcille, of course, naturally enough, he was vexed.

And any man would be vexed

So anyway, he decided that he would put it to a battle,

So anyway, both men prepared for the battle.

And there was a day appointed.

And a battle took place.

And Saint Columcille’s men won the battle.

And he had to get a copy of the book.

So whenever it was
over
, he got sorry for what he done, for putting it to that fellow.

And he went to some holy
man
to get his advice on it.

And what this man told him was that he’d have to do a little penance for the loss of what life was in the battle, that he’d have to try and convert as many as was killed in this battle.

So anyway, his sentence was

So anyway, he started.

And it was in Scotland he landed.

And he wrought in Scotland till he died in preaching and converting.

All the time that ever he came back to Ireland was—and he had to come back blindfolded because the penance that was left on him was that he’d never see Ireland more and that he’d have to
leave it
.

So he came back blindfolded on an errand.

And the errand was:

There was at a
time
and there was a section of the Irish people used to go about in bands: they were the bards.

There was an instrument, there are instruments to this day yet in places in Ireland: the harp.

These ones played on harps and others sang and they went round from one town to another, and noted places like Arney and Derrylin and Enniskillen, and put in nights and amused the
people
.

So there was some kind of a law that these people were all going to be banished out of the country.

So Saint Columcille was informed about it in Scotland that that was coming to pass in Ireland.

So he came back to Ireland blindfolded.

And he made an appeal to the authorities for not to banish these because he was a lover of music and stuff like that.

So that was all the time he got back to Ireland from he had to leave it.

So he died in Scotland at a very big age.

He was a great, a great man, and wonderful for bringing people to the knowledge of God and Christianity.

And then he had his own troubles too.

C
OLUMCILLE’S COFFIN

After Colm was sentenced to exile, he sailed away from Derry for Scotland. He wasn’t even allowed to look back as he went. He came to Iona and spent his life converting pagans over there.

Colm had a lovely big white horse of which he was very fond and when Colm grew old and lay on his deathbed, the horse came into the house and over to the bed where he lay. It sniffed and nosed all around him and then went out again. Colm died that night. But before he died, he asked that his name be put on his coffin and that the coffin should be cast out into the sea. And so it was done.