Iompaíonn an Rón ina Bhean /
The Seal Changes into a Woman
The Seal Changes into a Woman
Informant: Unknown
Age:
Address: Annagh More, Co. Mayo
Collector: Mártain Ó Braonáin, as part of The Schools’ Collection, National Folklore Collection, UCD
Date of Recording: 1937/38
Reference:
The Dowd stones, Scurmore, Enniscrone, Co. Sligo in 1995 [Bairbre Ní Fhloinn, National Folklore Collection, UCD]
Iompaíonn an Rón ina Bhean
Is i mBéarla atá an buntéacs.
The Seal Changes into a Woman
One time a man named O’ Dowd was out near the sea and caught a seal. He took off the thing for swimming and the seal was a woman. The two got married and they had three in their family. One fair day when the father was gone the mother asked the children did they see anything at their father. One of them had seen him putting it in a stack of oats. She went out and tumbled the stack and got the thing for swimming. She went away and the children followed her and she changed them into three stones on the shore. She said that when them stones would disappear, Ireland would be free. She said too that the O’ Dowds were never to have luck until the seal would come in at Cnoc na Cach. When she went out she got sorry and she sent in the seal and he was just going to cross when a man came on him and killed him and the O’ Dowds never had luck. This all happened in Co. Sligo.