An Fear agus an Rón /
The Man and the Seal
The Man and the Seal
Informant: Brighid Ní Dhocharraigh
Age: 70
Address: Ros Dumhach, Iorras, Co. Mayo
Collector: Pádruig Ó Loinnigh, National Folklore Collection, UCD
Date of Recording: 06/09/1939
Reference:
NFC 665: 472-3
[Image courtesy of the Irish Seal Sanctuary]
An Fear agus an Rón
Bhí fear i Léana an Mhianaigh tuairim céad blianaibh ó shin a dtugtaí Diarmuid Ó Cabhrail air. Iascaire a bhí ann is bhíodh sé féin agus a bheirt mhac go síoraí ag iascaireacht. Lá amháin anseo, mharaigh Diarmuid rón i bPort Durlainne is thug sé leis ar a dhroim é anoir bealach éagóir trí bhogach Mhuing na Bó. Nuair a shroich sé an tígh leis, bhí seanbhean roimhe a dtugtaí Sighle Ní Chónghaill uirthi. Dúirt sí le Diarmuid go raibh drochsaothar déanta aige a dhul ag iompar rón anoir trí bhogach Mhuing na Bó.
“Tuige?” ar seisean. “Ar ndóigh, ní dochar.”
“Ó,” ar sise, “ní mar chuala tú go raibh sé sa targaireacht go dtabharfadh fear rón glas anoir trí bhogach Mhuing na Bó agus nach gcómhlíonfadh sé an bhliain.”
Níor chuir Diarmuid mórán suime ina cuid cainte. Ach trí mhí ón lá san bhí sé féin agus a bheirt mhac, Tomás agus Seán, ag dul siar an mhá lena gcurrach nuair a tiompaíodh í ag béal an Bharra sa tríú turn is baneadh [bánadh] an triúr acu. Tháinig caint na seanmhná isteach fíor.
The Man and the Seal
There was a man in Léana an Mhianaigh about a hundred years ago, they called him Diarmuid Ó Cabhrail. He was a fisherman and he and his two sons would always be fishing. One day, Diarmuid killed a seal in Porturlan and took it on his back on the wrong route through the marshy land of Muingnabo. When he reached the house with it, an old woman named Sighle Ní Cónghaill was there before him. She told Diarmuid that he had done a bad deed when he carried the seal back through the Muingnabo bog.
“Why?” he asked. “Sure there’s no harm in it.”
“Oh,” she said, “you’ve never heard that it has been foretold that a man would take a grey seal through the Muingnabo bog and that he wouldn’t last the year.”
Diarmuid didn’t pay much heed to what she said. But three months later, himself and his sons, Tomás and Sean, were going over the plain with their currach when it was turned at the mouth of the Bar on the third turn and the three of them were swept away. What the old woman had said came true.