Talamh An Éisc
Collected from Bean Uí Mhaoileoin, Corca Dhuibhne, Co. Chiarraí, 1936. Preserved through the National Folklore Collection, UCD.
“Bhíodh a lán daoine ón áit seo ag dul go Talamh an Éisc ag iascach fadó. Thugaidís leathbhliain amuigh is do thagadh a bhformhór abhaile i gcomhair an gheimhridh.
Bhí buachaill de na Gaibhnigh (Conchobharaigh) ó Bhaile na nGall ann agus do bádh é ag teacht abhaile agus a raibh sa bhád ina theannta. Bhí bean ag teacht sa bhád nó san árthach is bhí Sailm na Mallacht léite uirthi. Deirtear go mbátar lán loinge go minic mar gheall ar éinne amháin. Bádh an long seo go háirithe.
Bhí Seon Hill a bhí thall leis ann, ag iascach. Bhí sé ag tathaint ar Thomás an Ghabha seo gan dul sa bhád, ach fanacht leis féin, ach níor dhein sé rud air.
Captaen báid ab ea Seon Hill is tugtaí Seon an Bhagúin leis air. Thug sé tamall i Néibhí Shasana aimsir Napolean is an Phress Gaing. Bhí tigh aige in aice Sróilín Mhórain thoir, is i nGlaise Bheag, is bhí a mhac, Seán Sheoin… D’imigh clann Sheáin Sheoin go Meiriceá fadó riamh, is bhí deirfiúr dó pósta sa Mhachaire. Tugadh sí turas ar an gCill fadó. Trí lá i ndiaidh an bháid a bádh do sheol Seon Hill is do bhuail an bád leo i mBanc Thalamh an Éisc is a béal fúithi.
“Tánn tú ansin a Thomáis,” ar seisean, “agus níor ghá dhuit é, á ndéanfá rud ormsa.”
Bhí a lán rudaí ag Tomás á thabhairt leis, seálanna síoda dá dheirfiúracha is mar sin dó. Mac don seanghabha ab ea é agus Deartháir d’Aindí, agus uncail dom mháthair. ‘Sí is mó a chloisinn ag cur síos air. Bhí cuid dá phá gan bheith faighte aige agus nach macánta an boss a bhí air, do scaoil sé abhaile an méid a bhí ag teacht chuige le fear eile.
Ní raibh éinne ón áit seo ag dul ag iascach siar ann le fada riamh le céad bliain is dócha, ó Drochshaol anuas. Bhí breac-chuimhne ag mo mháthair ar chuid éigint acu a bheith ag dul ann, ach is beag é. Ón nDaingean is mó bhídís ag dul ann agus bhíodh fodhuine thall is abhus ag tabhairt turais ann.”
“A lot of people from this place would be going to Newfoundland fishing long ago. They gave a half-year out and most of them would come back home for the winter.
There was a lad of the Gaibhnigh (Conchobharaigh) family, from Baile na nGall, and he was drowned coming home and all those in the boat along with him. A woman was coming in the boat, or the vessel, and the Psalm of Curses had been read upon her. They say that a full boat is often drowned because of a single person. This ship in particular was drowned.
Seon Hill was over there as well, fishing. He was urging this Tomás an Ghabha not to go into the boat and to wait for himself, but he didn’t make anything of it.
Seon Hill was a boat captain and he was called “Seon of the Bacon.” He spent a spell in the English Navy in the time of Napoleon and the Press Gang. He had a house beside Sróilín Mhórain to the west, and in Glaise Bheag, and he had a son, Seán Seoin. The children of Seán Seoin went to North America long, long ago, and his sister was married in the Prairies. She would come on trips to Cill long ago. Three days after the drowning of the boat, Seon Hill set sail and they happened upon the boat, capsized on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland.
“You are there, Tomás,” he said, “and you didn’t deserve it, you would do anything for me.”
Tomás had a lot of things he was bringing with him, silken shawls for his sisters and the like of it. The son of the old blacksmith he was and the brother of Aindí, and the uncle of my mother. It’s often I heard him described. There was a part of his pay that he hadn’t received and isn’t it the honest boss he had, he sent home the amount that was coming to him with another man.
No one from this place was going west fishing for a very long time, for a hundred years likely, from the Great Famine on. My mother had partial memories about some of them going there, but very little. Mostly from Daingean they went and there was a person here and there that would give a trip there.”
Adapted from: “The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1352, Page 400-401” by Dúchas © National Folklore Collection, UCD is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.
