Legends and Stories of Ireland

Front matter

LEGENDS AND STORIES OF IRELAND. LEGENDS AND STORIES OF IRELAND BY SAMUEL L O y E R , & AUTHOR OF "RORY O'MORE," "HANDY ANDY," ETC, ETC. LONDON : RICHARD EDWARD KING, 88, Curtain Road, E C. LONDON . PRINTED BY RICHAKD EDWARD KINO, CURTAIN ROAD, E.C. CONTENTS. PAGE King O'Toole and Saint Kevin — A Legend of Glendalough i Lough Corrib . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 MS. from the Cabinet of Mr. . . . . . . 14 The White Trout — A Legend of Cong . . . . . . 23 The Battle of the Berrins . . . . . . . . 32 Father Roach . . . . . . . . . . 45 The Priest's Story .. .. .. .. ..50 The King and the Bishop — A Legend of Clonmacnoise . . 59 An Essay on Fools . . . . . . . . • • 73 The Devil's Mill .. .. .. .. ..80 The Gridiron . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Paddy the Piper . . . . . . . . . . 101 The Priest's Ghost .. .. .. .. ..112 New Potatoes — An Irish Melody .. .. ..117 Paddy the Sport .. .. .. .. ..125 Ballads and Ballad-Singers .. .. .. ..147 Barny O'Reirdon, the Navigator.

Chap. I. — Outward-bound.. .. .. ..169 II. — Homeward-bound .. .. .. VI CONTENTS. PAGE The Burial of the Tithe .. .. .. ..214 The White Horse of the Peppers. A Legend of the Boyne. Chap. 1. . . . . . . . . 242 II. — The Legend of the Little Weaver of Duleek Gate. A Tale of Chivalry .. ..274 III. — Conclusion of the White Horse of the Peppers 288 The Curse of Kishogue. — The Sheebeen House . . . . 297 Introduction . . . . . . 307 The Curse . . . . . . 309 The Fairy Finder .. .. .. .. .. 318 The Spanish Boar and the Irish Bull. A Zoological Puzzle 341 Little Fairly . . . . . . . . ' . . 351 Judy of Roundwood . . . . . . . . aitb stories. KING O'TOOLE AND ST. KEVIN A LEGEND OF GLENDALOUGH. " By that lake, whose gloomy shore Sky-lark never warbles o'er, Where the cliff hangs high and steep, Young Saint Kevin stole to sleep."

Moore. Who has not read of St. Kevin, celebrated as he has been by Moore in the melodies ofhis native land, with whose wild and impassioned music he has so intimately entwined his name ? Through him, in the beautiful ballad whence the epigraph of this story is quoted, the world already knows that the sky-lark, through the intervention of the saint, never startles the morning with its joyous note in the lonely valley of Glendalough. In the same ballad, the unhappy passion which the saint inspired, and the " unholy blue " eyes of Kathleen, and the melancholy fate of the heroine by the saint's being " unused to the melting mood," are also celebrated ; as well as the superstitious finale of the legend, in the spectral appearance of the love-lorn maiden : — " And her ghost was seen to glide Gently o'er the fatal tide.