Image: duchas.ie
Duchas.ie is a project that digitises the National Folklore Collection of Ireland. While browsing the site for my home town of Glounthaune in Cork, I came across some fantastic stories and tales from 1938 captured in the Schools collection. One particular story was about a drunk man who used to return home from the pub on his donkey and cart once a week. On one particular occassion, the man fell asleep mid-trip and the donkey brought him back to his house. Some local boys found him and decided to play a prank on the man.
They untied the donkey and took the wheels off the cart without waking the man. They brought the donkey, wheels, cart and man into his house and reassembled everything. They locked the door and left through the window. Hours later when the man awoke, he could not figure out how he got into the house with his donkey and cart. He concluded that it was the work of evil spirits and never drank again! I encourage you to search the site for other stories, riddles and myths passed onto us from the school children of Ireland almost 100 years ago.
