Rural Legends.

_Brian wrote: »

Actually AI & "the bull man" are different.
The bull man, which are pretty much gone now, was some guy who owned a top quality bull, when you had a cow in heat you could ring him, and he would bring his bull to your farm and the cow and bull would make happy-happy and baby calves resulted..

The AI man fulfills a similar function but no bull is made happy.

Incidentally, the last "bull man" I remember here locally was gored to death by the bull, occupational hazard I suppose, something the AI man doesn't worry about I suppose.

Ai man has to get the samples though :pac:
I'd rather leave it to the bull than attempt that!

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

That's supposedly true. I looked it up there and it's attributed to a former Wicklow County Councillor named Jimmy Miley.

The name of the TV show in the 90s called "Don't feed the Gondolas" was based on that story.

whisky_galore wrote: »

Which says a lot about what's wrong with this country. Sneaking regard for the stroke-puller, despite the fact that he's robbing from all of us.

We always have had a soft spot for a rogue though, just look at the way a murderer is celebrated in The Playboy of the Western World. I think it a bit of the Viking in us, worshipping Loki (the trickster god, not Tom Hiddleston).

No-one's condoning what this thieving farmer did, just admiring his intelligence in committing his crimes.

On the badger thing; apparently years ago, men out hunting would walk with a twig down their boots. If they were attacked by a badger, it would bite their ankle, hear the twig breaking, think it had broken a bone and be happy enough to wander off.

Probably giving the badger a bit too much credit there.

Round my way out here in my community there are two old ladies convinced they seen the vision of the "virgin mary" in the fields years ago and three younger people convinced they seen the ghost of a "white lady" in the same fields in more recent years. There is also a local public house out here with very lax regulations as to its closing hour for many a years now

I live near Petticoat Loose territory.

She was a tall, strong woman, fond of drink and dances. One day as she was dancing her petticoat caught on a nail and was torn off , but she kept on dancing. She pretty much shocked the parishioners in her youth. She married, but it was rumoured she had an affair with a local schoolmaster, and her husband vanished around the time of that rumour, leading to more rumours of murder. She drank too much, was fond of a fight, and played cards with men. It was rumoured she was a witch, and people were afraid of her.

One night she was playing cards and drinking to excess with local men, she slumped over the table and died, from an excess of alcohol.

The priest wasn't called that night, and she was buried in the absence of a priest too.

Some years later, people started seeing Petticoat Loose at night, around country lanes, outside dance halls, in fields on the side of the road... She frightened cart horses and people alike, she terrified the locals, so much so that a priest was called to "exorcise" a particular spot on a dark country lane where she was often seen.

He did see her and threw holy water at her, and banished her to stay at the bottom of Bay Lough, a very deep glacial lake at The Vee, in the Knockmealdowns.

Some say she was told she could only get out once she'd emptied the lake with a thimble, others that her punishment was to make a sudan rope out of the weeds in the lake to pull herself up. She hasn't been seen since, but it is said that she pulled the legs of swimmers in the lake who drowned there.

I can't help but look out for her on the dark country roads at night here.

http://www.clogheen.net/petticoat-loose/

lollsangel wrote: »

Where in tipp was this?

Dundrum.

Whispered wrote: »

On the badger thing; apparently years ago, men out hunting would walk with a twig down their boots. If they were attacked by a badger, it would bite their ankle, hear the twig breaking, think it had broken a bone and be happy enough to wander off.

Probably giving the badger a bit too much credit there.

Heard that too, and similar stories in regard to mink and the damage they could do to you.

People were also deathly afraid of bats getting entangled in hair!:pac:

Crooked Jack wrote: »

Locally there's a field that's supposed to be a mass famine grave and i've heard a legend about a brit army patrol getting stuck in it one night and not finding their way out til dawn.

The 'stray sod'.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stray_sod

Another story was of a group of Cromwellian soldiers during a 'priest hunt', whilst fording a river one of their number's horse shied and he suffered a broken neck and was killed. The rest of them found a nearby old graveyard, dug a hole and buried him. The following morning it was found that the occupants had upped sticks and moved premises, grave markers and all, and left the soldier in a lonely grave on his own!

http://historicgraves.com/blog/places/matehy-graveyard-county-cork-spelling-and-lore-how-did-headstones-end-riverbed

The Quare Fella has been blamed for burning down about a dozen pubs and hotels around the area, all stories involve poker on the sabbath and a large insurance payout in the end.

Also the sea monster of Glendarry Lake and the haunted house between Ballyvary and Foxford, actually knew a family that lived there, they lasted 3 days before moving out.

Means Of Escape wrote: »

Heard one of a stubborn farmer in Clare who wanted to level a fairy fort on his land
Despite protests he carried on with the front bucket and shoved the earth to the ditch.legend has it the JCB jammed at an angle downwards in the ditch. He attempted to find out what the front of the was caught in and as he was under the bucket all hydraulics failed and he was crushed under said bucket.

Story like this going around years ago in North Tipp as well.

There was plans for a new housing estate to be built outside Thurles. However the proposed site for the estate had a ring fort on it. No one wanted to destroy the fort but apparently one machine driver decided to take on the challenge and bull dozed it. He got no luck for it apparently and years of misfortune followed him. Apparently he suffered a massive cardiac arrest, broke his hip, his house went up on fire etc.

There's a small lake near my parents house. Locals will tell you that the lake is actually the surfacing point of an underwater river. It's also meant to be bottomless and many a man, during the war of independence, has shoved the body of a Black and Tan in the lake.

And another story springs to mind. This story was told by my fathers friend.

Somewhere up near the Silver mine mountains, there was a group of council men doing work to a road, which happened to be outside some gates to some estate. Every evening, before they were finished work, a man of about sixty or seventy would cycle past the work men on his way to the pub. He would stop at the gates however and could be heard saying "Good evening sir" and then cycle on again.

The council men soon found out from a few locals that the old man was apparently "talking" to the "old lord of the estate". It was wide belief that the old man had was going a bit daft, even though he insisted he wasn't.

Anyway this kept going and one evening after the old man passes, one of the more mischievous work men decides to play a trick on the old man. He talks the rest of them in to it. The plan was to get two of the men to throw a sheet over their heads and sit up on the pier of the gate and wait for the old man to cycle home from the pub and scare the living bejayus out of him.

It was a pretty cruel joke to play but they didn't care one way or the other. So off they go and get bed sheets. They throw the sheets over two of the lads and they sit up on the pier, laughing and roaring about how much of a fright your man will get.

Anyway, it gets pretty late. The lads were starting to doubt if the old man would come home from the pub at all. But eventually, in the early hours of the morning they can hear him, happily drunk and singing away to himself. As he passes the gate he stops and looks up at the pier. The two lads dressed in the bed sheets start wailing and moaning but the old fella just looks a little bemused.

Finally he says "Jaysus, there's three of ye there tonight!". The two boys look to one side to find a man in a cloak and as pale as death, sitting up beside them.

They jumped from the wall with the fright and ran like the clappers of hell.

jmayo wrote: »

Is that in Straide ?

Yeah, it is on the left hand side of a straight as your heading to foxford, its the only house there so its easy to spot, went into it one night with a few others on a dare, strange vibe about the place.