Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/529

 Co//eciaiiea. 49 1

definite story about her. The tale of a battle at Dysert Castle is almost certainly about that of 1562 ; Professor O'Looney thought it to relate to De Clare, but could not be certain that " Claragh- more" was actually named by his informant. The "flagstone of the breaking of bones," near Quin Abbey, as I have noted,- was, if not a modern "book legend," perhaps a reminiscence of the horrible execution of Domnall beg O'Brien by Sir John Perrot in 1582; I never heard the name near Quin myself, and the incident has no similarity to the stabbing of the earlier Domnall O'Brien.

The only tangible stories relate to the Armada late in Elizabeth's reign (15S8). The fishermen at Kilkee told my people in 1868-72 of the screams and wailing of the Spaniards lost in the " Big Ships" in the mist, or by night, at sea ofT the coast. In 1878 I heard round Doolin, to the north of the Cliffs of Moher, tales of the Big Ships and the Spaniards wrecked at Doolin, and how at the mound of Knock na croghery {cnocdn na crocaire, "Gallows Hill " ), at St. Catherine's, somewhat inland, " Bceoshius O'Clanshy hung the Spanish grandee." In later years I heard further that a Spanish nobleman got leave to fetch away the body of his only son, but it was indistinguishable from the others " in one red burial blent," whose bones are often found at the hillock. Near Miltown, Kilfarboy church was said to be the burial-place of the yellow men {fear buidhe) from the Big Ships. Kilfarboy is, however, really "the church of Febrath," the Beal an febrath or Belfarboy pass running to the upland behind it, so that the false interpretation has evidently given rise to the story, just as Killaspluglonane has become Killsprunane ( " Gooseberry Church "), and Cnoc uar coill ( " Cold Wood Hill " ) Cnocfuarchoill or Spansel Hill, There were graves called Teampul na Spanigg at two places, one near Doolin and one near Miltown Malbay. I heard the name last near Miltown in 1887, when the graves were almost obliterated, but could find no trace of it by diligent search in 1908. From the eighteenth century to the present day Spanish Point has been connected with the wreck of a Spanish ship (or ships)'. A carving

-Supra, p. 375.

^ There was actually no wreck there, but to this day wreckage and drowned bodies are swept up there by the prevailing current from Mutton Island, near which one of the Armada was really wrecked.