B'Jaysus, Ned

[daegaer]

Two men discuss a place of local folklore importance in Co. Wexford.

Click to view

Part of the About this Place project.

Comments

[vom_marlowe]

I thoroughly enjoyed that! My mother lived in a terrifying haunted house right after her first divorce. You'd think she was making it up, except that every single one of her siblings (er, nine of them, yes, Catholic), plus her sturdy mother, all experienced scary things there.

[daegaer]

I really wish it was longer! I want to hear more about the bad field and the fierce bad bridge! (And really, would it have killed Ned to give an actual description of the fairies other than they had different uniforms for their hurling teams?)

[biascut]

I watched this on Facebook the other day, and I daren't watch it again, or "be da fook" will become a permanent part of my vocabulary and since I am not a old Wexford man this would not be appropriate.

[daegaer]

I think you should just "be da fook" at everyone - but, er, it might influence the Effalump's burgeoning vocabulary!

[gehayi]

So why is Ballyscough haunted, then? They keep talking about the bridge and the grove being desperate bad places, but they don't say why. Of course there are places that are just plain bad, and--well, my hard-headed practical grandfather took fairies seriously. Mind you, his attitude toward them was basically "dangerous neighbors you don't want to get on the wrong side of, and try not to even talk about them, because they will hear you and they will get angry." So I can understand John and Ned not wanting to talk too much about the people of the hills, but--I can't find a scrap of a story online about Ballyscough hauntings, and that's a bit maddening.

[daegaer]

I wish the clip was longer so they could talk about it a bit more! It seems to be such a small, local area that I suppose only people in the district know the stories about the place (and maybe only older people like John and Ned).

[kryptyd]

That was great. The poster above is correct in why the lads are reticent about talking too much about the fairies.

[daegaer]

I saw a really interesting documentary once on T na G about the history of hurling, that included descriptions of county champions of the past who had been taken by the fairies to play in their matches. I think the interviews about the fairy matches were probably done in the 60s, maybe the early 70s (certainly in B&W), with descriptions of the hurley-players as tall, beautiful people who asked for the GAA players' help in a match during the night, the human guest players tending to wake exhausted in the morning thinking it had all been a dream - until they saw their boots still caked with mud. It was a great documentary, and very respectful of both the current and past local areas' peoples' beliefs.