A local folk story!

An extract of an adaptation of a local folk story by Donal Kearney.

I. The Standing Gossip

One of the many primitive beliefs that yet haunt our people’s minds is that the lucky finder of the rare plant of the Gaelic Gods - the four-leafed shamrock – has choice over four gifts: the wisdom of Lugh; the Riches and Power of Dagda; the Love-Gift of Angus Óg; or the gift of Poetry and Song of Dana of the Leannán Siadh. One beautiful Spring morning, on the festival of Errach, when the spirit of the spring was renewing the earth with its creative breath, there was a christening in the cottage by the Forth of Lisnagushee, high on Aughnamoira Hill overlooking Narrow Water to the south.

Before the infant-girl was brought to the church to be christened, a young cailínserved as “standing gossip” for her, to watch over the child and care for her as the family prepared for the ceremony - as the child's gossip, she would act as baptismal sponsor or godparent. Struck by an idea borne out of local legend, the young gossip left the cottage stealthily and entered the green circle of the Forth, which stood close by. There, she stooped down and commenced to search anxiously through the grass. She looked under the plants, brushing the bright morning dew off the trefoil and clover leaves, scanning all the different varieties of shamrock to be found there. She was hoping to chance upon the magic four-leafed shamrock of the gods so that she may transfer the lucky charm to the little mite within. Again, she scanned the green forth with eager eye until, at last, with an exclamation of joy and glad surprise, she found and held aloft a Four-Leaved Shamrock, its magic petals still wet and glistening with the fairy dew, leftover from their nightly dances. Returning to the cabin with her prize, the gossip took the infant to the inner room and placed the potent four-leaf under its tongue, wishing at that propitious moment – not for riches, love, happiness, or power for the babe, but for the invocation of the Leannán Siadh – that she might become the Child of Song, endowed with an enchanted voice and the gift of melody. As she made the wish, a sudden change came over the aspect of the room, there was a faint, eerie noise and a misty vapour filled the atmosphere. Through this, the Leannán Siadh - very tall and gaunt - appeared by the gossip’s side and, laying a tender hand on the infant’s head, crouched down and spoke to her: - "Have thou the gift of song." She poured fairy-mel (the magical honey made by the spirits) into her mouth that her voice might be sweet, and through a tiny sea-shell, she blew a song in her ear for melody. Then, bathing her eyes with lusmore juice, the baby was introduced to the sights of the Siadh; from that moment on, the baby was permitted to see the fairies. The muse then touched her throat and the four-leaved shamrock that had been placed on her tongue manifested in the child’s flesh, plain and clear, indelibly printed on her throat as a sign of the gift of Song that was to be hers. It also marked that the babe now belonged to the Muse, whose symbol she would bear on her throat for the remainder of her life.