Stories of Red Hanrahan

(1905)

CONTENTS.

STORIES OF RED HANRAHAN:

RED HANRAHAN
THE TWISTING OF THE ROPE
HANRAHAN AND CATHLEEN THE DAUGHTER OF HOOLIHAN
RED HANRAHAN'S CURSE
HANRAHAN'S VISION
THE DEATH OF HANRAHAN

I owe thanks to Lady Gregory, who helped me to rewrite The Stories of
Red Hanrahan in the beautiful country speech of Kiltartan, and nearer
to the tradition of the people among whom he, or some likeness of
him, drifted and is remembered.

RED HANRAHAN.

Hanrahan, the hedge schoolmaster, a tall, strong, red-haired young
man, came into the barn where some of the men of the village were
sitting on Samhain Eve. It had been a dwelling-house, and when the
man that owned it had built a better one, he had put the two rooms
together, and kept it for a place to store one thing or another.
There was a fire on the old hearth, and there were dip candles stuck
in bottles, and there was a black quart bottle upon some boards that
had been put across two barrels to make a table. Most of the men were
sitting beside the fire, and one of them was singing a long wandering
song, about a Munster man and a Connaught man that were quarrelling
about their two provinces.

Hanrahan went to the man of the house and said, 'I got your message';
but when he had said that, he stopped, for an old mountainy man that
had a shirt and trousers of unbleached flannel, and that was sitting
by himself near the door, was looking at him, and moving an old pack
of cards about in his hands and muttering. 'Don't mind him,' said the
man of the house; 'he is only some stranger came in awhile ago, and
we bade him welcome, it being Samhain night, but I think he is not in
his right wits. Listen to him now and you will hear what he is
saying.'

They listened then, and they could hear the old man muttering to
himself as he turned the cards, 'Spades and Diamonds, Courage and
Power; Clubs and Hearts, Knowledge and Pleasure.'

'That is the kind of talk he has been going on with for the last
hour,' said the man of the house, and Hanrahan turned his eyes from
the old man as if he did not like to be looking at him.

'I got your message,' Hanrahan said then; '"he is in the barn with
his three first cousins from Kilchriest," the messenger said, "and
there are some of the neighbours with them."'

'It is my cousin over there is wanting to see you,' said the man of
the house, and he called over a young frieze-coated man, who was
listening to the song, and said, 'This is Red Hanrahan you have the
message for.'

'It is a kind message, indeed,' said the young man, 'for it comes
from your sweetheart, Mary Lavelle.'

'How would you get a message from her, and what