Willy Good: Halloween, Fairies, Holy Wells,
Title
Willy Good: Halloween, Fairies, Holy Wells,
Subject
Life History
Description
Willy Good was born in the 1930s and brought up in Commons Road. His house was in the family for two centuries, and once had a thatched roof.
He recalls Halloween games; he called Halloween ‘Snap Apple Night’. Ghostly encounters associated with The Stile. A sad story about a girl surnamed Delahide. Visiting a holy well on All Souls’ Day [All Souls’ Well, off Blarney Road]. Hearing two banshees. His father and Jack of the Lantern. His mother read tea-leaves. Willy tells a story of the Famine and the Piper’s Boreen. He describes how they repaired their own leather shoes. Also mentioned is the cutting hay and the fairy whirlwind. He remembers Irish and Hiberno-English words his family used: ‘a bart [bundle] of sticks’, a gaotog [for making sugán rope], ‘Cuas Mhainin, hanam an diathail’.
He recalls Halloween games; he called Halloween ‘Snap Apple Night’. Ghostly encounters associated with The Stile. A sad story about a girl surnamed Delahide. Visiting a holy well on All Souls’ Day [All Souls’ Well, off Blarney Road]. Hearing two banshees. His father and Jack of the Lantern. His mother read tea-leaves. Willy tells a story of the Famine and the Piper’s Boreen. He describes how they repaired their own leather shoes. Also mentioned is the cutting hay and the fairy whirlwind. He remembers Irish and Hiberno-English words his family used: ‘a bart [bundle] of sticks’, a gaotog [for making sugán rope], ‘Cuas Mhainin, hanam an diathail’.
Date
29 October 1996
Identifier
CFP_SR00002_good_1996
Coverage
Ireland, Cork, 1800s - 1900s
Source
Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive
Rights
Cork Folklore Project
Language
English, Irish.
Type
Sound
Format
1 .wav File
Interviewee
Interviewer
Duration
34min 47sec
Location
The Cottage, Parklands, Commons Road, Cork
Original Format
Cassette
Transcription
The following is a short extract from the interview transcript relating to the audio extract above. Copyright of the Cork Folklore Project. If you wish to access further archival material please contact CFP, folklorearchive@gmail.com
C.C: What about superstitions was there superstitions about Halloween?
W.G: Well there would be a bit about witches and that you would be a bit scary now.
C.C: Scared to go out?
W.G: That time ya.. Especially now when it would be getting a bit late in the evening. There was a lot more scare around then than then now. Frightening stories would have been told.
C.C: Would you be sitting down telling stories now that night?
W.G: Well we would like, the father would have plenty of those haunted house stories, we would be running into the corners.
C.C: And all about ghosts and spirits?
W.G: Oh ya, ya we believed quite a lot about the ghosts around that time.
C.C: Was there any particular ones around here, was there any ghost stories?
W.G: Ah! There’s one down there in the Boreen, that’s a well know place. It used to be called “The Style”, it was halfway down to the old barracks and going a way back. A lady used to tell me there was a priest seen there on numerous occasions…. praying late by night as we witnessed ourselves later on. I had a horse on the road at the time and the horse would be shying, scared you know, around to one side of the road, and it happened a couple of years later with a second horse my brother was driving. And my sister saw something very unusual down there one night.
C.C: Oh! That girl that was home from England.
W.G: Ya!
C.C: What did she see?
W.G: She was doing the romancing down there and saw an enormous cat, she thought she was seeing things first but her boyfriend, who was terribly brave fella, he was known to be a tough man, he got a desperate fright that night, he forgot about the romancing for quite a bit.
C.C: What did he see, a big cat?
W.G: It was supposed to be a huge cat, I didn’t believe it myself, but my sister said definitely, it was terribly unusual. There was something scary always about that area. My father was sitting up there one night and was pushed off the style and he put out his shoulder actually.
C.C: Did he?
W.G: So people don’t believe in haunted places. It was very convenient to where a young girl died at the age of 25 years, it was tragic and she is buried only a short distance from that … and apparently that was their premises that they owned, and there’s a style there… and it’s in that gate they used drive with their coach to get up to the house which is the house near me now. They lived in that house.
C.C: The house next door?
W.G: Ya.
C.C: Is that right?
W.G: Oh yeah!
W.G: Her name is inscribed on the staircase inside, this girl.
C.C: She died when she was 25?
W.G: She died tragically, there’s a big story about that, but you would want to be sitting down for a while to go through that. But it’s a fact, because it came out on “The Echo” one night.
C.C: Did it?
W.G: Oh ya! I have the story on it there.
C.C: When was that? A very, long time ago?
W.G: Oh God that would be back a long way, oh they were French – Delahide was their names.
C.C: What was her name?
W.G: The father deserted them and went away to America and was away for 25 years and she grew up a beautiful girl and they had a house in Kinsale…. ‘n the meantime she was going around Cork and she met this foreigner or Yankee coming home and they took up together and the romance started off even though he was twice her age but age don’t come between love you know.
C.C: I know.
W.G: What happened then was, it was getting more serious, so one night he showed her, she asked him would he like to see a few photographs, there wouldn’t be a whole lot of them that time…. cameras weren’t on the go that much. She went through a few photos anyway and she came to this chap about 19 and he said “who was that?”, “ That was my father”…. and he left a gasp out of him, so he didn’t say any more to her that night…. when he sat her down after a few nights later, he said he would have to break off the whole show that’s going on between us, the romance. “What’s wrong?” she said. He said, “that’s me in the photo”. Her own father, she was going to marry him in six months.
C.C: You’re not serious.
W.G: Oh I am, and you would imagine with the shock that the father would pan out but actually the girl died in a very short time.
C.C: Broken heart?
W.G: Well, shock I would say. And she’s buried down here, in just adjacent to the Commons Bar.
C.C: Is that right?
W.G: Yes.
C.C: Her grave is there?
W.G: Well, it was there, but the stories tell it was consecrated and all for her and the father became a recluse after that, he wouldn’t go out until midnight and drive and coach and he used have the horses’ feet padded and they thought it was a headless coach, …. which it wasn’t, but that was the same style in the gate that he used to go in there because he would be driving up to this house here to see her. The mother had died in the meantime. They had a house in Kinsale, but after she died, he never came out by day after that. But it was very tragic.
C.C: And it was a true story?
W.G: So that’s how we call it “The Haunted Style”, a combination of the two of them now live!
C.C: Was her ghost, was she ever seen?
W.G: Well, no. I saw a few things down there, but no like, not really.
C.C: Did you see a few things down there?
W.G: I met someone coming out the gate on at night all in black holding a white purse, 12:45, I was just coming down from Goulds and I be like my own father, I’d face anything. I’d be brave regards to that. I tracked her down a bit, but I didn’t want to go too far because she thought I might be following her or something. I thought she might go into Onslow Gardens, but she stood under the tree below, for quarter of an hour and I stayed above and there was no move out of her. So I was coming up another night then from Lyons Cottage, I was like a bit of a rover and I saw her again.
C.C: The same woman?
W.G: Up on the lane, there could be a possibility that she fancied some fella in Onslow Gardens. And then again, she had long hair and she had kind of a cloak on her. That’s why you wouldn’t see too many of them with that on.
C.C: She never made a sound or anything?
W.G: No, no. Never spoke or anything, so you could take that with a pinch of salt, or with a glass of brandy if you like.
W.G: Well there would be a bit about witches and that you would be a bit scary now.
C.C: Scared to go out?
W.G: That time ya.. Especially now when it would be getting a bit late in the evening. There was a lot more scare around then than then now. Frightening stories would have been told.
C.C: Would you be sitting down telling stories now that night?
W.G: Well we would like, the father would have plenty of those haunted house stories, we would be running into the corners.
C.C: And all about ghosts and spirits?
W.G: Oh ya, ya we believed quite a lot about the ghosts around that time.
C.C: Was there any particular ones around here, was there any ghost stories?
W.G: Ah! There’s one down there in the Boreen, that’s a well know place. It used to be called “The Style”, it was halfway down to the old barracks and going a way back. A lady used to tell me there was a priest seen there on numerous occasions…. praying late by night as we witnessed ourselves later on. I had a horse on the road at the time and the horse would be shying, scared you know, around to one side of the road, and it happened a couple of years later with a second horse my brother was driving. And my sister saw something very unusual down there one night.
C.C: Oh! That girl that was home from England.
W.G: Ya!
C.C: What did she see?
W.G: She was doing the romancing down there and saw an enormous cat, she thought she was seeing things first but her boyfriend, who was terribly brave fella, he was known to be a tough man, he got a desperate fright that night, he forgot about the romancing for quite a bit.
C.C: What did he see, a big cat?
W.G: It was supposed to be a huge cat, I didn’t believe it myself, but my sister said definitely, it was terribly unusual. There was something scary always about that area. My father was sitting up there one night and was pushed off the style and he put out his shoulder actually.
C.C: Did he?
W.G: So people don’t believe in haunted places. It was very convenient to where a young girl died at the age of 25 years, it was tragic and she is buried only a short distance from that … and apparently that was their premises that they owned, and there’s a style there… and it’s in that gate they used drive with their coach to get up to the house which is the house near me now. They lived in that house.
C.C: The house next door?
W.G: Ya.
C.C: Is that right?
W.G: Oh yeah!
W.G: Her name is inscribed on the staircase inside, this girl.
C.C: She died when she was 25?
W.G: She died tragically, there’s a big story about that, but you would want to be sitting down for a while to go through that. But it’s a fact, because it came out on “The Echo” one night.
C.C: Did it?
W.G: Oh ya! I have the story on it there.
C.C: When was that? A very, long time ago?
W.G: Oh God that would be back a long way, oh they were French – Delahide was their names.
C.C: What was her name?
W.G: The father deserted them and went away to America and was away for 25 years and she grew up a beautiful girl and they had a house in Kinsale…. ‘n the meantime she was going around Cork and she met this foreigner or Yankee coming home and they took up together and the romance started off even though he was twice her age but age don’t come between love you know.
C.C: I know.
W.G: What happened then was, it was getting more serious, so one night he showed her, she asked him would he like to see a few photographs, there wouldn’t be a whole lot of them that time…. cameras weren’t on the go that much. She went through a few photos anyway and she came to this chap about 19 and he said “who was that?”, “ That was my father”…. and he left a gasp out of him, so he didn’t say any more to her that night…. when he sat her down after a few nights later, he said he would have to break off the whole show that’s going on between us, the romance. “What’s wrong?” she said. He said, “that’s me in the photo”. Her own father, she was going to marry him in six months.
C.C: You’re not serious.
W.G: Oh I am, and you would imagine with the shock that the father would pan out but actually the girl died in a very short time.
C.C: Broken heart?
W.G: Well, shock I would say. And she’s buried down here, in just adjacent to the Commons Bar.
C.C: Is that right?
W.G: Yes.
C.C: Her grave is there?
W.G: Well, it was there, but the stories tell it was consecrated and all for her and the father became a recluse after that, he wouldn’t go out until midnight and drive and coach and he used have the horses’ feet padded and they thought it was a headless coach, …. which it wasn’t, but that was the same style in the gate that he used to go in there because he would be driving up to this house here to see her. The mother had died in the meantime. They had a house in Kinsale, but after she died, he never came out by day after that. But it was very tragic.
C.C: And it was a true story?
W.G: So that’s how we call it “The Haunted Style”, a combination of the two of them now live!
C.C: Was her ghost, was she ever seen?
W.G: Well, no. I saw a few things down there, but no like, not really.
C.C: Did you see a few things down there?
W.G: I met someone coming out the gate on at night all in black holding a white purse, 12:45, I was just coming down from Goulds and I be like my own father, I’d face anything. I’d be brave regards to that. I tracked her down a bit, but I didn’t want to go too far because she thought I might be following her or something. I thought she might go into Onslow Gardens, but she stood under the tree below, for quarter of an hour and I stayed above and there was no move out of her. So I was coming up another night then from Lyons Cottage, I was like a bit of a rover and I saw her again.
C.C: The same woman?
W.G: Up on the lane, there could be a possibility that she fancied some fella in Onslow Gardens. And then again, she had long hair and she had kind of a cloak on her. That’s why you wouldn’t see too many of them with that on.
C.C: She never made a sound or anything?
W.G: No, no. Never spoke or anything, so you could take that with a pinch of salt, or with a glass of brandy if you like.
Citation
Cork Folklore Project, “Willy Good: Halloween, Fairies, Holy Wells,,” accessed April 19, 2024, https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/198.