Did you Know
?
The Mad
Sweeney
Still Hides
in the Trees of St Mullins.
Well
as the story goes there was this King up in the county Meath called Sweeney who
lost the plot when a Bishop Ronan started building a monastery on his land, how
dare he .Sweeney threw his spear missed the Bishop and killed one of his
servants .Ronan cursed Sweeney to fly through the trees for the rest of his
life, what a horrible man .No matter how hard his friends tried to get him back
to his kingdom he was so mad they couldn’t hold on to him. The witch of time
didn’t help either” Cailleach Na Dudain” The Hag of the Mill she challenged him
to a jumping contest and all around Ireland and off they went jumping form hill
to hill until poor auld Sweeney was exhausted. Well he ended up in St Mullins
eating water cress in St Moling’s stream when who came along but the saint
himself and he took pity on the wretched Man –Bird .He listened to Sweeneys
tale but wasn’t able to reverse the Bishops curse but he said he could sleep in
the trees around the Abbeys every night if he would tell the Saint the story of
his life. The pig herder for the Abbey was Mongan and his wife put milk in a
cow path so the Sweeney could fly down from the threes for a drink. But typical
auld gossipers the other women suggested he was getting more than the sup of
milk and let it slip to Mongan himself. Well the man had his pride so he stuck
his spear into poor auld Sweeney and he died ,some say he is buried above in
the grave yard others believe he is still up in the trees.
Seeneys
story is recalled by the following
Authors
“The Adventures of Suibhne Geilt “ JJO’Keeffe
“At Swim Two Birds” Brian O Nolan( Flan O’Brien)
“ Four Masters” Michael O’Cleary
“Stowe Collection
@ The Royal Irish Academy” Daniel O’Duigenan
“Sweeney Astray” Seamus Heaney
