The Horseman – Ballinderreen 1938

From Duchas.ie
Collected 1937/1938
Ballinderreen, Co. Galway. Teacher: Treasa Bean Uí Bheirn
Collected by Rose Niland from Martin Kelly, Tyrone, Co. Galway
About fifty years ago a horse-man used to pass the Ballinderreen road towards Kilcolgan every night. A certain woman used to look out after it so she lost the sight of one of her eyes. My grandfather and a few companions were coming from a dance from James St. Georges about two o’clock one night and as they were coming back at Glynn’s they heard a galloping horseman coming towards them. They said it must be some man going to the Loughrea horse fair. So when the horseman was within five or six yards of them they moved in one side of the road to let it pass. They heard something like a breeze of wind passing between them and the wall but they saw nothing. Just a few yards behind them they heard the horse galloping again. They knew then that it was no living person that was in it but the fairy horseman that used to pass the way every night.