Mr Redmonds Story
There are many old mounds and fairy rings in the Coolkenno area, possibly the most famous one is the Ring of the Rath or Rathgall. Various translations of the name are familiar to the area, the hill top fort or the rath of the stranger, however none of the others in the area have been named as such, usually just the owners name of the lands on which they stand.
One of these stands just inside the wall of Killinure house opposite the priests new house and the old priests house a building called Hillcrest which was once a charter school.
It was at this point in the road that Mr Redmond was on his way home from a game of cards in Fanning’s the pub in Coolkenno village . He stopped to say a prayer passing Fr O Brien’s as was the tradition at the time, as a room in the former school was an oratory.
As he stopped to kneel for a moment on the road side he heard a tearation of horses on the far side of the ditch. He called out ‘is that yerself John?’ to the coach man from the big house to get no answer. He tried again, and on looking up found himself surrounded by hundreds of people on horseback.
Their leader, a short fat man with a tidy little mustache dressed in as well fitted suit, as were the other male riders. The ladies were sitting side saddle and all seemed in a merry mood. Suddenly a spare horse appeared, a large black animal. The man gestured to him to hop up on the horse, which he did, then pulled his fingers across his lips to say be silent as they all rode off. For several hours they rode from one fort to another, the group getting larger as they went. He was still bid to keep his silence. Every fort gave a stirrup cup of brandy and soon Mr Redmond found it hard to balance on the horse.
Soon they crossed the border into Wexford and all stood at Ferrycarrig Castle on the mouth of Wexford harbour. Then they leaped one by one to the far side, his horse last to go. On making a safe landing he shouted with glee ‘your a marvelous horse to make such a leap’. As he did he was alone on the edge of Wexford town, all had disappeared including the horse he had been riding. He was sitting on the middle of the road when a bread delivery cart stopped and offered him a lift. He said to the driver how odd it was for him to be delivering on a Sunday morning. ‘Sunday’ he said ‘sure today’s Wednesday’. The delivery cart left him in Bunclody, it took him most of the day to walk home from there to a worried Mrs Redmond who had found his cap on the road on Sunday morning on her way to mass.
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