Paddy O’Kelly and the Weasel

Long ago there was a man called Paddy O’Kelly who lived near Tuam in County Galway. One morning he got up early, not knowing what hour it was, because the moon was shining so brightly. He meant to go to the fair of Cauher-na-mart to sell a worn-out old donkey. He had gone no more than three miles when a great darkness came down and rain began to fall. About five hundred yards off the road he saw a large house among trees, and he decided to shelter there until the shower passed.

He found the door open and went in. To his left was a big room with a good fire in the grate, and he sat down on a stool by the wall. He was just dozing off when a big weasel came up to the fire with something yellow in her mouth, dropped it on the hearthstone and went away. Soon she came back with the same thing, and he saw that it was a gold guinea. Back and forth she went until there was a great heap of guineas on the hearth. At last, when she was gone, Paddy jumped up, stuffed all the gold into his pockets and hurried out.

He had not gone far when he heard the weasel coming after him, screeching as loud as a set of bagpipes. She got in front of him on the road, twisting this way and that and trying to get at his throat. Paddy had a good oak stick and kept her off until two men on their way to the same fair came along. One of them had a fine dog, and it chased the weasel into a hole in a wall.

At the fair, instead of coming home with the price of his old donkey as he had expected that morning, Paddy used some of the weasel’s gold to buy a horse, and he rode home. When he came to the place where the dog had chased the weasel into the wall, out she sprang, leaped up and seized the horse by the throat. The horse bolted, and Paddy could not hold him until he jumped into a big drain full of water and black mud. The horse was drowning and choking when some men coming from Galway arrived and drove the weasel off.

Paddy took the horse home, put him in the cow byre and went to sleep. Early the next morning he went out to feed the horse, and at the door he saw the weasel coming out of the byre, all covered in blood. “My seven thousand curses on you,” said Paddy. “I’m afraid you’ve done harm.” Inside he found the horse, two milking cows and two calves lying dead.

He set his dog on the weasel. The dog caught her and she caught the dog, and good as the dog was, he had to let go before Paddy could reach them. But Paddy kept his eye on her the whole time until he saw her creep into a little hovel on the edge of a lake. He ran up, shook the dog to rouse his anger, and sent him in. The dog began barking, and Paddy followed and found an old hag in the corner. He asked her whether she had seen a weasel come in.

“I did not,” said she. “I’m eaten up with a plague of sickness, and if you don’t get out quick, you’ll catch it from me.”

While they were talking, the dog kept edging closer, until he sprang and caught the hag by the throat. She screamed, “Paddy Kelly, take off your dog, and I’ll make you a rich man!”

Paddy called the dog off. “Tell me who you are,” said he, “and why you killed my horse and my cows.”

“And why did you carry off my gold, that I was five hundred years gathering through the hills and hollows of the world?”

“I thought you were a weasel,” said Paddy, “or I’d never have touched your gold. And another thing: if you’ve been five hundred years in this world, it’s time you went to your rest.”

“I committed a great crime in my youth,” said the hag, “and now I am to be freed from my sufferings if you will pay twenty pounds for a hundred and sixty masses for me.”

“Where’s the money?”

“Dig under the bush over the little well in the corner of that field outside, and you’ll find a pot full of gold. Pay the twenty pounds for the masses and keep the rest. When you lift the flagstone off the pot, a big black dog will jump out, but don’t be afraid of him; he is a son of mine. When you have the gold, buy the house where you first saw me. You’ll get it cheap, for it’s said to be haunted. My son will be down in the cellar. He’ll do you no harm, and he’ll be a good friend to you. I shall be dead a month from today, and when I am, put a burning coal under this little hut and burn it. Don’t tell a living soul about me, and luck will be with you.”

“What is your name?” asked Paddy.

“Mary Kerwan,” said the hag.

When night fell, Paddy took a spade to the bush in the corner of the field and began to dig. Before long he found the pot, and when he lifted the flagstone, a big black dog leaped out and raced away, with Paddy’s dog after him. Paddy carried the gold home and hid it in the cow house. About a month later he went to the Galway fair and bought two cows, a horse and a dozen sheep. The neighbours could not think where he had got the money, and they said he must be in league with the good people.

One day Paddy put on his best clothes and went to the gentleman who owned the big house where he had first seen the weasel, and asked to buy the house and the land around it. “You can have the house without paying any rent at all,” said the gentleman, “but there’s a ghost in it, and I wouldn’t want you living there without being warned. As for the land, I couldn’t part with it for less than a hundred pounds more than you can offer.”

“Maybe I have as much as you have yourself,” said Paddy. “I’ll be here tomorrow with the money if you’re ready to give me possession.”

“I’ll be ready,” said the gentleman.

Paddy went home and told his wife he had bought a big house and a farm. “Where did you get the money?” she asked. “Isn’t it all the same to you where I got it?” said Paddy. The next day he paid the gentleman and took over the house and land, and the gentleman left him all the furniture and everything in the house into the bargain.

Paddy stayed in the house that night, and after dark he went down to the cellar. There he saw a little man sitting astride a barrel.

“God save you, honest man,” said the little man.

“The same to you.”

“Don’t be afraid of me at all. I’ll be a friend to you, if you can keep a secret.”

“I can indeed. I kept your mother’s secret, and I’ll keep yours too.”

“Maybe you’re thirsty?”

“I’m not free of it,” said Paddy.

The little man drew a gold goblet from inside his coat and told Paddy to fill it from the barrel under him. Paddy filled it and offered it to him. “Drink yourself first,” said the little man. Paddy drank, filled it for the little man, and he drank too. “Fill up and drink,” said the little man. “I have a mind to be merry tonight.” The two of them sat drinking until they were half tipsy. Then the little man jumped down to the floor.

“Do you like music?”

“I do, surely, and I’m a good dancer too.”

“Lift the big flagstone in the corner there, and you’ll find my pipes under it.”

Paddy found the pipes and gave them to him, and the little man squeezed the bag and played the sweetest music, and Paddy danced until he was tired. Then they had another drink, and the little man said, “Do as my mother told you, and I’ll show you great riches. You may bring your wife here, but don’t tell her I’m here, and she won’t see me. Whenever you want ale or wine, come and draw it. Goodbye now; go to sleep, and come to me tomorrow night.”

In the morning Paddy brought his wife and children to the big house, and they were very comfortable there. That night he went down to the cellar, and the little man welcomed him and asked whether he wanted to dance. “Not till I get a drink,” said Paddy. “Drink your fill,” said the little man. “That barrel will never run dry as long as you live.” Paddy drank a goblet and gave one to the little man.

“I’m going to the Fortress of the Fairies tonight to play music for the good people,” said the little man, “and if you come with me you’ll see fine fun. I’ll give you a horse the like of which you never saw.”

“I’ll go with you, and welcome. But what excuse will I make to my wife?”

“I’ll take you from her side without her knowing, when you’re both asleep, and bring you back the same way.”

“I’m at your service,” said Paddy. “We’ll have another drink before I leave you.” He drank glass after glass until he was half drunk, and then he went to bed beside his wife.

When he woke, he found himself riding a broom near Doon-na-shee, with the little man riding another broom beside him. When they reached the green hill of the Doon, the little man spoke a couple of words Paddy did not understand, and the hill opened, and they went into a fine hall. Paddy had never seen such a gathering. The place was packed with little people, men and women, young and old, and they all welcomed little Donal, for that was the piper’s name, and Paddy O’Kelly too.

The king and queen of the fairies came up and said, “We are all going tonight to visit the high king and queen of our people at Cnoc Matha.” Everyone rose and went out. There were horses ready for each of them and a fairy coach for the king and queen. The king and queen got into the coach, each man jumped on his own horse, and you may be sure Paddy was not left behind. The piper went in front playing music, and off they went.

They soon reached Cnoc Matha. The hill opened, and the fairy host went in. Finvara and Nuala were there, the high king and queen of the fairy host of Connacht, with thousands of little people. Finvara came up and said, “We are to play a hurling match tonight against the fairy host of Munster, and unless we beat them our fame is gone for ever. The match will be played on Moytura, under Slieve Belgadaun.”

“We’re all ready,” cried the Connacht host, “and we’ve no doubt we’ll beat them.”

“Out with you all,” cried the high king. “The men of the hill of Nephin will be on the field before us.”

Out they went, with little Donal and twelve other pipers playing in front. When they reached Moytura, the fairy host of Munster and the fairy men of Nephin were waiting. Now, the fairy host must have two living men with them when they fight or play a hurling match, and that was why little Donal had brought Paddy O’Kelly. With the Munster host there was a man they called the Yellow Stongirya, from Ennis in County Clare.

The two hosts soon took sides, the ball was thrown up between them, and the game began in earnest. They hurled away while the pipers played, until Paddy saw that Munster was getting the upper hand, and he began helping the Connacht host. The Stongirya came at Paddy, but Paddy sent him head over heels. Then the hurling turned into fighting, and before long the Connacht host beat the others.

The Munster host turned themselves into flying beetles and began eating every green thing they came to, and they laid waste the country as far as Cong. There thousands of doves rose up out of a hole and swallowed the beetles, and to this day that hole is called Pull-na-gullam, the doves’ hole.

The fairy host of Connacht went back to Cnoc Matha full of joy at their victory, and King Finvara gave Paddy O’Kelly a purse of gold. The little piper brought him home, put him into bed beside his wife and left him sleeping there.

A month passed without anything worth telling, until one night Paddy went down to the cellar and the little man said, “My mother is dead. Burn the house over her.”

“True for you,” said Paddy. “She told me she had only a month to be in the world, and the month was up yesterday.”

Next morning Paddy went to the hut and found the hag dead. He put a burning coal under the hut and burned it, then went home and told the little man it was done. The little man gave him a purse and said, “This purse will never be empty while you live. You will not see me any more, but think kindly of the weasel. She was the beginning and the first cause of all your riches.” With that he went away, and that was the last Paddy saw of him.

Paddy O’Kelly and his wife lived for years in the big house, and when he died he left great wealth behind him and a large family to spend it. And there is the story for you, from the first word to the last. In the source teller’s closing words, it came from his grandmother.

About this telling

Jacobs took “Paddy O’Kelly and the Weasel” from Douglas Hyde’s Beside the Fire. In his notes he points out that green hills are often the homes of the fairies in folk tales, and that witches turning into animals such as hares is a common theme in folklore; here the witch takes the shape of a weasel.

Finvara and Nuala are named as the high king and queen of the fairy host of Connacht, and Moytura is the plain where the fairy hurling match is played. The story ends in the teller’s own voice, naming the grandmother it came from.

Read the original: Joseph Jacobs, More Celtic Fairy Tales (Project Gutenberg #34453, Paddy O’Kelly)

Suggested for ages 9–12 with an adult available to discuss it. Includes animals being killed, threats, a dead woman’s hut being burned and repeated drinking.

Gold is not the same as a clean conscience

Paddy’s first action is theft, even though he excuses it by saying that he thought the owner was only a weasel. Mary’s violent revenge makes her frightening, but it does not make the gold ownerless. Their bargain changes the story from pursuit to obligation: Paddy must do something for the person he wronged, rather than simply escape her.

The ending complicates a simple lesson about honesty. Paddy receives lasting wealth, yet the narrative never explicitly shows him paying for the promised masses. It does show him carrying out Mary’s instruction to burn the hut. Readers can notice this gap without inventing a missing scene. The magical rewards close the adventure; they do not settle every question about Paddy’s conduct.

Trace the bargain

Make three columns headed “Taken”, “Promised” and “Done”. Place the hearth gold, the masses, the purchase of the house and the burning of the hut in the appropriate columns. Mark any promise whose fulfilment is left unstated, then explain how that changes your judgment of Paddy.

Think about it

• Why did the weasel attack Paddy and his animals?
• What did Mary Kerwan ask Paddy to do for her, and what did she promise in return?
• Why did the fairy host need Paddy at the hurling match?

More stories like this

• Guleesh — another Irish man who rides off with the fairy host at night
• The Field of Boliauns — an Irishman who tries to win fairy gold
• Dream of Owen O’Mulready — another Hyde tale of a strange night adventure