Stories of Red Hanrahan

Stories of Red Hanrahan

by
W.B. Yeats

CONTENTS.
STORIES OF RED HANRAHAN:
RED HANRAHAN THE TWISTING OF THE ROPE HANRAHAN
AND CATHLEEN THE DAUGHTER OF HOOLIHAN RED
HANRAHAN'S CURSE HANRAHAN'S VISION THE DEATH OF
HANRAHAN

I owe thanks to Lady Gregory, who helped me to rewrite The Stories of
Red Hanrahan in the beautiful country speech of Kiltartan, and nearer
to the tradition of the people among whom he, or some likeness of him,
drifted and is remembered.

RED HANRAHAN.
Hanrahan, the hedge schoolmaster, a tall, strong, red-haired young man,
came into the barn where some of the men of the village were sitting on
Samhain Eve. It had been a dwelling-house, and when the man that
owned it had built a better one, he had put the two rooms together, and
kept it for a place to store one thing or another. There was a fire on the

old hearth, and there were dip candles stuck in bottles, and there was a
black quart bottle upon some boards that had been put across two
barrels to make a table. Most of the men were sitting beside the fire,
and one of them was singing a long wandering song, about a Munster
man and a Connaught man that were quarrelling about their two
provinces.
Hanrahan went to the man of the house and said, 'I got your message';
but when he had said that, he stopped, for an old mountainy man that
had a shirt and trousers of unbleached flannel, and that was sitting by
himself near the door, was looking at him, and moving an old pack of
cards about in his hands and muttering. 'Don't mind him,' said the man
of the house; 'he is only some stranger came in awhile ago, and we
bade him welcome, it being Samhain night, but I think he is not in his
right wits. Listen to him now and you will hear what he is saying.'
They listened then, and they could hear the old man muttering to
himself as he turned the cards, 'Spades and Diamonds, Courage and
Power; Clubs and Hearts, Knowledge and Pleasure.'
'That is the kind of talk he has been going on with for the last hour,'
said the man of the house, and Hanrahan turned his eyes from the old
man as if he did not like to be looking at him.
'I got your message,' Hanrahan said then; '"he is in the barn with his
three first cousins from Kilchriest," the messenger said, "and there are
some of the neighbours with them."'
'It is my cousin over there is wanting to see you,' said the man of the
house, and he called over a young frieze-coated man, who was listening
to the song, and said, 'This is Red Hanrahan you have the message for.'
'It is a kind message, indeed,' said the young man, 'for it comes from
your sweetheart, Mary Lavelle.'
'How would you get a message from her, and what do you know of
her?'

'I don't know her, indeed, but I was in Loughrea yesterday, and a
neighbour of hers that had some dealings with me was saying that she
bade him send you word, if he met any one from this side in the market,
that her mother has died from her, and if you have a mind yet to join
with herself, she is willing to keep her word to you.'
'I will go to her indeed,' said Hanrahan.
'And she bade you make no delay, for if she has not a man in the house
before the month is out, it is likely the little bit of land will be given to
another.'
When Hanrahan heard that, he rose up from the bench he had sat down
on. 'I will make no delay indeed,' he said, 'there is a full moon, and if I
get as far as Gilchreist to-night, I will reach to her before the setting of
the sun to-morrow.'
When the others heard that, they began to laugh at him for being in
such haste to go to his sweetheart, and one asked him if he would leave
his school in the old lime-kiln, where he was giving the children such
good learning. But he said the children would be glad enough in the
morning to find the place empty, and no one to keep them at their task;
and as for his school he could set it up again in any place, having as he
had his little inkpot hanging from his neck by a chain, and his big
Virgil and his primer in the skirt of his coat.
Some of them asked him to drink a glass before he went, and a young
man caught hold of his coat, and said