The Banshee Lives in the Handball Alley

March 23, 2010 4:25 AM

The Banshee Lives in the Handball Alley is a "compilation derived from a collection of folkloric stories recorded with children from the Moyross and St. Marys Park areas of Limerick City between 2004 and 2005. The work serves to highlight how folklore is constantly added to, and how it is linked to memory and occasion, fiction and interpretation."
posted by minifigs (12 comments total)

The kid at 1:40 - 1:55 ... well, I presume it's English he's speaking, but all I got out of it was "Tree nuns - tree nuns!"
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:47 AM on March 23, 2010

The kid at 1:40 - 1:55 ... well, I presume it's English he's speaking, but all I got out of it was "Tree nuns - tree nuns!"

What's funny is his friend, sitting there nodding.
posted by delmoi at 5:04 AM on March 23, 2010

This is perfect! I'm working through Yeats' Mythologies right now.
posted by kid ichorous at 5:12 AM on March 23, 2010

A rough transcription for Joe in Australia:

“In the handball alley, I know a fella in fourth class, fifth class, yeah, he was in the handball alley last, you know playing with the handball there, so now he tipped the four walls, you know the four walls in the handball alley? He said "Hail Mary" and something came out - three nuns, three nuns followed him, you could see the nuns running after him and all, and they can go through you!”
posted by nfg at 5:34 AM on March 23, 2010

Just to give some background, Moyross is the largest housing estate in Limerick and frequently in the (Irish) news due to crime.
posted by a womble is an active kind of sloth at 5:58 AM on March 23, 2010

Yer toilet won't stop flushin'! -- I know, we're gettin' the priest in tomorrow to bless it.

Beautiful! Nice to know kids haven't changed since the sixties.
YT link to Give Up Yer Aul Sins.
posted by Iteki at 6:07 AM on March 23, 2010

Nice to know kids haven't changed since the sixties.

Iona and Peter Opie's The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren reports on kids in York skipping to a ca. 1725 rhyme in 1954 - nice to see that these kind of links haven't been completely cut.
posted by ryanshepard at 6:23 AM on March 23, 2010 [4 favorites]

Myths over Miami for more creepiness.
posted by D_I at 10:50 AM on March 23, 2010 [2 favorites]

The kid at 1:40 - 1:55 ... well, I presume it's English he's speaking, but all I got out of it was "Tree nuns - tree nuns!"

What's funny is his friend, sitting there nodding.

What's funny is his friend, sitting there in a necktie like the most laidback little businessman I've ever seen. I never went to a school with uniforms of any sort, so I find the concept much more interesting than I ought to.

(I only got "banshee" and "handball alley" after a great deal of effort.)
posted by knile at 11:48 AM on March 23, 2010

He said "Hail Mary" and something came out - three nuns, three nuns followed him [...]

That's actually quite a creepy story for a kid that age. Somebody needs to get him a contract.
posted by Joe in Australia at 2:01 PM on March 23, 2010

I'm equally amused and horrified. Even as a Limerick native, the accents are hard for me to understand. And the hill by St. Patrick's school? Down the road from me! Reprasent!
posted by doozer_ex_machina at 2:19 PM on March 23, 2010

Love this! And Iteki, thanks for the link to "Auld sins" as well... I've loved that forever.
posted by OolooKitty at 3:35 PM on March 23, 2010