The Kildare Lurikeen or Leprechaun

A TREASURY OF IRISH FOLKLORE - PADRAIC COLUM.

FOLKTALES

THE KILDARE LURIKEEN (LEPRECHAUN)

A young girl that lived in sight of Castle Carbury, near Edenderry was going for a pitcher of water in neighbouring well, when she came across in a sheltered nook, the Lurikeen. He was busily making a brogue only fit for the foot of a fairy like himself. He was so caught up in his work and with an old Irish ballad he was singing, that he did not notice Breedheen till she had grabbed him by the scruff of the neck. She told him that she wouldn?t let go of him until he gave her his money. He tried to tell her that he had no money and tried to trick her into averting his eyes from him. Breedheen was having none of it so eventually he told her it was underneath the castle. And so the pair of them walked towards it, Breedheen gripping him tightly. They went up a little hillside and the Lurikeen seemed quite reconciled with the situation. But just as they got to the top, he screamed in a very loud voice in her ears, "Oh murder! Castle Carbury is afire!" Poor Breedheen jumped, and looked up towards the castle. At the same time she lost her grip on the Lurikeen, and when her eyes fell where he was a moment before, he had vanished from sight.

Folk Tales collected by Ms. Greene

J.K.A.S. Vol. III Pg. 368-371

A boy caught a leprechaun and demanded that it told him where money was hidden. The leprechaun stuck a stick in the ground and told the boy to get a spade and dig in that exact spot, there, he said was where the money would be found. However, when the boy returned with a spade he found hundreds of sticks stuck all over the field. He had been tricked.

** In the old days in order to keep the children, they would tell them that they heard a thrush crackling snails on a stone and that was the leprechaun mending his brogues. **