Read everyone and share, our heritage here in Ireland as AFRICANs About thirty-nine years ago a colored man, a negro by birth, lived as servant with the Reverend William Fitzgerald, parish priest of Carlow town. This black man dreamed that a copper pan of gold was buried in the ruins of a monastery in Oakpark, the demesne of the late Colonel Bruen; he told the reverend Father, who endeavored to dissuade him from his purpose of seeking the treasure; his arguments were in vain, so deep were the impressive hopes of success on the mans mind imprinted. He prepared; took some trusty friends by night, and dug for the treasure: after some hours labour they came to the flag that covered the pan, on which a furious whirling wind came and extinguished their lights: they re-lighted them, on which a company of horse soldiers came galloping up and presented their arms; the gold-seekers stood horror-stricken; but the dreamer, as brave as man could be, continued to labour on while flames issued from the pit. The party fled, leaving the blackamoor man, more daring than a lion, to withstand the horrors of the whole contexture of thrilling objects in the silence and darkness of the midnight hour. He reflected, and, while reflecting, a whirlwind raged around him, and he heard a sepulchral-like voice A life is to be lost is that life yours? He paused for a moment, and mentally said, “What will the treasure avail me if I am dead?’’ On which he left the place. The next day he visited the scene of terror, and, much to his surprise, he could not find the exact spot; no marks of the nights labour remained.” pages 108-109 From: The Journal Of The Kilkenny And South-East Of Ireland Archaeological Society. VOL. II. NEW SERIES. 1858-59. The following was also recorded as having taken place in Kilkenny in 1578: In the November of that year, sessions were held there by the Lord Justice Drury and Sir Henry Fitton, who, in their letter to the Privy Council on the 20th of the same month, inform that Body that upon arriving at the town the jail being full we caused sessions immediately to be held. Thirty-six persons were executed, amongst whom were some good ones, a blackamoor and two witches by natural law, for that we find no law to try them by in this realm. It is easy to see why the witches were put to death, but the reason for the negros execution is not so obvious. It can hardly have been for the colour of his skin, although no doubt a black man was as much arara avis in the town of Kilkenny as a black swan. Had the words been written at the time the unfortunate negro might well have exclaimed, though in vain, to his judges: Mislike me not for my complexion--The shadowed livery of the burning sun. Or could it have been that he was the unhappy victim of a false etymology! For in old writers the word necromancy is spell nigromancy, as if divination was practiced through the medium of negroes instead of dead persons; indeed in an old vocabulary of 1475 Nigromantia is defined as divinatio facta per nigros. He may therefore have been suspected of complicity with the two witches. pages 60-61 Source: Irish Witchcraft And Demonology By St John D. Seymour, B.D. Baltimore: Norman, Remington [1913] Im glad I wasnt living in Kilkenny in the 1500s, nor was I a woman there then! It also seems very little has changed when it comes to attitudes towards women and blackamoors!
Posted on: Fri, 25 Oct 2013 11:26:53 +0000
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