Ireland - Comhaltas Archive

OF WISDOMBeside the Electricity GeneratingStation at Bellacorrick there is astone Bridge which is known as "TheMusical Bridge". It was built oncontract by a well-to-do family whowere stone-builders from Lackaduaghsome miles west of Bellacorrick. Thestones had to be drawn from aboutforty miles away by horse and cart.Sometimes it was only possible tocarry two stones at a time accordingto their size and weight. However,when the bridge was about half-builtthe contractor ran out of moneyand the penalty in those days forbreach of contract was deportation.To avoid being deported the familyleft the area overnight as there wasno one to help them out, but beforeleaving the mother went down onher knees and cursed whoever wouldfinish the bridge.An engineer was later engaged tofinish the bridge, but before the laststone was placed he died suddenly.Alocal man then took the contract ofpointing the bridge but every man heemployed suffered some disaster,some became disabled while othersdied. The contractor himself becameseriously ill for a long time but heeventually recovered.The last stone has never been put onthe bridge nor has the pointing beendone leaving it purely a stone bridge,so that when you run a stone alongthe top of the wall you get a musicalsound, hence the name ''The MusicalBridge" which is of great interesttoday to tourists. Nobody todaywould dare to try to put the lastfinish to "The Musical Bridge" atBellacorrick.The old people had great skill inpredicting the weather. When mygrandmother looks out of thewindow and says, "There's a mist ontop of Sliabh a'Chuirricin" (amountain some distance away) shemeans there is going to be rain.Whenever there's a fog with oldmoon, she uses the saying "Nf raibhtart ar sean geallach ariamh".She also tells me people who livenear the sea are very good weatherexperts. They can judge by thedifferent sounds of the sea. She sayswhen she lived near the sea therewas a small island known as "Fidfn"on which a Taidbhse was supposed tolive and the old people of those dayswould say "We'll have bad weather.Taidbhse Fidfn was roaring today". Itwas always accurate but the fact was,that what was really making the noiseor "roar" was a buoy out at sea andwhen the wind blew a certaindirection, it made this peculiar soundwhich people believed was beingmade by the Taidbhse.41