Cavan Folk Tales

Cavan Folk Tales gathers stories linked to the county’s history, landscape and living storytelling tradition. Gary Branigan brings together accounts of Bishop Bedell, the Great Hunger, the Black and Tans, and the Beaufighter crash on St Mogue’s Island, alongside legends of Finn MacCool, Balor, Setanta, Diarmuid and Gráinne.

The collection moves through named places such as Maguire’s Chair, the Red Road to Arva, Lough Gowna and the Nine Yew Trees of Derrylane. Its wider lore includes cures, weather signs, traditional crafts, fishing, hunting, wedding and funeral customs, riddles and Irish sayings. Mythical and supernatural tales feature the Dobharchú of Lough Sheelin, the Pooka of Cuilcagh, a McCabe family banshee, Cabra Castle’s reported ghost and will-o’-the-wisp lore.