Pearl

[insects and birds singing]

[Woman speaking]
Sometimes, some friends of mine and I would drive about five miles to where I'm from, and (uh) we'd walk up the banks of the river. It's—It's really quite gloomy. Everything's covered in moss, and it's green and dripping. The rocks are always very slippy, but if you know the way you can hang in beside the edge of the cliff

There's trees hanging over the river; and, if you climb up all the way, you can find a waterfall. It's really cold, but the water runs very clear. So we sometimes go swimming in the pool by the waterfall, and sometimes climb up behind it—up the edge of the cliff, behind the waterfall, where there's branches hanging out over it. It's about 40 or 50 feet high. And the water isn't very deep below, but if you jump in it's a great feeling

And (em) the flow of the waterfall takes you down the river. And you asked me earlier what I'd like; I suppose that's what I'd like right now: I'd like to be there, or else I'd like to be on the Éirinn Isles

There's (em) there's a legend about—about the three islands; they're called Tír na nÓg. I suppose it's the Irish equivalent of your Hy-Brasil. And (um) they say that, years and years ago, Oisin, who was one of the ancient warriors of—of Ireland, he fell in love with a—a spirit woman from that land. She came riding across the sea on a white horse, and her name was Niaṁ Cinn-Óir: Niaṁ of the Go—of the Golden Hair

And (um) she took him back to Tír na nÓg. And he felt like he'd only been there three days, but he'd been there 300 years, because it was the land of youth and no one ever changed. After that time, he became homesick and he asked her: could he go home? So she gave him his horse and—but she made him promise that he would never, ever set foot on Irish soil again, because something terrible would happen

So, he rode back over the sea, and he came back onto Irish soil, and he saw three men trying to lift a rock. And he couldn't believe that they couldn't lift it, because they were really weak; but, 300 years had passed and the men had become quite debilitated. And he knew he could lift it without any—any problem, so he leaned over to give them a hand. But, the girth of the—the saddle broke, and he fell onto Irish soil and—and died without ever seeing Pearl or Niaṁ again

[laughs]

Idiot

[laughs]