Labbacallee

In the town-land of Labbycally where I live there is a Cromlach or ancient grave called the "Hag's Bed" It is said that an old hag and her husband lived there with their five children. It is supposed that they were all buried there. There is one big grave and five small ones.
In ones of the stones there is a dent. The story that is told is that the Hag made an attempt to strike her husband with a hatchet and that she hit the rock. The dent is to be seen up to this day. The river Funcheon flows near the Hag's Bed and a big rock is to be seen in the middle of the river. The old saying is that the hag and her husband had a fight. He ran to the river and she flung the rock after him and killed him.
Told to Peggy Foley by Mrs Roche, age 68.

The townland of Labbycally, Glanworth, Co Cork is situated about 4 miles north of Fermoy on the road to Glanworth village. Near the road on the land now owned by Mr Quinlan there is a well known cromlech which is called the Hags Bed". An old hag and husband are said to have lived there long ago. People say that it was the hag that lifted the huge flat stone out of the river Funcheon and put it up on supports. There is a big underground tunnel running from the Hag's Bed to the river. One day the hag and her husband quarrelled and she is said to have flung a big stone at him. The stone landed in the Funcheon and is still there. There are marks on it it which are said to be the print of the hag's fingers.
Told to John Collins by Michael Collins, age 47.

At Fermoy, the name given to a somewhat curious cromlech, "The Hag's Bed," interested me. I was at some trouble to learn the origin of the name, and fortunately our car-driver succeeded in finding an old man, who gave me the desired information..

"On yonder hill there lived, in days gone by, a giant and a giantess. They were called Shara and Sheela. One day Shara returned from his labours (wood-cutting) in the forest, and finding no dinner ready he was exceeding angry, and in his passion gave Sheela a severe wound with his axe on the shoulder. His passion was assuaged as soon as he saw the blood of his wife, and he carefully bound up the wound and nursed her for many weeks with great care.

Sheela did not, however, forgive Shara for the injury he had inflicted on her. She brooded on her wrong. Eventually she was so far recovered that Shara was able to leave her; and their stock of wood having fallen short, he proceeded to the forest for a fresh supply. Sheela watched her husband as he descended the hill, and, full of wrath, she seized her bed, and, as he was wading through the river, she flung it after him with a dreadful imprecation. The devil changed the bed into stone in its passage through the air. It fell on the giant, crushed him, and to this day he rests beneath the Hag's Bed.

In the solitude which she had made she repented her crime, but she never forgave herself the sin. She sat on the hill-top, the melancholy monument of desolation, bewailing her husband's loss, and the country around echoed with her lamentations. "Bad as Shara was, it is worse to be without him !" was her constant cry. Eventually she died of excess of grief her last words being, "Bad as Shara was, it is worse to be without him !"

"And," said the old man, finishing his story, "whenever any trouble is coming upon Ireland, the voice of Sheela is heard upon the hill still repeating her melancholy lamentation."