ire2uk

Long ago there was a king in Leinster called Labhraidh Loinseach who always wore his hair long.

He only had it cut once a year on the first day of spring and that was a day everyone in the kingdom feared.

But the king had a different barber every year and there was good reason for that too.

Now there was a poor widow living in Leinster at that time who had only one son who was chosen to cut the king’s hair. She went to the king and begged him to find another barber.

Now the king was very moved by her tears and promised that her son would return to her.

He meant to find another barber and so went into the inner room to tell her son the good news. Before he could stop him, however the nervous boy thinking the time for the hair cut had come hastily removed the kings head band.

The moment the band holding the kings long hair close to his head was removed, two large ears like those of donkey sprang up.

"Don’t stand there gaping like a fool! " the king cried. "Swear instead that you will never as long as you live tell anyone what you have seen."

So the boy swore and then cut the king’s hair as carefully and as neatly as his trembling hands would allow and ran from the palace. However, he could never forget what he had seen. He had terrible nightmares. After months of this he became ill.

Eventually, his mother took him to see a druid who said "He has a secret that is killing him. He will never be well until he has told it."

To the boy he said "It must be told so follow the high road until you reach the cross and then turn right. Stop at the first tree you come to and tell your secret to the tree."

So the boy did as he was told and whispered his secret into a crack in the bark. Then, with his heart lighter he went home to his mother.

Now it happened that the very next day Craiftine, the palace musician broke his harp.

He got an axe and set out along the high road in search of wood to make a new one.

When he came to the cross-roads he turned right and saw the willow. He cut it down and made a splendid new harp and took it with him to the palace to play for the king and his guests at dinner.

But the moment he touched the strings, the whole company heard them ring out the words; "Labhraidh Loingseach has donkey’s ears!" Craiftine stopped playing and the guests all stared at their plates in embarrassment.

No one knew what to do or say.

Suddenly the king snatched off his headband, so that everyone could see for them selves what he had kept hidden for so long.

'Now you all know my secret; ' he cried. "But I ask you; am I any different now, just because you can now see what was there all the time unseen?"

Then everyone agreed that a good and wise king with large ears was a great deal better then a wicked or a foolish one with the most beautiful ears in the world.

After that the king never again troubled to hide his ears under his hair. Nor was any barber ever again put to death in his kingdom.