Guban Circe*
A poor woman, crossing from Teelin to Malinbeg, had the misfortune, when passing this way, to scatter among the grass the contents of a small meal wallet which she was carrying with her. She immediately set herself to collecting it again with her hands, but made small progress, as much of it was lost among the blades of grass, and so could not be reached by the fingers.
In this extremity she bethought herself that a hen with her beak would make short work of picking up the scattered particles; so she prayed to St. Breacan in Heaven to use his intercession with the Almighty towards procuring for her the bill of a bird that she might collect all her meal again, as otherwise it was quite lost to her.
Immediately a hen's beak sprouted forth from her jaws; gladly did she accept the supernatural gift; and, having set to work with it, it was not long until all the scattered meal was found safely deposited in her bag. Having attained her object, she asked the Saint to have the beak removed from her countenance.
"No," he replied, speaking to her from the clouds, "the prayer by which you acquired it was an offence offered to the supreme dignity of God, and He has punished you by granting it. You shall wear that beak till you die." She was ever after known by the name of Gubân Circè," (pronounced Gubban Kirca) which means "hen's beak," and her story is often referred to as an example of the impiety of preferring silly petitions in prayer.
*From the book "The Cliff Scenery of South-Western Donegal" by Thomas Colin McGinley (Kinnfaela) 1867
