Status Updates From The Poor Mouth

“There was no one in Ireland comparable to O’Sanassa in the excellence of his poverty; the amount of famine which had delineated in his person […] in the depths of winter I often saw him on the hillside fighting and competing with a stray dog, both contending for a narrow hard bone and the same snorting and angry barking issuing from them both”

“The gentlemen from Dublin who came in motors to inspect the paupers praised him for his Gaelic poverty and stated that they never saw anyone who appeared so truly Gaelic”

One time when I returned from Galway in the black of night, what do you think I noticed but that we had acquired a new piglet in the end of the house. […] I took it carefully and allowed it to drop from my hand with amazement when I realised precisely what I had. It had a small bald head, a face as large as a duck-egg and legs like my own. I had a baby-child.

“-There was always good hunting in that house, said he to me. He opened his hand and what might one imagine was there but five shillings in silver, a fine elegant lady's necklace and a small golden ring. He placed these objects in some inside pocket with satisfaction and hurried me away with him onwards.”