The following recording was made after spurning surrounding studio equipment, on a mobile phone in the depths of the night by myself and the stalwart, sly and solid Fintan O'Brien. We had spent the night sating our thirst in the town of Killarney and I gave this recitation a go in the middle of that sultry, soppen night after returning to Trouble or Fortune Studios on High St.
Advertisement for a Horse, attributed to Eoghan Ruadh Ó Súillebháin.
Saturday, the 16th of September, 1769, will be sold or set up for sale, at Skibereen, the robust horse Spanker, property of Thomas O'Donnell, Esq. A strong, staunch, steady, sound, stout, sinewy, safe, serviceable, strapping, supple, swift, smart, sightly, sprightly, spirited, sturdy, shining, sure-footed, sleek, smooth, spunky, well-skinned, sized, and shaped; a sorrel steed of superlative symmetry, styled Spanker, and a snip square-sided, slender-shouldered, smart-sighted, with a small star, and steps singularly stately; free from strain, sprain, spasms, string-halt, stranguary, sciatica, staggers, scaling, solander, surfeit, seams, scouring, strangle, strenuous swelling, soreness, scratches, splint, squint, squirt, scruff, scales, scurp, scars, scabs, scabbed sores, scattering, shuffling, shambling gait or symptoms of sickness of any sort. He is neither stiff-mouthed, shabby-coated, sinew-shrunk, spur-galled, nor saddle-backed, shell-toothed, shaby-coated, surbated, skin-scabbed, short-winded, splay-footed, or shoulder-slipped, and is sound in the sword-point, and stiffle-joint, has neither sick-spleen, sleeping-evil, set-fast, or snaggle-tooth, nor suppression of urine, sand-creaks, swelling-sheath, subcutaneous sores, or shattered hoofs, is not sour, sulky, slow, surly, stubborn, or sullen in temper, neither shy, sly, nor skittish, slow, sluggish, nor stupid. He never slips, stripes, strays, stalks, starts, stops, shakes, swells, snivels, snibbles, snuffles, smarts, stumbles, or stocks in his stall or stable, and scarcely or seldom sweats, has a showy, skittish switch tail or stern, and a safe set of shoes to stride on. He can feed on stubble, sheaf-oats, straw, sedges, and Scotch grass, carries sixteen stone on his stroke with surprising speed over a six-foot sod or stone wall. His sire was the sly, sober Sydus on a sister of Spindle Shanks by Sampson and Sporter, son of Sparkler, who won the Sweepstake and Subscription Plate last season at Sligo. His selling price is sixty-six pounds sixteen shillings and sixpence sterling.
