"I met a distant cousin by the name of O'Shea with roots where my family has roots in Dingle, Ireland.."

We recorded this from Traveller, Mikeen McCarthy, who came from Caherciveen, in County Kerry in the 1970s
Jim Carroll

Mermaid of Filemore
M Mc   Well back in Caherciveen years ago the old..... my mother was often telling me about it, there was a place called Filemore, and all the fishermen out of Filemore'd fish in this particular place, we used call it over the water.    So there was Murphys, 'twas a great name in that parish like, Murphy, ‘twas nearly all Murphys, O'Sullivans and all that.    So there was one Murphy man anyway, and he went out fishing.   'Twas about four or five o'clock in the evening when he went out that time anyway.   
My mother often told me. He went on his own.   
Bejay, whatever way the nets got tangled anyway.    He didn't know what it was, he thought he'd a monster of a fish or something, and he had to tow it behind the boat anyway, into the strand. And when he landed in the strand he found out what he had was a mermaid.   
So she done her best to get away, but she'd a fishes tail like, now like that is called the mantle. It used come away easy enough, d'you know.    So when he got the mantle anyway he had a magic wand anyway, she had to follow the mantle because she couldn't go anywhere without it.   So he took home the mantle anyway and when he got it home he put it... there was what we the roofs of the houses that time, there was coarse bags they used call them and they have them all pinned on to the roof, nailed up like, and they have them whitewashed as well.    They were very warm and anything that they wanted to put away like, they'd put it up there and 'twould be quite safe and dry for the following summer evening to their fishing nets now and all that. So he put up the mantle up there anyway unknown to her.
So bejay, they claimed that she worked with him and stopped with him for seven or eight years.   But for every time, she still spent all her time looking for the mantle and he knew himself if she ever got the mantle that she was gone.
But she was supposed to be the loveliest looking girl around that area anyway.   And as far as I hear they had two or three kids.   
But eventually he went out one day, out fishing and bejay, wasn't she whitewashing the roof of the house, the bags.   And the bags was giving away like, they were too long there.    Here she finds her mantle and she takes to the sea for it,   
So she said before she went back to see, she said, “any Murphy”, she said, “that ever go out fishing”, she said, “at the hour I was caught”, she said, “Their boat'll go down”.   
So from that day until this there was never a Murphy seen out fishing from Filemore until after five o'clock in the evening, never no more.   
But there was one family of the Murphys, the father and son and they went out fishing, they disbelieved her, and bejay, the boat went down and the son went down but the father got saved. So that put them all right off anyway, they never went out after that,   
They don't even go out since.