The goats?

Here's the text of the story online, btw:
http://corpas.ria.ie/index.php?fsg_func ... sg_id=3087

GRMA - I didn't realise that it was on the RIA site as well. In fact I've managed to get hold of a copy of the original and it's also available on Internet Archive.

Feng Shui.

Interestingly (but totally NOT the answer to your question), the Japanese (and more than likely other Asian cultures as well) consider it bad luck to sleep with your head pointed north. Why? Because that's the way they lay out the corpse at a funeral.

I'm sure it will come down to there having been some Druidic equivalent to Feng Shui, remnants of which linger in the folk culture.

Dinneen has an ghaoth a dtuaidh "the north wind, fig. misfortune, calamity", so there does appear to be some superstition about misfortune and the direction North, though I can imagine that also just being the practical fact that the North wind can be deathly cold and bring calamities like blizzards.

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WARNING: Intermediate speaker - await further opinions, corrections and adjustments before acting on my advice.
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

Dia daoibh go léir (I'm back from the South of France). Having taken the time to read through the whole text, I've realised that it's a succession of nonsense stories, so when his newly-wed wife and her mother suddenly become distraught about which way the goats are looking, it's completely illogical and it must have much amused those who were hearing him tell it. I have recently found out that there are equivalent stories told in la Haute Provence - known as histoires béotiennes, as people living in Béotie in Ancient Greece were traditionally considered to be not very intelligent or cultured, when compared to their neighbours. So which village or community in the Gaeltacht might have this kind of reputation amongst their neighbours, and have become the object of sarcastic jokes and sayings ?