There are four closed wells in Oughterard. St Cummin's in a filed on the Galway road about a quarter of a file from Oughterard. St Michael's well is in a field in the town. St Cuthbert's in the graveyard in Glann a few miles from Oughterard and St Una's is in a filed back in Leam. People visit St Cummin's on the fifteenth

There is one very good road coming from Galway to Clifden. It is tarred and steam-rolled. The road from Oughterard to Glann was not so very good but at present it is being widened and tarred. It is many years ago since they were made. There is a cross roads in the centre of Oughterard

The famine was very bad round Oughterard. There were more people here that time than there are now. Three hundred died from starvation in Oughterard during one year of the famine alone. It was then the work-house was built by the English it

There are a few blessed wells around Oughterard. There is a well in Lough Gannon, about three miles from Oughterard, in a rock. Saint Patrick was supposed to have knelt on this rock as the track of his feet can be seen there. The little well never dries and in its waters there is a cure for warts.In Wellfield, about a quarter of a mile below Oughterard there is another well called Saint Cummins. At one time they tried to stop it but they failed twice and the third time it sprang up in the graveyard and it flowed down to where it is now. The people make the stations round the well on the fifteenth of October. There is a blessed well called Saint Michael's in a field above the bridge in Oughterard. The people make the stations around this well on the twenty-sixth of September.In Collnamuck there is a blessed well called "Tobar Cuanaigh". It is called after Saint Cooney. There are two trees growing by it and both of them are rotten inside and they never fell yet. There is a grave-yard in the same grounds as it and all the children who die in

Oughterard, lame and Colinamuck Oughterard and they would try to make the people turn protestants.At that time Paddy Callaghan from Collinmuck Oughterard was digging potatoes in his field and a crow came and carried of a potato in his beak. The crow kept flying and Paddy kept running and when he perched on St. Patrick's rock in Cluais, Paddy snapped it from her and came home again.The eyes of the potatoes were taken out and put down like mangelseed and they grew but they were small. (Mrs Callaghan told me this)

During the famine in Oughterard a lot of people died of hunger and spotted fever.The English Government opened soup-houses in Oughterard, one in the town, one in Glann, one in Glen Gabhla and one in Castle Kirk - an island in Lough Corrib. They gave bread, biscuits and

Some shoe-makers make boots in Oughterard still. Some people also mend their own shoes too. Around Oughterard, nearly all the showw-makers' people before them were shoe-makers. There were more of their trade here a few years ago.
Clogs were worm five or six years ago by a great many people. Those shoes were wooden ones and they were bought in the shops. Long ago the people used not sew the shoes at all but they used stick them with gutaperca.

also sheets out of Oughterard linen.
Most of the farmers around Oughterard wear (the)
home-knitted stockings made out of home-spun thread. They get the wool off the sheep and make it into thread by dressing it with sweet oil and carding it into little rolls about twelve or eighteen inches long. They then spin it on the spinning wheel and twist it to make it right for knitting.
There are several people around Oughterard that have spinning wheels. Mrs. Mac Donagh of Drimmahon has one.
Black clothes are usually worn for a year after a near relative dies.

There are three tailors in Oughterard at present. The tailors work in their

An t-AonachLong ago there were two fair greens in Oughterard, one up in Claremount and the other in Corribdale. There were only eight fairs held in Oughterard during the whole year. Four of these were held in Claremount and the rest in Corribdale.
The fair is held now on the second Thursday of the month in the streets.
Sometimes when stock is scarce the buyers go from house to house in the country and buy the stock.
Long ago before people came to Oughterard the fairs

There is an old road going from Glen Gabla in Oughterard through the mountain as far as Bunaguill near Maam Cross and it continues on as far as Rosmuck. It is about two hundred years old and it is in use yet.
The main road were made in time of the famine to give the people a means of living. The women worked on them also and they carried sand in bags on their backs.
There was another old road going from Oughterard to Glann and is in use yet but a few years ago there was another one made to Glann and it is called the new road.
There are a number of paths around the place. A path goes from Glen Gabla to Lettermore. Another path goes from Leam to Gleanntrasna, a village back in Connemara.
There are stepping stones on four different places on the Owen Rife, one leading from Clareville to the waterfall, one going to the plantation and the other two are used as short-cuts.
There are three piles of stones on the old road in Glen Gabla where the people put down coffins to rest in different places.
About six miles from Oughterard back Connemara

In Oughterard the custom is to get married a few days before Ash Wednesday especially on Shrove Tuesday. They believe it is lucky to get married that day. It is the custom to get married in the morning in Oughterard but in other places they get married in the evening. The people make matches before they get married, they give money or stock or what ever they have. It is unlucky to get married in May or on a Saturday or to get married in black, green, or red clothes, blue and white are lucky colours.
When the marriage day comes the man comes for the girl but he does not go in the same car as her to the chapel. The bride's mother never goes to the chapel to see them getting married.
When they get married they go home and the people light straw before the car to welcome the bride. When she goes into her house a married woman must break a cake on her head or ten years of her life will be unlucky.

The people of Oughterard suffered greatly the time of the famine. It was then the English built the workhouse and they fed the people on indian meal stirabout but they gave it only to those who were ready to turn their religion. There are graves all the way back from the top of the town near the Church by the side of the mountain back nearly as far as Glengowla in which people died that time were buried. The other people were so weak as they could not bring them to a grave-yard.There was a woman coming from Leame to Oughterard and she saw a woman dead by the side of the road and a baby alive in her arms and when she was coming from town again the baby was dead and they are buried back near Glengowla and the place where they are buried is green all the year around.It is said that a man in Cregg had no seed to sow and he sowed chaff and in the Harvest he had a big garden of oats.

Long ago there were old men who used to compose poetry and songs all around Oughterard.Some of the composers of songs were Andrew Darcy from Magheramore Oughterard, Mick Kennavey from Portacarron, Willie Carr from Old Chapel and James Gavin from Old Town Moycullan.The songs which Andrew Darcy compose were about Paddy Gavin Magheramore. This is part of the song which he composed.

There were a lot of old roads in Oughterard long ago. There were two roads going to Glan. The old road and the new road. The old road is there as long as the old people can remember.
It runs from the village of Oughterard back to the very end of Glan and at the end of it there is an old tumble down shack of a house. There is a legend about it. This is what the people say about it. In this old house long ago a woman lived and she was a jumper. She turned from a catholic to a protestant.
The night she died there were about fifty seven people in the house. They had to run with their lives because there was thunder and lightning and hail, and the howls of the devils

There are three blessed wells around Oughterard. St Cummins Well, St Michaels Well and St Cuthberts Well. St Cummins is situated in a field down the Galway road. St Michaels is in a field near the Connemara road. The people visit them. They visit St Michael's well on the 29th of September. The people visit St Cummins Well on the 15th of October. There is a bush near each of the wells. It is said that the devil appeared in the bush beside St Cummins Well. The people bring home holy water from the well. They do not use it in the house. Once upon a time Captain O'Flaherty's servant brought in some of the holy water to use in the house. They put it down for the breakfast and it would not boil. he visit the people make is called a Station. They leave money at the well.
There was a man named Tom Bolk from Oughterard who had a bad leg and he washed his foot in the well and it got better. Some time after that he was passing by the well and he threw a

mended.
Taoibhín, patch, soles and heels are the different words for patches. Taoibhín and patch are put on the side of boots.
Mr Heffernann and his people before him were always shoemakers.
Mr Keane is not long in Oughterard. There was another shoemaker in Oughterard before, called Mr Geraghty but he died a few years ago

Long ago the people never wore any boots. In Summer still children do not wear any boots.
Boots are made by the shoemakers in Oughterard. There are two shoemakers in Oughterard Mr. Keane and Mr. Heffermann.
Some people mend their own shoes and other sen them to the shoemakers to be