School: Koilmore (roll number 14115)
- Location:
- Cuilmore, Co. Mayo
- Teacher: Séamus Ó Murchadha
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0099, Page 155
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- XML “Old Customs”
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- Long ago, when an old person would die, the people in the house would not allow him to die on a feather bed. They would place some straw on the hearth near the fire, and leave the corpes over the straw. The believed the person would die peacefully then. When a person would die, the people of the house would stop the clock. The old people would not dare to put a corpse in a coffin until a hearse would have come to take it to the church. They would leave the corpse on two chairs until the hearse would come. A cart was the the general means of carrying the corpse to the church. Two women would be appointed to sit on the coffin in the cart, and cry on the journey to the church. The women were called "Caoiners."The old people believed that it was not right to carry a corpse out a kitchen-door. They would rise the window in the room in which the person died, and put the corpse out the window. The old people who not like to build any out-house on to the dwelling-house. They believed that someone would die in the house if this was done.(continues on next page)
