School: Tamhnaighe an Fheadha (roll number 12938)
- Location:
- Tawnyinah Lower, Co. Mayo
- Teacher: Lúcás Mac Énrí
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0116, Page 38
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- XML School: Tamhnaighe an Fheadha
- XML Page 38
- XML “Local Cures”
Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.
On this page
- In olden times the people had all sorts of cures for different ailments. They had a great belief in herbs and poultices and visits to holy wells which they very often found very succesful. They believed that if you always put on your left shoe first you would never have any toothache. Sulphur ointment made with hog's lard was thought to be a good cure for any kind of rash. The cure that they had for whooping cough was, milk out of which a ferret had been drinking. Felloon which was very common in this district a few years ago, was cured by burying the patient in the house at the back door. A cure for a windy stomach is to bathe in a lake or stream a few mornings before your breakfast. There have been several different herbs found to be very good for ailments. 'The golden rod' and the 'Naoideanán Muire' has been long known to be a good cure for kidney trouble. 'Cumphry' is a good drawing and healing herb. They made good poultices for drawing and healing from soap and sugar mixed together and from oatmeal and buttermilk mixed together, both for drawing and healing. The seventh son of a family has a cure(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Eileen Doherty
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Lurga Upper, Co. Mayo
- Informant
- Michael Doherty
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Lurga Upper, Co. Mayo
