School: Gort na Carraige (Rockfield) (roll number 9009)
- Location:
- Knocknashangan, Co. Donegal
- Teacher: Nóra Nic Aodhagáin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1029, Page 242
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
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
- On St Brigid’s eve crosses are made in every house in this district. On St. Patrick’s day shamrocks are worn by everyone. Little girls wear green ribbons on their hair and some wear green dresses.
The people of Ireland send shamrocks to England, America and other far off countries as shamrocks are not to be found in foreign places.
How to make St. Brigid’s Crosses
Rushes are first procured. Twelve of them are put together in honour of the twelve Apostels. Twelve more are then got and placed across the other twelve. They are interwoven at the centre where they are crossed. This forms a cross. The ends of each twelve are tied and then the cross is made. They are blessed and put up behind pictures in the homes. Some of them are put up in the barns and outhouse to bring good luck on the animals(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Kathleen Flynn
- Gender
- Female
- Age
- 12
- Address
- Cloghore, Co. Donegal
