School: Lathach Barr
- Location:
- Ardbane or Laghy Barr, Co. Donegal
- Teacher: Seaghan Ó Gallchobhair
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1032, Page 353
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- XML “A True Hallow Eve Story”
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- Fifty or sixty years ago there were a great many Hallow Eve stories and customs in this perish which are almost now extinct.
At that time it was believed that if a man washed his shirt after sunset in a south running stream on a Hallow Eve night in the devils’ name, and left it on a chair before the fire to dry his future wife would come and turn it at twelve o’clock.
A certain man named John Mc Cafferty who tired in Ballintra, a village in this parish, always claimed that this belief was nonsensical; that he at least would never believe it until he would put it to the test.
Accordingly after sunset on a Hallow Eve night, he took his shirt and went to where he knew there was a south running stream. He washed and wrung it in the devils name. He came home and the left it aside until bed time. At that time there was what was called an ‘outshot’ bed in every house. That was a niche left in the wall for a bed in the kitchen convenient to the fire.(continues on next page)
- Collector
- John Henry Gallagher
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 60
- Address
- Rossilly Barr, Co. Donegal
- Informant
- John Mc Cafferty
- Gender
- Male
