School: An Clochar, Gráig na Muilte Iarainn
- Location:
- Woodford, Co. Galway
- Teacher: Sr. I. Breathnach
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0050, Page 0458
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
- HerbsTradition tell us that the people of older times were much healthier than the people are nowadays. The only cure they had for any illness they might have were herbs.
The sowed those herbs in gardens, the same as we would sow vegetables now, but the bog-onion grew in bogs, or the banks of some rivers, or streams.
There is not an account of all herbs used in those times. The only ones commonly known are, marsh-mallows, garlic, dandelion, cumfry, chicken-weed, colts-foot, Peruvian-bark, bishop's cap, Poppy flowers, camomile flowers, elder, foggy dew and the bog-onion.
The bog-onion resembles a fern in appearance, but its root is somewhat the same as an onion bulb. This root is converted into a juicy substance and used as a rub for rheumatism or sciatica; it is often found to be complete cure. First the root is cut into slices and then pounded up into a mash. It is then put into a bottle or some corked vessel and water supplied in proportion to the size of the root. It is then left to set for about two days until it forms a thick white juicy substance.
The bog onion flowers at night in the(continues on next page)
- Informant
- Michael Conroy
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 70
- Occupation
- Farmer
- Address
- Woodford, Co. Galway
