School: Gleann an Chairthe (roll number 13345)
- Location:
- Glencar, Co. Leitrim
- Teacher: Seán Mag Ualghairg
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0193, Page 265
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- XML School: Gleann an Chairthe
- XML Page 265
- XML “The Wren”
- XML “The Cuckoo”
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- (continued from previous page)The Wren lays seventeen or eighteen small eggs. She hatches the eggs for three weeks and small birds come out. At first these birds are not nice because there are no feathers on them. When they are fully feathered the mother bird teaches them to fly.
In this country it is a custom on St Stephens day for young men to gather up and go around from house to house collecting money to bury the wren.
Some time afterwards these boys ask some farmer would he give them his house for a dance. This dance is called the wren boy's dance.
The wren is not liked by the people. It is supposed to have spied on our Lord.
- The cuckoo comes to this country about the twenty third of April. At first it is heard singing only in very sheltered places and it sings only very early in the morning.
By degrees we can hear it singing anytime of the day. It gets its name from the song it sings. It sings cuckoo. While it is flying around the country it is followed by a little bird called a reavog.(continues on next page) - Collector
- Margaret Mary Gilligan
- Gender
- Female
- Age
- 13
- Address
- Fenagh, Co. Leitrim
- Informant
- Thomas Kelly
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 65
- Address
- Drumdillure, Co. Leitrim
