School: Ballyduff B. N. School
- Location:
- Ballyduff, Co. Kerry
- Teacher: Tadhg Ó Leathlobhair
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0415, Page 173
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
- St. Martin's Day falls on the 11th of November. St. Martin was killed in a mill, and it is the custom in parts of Ireland to kill fowls or pigs on St. Martin's Night, so as to draw blood in honour of St. Martin. Some of the blood is taken in a cloth, which is rolled up and kept. There is a cure in this blood for pains. It was another custom long ago that any wheels did not turn on St. Martin's Day. Any creameries did not work and any cars would not be seen on the roads, but the custom is dying out.
There is a story told about a mill in Ballinoe, which is between Causeway and Ballyheigue. On St. Martin's Day some people brought corn to the mill to be crushed, and the owner, a Mr. Cunihan, did not want the mill to work on that day. The men, who brought the corn, came a very long distance, and insisted that the corn should be done for them. The mill was started, but the sails broke and the mill stopped. They fixed it again and started, but the water that was driving the mill turned into blood and the wheel would not stir. The owner of the(continues on next page)
- Informant
- James Houlihan
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Benmore, Co. Kerry
