School: Calry (roll number 10473)

Location:
Colgagh, Co. Sligo
Teacher:
Róisín Mhig Ualghairg
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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0159, Page 133

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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0159, Page 133

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  3. XML “The Day of the Straw”

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  1. When Daniel O'Connell lived in Ireland he made a bet with a gentleman that he would send a message all round Ireland in twenty four hours. At that time there were no telegraphs, telephones, radios, motor cars, buses or bicycles. So everybody laughed at O'Connell's bet. He went to a house and told a young man there to get three straws from the [rick?]. "Now, he said, run to the nearest house and leave a straw there. Give instructions to some of the young men there to distribute three straws to the other houses. At the same time deliver all your straws in houses near by. Always be sure to tell them to deliver three other straws."
    This was done and in twenty four hours every house in Ireland was supplied with a straw. He won his water. Ever since, that day has been called, "the day of
    (continues on next page)
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    Topics
    1. agents (~1)
      1. historical persons (~5,068)
        1. Daniel O'Connell (~175)
    Language
    English
    Collector
    Joseph Mitchell
    Gender
    Male
    Address
    Glackbaun, Co. Sligo
    Informant
    Tom Mitchell
    Gender
    Male
    Age
    65
    Address
    Glackbaun, Co. Sligo