School: Desart, Cill Choinnigh (roll number 3839)
- Location:
- Ballymack (Desart), Co. Kilkenny
- Teacher: Mary Commins
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0854, Page 120
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
- There was a story told of the Holy Family passing along when men were sowing corn. By a miracle the corn was ripe the next day. The soldiers came along and asked the men if they saw three people passing. They said they did the day the day the corn was sown. The Soldiers thinking that was months before, turned back but just as they had turned back a little wren called out 'Twas yesterday,' 'Twas yesterday, and that is why the wren is hated.
Some people say it was a black insect called in this locality the "dearg a' dáol" It is also said it was the guilsiach or earwigIt is said the smith refused to make the rails to crucify Our Lord and the tinker made them. That is why the smith is honoured and the tinker cursed.
The rails were supposed to be made from the part of the reaping hook which goes into the handle.
