School: Gort an Iubhair

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1. St Martin's Night

   

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   St. Martin's night is one of the great festivals amongst the old Irish people. On St. Martin's night there is usually fowl eaten in honour of St. Martin.
   On the eve of St. Martin's a fowl must be killed and its blood must be spilled at the four corners of the kitchen, also at the door-steps to keep away evil for the rest of the year. Each family must kill a fowl, or if they do not, they will have bad luck for the rest of the year.
   There is a very old way reckoning the date of St Martin's night which is - "Nine nights and a night without counting from Halloween night to the night of St Martins."
   There is a very old story about St. Martin's - Away in the wilds of Mayo, there dwelt a poor man and his wife, who were so poor, as they had only one cow, and no fowl, or pigs, or horses. Halloween night came and the wife said:- "Dear Tom St Martin's night will soon be here, and we have nothing to kill, but our cow, and if we dont kill her, we shall have bad luck for the rest of the year." The husband said - "If we kill her we shall be poorer than ever." Mary said - "Kill the cow what-ever about the poverty and trust in St. Martin At last they both consented to kill the cow."
   Early next morning the man asked some of his neighbours to help him kill the cow. They killed the cow

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. events
      1. events (by time of year) (~11,476)
         1. Feast of St Martin (~177)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Bea Agnes Cassidy

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Boghtaduff, Co. Roscommon

   Informant

   Henry Quinn

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Gortanure, Co. Roscommon