School: Bellanagare (roll number 2968)
- Location:
- Bellanagare, Co. Roscommon
- Teacher: Seán Mac Dochair
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0244, Page 136
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
- The Irish people long ago were very traditional and had many customs and beliefs for certain feast-days. On St. Bridget's Eve they made crosses from plaited straw and rushes and hung them up on the feast day behind a rafter or "?" as the rafters were called at that time. They also hung them up in the stables to bring good luck on the stock for the year.
On May Eve furze was gathered and a sprig was placed over the door for good luck. Holly was put up on Christmas Eve and left there until the twelfth night after Christmas when it was burned. Palm when it was got from the priest on Palm Sunday was hung up, to save the house from being destroyed by fire. This was left in the house the whole year.
When coming from the bonfire each person who was present at it brought a coal with them and threw it among their potato stalks. This it was said, helped to bring a good crop that year. When the people also visited a holy well they brought some of the holy water, as they thought it was sacred and they therefore applied it to any bodily ailment which they suffered from. Some of these customs are still carried out and some are discontinued.
- Collector
- Mary Geraghty
- Gender
- Female
- Informant
- Michael Geraghty
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 65
- Address
- Bellanagare, Co. Roscommon
