School: Castlecoote (roll number 6344)
- Location:
- Castlecoote, Co. Roscommon
- Teacher: Máire, Bean Uí Ghabhláin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0263, Page 259
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- XML School: Castlecoote
- XML Page 259
- XML “Local Marriage Customs”
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
- Up to recent years marriages took place in this locality during Shrove and especially on Shrove Tuesday.
People always avoided marrying on a Friday and the month of May was considered most unlucky.
About 80 years ago it was quite a common ocurrence for a young man to bring five or six friends all on horses to the home of his would-be-bride in the middle of the night. He brought off his 'willing' lady by force and went to the home of the parish priest where they were then married. The girl's parents could then make no objection and her fortune was handed out. At that time young men and women were married in the early twenties. The young bride put on a bonnet and sometimes a veil and adopted a wise matronly look. She did not meet or talk to her own people for one month after the marriage. When the time had elapsed she returned to her parent's house for a visit when there was great feasting and merrymaking. Her mother then gave very useful presents of home made blankets, sheets quills and a feather bed. If the bride did not bring a good supply of those she lost the(continues on next page)
