School: Boireann

Location:
Burren, Co. Cork
Teacher:
Eibhlín Ní Bhriain
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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0313, Page 147

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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0313, Page 147

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  3. XML “Old Cures”

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  1. Instead of Doctors' bottles our forefathers used medicines which they made themselves from herbs.
    Dandelion.
    They boiled the leaves strained off the water and mixed it with candy. They gave it to anyone who wanted a tonic or who was hurt internally. It also softened coughs.

    Mach-an-dá-hAbha (phonetic).
    had a root like a carrot. This root was pounded up finely and roasted on the bastable-cover or shovel while the person suffering from boils was away out in the air. Immediately it was ready the sufferer was brought in and the mach-an-da-how (roasted) was quickly applied to the boil on a brown paper. This was supposed to kill the "worm" in the boil. The idea was of keeping the patient outside was that if the "worm" smelt the mac-an-da-how he would run away to another part of the body and avoid getting killed. It used to cure the boils anyhow.
    (continues on next page)
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    Topics
    1. activities
      1. medical practice
        1. folk medicine (~11,815)
    Languages
    Irish
    English
    Collector
    Mrs O' Mahony
    Gender
    Female
    Age
    80
    Address
    Cloonderreen, Co. Cork
    Informant
    Mrs O' Mahony
    Gender
    Female
    Age
    80
    Address
    Cloonderreen, Co. Cork
    Informant
    Timothy Holland
    Gender
    Male
    Age
    61
    Occupation
    Feirmeoir
    Address
    Clooncalla More, Co. Cork
    Informant
    Mrs O' Brien
    Relation
    Parent
    Gender
    Female
    Age
    75
    Address
    Dangan More, Co. Cork