School: Cnoc na Manach, An Mhainistir Bhán, Cionn tSáile (roll number 1391)
- Location:
- Knocknamanagh, Co. Cork
- Teacher: Dáithí de Barra
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0321, Page 132
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 robin red breast got its name because when St Joseph was fleeing with the Child into Egypt the thorns cut his feet so that there was a trail of drops of blood along the way.
The robin red breast, fearing that his enemies may follow the trail and capture the Infant Jesus, collected leaves and covered the blood. It was while pressing the leaves into the ground that some of the blood got on its breast and ever since the robin's breast is red.Another version is that the robin picked the thorns out of Christ's head at the crucifixion and that some of the blood fell on its breast.
After the crucifixion the Jews had a pot on the fire in which a cock was being boiled. They were talking abut the resurrection. One of them said that Christ was as dead as the cock in the pot and would never rise again. No sooner had he said these words when the cover of the pot lifted and out jumped the cock, flapped his wings and crowed three times saying-: Tá Mac na Muire slán Tá Mac na Muire slán, Tá Mac na Muire slán
- Informant
- David Barry
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 60
- Address
- Britfieldstown, Co. Cork
