1. dúchas.ie
  2. The Schools' Collection
  3. Cnoc na Biolaraighe

School: Cnoc na Biolaraighe

Location:
Watergrasshill, Co. Cork
Teacher:
Dll. Mac Carrthaigh
Browse
Mode:
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0382, Page 084

Archival Reference

The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0382, Page 084

Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.

See copyright details.

Download

Open data

Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

  1. XML School: Cnoc na Biolaraighe
  2. XML Page 084
  3. XML “Shrove and its 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

  1. Shrove and its Customs

    Share Share Post
    Shrove begins the day after Little Christmas and ends on Shrove Tuesday. They call the first sunday in Shrove "The Look out Sunday," because they say that the boys and girls who are of marriageable age are looking out for a suitable spouse on that day. About twenty years ago they used to make many matches between people in Shrove, and there used to be several marriages during that period.
    The Match.-
    There was a certain old man in each district who was very good for making matches. If there was a farmer's daughter of marriageable and if she had a "fortune", and if her father knew a young farmer who had a farm he would send this messenger to the father of the young man to know if he was satisfied to take in his own daughter, as a wife for his own son. Sometimes they might ask the son himself if he would be satisfied. Then the messenger would praise the young girl. Then they would ask him what "fortune" she had and he would tell them. Then if they were all satisfied, they would name a special day to meet, at a fair or at a market to start the match. That day they would come together in some public house, and they used to have great discussion, the father and mother of the young couple would be there, and the young couple themselves and relatives from both sides. Sometimes they might be arguing for an hour or two over five or ten pounds of the "fortune". Then
    (continues on next page)
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    History Edit
    Topics
    1. events
      1. events (by time of year) (~11,476)
        1. Shrovetide (~188)
    Language
    English
    Collector
    Crissie O Riordan
    Gender
    Female
    Address
    Skahanagh South, Co. Cork
    Informant
    Patrick O' Riordan
    Relation
    Parent
    Gender
    Male
    Age
    c. 60