School: Cromadh (B.)
- Location:
- Croom, Co. Limerick
- Teacher: Dáithí Ó Ceanntabhail
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0507, Page 024
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“When the Danes were in Ireland they used to make a wonderful drink called Mead.”
Miscellaneous.When the Danes were in Ireland they used to make a wonderful drink called Mead. When Brian Boru banished them, he unfortunately banished with them the secret of the process of its manufacture. There remained, however two Danes, a father and son, who knew the secret. These two men were kept prisoners, and every effort was made by the Irish to extract from them the knowledge of how to make the drink.Promises, bribes, threats, kindness and cruelties, were all employed in vain to induce them to part with their secret. They had been kept apart, but when everything else failed they were allowed to come together. The Irish hoping that perhaps thereby some one of them would prevail on the other to tell. They were placed together during the night and the following morning the son was found dead. The father had killed him, and when the deed was discovered the Irish put the father to death out of spite for what he had done, and because of his refusal to submit to their wishes. So ended the chance of ever discovering the secret of how to brew the mead from the heath flowers. (I regret I have only a very garbled and I am certain a most inaccurate version of the story above, but I can recall it being told at home when "Heath water", used to be given to the calves in conjunction with milk and flaxseed brew. In the summer, I think about June, July (or) and August, the flowering heath used to be pulled, and the older woody stems with the peat sometimes adhering, used be broken off from(continues on next page)