School: Bulgaden (C.), Kilmallock (roll number 13791)

Location:
Bulgaden, Co. Limerick
Teacher:
Isibéal, Bean Uí Bhriain
Browse
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0509, Page 552

Archival Reference

The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0509, Page 552

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: Bulgaden (C.), Kilmallock
  2. XML Page 552
  3. XML “St Brigid's Band”

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. On St. Brigid's eve (January 31st) a bond or long narrow piece of material is placed outdoors on a bush near the house. Before putting it out for the night its length and width are measured. When St. Brigid passes by during the night she blesses this band.
    During the year if any member of the household suffers from a headache, it is placed round the sick person's head and the pain is sure to be relieved and cured.
    When the band is brought into the house on the morning of St. Brigid's feast it is always found to be much longer and wider than it was when placed on the bush the previous night.
    This is a common practice among the mothers of this parish.
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    Topics
    1. genre
      1. belief (~391)
        1. folk belief (~2,535)
    2. events
      1. events (by time of year) (~11,476)
        1. Feast of St Brigid (~366)
    Language
    English