School: Cnoc Cairn, Imleach Iubhair (roll number 10731)

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1. Irish Wakes (continued)

   

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   be a small grey person with very long tresses, and she was always engaged in combing out her tresses. It was a common belief, that if a person succeeded in capturing this comb, he never again would see a poor day. Then again, "American wakes", or "live-wakes" took place the night before an Irish emigrant sailed for America. These wakes were gay affairs - singing, dancing and carousal. But on the following morning at the local railway-station, the keening could be heard for miles around.

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2. Ghost Story

   

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   By far the most famous of the local ghosts was a "sperrit" (as she was called) named "Petticoat Loose". She got this name on account of her swinging flowing skirts. She was seen by several inhabitants of the parish at a place called Bartoose (renowned in ghost-lore). One night, a man named Michael Ryan of Bartoose, was riding on horseback to Ballyvistea for a midwife to attend his wife. Approaching Bartoose Cross he noticed a very tall woman in flowing petticoats standing at the cross-roads. He knew her immediately and was terrified. Spurring his horse to gallop, he went to gallop past her, but she took a quick pace forward, laid her hand on the horse's neck, and vaulted into the saddle behind Mike. He rode in a cold sweat, and he dared not say one word to "Petticoat Loose."

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