School: Ballinard (B.), Cnoc Luinge
- Location:
- Ballinard, Co. Limerick
- Teacher: Ss. Ó Riain
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0517, Page 060
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- (continued from previous page)the family will "sleep out" (that is, fall asleep near a fence or on the grass) in May, as such a person would be certain to get "an aery (eerie) fit."The farmer when digging the potatoes often finds duck-eggs buried in certain parts of the garden. He also finds cakes of bread or if his neighbours cow had a dead calf he would throw portion of it into his lands to bring bad luck on the cattle. In order to find out the piseógue worker the farmer puts the plough-share in the fire and the first neighbour of his that would come for the loan of anything while it would be in the fire would be the pisheógue worker.In the month of May when the ground is dried up after the spring rains we often see the wind whirling the dust along the country roads. Sometimes the dust is sucked up into a spiral shape, and then is danced along the road, and sometimes over hedges and ditches across the fields. This is the much-dreaded Sídhe Gaoithe, or "the whirlwind of the sidhe," which is supposed to be formed by the dancing of the "good people", or the tramping of their invisible steeds and the roll of their (equally invisible carriage wheels along the roads in May. When the sidhe gaoithe passes no one will dare look after it, or speculate as to which lios or rath the invisible company are journeying ; but the peasant quickly turns his back on it and sa[ys?](continues on next page)
