School: Killmallock Convent School
- Location:
- Kilmallock, Co. Limerick
- Teacher: An tSr. Dimpna
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0528, Page 284
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- XML School: Killmallock Convent School
- XML Page 284
- XML “Biddy Early”
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
- A woman named Walsh was in terrible trouble because some piseógs or other she couldn't make the butter right. After her all her churning and work she had only sour milk! Well, a kind neighbour told her about Biddy Early who lived in Clare and who would surely tell her how to get rid of the piseógs.Mrs Walsh called her son and told him to tackle the horse and drive with her to Clare. Pat, the son, had a terrible morning in the mud and rain trying to catch the horse. He lost his patience one time and said: "Wisha bad luck to you Biddy Early - only for you I wouldn't have had the morning I had."Well, they reached Biddy's house in Clare and before a word was spoken between them said Biddy: "Wasn't that a nice prayer your son put on me this morning while he was catching the horse, Maggie Walsh?" Poor Mrs Walsh got a terrible start and was afraid Biddy wouldn't help her. But the old witch told her to go home and search for a bottle hidden in the ditch between herself and her neighbour, to break it in smithereens and that her next churn would be successfulThey went home and after much searching the bottle was found in the fork of a bush - a greenish, two-pint bottle, containing a liquid like water. You may be sure they broke it with a vengeance and they had grand butter the next day!
- Collector
- Maureen Sheedy
- Gender
- Female
