Shrove Tide was a great time of the year for getting married long ago. Shrove-Tide the people used to say, was from the feast of the Epiphany to Shrove Tuesday.
When the people were matchmaking long ago, they used to take whiskey with them and there used to be a great spree. Money was nearly always given as a dowry. But in our local townlands of Scragg and Burgess there is colony of families called McGraths living all together. When the sons and daughters of the McGrath family were getting married instead of giving money an equal share of land was given to each of them and so tehy are all living near each other