School: Stonetown, Louth (roll number 16431)
- Location:
- Stonetown Lower, Co. Louth
- Teacher: P. Ó Dubháin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0668, Page 212
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- There are some fields in the neighbourhood of this school (one in Corbreaghy, the property of Pat Kerley) and it is said that people are liable to "go astray" in them after nightfall, and specifically if one happens to walk on the 'unlucky spot'. The local theory is that in these fields, there was buried at some time an -unbaptised child- and if one happens to walk -over- the grave of the child (i.e. the unlucky spot) its spirit deprives that person of all sense of direction or location, in receipt for the result of walking on its grave.
The local words for an unbaptised child are:-
"Pocharrion" (Mrs Kerley, Corcreaghy)
"Puth dearg" (Pat Kerley) [husband]
"Push-a-haw" (Mrs Peter Marron Tully)
"Push-a-han" - (Mrs Kerr, Ravanny Stonetown)
"Putch-ar-on" (Mrs Byrne, Louth Village)"Troth she -was- guilty all right - wasn't the "putcharon" found in the garden! (said more than 50 years ago of a local girl who was charged with concealing of birth - quoted to me by Mrs B Byrne, Louth).
