School: Walterstown (roll number 10356)

Location:
Walterstown, Co. Meath
Teacher:
Proinseas, Bean Uí Cheallaigh
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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0686, Page 226

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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0686, Page 226

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  1. Days
    Red iron water that oozed from a spring, (red iron movlya, they used to call it) was used to bathe a man's leg that had a lump on it. This was done on a certain day and on that one certain day each week for three weeks. At the end of that time the man could walk.
    On May morning you'd have to go to the well and wait for the Sunrise, lest the witches would get there before you. The witches would muddy the well if you were not there in time and then they could take all the butter off your churn.
    Few sow oats except on a Friday. Then they would broadcast the first of it with the fist "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost".
    An old saying is "Saturday's flitting, short sitting". This meant that if you moved into a place on a Saturday, that you'd not be there for long. The old people used to say, when anything went against them - "O, this is the Cross Day".
    Potatoes
    The day after St. Patrick's Day was the day for planting the main crop of potatoes and the digging out was done from the 13th October on
    Borrowed Days
    The cow was let out on the last days of March and went off galloping through the field
    (continues on next page)
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    Topics
    1. genre
      1. belief (~391)
        1. folk belief (~2,535)
    Language
    English
    Collector
    Mary B. Kelly
    Gender
    Female
    Address
    Monktown, Co. Meath
    Informant
    James Reynolds
    Gender
    Male
    Occupation
    Farm-labourer
    Address
    Follistown, Co. Meath