School: Earl Darnley (roll number 13573)
- Location:
- Athboy, Co. Meath
- Teacher: Siubhán Ní Loichéid
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0696, Page 157
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: Earl Darnley
- XML Page 157
- XML “Halloween Customs”
- XML “A Local Story”
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
- (continued from previous page)Told by:- Most of these customs we practise annually, others were told to me by Mrs. Booker, Crossakiel, Kells, Co. Meath.
- There is a tradition that long ago the people of Athboy were smugglers and wreckers. On certain nights they would ride on horseback to certain places appointed like Skerries, Bettystown or Laytown. They would then change the position of lights that in those days were put to guide sailors past the rocks. The ships ran on the rocks and the inhabitants of Athboy went aboard the vessels, murdered the crews, and stole the cargo. They also owned a vessel which brought them wine, silk and brandy from France. The thieves used to hide their plunder in cellars beneath their houses and that is why there are so many cellars in Athboy now.(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Nigel Pratt
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Athboy, Co. Meath
- Informant
- Mr Pratt
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Athboy, Co. Meath
