School: Wilkinstown (roll number 1917)
- Location:
- Wilkinstown, Co. Meath
- Teacher: Máire Ní Failcheallaigh
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0711, Page 053
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: Wilkinstown
- XML Page 053
- XML “An Old Wise Saying 'I Know Says the Crow'”
- XML “An Old Wise Saying 'Just Going to Do it Like the Priests Girl'”
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
- There is an old saying I have very often heard used in this district and this is the reason people have for saying it. Long ago all the birds did not know how to build nests but the magpie did. One day the crow came to him to know how to make a nest. After every little bit of instruction which the magpie would give, the crow would look very wise and say "I know". Before the magpie had half-finished, however, he lost his patience with the crow so he said "When you know so much you can finish the nest yourself."
- Often I have heard people remark sarcastically "I supposed you are just going to do it, like the priests girl" when a person makes an idle excuse for not having something done.
There is a story told to explain the origin of this saying. A priest once had a careless housekeeper & no matter when the priest told her to do one thing or asked(continues on next page) - Collector
- Dolours Sheridan
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Wilkinstown, Co. Meath
- Informant
- John Sheridan
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Wilkinstown, Co. Meath
