School: Rathkenny (roll number 15483)

Location:
Rathkenny, Co. Meath
Teacher:
Tomás Mac Cárthaigh
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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0714, Page 255

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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0714, Page 255

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  3. XML “Burying the Sheaf”

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  1. "Burying the Sheaf" was a method of revenge practised in these parts long ago, by the injured party against the wrong-doer.
    This was the method adopted. The injured party got a sheaf of oats (really a very small sheaf of about two handfuls of blades of ripe oats). Into each joint in each blade of oats she stuck and ordinary pin and then tied the whole into a sheaf with a "gad" or belt. The sheaf was them waked for three successive nights from nightfall to dawn with candles burning round it, and the injured party "keened" beside it, as if it were a corpse. At the end of the third night and just before day-break the injured party buried the sheaf secretly, and it is said that according as the sheaf was decaying and the pins rusting away, the wrong-doer was pining away, and finally died when the sheaf & pins were rotten.
    A girl named Nanny Ward from this Parish (she lived at Knock, Wilkinstown Navan, at the bridge of
    (continues on next page)
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    Language
    English
    Collector
    Thomas Carty
    Gender
    Male
    Address
    Rathkenny, Co. Meath
    Informant
    Owen Flanagan
    Gender
    Male
    Age
    c. 55
    Address
    Ladyrath, Co. Meath