School: Loughill, Longford

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1. Games

   

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   Here are the names of the local games which the children of this district play. "Here's the Robbers coming through", "The Ghost in the garden", "Little Dog", "Black Man", "Box of Matches", "Sally-o-Sally", "Tig", "Statutes".
   The name of the game I am about to describe is, "Here is the Robber coming through". First of all two children hold up their hands in the form of an arch. The rest who are playing form a line. They go through the arch singing, "Here's the robbers coming through three times and my fair lay-dy Which ever one lay-dy falls on the two children drop their hands over them. They ask them questions and whichever gift they select they go behind their backs. And it goes on like that until at last they have to pull tug-o-war to see which side wins. Whichever side falls they are the losing side.

   "The Ghost in the Garden".
   One boy or girl is placed in a corner which represents the ghost. The others line up headed by the mother. The mothers sends the for some clcothes and they coem back running saying "There is a Ghost in the Garden." It carries on like that until they are all sent for clothes. They all gather up matches which represents candles and they go to the ghost and they say. "What do you want here for"? He says "I want a bag of sand",? "What do you want the sand for"? "To sharpen my knife", "What do you want the knife for"? "To kill you". They all run away and he follows them

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. activities
      1. social activities (~7)
         1. entertainments and recreational activities (~5,933)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Thomas Breaden

   Gender

   Male