School: Shanakill, Roscrea

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1. Local Cures (continued)

   “The cure is to get a snail and rub it to a wart, and then to make the Sign of the Cross on the wart with the snail and then stick the snail on a thorn again...”

   

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   Stye
   For to cure a stye a thorn is to be got off a goose-berry bush and prod the stye with it and the stye will be all right.

   Boils
   A cure for boils is to gather a weed called "Robin run the hedge" and boil it and drink its juice.

   Toothache
   The way to cure a toothache was to get red pepper and ginger and put them down on the tooth and the pain would go away.
   The way they had of drawing teeth was as there were no dentists then was to get a piece of waxed-end or a piece of thin twine and tie it around the tooth and jerk it out. This was a painful way of drawing teeth. One time a man offered 5/- to anybody who would draw a tooth for him so that he wouldn't feel it. One day he was in a forge getting a horse shod and he told the blacksmith about the offer he had made, so the smith said he'd try and earn the money. He got a waxed-end and tied it around the tooth and the other end to the anvil. Then he reddened an iron bar and all of a sudden he pulled the red bar out of the fire and shove it under the man's nose. The man jerked back and the tooth went out with out the man feeling it because

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. activities
      1. medical practice
         1. folk medicine (~11,815)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Daniel Quinlan

   Gender

   Male

   Informant

   Mr Quinlan

   Relation

   Parent

   Gender

   Male