School: Lattoon
- Location:
- Lattoon, Co. Cavan
- Teacher: P. Ó Hiorraí
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1001, Page 253
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: Lattoon
- XML Page 253
- XML “Local Heroes”
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
- About 100 years ago there lived in Coragh a man named Michael McCabe, one of the greatest wrestlers of that period. No one for miles around could throw him wrestling. Wrestling at that period, I am proud to say was far more humane than at the present day. At the present time all in wrestling is a most barborous practice, everything included only biting. About 100 years ago it was different altogether. The men contesting just simply gripped each other's shoulders & it was by dexterity and activity of the feet where success lay. Of course, as now, there were wrestling phrases used in describing such as [?] and "crook" etc.
Young men who had conceit for wrestling came from far off to wrestle with this man McCabe. He was always victorious. He was of a quiet easy going disposition. He never talked of his victories or tried to belittle his opponent.
There was a man named Demsey, an itinerant tin-smith who hailed from the County Kerry who was a famous wrestler. He boasted that he never met a man but he could throw at wrestling.
His plan of wrestling was somewhat different from that which was practiced in this locality. Any man that he got a "crook" at the man either(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Rose Mc Gennis
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Coragh, Co. Cavan
- Informant
- Mr P. Mc Gennis
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Coragh, Co. Cavan
