School: Mullagh (B)
- Location:
- Mullagh, Co. Cavan
- Teacher: James Drury
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1003, Page 120
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: Mullagh (B)
- XML Page 120
- XML “Games and Customs at Wakes”
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
- A game called the "Bechure" was often played at wakes.
An unsuspecting individual was called upon to kneel upon the floor and place his head, face down, upon the knees of another man who sat upon a stool. This constituted the hive, and the other players as bees, went out of the room to collect the honey.
After some time these returned, humming like bees, but having their mouths filled with water. On coming to the hive they all squirted the water down the back of the poor fellow who knelt on the floor.Sometimes law courts were formed and 'trials' held on some of those present who were indicted of some imaginary offenses.
These 'trials' were often made the means of resurrecting some local scandal or otherwise causing annoyance to some unpopular neighbours. This was done through cross-examination of witnesses.
A young man who refused to join in those games was usually roughly man-handled
