Old Cures

There are many old cures which are used still. But doctors nowaday are doing away with them for they are able to make cures which will keep people alive longer than they would, if there were no doctors.

I have found out all the old cures I could and I thank Michael McGrath and my Mother for it.

Long ago when people were afflicted with illness they would have no doctors to attend them but they believed in their old cures.

Many old cures, which rather disgust us nowadays, were handed down for generations. Whooping-

There are certain cures for certain sickness, for instance Garry Kavanagh can cure any bleeding cut. I heard about a child about 12 years of age, and when his father was mowing, the horses were very contrary for the first time. The child went to spoke back the machine but his fingers got caught in the cogs and were all torn, and cut, and bleeding. His father went to Garry Kavanagh and he cured them and they never festered. I knew another person who was in such pain with Erysipilas that it was unbearable. A messenger went and told him (Garry Kavanagh) and about the time he reached the house the pain was stopped. Garry Kavanagh lives in Skehana half way between Ballinakill and Castlecomer.

All the old cures which were there long ago are sill carried on nowadays. I often see my mother use these old cures still.
If you got toothache to chew the leg of a frog or to get soot and chew it the old people say that is a great cure for toothache. Instead of using power for keeping babies skin cool the old cure they had for it was to get leaves of briars and roast them until they get very hard. Then take them between your hands and rub them very hard until they get as fine as flour. Then shake them on the babies skin. If you cut your hand or foot their is a herb that grows on the ground. It is a kind of a leaf and put it with the cut it will stop the blood.
There is another old cure if any [?] a drop to get sredded soap and sugar & butter and honey, brake the sugar very very fine and mix them all together. Also heat them before using. Carrigeen Moss to use after cooking is good

The old people had lots of old cures and spells. They believed that many things could be cured by the power of the devil. These are some of their old cures. - When a calf is dying, to knot a cord three times over him and at the same time to say three times "Glory be to the Father". When a person has some certain disease in his stomach. He will get cured if he will boil dandelion and camomile and drink the water which he used in boiling it. If a person has a wart on his skin it will go off if he will make the sign of the cross over it three times with your finger after spitting on it for nine mornings before your breakfast it will get better. If a person has Rheumatism it will go away if he will carry a potato in his pocket. If you have a boil it will get better if you will wash it with water which you got in a hole in a rock. If you have a sprained ankle and if you put it under a spout it will get better

Old Cures
There are still some old cures. Here are some of them. The cure for the mumps is to put an asse's winkers on the person with the mumps and lead them in and out three times to the pig sty saying "Hucna Muena" "Leicna Muena" the cure of Leicna. The cure for the Chincough is the leavings of two people of the same name married.
A ferrats leavings is supposed to be the cure for the chincough also.

Old Cures

In my locality there are many old cures. To cure a tooth-ache there are many ways. Tobacco, bread-soda, salt and other things are the old cures to be put into the sore tooth.
The old cure for wart is count the number of warts you have. Then, collect the same number of stones and put them into a small bag and lay them at a cross roads. Whoever would catch the bag they would get them and the warts would go from yourself. Another old cure for rheumatism is to boil heather and drink the water in which it is boiled. The old local cure fo pneumonia is to drink milk and

The old people around Bundoran have many old cures. This is one of them. If two people of the same name marry their children have a cure for the mumps. The person getting cured is led by a halter to the nearest south-running streams, and made to drink three egg-cups full of the water.

Long ago people had many old cures. A cure for the whooping-cough was to go to the house of a man and woman of the same name before they were married and get bread from them. This bread would cure you. They also thought you should kill every cockroach you saw as it was the cockroaches who told Our Lord’s hiding-place to the soldiers.

The country people and the old people are great believers in old cures. One of the most common cures is the cure of the sprain. They have a special cord for it, and prayers are said. On the death of the person the cure is given to a member of the family but he must never tell what prayers he says when making the cure.

In olden times the people had many old cures such as going under a female donkey three times for the whooping cough. And fastening a rope round your neck and getting some other body to tie you to a stream of water for the measles. And boiling nettles and drinking this brew for measles. And boiling dandelions and burrs and bog bean together and drinking it every morning fasting for three months for boils. And mixing soot and salt and blue-clay together for ringworm.

April 1938
Old Cures

Here are some of the old cures I have heard of. If a person was wasking in a field and finds a snail and rubs it on the wart, it would cure it. Long ago this is the cure the people used to have for cattle. They would bleed them in the hind legs and it would keep every disease away from them. This is another cure for warts the old people had. If you got a white stone [?]

Here are some of the old cures I have heard of. This is a cure for Yellow Jaundice, to boil the roots of cowslips and drink the juice and it will cure it. This is a cure it. This is a cure for a sty in his or her eye to bathe it with black tea and it will cure it. It is said when there are seven brothers without any sister

These are some of the old cures the people had long ago. The cure they had for the hooping cough was to go out before a man who had a white horse and whatever he'd tell you to do if you would do it they said they would be surely cured The cure they had for headackes was to measure their head with a woollen string and they also had to say some prayers The cure they had for warts was to count all the warts they had and to get the same number of small stones and put them into a piece of paper and leave them some place and the

Long ago the old people had old cures and when anyone was sick they used to cure themselves. They used not send for any doctors like we do now. The doctors were not so plentiful then as they are now. They had these old cures so follow
1. If you sting yourself with nettles the rheumatic is cured
2. If you had a foul mouth and get a boy the seventh son in a family that did not see his father and blow his breath on it and it is cured.
3. If you point a gooseberry thorn seven times at a sty on your eye and then throw it across your shoulder it will get well.
4. If you have a sore