Talking about good and bad luck did you ever try going in and out under a she-briar That is supposed to be a lucky thing to do but I know that I often tried it and I never had any better luck for doing it anyhow. I know a man that used to do it before he would go to a fair to see if he could have any kind of luck. But it never said to make any difference at all. That is a great term used at playing cards. For instance there would be a great crowd of fellas around a table and they would be playing cards and maybe somewan of them would be making a lot of money and the others would say "begor that fella must have gone in and out under a she briar before he came here to night". A briar is a great

to eat nuts and all classes of them things. There were hazel nuts and [?] nuts and broad nuts and several other classes of them. We used to eat all these. Then in the summer time we would eat blackberries and strawberries and raspberries, no matter what kind of fruit that would come our way. There was another thing that we used to eat as well. Do you know that briar with all the little thorns on it. It is called I think the sweet briar and we always used to call it the [?] briar. Well we would break of the tops off these and skin them and then we would eat the insides of 'em. Some people used to tell us that they weren't very good for us at all. We used to eat fitches also. These we would find in the corn fields growing when the harvest time would come. We'd never leave

ago they used to have awful work entirely about pishreógs and every damn thing. If you went to a house for a drop if milk on a May morning you'd be run out of it, or if they seen you taking out fire. There are several people that way even yet. They would not like to give away anything of a May morning. I used to hear tell of them going under a briar - a side briar. I suppose that's the briar with the two ends in the ground - a sore yoke enough! They used do that in order to be able to work the pishreógs. GOLD
I heard a good wan wan time. 'Twas a fellow that come to live in a place somewhere in the Barony of Forth. He fell in for a place down there and got married, and settled down for himself. Wan day the sow broke in to the little garden at the back of the house. They had some vegetables and things sown in it, and 'twas in grand order entirely. Begob the sow attacked rooting, and she had a brave big hole made before they noticed her. They ran out to put out the sow; and what was the sow after rooting up but a big crock of gold. Sure they were what they liked after that. They bought two or three farms and stocked them out, and they never wanted for money or anything while they lived. Weren't they quare lucky? Well, that's the way with some

men said they'd sleep in teh barn and watch the stable was on wan end where the pony was and the stable in the other. There was a big loft over their heads where they used to keep corn & seeds and things like that.
At 12 oclock they could hear the pony galloping on the loft over their heads and the the looking at her in the barn.
She was taken out in a field, call "Kennedy's Field" and she was galloped around it about 40 times, 'til the field was cut up like an engine had gone through it. There's a very big hig hedge at wan corner, and the pony was lept out clear over the hedge. She was got in the morning on the other side of the hedge with her neck broken, in the corner. That happened in my generation. A briar never grew since in that spot where the pony was killed, and all the rest of the place around it is nothing but briars. That's a fact truth, a briar never grew there. You could see it anytime you go back there.

Annie O Neill also tells me she often saw old Tom Boyle who lived in the Bullawn making wooden pipes from pegwood and putting sweet briar stems in them. This would be about 60 or more years ago, He procured his wood somewhere in the country and brought it home. There he scooped out the 'heads' from the pegwood and the stems from the sweet briar wood. He bored the holes in the stems with a red-hot knitting needle.
He used to make boxes and boxes of them and send them away to shops to be sold. Nor did he leave them plain. He had fine little brass wire which he arranged artistically round the heads and fastened under with a wee brass tack.(Drawing of a pipe) The handmade pegwood pipe was described to me consisted of 3 parts - the head or bowl, the thicker stem, and the thinner stem. All could be taken asunder for cleaning purposes and adjusted again.

Another great industry they had long ago was making "Straw Skeps". Them was Beehives. The used make them out of straw ropes and they'd stitch them with a briar, or a raspberry cane. They'd

split the briar and use that to stitch it. It used be great work long ago making them. That man in the Modubig I was telling you about - he was the best man I knew to make 'em. They used call him the "Bee Man". They were a lot better hives too than the timber wans.

said he "there is a rabbit here and the ferrit is on him, but I cant get down my hand low enough." I asked him would he have to break down the ditch in order to get at the ferrit but he laughed at me. "No" said he "there is a far simpler method than that." He took out his knife again and went and cut a briar and pared it, and it was about a yard long. He shoved this down the hole as far as it would go and then he pulled it out, and when he did there was some of the fur of the rabbit on the end of it. He examined the fur and says he. "The rabbit is there all right but I don't see any sign of the ferrit." He went off down the ditch then and he told us all to keep our ears open and try and hear the ferrit. We all listened our best but

big long briar that you will see coming out from a ditch and the two ends of it down in the ground. It is also said that farmers will have plenty of butter if they go in and out under it:
Another very lucky thing to find is a four leaved shamrock. Sometimes it is very had to find wan, but the best way that you ever get wan is to find it when you would not be looking for it at all.

an down wid him to the Cherry Tree.
He found me cap danglin' from a briar, that thing out over the road, so whin he came home, he made a great laugh o' "myself."
But from that good day to this, an' tis over fifty years ago, all the nein ni leix would'nt get me to pass that Cherry Tree after nightfall. For there is a sperrit there, as sure as I'm a livin man.

There was a fellow out wan May morning very early, just at the break of day, and he came along to a well, and he happened on a woman and she stooped down over the well and she skimming it. "All for me" "All for me" "All for me" she was saying. The lad knew her well and he came up right behind her and she never saw him.
"Damn it Kate" says he "give half to me anyway." She said nothing but got up straight and hooked it.
When the lad went home, and when he went to churn he had bags of butter, but I think he went to the priest about it and he made it right I order to get the power to work pisreógs, a person should go in and out under a "she" (sidhe?) briar; I supposed they'd have to get some power from the devil too, for 'twas by this power of the devil all these things were worked

full length of it. Some necks would be a lot bigger than this an some smaller. We got a shovel or a spade an dug a little narrow drain all around the stones outside about half a foot deep and what was dug out the drain was turned in over the stones. We put briars an small bushes of furze into the bottom of the reek to be under the hay. We cut the briars with a briar hook or some people call it a slasher an draw them with pikes up on our shoulders to the bottom of the reek an settled them along the full length of the bottom of the reek. The damp hay would be put along the bottom over the briars an the clean hay then down on that. They'd be three men now inside in the reek when it would be middlin-sized two settling it an one tramplin it an two men one on each side pikin it in. One man takin it from the two takin it from each in turn an throwin it to the other men. There would be a man on the ground their direction then men that would be makin the reek, tellin em to lave it out here an to put it under their feet there an trample it. The gables would be made first as much of em as could they'd be risin up higher than the middle an when they'd be made there would not be much trouble makin the middle. Whin the reek would

As I roved out one evenin' in the merry month of May.
'Twas down by Carrig river I carelessy did stray,
Where the hawthorne and the sweet briar,
'T would your heart illume.
And the ripple of the waters
When the frae - cawns war in bloom

Person who receives dead man's clothes must wear them to Mass following Sunday. "How can I go to Mass when they didn't give me the clothes". "They gave me the clothes, but they didn't give me the boots [B'éigin dó féin peidhre 'thabhg't dó].When any member of the family is going away salt is concealed in some part of his garments. [Do mheasas féin go raibh an phollóg agam, uair].An bhean bhíonn ag iomchar leinbh ní théigheann sí isteach sa roilig le linn socraide ná aon uair eile go dtí go mbíonn sí "go maith" airis.
Cam-roilige - geilltear dí, fós.To have luck at cards carry a fine comb ("a bloody comb") in your pocket or go under a briar both ends of which are ag fás in the ground.If you go astray turn coat inside out.

I
As I roamed out one evening in the pleasant month of May,
It was down by Carrig River I carelessly did stray,
When the hawthorn and sweet briar it would your heart illume,
And the rippling of the waters when the "frockuns" were in bloom.
II
I often times in vain regret the things I might have seen.
I've seen the past but can't forget the things that might have been,
As I strolled along the small brids song went rippling through the sky,
O'er the lonely church of Carrig hill where '98 men lie.
III
I often times go view the graves where my school mates do lie,
We often joined in harmless sport in the day that's long gone by.