School: Forgney, Ballymahon (roll number 860)

Location:
Forgnaí, Co. an Longfoirt
Teacher:
Mrs B. Higgins
Browse
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0750, Page 380

Archival Reference

The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0750, Page 380

Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.

See copyright details.

Download

Open data

Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

  1. XML School: Forgney, Ballymahon
  2. XML Page 380
  3. XML “St John's Eve”

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

  1. In the Forgney district of Longford I have never seen a bon fire on St. John's Eve, though I have lived here for the past twenty-nine years. The people here seem never to have heard of this custom.
    But in my native district of Carrick-on-Shannon it is still observed. When I was a child, the lighting of the bonefire was a most exciting event. Outside each house would be kindled a fine fire of turf, sticks etc. All the members of the household would sit on the ditch or on stools, near the fire. The older people would tell stories or play games with the younger ones. Sometimes we had music or dancing. As the fire waned it would be replenished.
    Sometimes, neighbours after sitting a while by their own bonfires, would visit ours, and vice versa. When bed-time
    (continues on next page)
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    Topics
    1. ócáidí
      1. ócáidí (de réir trátha bliana) (~11,476)
        1. Féile Sin Seáin (~208)
    Language
    English
    Collector
    B. Higgins
    Gender
    Female
    Address
    Forgnaí, Co. an Longfoirt