"The White Woman's Seat" is in Ballycarney and the people say they saw on three successive nights a woman all dressed in white sitting on this rock. Numerous accidents have happened there. Ballycarney is in the Barony of Scarawalsh and in the Parish of Ferns

There are several roads round my home district such as the New Line, the Hill Road, The Wood Lane, The Scarawalsh Road, The Ferns Road and the Solsboro Rd and the Marshallstown Rd.
The New line leads from Ballycarney to Kiltealy. The Hill Road leads from Ballycarney to Castle Docrell. The Woodlane leads from Munfin to Castle Docrell. The Scarawalsh Rd. leads from Ballycarney to Scarawalsh. The Solsboro Road leads from Scarawalsh to Enniscorthy. The Coolnahorna also leads from Scarawalsh to Marshallstown and the Marshallstown Road leads from Farm Leigh to Marshallstown. The New

In a field not far from our house two boys by the name of Redmond were working one day.
In the evening they spied some yoemen coming towards them. They started to run and the Yoes chased them to Ballycarney. One escaped, but the other was caught and they shot him on the Bridge at Ballycarney.Eibhlis Ni Bholghuidhir

283A Local Happening There was a policeman drowned in the Slaney at Ballycarney after the war. His name was Gildea. He was in Ballycarney barricks at that time. He was bathing under Mr Rudds inch. He was not a very cross man.
Seventy years ago there was a man named Murphy, who could get no one to give him a lift to town. He had a sack of oats with him, he walked to town and carried the sack of oats with him and walked back again.
John Nolan of Ballalusk took a sack of wheat out of his father's barn and was making off to the market with it when his brother followed him. He dropped the sack of wheat on top of the ditch, to cross the ditch. As he was going to pick it up his brother jumped up on it. John had his back to it so of course he did not see his brother. it was only when he came to the next ditch that discovered he was carring his brothrt. He then fleeced the sack from under him and ran off to the market
Sinead Ni Neill, Tuaim an Bhruic

Lurriga parish in the direction of Limerick. The village of Patrickswell is in Lurriga parish.The following are the names of the townlands in Lurriga parish.Clounanna, Lisaleen, Clounaduff, Kilcoleman, Breska, Faha, Ballyanrahan, Lurriga, Attyflinn, Ballygeale, Patrickswell, Fort Etna, Ferry Bridge, Kiltemplan, Ballycurrane, Newbora, Kilgobben, Breska Mor, Breska Beag, Ballycarney, Knockanes, Springfort, ballyvologue, Fort Union Kilgobben, Fort ann Clarina, Blaockalacha, Rivermount.

About two miles to South of Portlaoighise there is a place called Ballycarney. In this place years ago Cromewell planted a man named Cassan. This man evicted all small holders out of their homes took to himself their lands making of them the Cassan Estate. On this estate there is a pit known as the Mass pit where all these poor people had to hear mass during the penal days. There is a big tree formerly known as the watch tree. There is a flat surface of wood known as the altar. The Mass path is to be seen yet

219man's well.
A man named Alexander lived in the field now known as the Alex meadow.
There is a hollow on the road leading from Ballycarney to Newtownbarry near Munfin House known as the White woman's Hollow. It is said that a White woman was seen there.Robt. Masterson.
Ballycarney
Information recd. from
Henry Masterson (parent)
(See front page)

Mr. Pat Carton's forge is in Ballycarney and he also does the same trade. He has his son working with him. He does not make farm implements but he repairs them. It is said that forge water is good for curing warts and chapped hands. His tools are a hammer, sledge, punch and pincers
(Extract) D. Swaine

331The FamineThere was a "Stirabout House" in Ballycarney in 1847. The "stirabout" was given in small quantities to the poor people who came for it. It was made of Indian Meal.
One man was said to have built a wall round a heap of turnips and lived on them while they lasted.
Before the potatoes rotted the poor lived on them. Three times a day they were eaten often with salt, sometimes with buttermilk. The better class had oaten cakes and barley cake. They were made from their own corn. I heard of poor people round here gathering herbs and eating them with salt.The public works started and men got work making roads. There was a road - the new line started from Ballycarney to BallindagginPat Breen (71)
Blackpost Cottage
Tombrack.

205Severe WeatherIn the year 1918. There was a bad snow-fall. The snow lay so deep that when Mr. Hatton of died his coffin had to be drawn across fields to find the graveyard. They did not know where to find the burial ground.
In 1922 Daddy remembers a bad rainfall which caused the Slaney to flow out on the road at Ballycarney Bridge. The heavy rain lasted for a night and a day.
Daddy says he remembers a very bad thunderstorm. He said he was coming in from the field to light his fathers pipe, and he said he saw a big ball of fire splitting the clouds. This ball he said is called a thunderbolt, and it did a lot of damage.
See front pageR. Masterson
Tomanoole,
Ballycarney.
(Information recd. from Henry Masterson) Parent

317Tombrack N.S.Tombrack is a small district in the parish of Ferns. It is situated about two miles to the west of Ferns. Ballycarney bounds it on the south, Kilrush on the north, and Strahart (on the way to Bunclody) to West.
It is from within the borders of these four districts that the children attend Tombrack School.
I have failed to get any folk-lore connected with Tombrack without encroaching on the adjoining districts.
Very few old people remain, and the origin of the place-names seems to be lost. But their meanings are easily conjectured as the most of them are from the Gaelic.Tombrack = Tom breac= speckled wood. Little remains of the original wood except a few speckled trunks of birch trees.
Corah = Currac = a bog. This is boggy land.
Ballingale = Baile-an-Gabhail = Townsland between two rivers. (so situated).
Tincurry = Tig-an-Curraig = House of the bog.
Ballycarney = Baile Cearnaig = Townsland of Carney

355It is believed by everyone that this man was Michael Dwyer on his flight from Co. Wicklow.Cait Ni Thuathail.
____In 1798 Redmonds lived in the house in Corah in which Mrs Dempsey lives now.
There were five of the Redmond men in the rebellion with the insurgents.
As they were coming home one night for food and change of clothing two of them were captured and hanged in their own yard before their father and mother. Another just escaped across a wall in Ballycarney, with a wound in his leg. He was lame for the rest of his life.
His other two brothers also escaped.
One of their sisters coming from Ballycarney where she had been milking cows met a crowd of yoemen at Corah Hill. She was driving an ass with car filled with cans of milk.
They dragged her out of the car and put her on her knees on the road. They were about to shoot her as a reprisal for her brothers' escape.
But an officer coming on the scene stopped the cowardly act. So she escaped.
These people were cousins of my own.Cait Ni Thuathail.

This village was called after an old Prison, which was down in the Northern end of the village, and its ruins are to be seen still.
About two years ago the late Rev. Canon Reidy P.P. Balla R.I.P. changed its name to Ballycarney. There are five old people over 70 years of age in it who can talk a little Irish.
There are two rivers in it one outside my house and the other outside Mr Connolly's house and there is

Ferrets’ Leavings
Ferrets’ Leavings is a cure for the whooping cough. You would give the ferrets more milk than they could drink and the milk that the ferrets would leave would be given to the person who has the whopping cough, and it is supposed to cure it.
Michael McGrath Ballycarney Clarina

was wrong. He saw the rope and pulling out his penknife, he cut it. Murphy ran out from his hiding place, towards the priest. The priest struck Murphy on the nose with his whip. "There", said the priest. "Is a mark to last seven centuries". Murphy's own son had the mark, and all his seed. Strange to say, only one son was born to each family. The man that is alive now has the mark as fresh as if he only had it a week.Recorded from Ml. McGrath, Ballycarney, Clarina, Co. Limerick.
Date 23/03/'38

Cragbeg.There was a man in Cragbeg, and the story goes that he had 21 boys. Those boys went a hunting one day and they were never seen together again.From Mrs. O"Reily, Ferrybridge, Clarina, Co. Limerick.Collector - Michael McGrath, Ballycarney, Clarina, Co. Limk.

man's farm, and she could afford to sell butter to everyone. The Priest was told about this, and he went to her and gave her "a telling off". He told her that if she done it again, he would stick her to the ground. She never done it again, and the man got back his butter. This showed how much power the Catholic Priests had.From Mrs. O'Reilly, Ferrybridge, Clarina, Co. Limk.Collector - Michael McGrath, Ballycarney, Clarina, Co. Limk.

155The White Woman's Hollow.
There is a hollow in the road about four miles south of Bunclody, and near Ballycarney. It is called the White Woman's Hollow, because a white woman is seen there riding a white horse at twelve o'clock at night. They say that a woman was killed there and that the white woman is her ghost. She is seen crossing the road from one ditch to the other. When twelve o'clock strikes she will disappear, and will not be seen until the next night. A man named Michael Byrne of Clohamon is supposed to have seen her.

326RuinsNo ruins whatever in the district.
Not a stone is left of Ballycarney Castle. A piece of standing wall disappeared 25 yeas ago. It is said locally that there was an underground passage from this castle to Ferns Castle- three miles away. Men were known to start explore it but turned back after going some way

Before the time of the famine the population of this country was over seven millions.
Down a road called Hand Hill there were four old houses and there was one on the land of Mr Miley Doyle of the townland of Knockaree.
In Clohamon and Ballycarney there were two big boilers. In these were boiled yellow stirabout. Men used to go to these places and take with them a big wooden spoon