School: St Egney's (C.), Buncrana
- Location:
- Buncrana, Co. Donegal
- Teacher: Ellen Daly
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1112, Page 436
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- XML School: St Egney's (C.), Buncrana
- XML Page 436
- XML “Churning”
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- Churning
In this part of the district the people used to believe in Fairies and they used to think that the fairies took the milk from the cows and the butter of the churning and sometimes they used to bring some of milk to the priest to get it blessed. At the beginning of May they mostly believed in fairies and they used to plait a rope from horse-hair and trail it from the field that the cows were grazing in to the byre door so that they would get a lot of milk from the cows for the year and they called that milking to the tether. This is not done here now.
Long ago it was thought unlucky to drink when you were churning for it would be unlucky for the churning and you would never get the milk churned. If a person came into a superstitious house they would not get out without taking a "Brash" as they say, which means without giving a "help"
When the people began to churn they always closed the door for fear of a red haired person coming in and bringing(continues on next page)
- Informant
- William J Mc Laughlin
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 89
- Address
- Carvagh, Co. Donegal
