School: Baile an Ridire (roll number 7887)
- Location:
- Knight's Town, Co. Kerry
- Teacher: Seán Mac Mágha
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0479, Page 050
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- Weddings in the olden times.
People generally marry in Shrove. Shrove in Valentia begins on the first fair after Christmas, and ends on Shrove Tuesday.
Nearly a hundred years ago a man from Valentia was going around the country looking for work. For a few months he was working in either Galway or Sligo. He became very friendly with a young man who was about to be married. The man’s father was dead, and he owned a large farm of land.
On the morning of the wedding the Valentia man was invited by the bridegroom. They were singing and dancing all day in the bridegroom’s house. Sometime during the night a man came into the house. All the people who were inside took no notice as they thought he was a ‘straw boy’. He was singing and dancing and enjoying himself like the rest of the wedding guests.
In the morning all the guests went home, and stranger was seen to ride away on horseback; and no one troubled himself to look in which direction he went.
A few months went by, and the man who got married asked the Valentia man to come working to his farm. He did so, and as he was going to sleep in the house a room was prepared for him. This room was never used while the bridegroom’s grandfather was alive and when some of his relatives asked him why he did not use it, he used only say “the house is too big’” and that room is useless’(continues on next page)
