School: Tomghéis (roll number 9239/9277)
- Location:
- Tumgesh, Co. Mayo
- Teacher: M. Ó Casaide
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0123, Page 131
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- XML School: Tomghéis
- XML Page 131
- XML “Death”
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
- (continued from previous page)a white cloth called the "Máirbh-faísc" is tied round the head and under the chin for a few hours.6. Candles are lighted round the bedside—three. In some places three candles are suspended from a rafter and kept lighted, until the corpse is taken out. [illustration] This custom is not observed in this locality, but I often saw it myself in Midfield district (page 31).7. The clock is stopped at the moment of death, and kept so until after the funeral.8. The ashes is not removed until after the funeral.9. When the oldest boy or girl dies, the mother does not attend the burial.10. When any person is dying, both doors, front and back door, are opened, the relatives going outside, while a neighbour remains at bedside. There is usually a special woman sent for in cases of death.11. Sometimes the dying person is removed from the bed, to the floor, and placed on straw. there is a belief that feathers, particularly wild birds' feathers, in the pillows, mattress, etc, would cause extra suffering to the dying person.12. At the graveside, the bottle containing the holy-water is broken, by hitting it sharply against the coffin(continues on next page)
