School: Cúl an Dasain (Cooladawson) (roll number 1620)
- Location:
- Cooladawson, Co. Donegal
- Teacher: Pádraig Mag Uidhir
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1100, Page 11
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- In this district the chief amusement indulged in by men and boys were handball, Caman, long jumps, high jumps, throwing the hand stone, casting the shoulder stone, and for smaller boys playing marbles up to St Patrick's day from Candlemas, the spinning tops playing "Duck" racing and very many impish tricks as well.In the long winter evenings it was a great treat to visit the house of a family and hear the many tales that some one would tell; so eerie were they that the boys were known to sit till the elder members of their families came to seek them - they were so much afraid to go home in the dark. The themes of these stories would range from witches and fairies to apparitions and haunted places and such impossible thing as giants throwing or carrying great boulders of stones for many miles and depositing them as "Shaul's stone" was laid on top of a field, and how unlike it was in colour and character to the surrounding stones and rocks would be pointed out as proof that it had been thrown or carried and then by whom if not a giant, and such an enormous giant. Of course we never thought or knew of the the Great ice giant who undoubtedly did convey that immense rock several tons in weight from its parent home and dropped it in Unity Kelly's field just sitting on the surface and not embedded in the ground.(continues on next page)
