School: Baile 'n Tóchair (roll number 2013)
- Location:
- Ballintogher, Co. Sligo
- Teacher: Conn Ó Ruairc
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0178, Page 395
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- XML “The Day of the Straws”
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- One day, about a hundred years ago, a band of robbers came to Ballintogher. It was a fair-day, and they hoped to get a great lot of money. In order to enable them to distinguish each other in crowd, each man wore a piece of straw round the legs of his pants. When one of the robbers wanted to speak to another, he gave the pass-word, "Are you running or standing?" The answer to this was "By-jove, I'm standing".
Some of the robbers were posted all over the town to receive the stolen goods. The others went among the people robbing them. Every now and then, the "runners" would go "to the standers" and deliver the stolen goods.
That day a man named Henry, came to the town to sell his pigs. He got a good price for them and gave the money to his wife to buy things for the house.
He had straws tied round his legs like the robbers. While he(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Máire Ní Bhúrca
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Ballintogher, Co. Sligo
- Informant
- Beartlaidh Ó Móráin
- Relation
- Grandparent
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Ballintogher, Co. Sligo
