School: Béal na Bláth, Maghcromtha (roll number 12458)
- Location:
- Bealnablath, Co. Cork
- Teacher: Seán Ó Cróinín
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0340, Page 308
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“There were two "special" women to mark the butter, the water was got from a spring well, early in the morning before the sun shone on it.”
(continued from previous page)An old story is told of a woman called "Siobainín an girrfiadh[? =giorria]". The farmers noticed that when the cows were brought in to be milked in the morning; that one cow had no milk and the yield of some others was very small. One night a man watched the stock, about four o'clock in the morning the hare came into the field and started to suck the cow. The farmer set the dog on the hare and the dog followed him to a home. The hare cleared the half door and in so doing the dog caught him. When the man entered the house he found a woman all torn from the dog. The descendants of this woman still hold the name "girriadh." he was supposed to have the power to take the butter from the local farmers for her own use.
Another story is told of a farmers wife who refused to give a gipsy woman a drop of milk. When the butter making came round they failed to make the butter. The cream would not break. They tried it for three weeks and had to give it up, and take their milk to the creamery.