School: Forgney, Ballymahon (roll number 860)
- Location:
- Forgney, Co. Longford
- Teacher: Mrs B. Higgins
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0750, Page 375
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: Forgney, Ballymahon
- XML Page 375
- XML “Bird-Lore”
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
- As the cuckoo flies about, a little wren follows her. But before the cuckoo leaves the country for the South, she turns upon her little attendant and eats him. This is firmly believed in this locality. The belief is held here that the reason people hunt and stone the wren on St Stephen's day is that this bird betrayed the Saint to his enemies.
When St. Stephen was being stoned by the Jews, he hid under a heap of moss. But the wren, which was nearby, pulled the moss off the saint, thus revealing him to his enemies. When our Lord was dying on the Cross a little robin came, and in pity, tried to pull a thorn out of His Sacred Head. But the cruel thorns penetrated so far(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Irene Finnegan
- Gender
- Female
- Age
- 12
- Address
- Forgney, Co. Longford
