School: Ballinalee (roll number 1174)
- Location:
- Ballinalee, Co. Longford
- Teacher: Ss. Ó Mainchín
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0766, Page 224
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: Ballinalee
- XML Page 224
- XML “Marriage Customs”
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
- Ban beggars, band beggars or straw boys, get together and tie themselves up in straw. They go to the house where the newly married pair are holding the feast. They line up outside the house and give three cheers for the bride and groom. Then they call for the bride who comes to the door. The visitors, who are generally expected, dance round the bride and then ask for money or drink. Usually they are given both but if they are refused they shout and cheer in mockery. Sometimes they go so far as to throw stones at windows and down the chimney. They remove gates and take wheels from carts too.
The new bride must not set eggs for hatching in the first year of her married life or the fowl will die.
The bride must not return to her former home till a month of her married life is up.
If she is married before Lent she must not bring her clothes or anything to her future home till Lent is out.
When the bride is married her mother drives her under a hen roost three times to make her used to stooping for eggs.
People do not get married in Advent as it is unlucky. It is unlucky to get a new cradle for the first born baby of a family.
In the part of County Longford where the school is situated, marriages take place at any time(continues on next page)
