School: Laragh (B.)
- Location:
- Larah, Co. Cavan
- Teacher: P. Ó Briain
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0981, Page 117
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
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
- (continued from previous page)flowers & Rowan blossoms. This was called a May bush & its decoration was a countercharm against evil charms being wrought about the house for twelve months. The door of the house & flag stone was also strewn with May flowers. Irons were placed under the churn & rags of a red colour were tied on cows tails. All these precautions were taken to prevent the taking away of butter from the milk.
This custom has died away. Last person who had charm of working evil was Catherine Smith of Lavey known as "Catherine of the dead hand", So much was she dreaded & so many fears well entertained of her power to work evil that nothing was ever refused her. There was hardly any way out of refusal as she was able to open doors. To cry out "Here comes Catherine" was enough to make the young seek protection or to hush a troublesome child to sleep.Palm Sunday. Blessed Palm is hung up in the byre, stable, pigsty & fowl house to bring blessing on all farm stock.(continues on next page)
