School: Headfort
- Location:
- Virginia, Co. Cavan
- Teacher: Miss J.E. Browne
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0999, Page 008
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)4 About fifty years ago, when the majority of houses were thatched, a spade was taken and with it a hole was made through the thatch in the roof, immediately over the bed on which the corpse lay. This was done so that any spirits which might come to the house could have access through the hole in the roof, and not by the door where wicked human mortals entered. The hole was made as soon as the breath left the body. This custom has died out.(continues on next page)
