School: Cluainteach (C.), Newtownforbes
- Location:
- Cloontagh, Co. Longford
- Teacher: Bean Mhic Garaidh
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0756, Page 226
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
- Some years ago "matches" were made at the fairs and markets. The parents of the bride and bridegroom generally arranged the match. In many cases the bride and bridegroom did not even know each other until the match was made. The dowry and all being settled, the day was named. The pair then usually met and the groom "to be" bought the ring - of course the intended bride accompanied him to the jeweller's.
The Marriage and Wedding
Sometimes the marriage was performed at night. The wedding went on all day, and as there were plenty of whiskey and been the men folk were naturally very jolly.
The pair went off at night, accompanied by bridesmaid and grooms man and all the friends, to the church. There was a custom in some places that as soon as a marriage arrived at the church some urchin rang the church bells and this brought all the young people for miles around to the church. The priest had often a hard time with these to prevent them surging in at the(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Lizzie Clarke
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Foorchossagh, Co. Leitrim
