School: Kilfenora (B.) (roll number 2155)
- Location:
- Cill Fhionnúrach, Co. an Chláir
- Teacher: P. Mag Fhloinn
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0620, Page 109
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
Download
Open data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- XML School: Kilfenora (B.)
- XML Page 109
- XML (no title)
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
(no title) (continued)
“When people were getting married long ago there was not as much ceremony about the marriage as there is nowadays.”
(continued from previous page)the dowry was settled. In most Irish districts there was a professional matchmaker who earned his living by matchmaking. The marriage was arranged often without consulting the boy or girl according to the riches of the riches of the parents or the proximity of their lands. The night the match was arranged there was a great feasting in the girl's house and the dowry was settled. There would often be great arguments about one cow or an acre of land, and many matches were broken in that way, in spite of the efforts of the matchmaker whose pay depended upon the agreement of the parties. In addition to her fortune, the girl got a chest of linen and a feather bed from her parents. The matchmaker's pay depended on the size of the girl's fortune so he was always anxious to make matches between well to do people. In Connemara there is still a remnant of this custom. A third is engaged to go with the proposer to the girls house and he acts as go between. A "turn of puiteen" is made in the girl's house the night before the marriage. The couple go the chapel either on horseback or sidecars according to their wealth or poverty. After the wedding(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Eoin Ó Dochartaigh
- Gender
- Male