School: Kildavin, Ferns
- Location:
- Cill Damháin, Co. Cheatharlach
- Teacher: Tadhg de Brí
![The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0911, Page 253](https://doras.gaois.ie/cbes/CBES_0911%2FCBES_0911_253.jpg?width=1600&quality=85)
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0911, Page 253
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: Kildavin, Ferns
- XML Page 253
- XML “St Brigid's Day”
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
- The second of February is kept in honour of St. Brigid. The customs were: to make a cross on the eve of that day in honour of St. Brigid. The reason why a cross was made is because St. Brigid used to make a cross on the first of February. Another custom is to visit a blessed well in Kilbranish. The well is beside the Clody. There is an ash - tree growing in the shape of a fork and the well is in the fork of the tree. It is visited every year by the people of that district. There was a little story told about St. Brigid and the king of Leinster. This is the story:
Once upon a time there was a king in Leinster and he always wore long hair because he had long ears like an ass and he heard of a holy nun that was in Kildare and he sent a message for her to come to him and shorten his ears for him. So when the holy nun came to his palace she put the king sitting on a chair and told him to put his head on her lap and when he did so she rubbed his ears and the moment she laid her hands on the long ears they immediately became short ones. This was St. Brigid. It is said she blessed Cranavaun, a holy well in this district.- Collector
- James Lyons
- Gender
- Male
- Informant
- Mrs Kelly
- Gender
- Female
- Age
- 73
- Occupation
- Farmer's wife
- Address
- Droim Doire, Co. Loch Garman