COLLECTOR: Margaret Kearns, Address, Prison, Balla, Co. Mayo

Riddles

As I went up Santy hill I met a bunch of rods and no one could count them but the hands of God?

Twenty white cows lying by the wall a yellow one comes out and licks over all?

The hairs of my head.

A tongue.

Starch-Making

1. The potatoes are washed and then peeled.

2. Holes are bored in a tin and with the rough side the potatoes are scraped into a vessel.

3 The grated stuff has to be turned into a linen cloth and then wrung into a bowl.

4. The liquid has to be left standing in the bowl over night.

5. Then the liquid has to be turned off and the starch remains in the bottom of the bowl.

This industry is not arried on now. Mrs Kearns Fargureens Balla Co Mayo remembers her mother doing it about 40 years ago.

Spinning Wool

After wool has been shorn off the sheep its then teazed with the hands and made loose. It is greased with butter, and then carded with two cards with wire teeth and put into rolls. The women then spin it.

A form three foot six inches long is put on the floor. There are two posts of timber standing up out of it one at each end. There is a peg of timber sticking out of one of these and the wheel is put in on it. The woollen wheel is like the wheel of a cart.

There is a band round the wheel and in the front post there is a spindle. The band is joined on to it. It is the band that keeps the wheel in place. Roll by roll the wool is put on the spindle and joined together.

This industry is not carried on by us now but it was done by my grand-mother about ten years ago

Local Place Names -Names of Fields

My father owns a farm of twenty acres. It is divided into fields by stone-walls, sod-fences, by white-thorn hedges and by whin-bushes. This farm is in the village of Fargureens in the town-land of Bohogue, in the barony Carra.

Every field has a name. Paircín. Garra-Garbh, Carrán Marthan, Paircín- Aine, Fáll-dorchadha, Ball-luathmar, Garrdha-Eoin, Garrdha-chom, Largan,Doirín, Puirtín, Geirthe-Geirtín, Bothán-Gabhair

Mallaruad, Malla-mór, Croc- Cromhaile, Paircín-leachta.

Storm

In the year 1927 there was a great storm. In the village of Shraheen in the parish of Bohola a woman named Mrs Kilgallon aged 95 years old and her two orphan children were in danger of death.

The storm burst open the doors and the fire was blown through the house. Two cows were tied at the end of the house.

The old woman was sleeping in the kitchen bed. When the cattle saw the fire and smoke they lowed. The neighbouring boys, also Killgalons, came to the house and let the cattle out.

The smoke and blazes prevented the boys from going in. In order to save the old woman's life they pulled the roof off the cailleach. (A cailleach is a recess in the kitchen for a bed.) The boys lifted her up and brought her to a neighbour's house.

Preparing for Potatoes

We set an acre of potatoes between lea land and drills. In preparing the lea land the field is scored with spades or ploughs. The ridge is left three feet wide and a furrow is left on each side of it.

Then yard-manure is put on the ridges. The woman of the house cuts potatoes leaving one eye in each slit.

The potatoes that are commonly used are, Champions, Kerr pinks, King-Edwards Banners, Aran-chiefs, Triumphs, Epicures, Flounders, Garden -fillers, Pink-eyes, Protestants, Toller’s, Blight-resisters.

They are brought out in the field. Then the farmer shakes bag manure over the yard manure. The slits are spread over it by the children. The slits are covered with clay out of the furrow.

After a few weeks stalks appear. Then they are moulded with clay out of the furrow. If the weather is bad the blight falls and in order to save the potatoes the stalks are washed with melted blue-stone.

In the month of October, the potatoes dug with spades. Then they are picked and put into the pits for the winter.

Old Sayings

A good beginning is half the work.

There are long horns on the cattle far away.

Dont wear the hat unless it suits you.

It's never too late to learn.

A stitch in time saves nine.

Practice makes perfect.

Keep your shop and your shop will keep you.

Save the hay while the sun shines.

There are many ways for choking a cat without choking him with butter.

When it rains it pours.

One trouble does not come alone.

Deep waters run smooth.

Closed mouths catch no flies.

The early birds catch the worm.

God helps those who help themselves but God help those who are caught helping themselves!

Its a long road that has no turn.

Two heads are wiser than one.

The mice can play when the cat is out.

Don’t put off until to-morrow what you can do to-day.

St Stephen's Day

St Stephen's Day is a great visiting day for people. Boys dress up with false faces. They go about in pairs. One of them carries a box with a wren in it and the other one collects the money. They go about from house to house. At each door they say "The wren, the wren, the king of all birds Saint Stephens day he was caught in the bush. Up with the kettle and down with the pan give us our answer and let us be going".

Then they get money.

Other boys have musical instruments with them such as mouth-organs, fifes and melodeons and they play tunes and dance. Many different sets of boys come.

When night falls they divide the money evenly between themselves. Some of the boys buy clothes for themselves and others buy toys.

Farm Animals

Our cow’s names are Polly, Maolín and Short-horns. They have a stable for themselves, A piece of timber is inserted into the wall and an iron ring is put into it. A homemade rope is connected on to the ring and tied round the cow's neck.

When the cows go into damage they are tied with a Crom-nasc round the horns and on to the hoof.

Side langs and bootians are also put on them. In order to make the cows go speedily along the people say,

"Hough, Hough" and when they want them to stand they say,

"Purigín, Purigín".

Before the cow’s calf a red woolen thread is put round a house-shoe nail and tied on to the cow's tail for good luck. It is called "An tairgne cruaidh". When they calf the sign of the cross is made on them with a coal.

When the cows are milked the sign of the cross is made on their hips with froth.

Old Customs

Long ago when the old people would see a new moon they would kneel on the door step and bless themselves and say,

"I see the moon and the moon sees me. God bless the moon and God bless me. Grace in the kitchen and grace in the hall and the grace of God be about us all."

When they saw a star falling they said that there was a soul gone to heaven. When a cock crows on the roost at night they say that a member of the family will die.

St Martin's Day

On St Martin's day people draw the blood of a fowl and sprinkle it on the four corners of the house.

May Day

On May Day nobody cleans out a cow-house or throws out ashes. Everyone would like to make to make money, but [to] spend none [on that day]. They also churn on that day and there belief is there is more butter on the milk on that day than any day during the year. No milk is given away on that either. While the people are churning on that day they would not allow a man to go out with a coal in his pipe or carrying an iron. The same belief is of the 1st January.

Charms

It is believed that the seventh son or daughter has the power of curing ring-worm, boils, rashes, scurvy, or wild-fire.

The sore has to be touched with the boys or girls right hand. It is supposed that Monday and Thursday are two lucky days for performing this job.

A man named McNioclas long ago lived near Kiltimagh. He made charms for sore eyes. One day a certain woman went to him for a charm and when she came home she found her horse drowned. Each time when that man made a charm one of his stock died and his wife made him give it up.

Care of Feet

Long ago the people never wore shoes until they were fourteen or fifteen years of age.

The boys used to wear clogs when they began to work out in the field. The women never wore shoes only Treithíns which are stockings without soles.

The girls never wore shoes except on Sundays and in spring-time and in harvest when they were working out in the fields.

When the weather is windy eidhireach comes on the feet. It is very hard to wash the feet when there is eidhirec on them. Cream is good to cure it. In summer we go in our bare feet. We get stone-bruises and bunuals.

Local Games

Geney Joe.

At first two girls sit on a chair one holding the other. Then one girl comes up to the two that are sitting on the chair and says;

"I am one Lord that came from Spain to court your eldest daughter Jane." One of the girls that is sitting on the chair says;

"My daughter Jane is too young to be controlled by flattering tongues." Then the person that is standing up says;

"Be she young and be she old and upon my word she is fit to be sold." Then the person that is sitting down says;

"Go back, go back the spoons are bright and take the fairest lady in your sight." They continue like that until all in the ring are brought.

They all gather round the two that are sitting, and they say;

"Geney_Joe, Geney-Joe how is she now. The two that are sitting down says, "She is washing clothes, washing clothes, and you can't see her now." Then they all go back and come in again and say the same.

Each time they come in the person that is sitting down says a different thing.

After saying about the washing, she then says she is ironing, after-wards she says she is putting away the clothes. Then she says she is ill, had the doctor and the priest and she is dead.

Then a great cry rises, and four girls take her shoulder high and leave her on the ground as if she is buried. That finishes it.

Local Games

First of all a girl kneels on the ground as though she starts to blow the fire. Another row of girls joined together stand opposite to her.

The first girl in the row says;

"What are you blowing the fire for?"

"To boil a pot of water."

"What are you boiling a pot of water for?"

"To scald the forks and knives."

"What do you want the knives for?"

To cut the heads off your chickens."

"Why do you want to cut the heads off my chickens?"

"They have the thatch of my house destroyed."

The first one of the row tries to save the rest from their enemy, the girl that is going to kill them. As they are caught their heads are cut off

Story

Long ago a woman wanted to kill her husband. He was a smith. One day he asked her for a drink when he was in the forge. She put poison in it for him.

She handed it to him across the anvil. But a drop fell on the anvil and broke it in two halves and then he knew that there was something bad in it and he did not drink .

Ever since if a smith gets a drink across the anvil he spills some of it on the anvil.

A Mermaid

Long ago a man and his wife and their daughter went to the sea-shore one summer. They saw an image half a woman and half a fish sitting on the shore combing her hair.

When she saw them she went into the water. They walked to the place where she was sitting and the man looked down into the sea where she went and he disappeared. The woman looked down after after him and she disappeared and the little girl looked down after her father and mother and she also disappeared and they were never heard of again.

Old Houses

Long ago the houses were made with sods and a few corner stones. Some of the houses had one pane of glass in the window about twelve inches long and six inches wide. Others of them had only shutters in their windows.

Their houses were so low that the day light came down the chimney. A cailleach was in each house for the bed. For lamps they used bog-deal. When the women were knitting or sowing a hand-ful of bog-deal was put on the fire and some-body held it up near them.

The roof was made of black oak sticks covered with scraws and thatched with flax straw.

Clocks were not common then. People went by the fowl. When the cock crew early in the morning they got up and when the hens went to roost the people also went to bed. The cows were tied at the end of the house. Up over them there was a loft where the hens perched. Pigs were kept under the dresser.

A Tailor

About seventy years ago there was a tailor in Fargureens on the Parish of Balla in the barony of Carra named Micheal Reilly. He was never called but "Micheal an tailliúir."

He used to make suits for all people round the place. When he used get an order he went round to the houses and sat on the table near the window sowing until he had the suit finished.

He used to stay in the house of the person for whom he was working two or three days that time. When coming he would bring scissors, a thimble and a laboard with him.

The laboard was for putting under the clothes when he was pressing them. All the women in the district knit stockings. Some of them spin the thread and others of them buy it. On the eve of St Bridgets day all the girls go out in the Brídigh óg. They bring a rag doll with them from house to house. At each door they, say "Honour the Bridig óg.

Shrove Tuesday - Feast Customs

On shrove Tuesday all the old people used to go to town to buy ling and other things for lent. On that evening they used to make pancakes and potato-cakes for the tea. They used to boil potatoes and meat and cabbage for their supper.

Whit Sunday

Whit Sunday is supposed to be a kind of a wicked day. Any person or animal that is born on that day is supposed to be sore. People do not like to go near waters on that day. They say that the water runs mad three times on that day and that there are certain diseases on the water on that day.

Churning

We have a dash churn. It is two feet six inches high and its diameter is one foot six inches. We have it 10 ten years. It is used once a week or sometimes twice a week in summer.

When the cows have good grass they have a lot of cream on the milk.

We churn the cream on Tuesdays and Saturdays in summer and in winter when the weather is cold we churn on Fridays.

First of all we heat the churn with boiling water and we put the cream into it. Then we put the dash into it and put on the lid. There is a hole in the centre of the lid and through this hole we work the dash up and down.

There are two little pieces of timber cut out of the side of the churn and one in the lid. If the marks in the churn and the mark on the lid are not together the lid will not stay on the churn rightly.

A washer is used for keeping the milk from spattering out while the churning is going on. The cream is dashed in the churn for half an hour. When the weather is cold a little hot water is added.

The butter is lifted out of the churn with a wooden cup which has a hole in the bottom of it. The butter is made up with a pair of butter spades. When the butter is made up we are always careful to take the buttermilk out of the churn and we wash it with hot water and leave it out to air.

Hidden Treasure

In the village of Shraheen a man of the name of Kilgallon dreamed three nights about a pot of gold being under a bush by a river in a very lonely place. He was told in his dreams to go at 3 o'clock at night and bring a woman with him and a spade and a shovel. The woman was to bring a candle to show them light and a cat to throw into the place of the pot of when it was taken up. He asked his own wife but she was afraid so an old poor woman went with him. When he had come as far as the pot of gold the grandest piper ever was heard began to play. He made off and the old woman let the candle fall and flung in the cat on the pot and as it was a starry night she saw the clay all dazzling lumps of gold so she picked up a few lumps into her apron and brought them to Castlebar bank and got £20 for the few lumps. In the morning the place was just as if it never was stired so the money is there yet.

Forges

There is only one forge in Balla. It belongs to Mr John Kevil Balla. It is near the cross-road near the town of Balla. The forge itself is not very big it is about twenty feet long and fourteen feet in width but there are a lot of out-houses where the things that are made and being made are kept.

He shoes horses and he makes scufflers harrows pins, bolts, spades, rings, staples. He repairs old ploughs, and he makes carts. He also makes window-frames and door-frames and doors.

Ballinhoe

Ballinhoe is a small village on the top of a hill in the Parish of Balla in the barony of Carra. There are five thatched houses in it. Namely Moran's, Kennedy's, Connor's, Hyland's, Lavin's. It got its name from a fog. It is nearly always under a fog. Jim Kennedy and John Moran are 80 years old.