Leachta Sheáinín

About eighty years ago there lived a man in Tavanaghmore, Balla, Co. Mayo. Whose name was Seáinín. He was very fond of card playing late at night.

One night as he was returning home later than usual, he met a man whom he did not know. The stranger asked Seán would he have a game of cards with him. But Seán replied that it was too late and besides that they had no cards or light.

Suddenly a light, a table and a pack of cards and two chairs appeared. Seán was tempted and he sat down and began to play.

They played until it was almost dawn. Once a card fell from Seán accidentally.

He stooped down to pick it up and he saw the cloven feet of his partner. He knew it was the devil he was playing with. So he got up at once and began to run and scream. The devil followed him and the man dropped dead by the roadside. He was found there in the morning.

Every person that passed the place where he died threw a stone on that spot. After a time a great heap of stones was made and from that day to this that place is called Leachta Seáinín or Johns heap of stones.

Weather-Lore

If the smoke goes up straight to the sky it will soon rain.

When the crickets sing it is also a sign of rain.

When the wind comes from the north we shall have snow.

When the swallows fly low down it is the sign of rain, when they fly high it is the sign of good weather.

When the ducks stray away it is the sign of dry weather. The following are the signs of rain:-

When the chimney puffs.

To see a crowd of flies over a river.

To see a horse or an ass standing with his back to a wall or ditch.

Hedge-School

Paddie Gallagher taught a hedge School which was in the village of Loughill, in the parish of Straide, Co; Mayo, about eighty years ago.

He was a very famous teacher. He taught all the subjects in Irish. His pupils used to write with slate-pencils on slates instead of pencils and jotters.

This school was held under a hedge. There were about 60 pupils going to this school. There was as much taught in it as in any National school, namely Irish and English reading, sums, and history. They spoke all Irish both master and pupils. They loved Irish.

The master was a native of Loughill. He had a house of his own and he went to the school from it. The pupils used to pay their fee once a week to the master which was sixpence or eight pence a week. The pupils used to buy their own books and make their own pens with quills. People have some of the old books stored up yet.

Lime-Kilns

About twenty years ago every farmer in this district had a lime kiln. This was a hole dug int the ground and built with stones. The people used to call this a "póreen". At the bottom of the kiln there was a hole. This is how they used to burn lime:- They put sticks in the bottom and set them on fire, then turf, then broken lime-stones, next sticks and turf again and continued in this way until the lime kiln was filled.

Then they covered it well with clay so as to keep the heat and flames from coming out. The lime stones had to be kept burning for 4 or 5 days.

The farmers had to stay up a night to keep the fire burning with turf.

When the lime stones were burned into lime the farmers took it our of the hole in the side of the kiln with a shovel. When the lime was out of the kiln the kiln was thatched with rushes or straw for safety in case rain would come and fill the kiln with water. Some people burn lime in this district still.

Local Marriage Customs

The marriage of my uncle and aunt took place a year ago in the parish of Balla, in the month of April. They had 4 motorcars and thirty of the nearest relations with them. They were married at 4-o'clock in the afternoon.

After the marriage they went for a drive to Mayo Abbey, and on to Belcarra, Manulla, Keelogues, Ballyvary, Loughkeerán, and home at 9-o'-clock. There was a fire of straw at the arrival. When they arrived supper was served. There were about 50 couples in all. The wedding cake was divided. There was plenty of eating and drinking, every body was maith-go-leór.

There was good music and dancing. My father is a good flute player and he danced a set with Mrs Anthony Brady. It was great fun. At about 12-o'-clock 3 crowds of straw boys came. They came in and danced. They got plenty of stout to drink. They were dressed well. My uncle and his wife went in the door together as it is considered unlucky for the man to enter first.

Local Cures

Just at the end of Mr Duffy's land in the town-land of Tavanaghmore, in the Parish of Straide, flows a river. There is a cure in its water at the South side where the three baronies of Carra, Clan-Morris and Gallon meet. Long ago people came a great distance for some of the water. The river flows into Lough Na Minnoo, which is in the parish of Balla.

Tinkers

These are the names of the tinkers most common in the Parish of Straide, in the Barony of Gallen, in the town land of Tavanagh, Co; Mayo.

The most of these tinkers have the same names as the tinkers long ago namely:- Mahons, Collins, Myers, Stokes, McDonells and McDonaghs. These people go from place to place. They have huts which are drawn by horses. Some times they have 3 or 4 tents or huts with them. They sell tins of all kinds such as:- saucepans sweet-cans both big and small, basins, buckets. They make these things them-selves. The people buy from them some-times if they are in want of tins. They have to pay very dear for them. The people go to visit the tinkers every night and the tinkers go to the houses of the people. Some tinkers are great dancers and singers.

The Famine

About 96 years ago there was a great famine in Ireland. The potatoes and all the crops rotted. The people were starving and dying with the hunger.

When the people had nothing to eat the English used to send yellow-meal to them. They ate it, but no sooner had they eaten it than they died because the English had put poison in it. They at last stopped eating it. They were also eating grass and dockens. They used to be often dying and the docken leaf in their mouths. If there was a priest round the place he would anoint the dying person. But sure the priest would die as often as the people.

Games

Swinging: - Get a long cart-rope, tie one end of it to the rafter of a barn and tie the other end of it to a rafter the other side of the barn. Put a bag or mat in the centre of the and sit on it. Some body will swing you back and forward.

A jump: - Get two sticks with forked tops. Stick the ends in the ground get a long rod and put it across in the forks of each stick then jump that. If anyone knocks it she must stop jumping it for three rounds.

Winkers: - When playing winkers one person must stand in each of the four corners of the house and another in the middle. Someone in a corner must wink at the person opposite to him. Those two have to change places quickly. Then the one in the centre will try to go into one of the corners. If she succeeds the person whose corner she goes into, will have to go to into the middle.

The Potato-Crop

Potatoes are the most common crop the farmers grow round this district in the village of Tavanaghmore, Parish of Straide in the Barony of Gallen.

They set them in ridges and in drills. The following is the way they set the potatoes in ridges: -

They first turn a line of sods one side and about a yard from that they turn another line of sods. Scoring that is called. There is a clais between every two ridges. The farmer puts yard-manure on every ridge, he some-times puts lime on them. The children leave the slites, and the men cover them with clay.

When the potatoes are a few weeks set, they are moulded. After two or three months they are sprayed.

The drills are about half the size of the ridges. With a plough and horses, they are made.

There is a sod standing each side. These drills are much the same shape as the top of a house. There is yard-manure in between each drill in it are put slits. The horse and plough comes and splits the drill in two halves. The culture of the plough throws one half on the slits. They split the other drills and let one side of it fall on the slits that is one drill closed. This is continued until they are all closed.

When the stalks are coming up through the clay they are moulded by horses with ploughs.

They used to have wooden ploughs 20 or 30 years ago. There are none of them to be seen now.

My Home District

My home district is in the Parish of Straide the Barony of Gallen the town land of Tabhanachmóre Co;Mayo.

There are fourteen families in it. There are six people over seventy in it namely:- Mrs Ansbro, Mr . Ansbro, Mr. Kearns, Mr. Murphy, Mr. McNamara and Mr. Murphy. Mr. Kearns and Mr. Ansbro are good Irish speakers and story tellers.

Murphy is the most common name. There are five families of that name in it. There are fourteen houses in Tabhanach. There are three of them slated and eleven thatched. There are three houses in ruins. About twenty years ago people lived in them whose names were John Murphy, John Kearns and Michael Kearns. There are rivers one west and one east of the village. They are separating Tabhanachmór from the other two villages Loughill and Cregg.

Seanmuillin is the name of one of them. It was called that name because there was a mill there about fifty years ago. It was worked by the power of the river. There is no name on the other river.

There are about 250 acres of land in this village. There are about ten acres of it bog. The people cut turf in it some-times. The meaning of Tabhanach-mór is:- chose the big horse. But I do not know how it got its name.

Local Sayings

There is many a way of choking a cat besides choking him with butter.

All is not gold that glitters.

It is an ill wind that dosn't favour someone.

Better alone than in bad company.

A half a loaf is better than no bread.

A rolling stone gathers no moss.

The proof of a pudding is in its eating.

Fools make feasts but wise men eat them.

When wine is in wit is out.

A penny wise is a £1 foolish.

Birds of a feather flock together.

God never closes one door but He opens another.

Marbh le té agus marbh gan é.

Fág mar sin é.

Míle buidheacas Dé.

Churning

Churning is done in every house in the village of Tavanagh, Parish of Straide, and Barony of Gallen. The churn we have at home is two feet high and its diameter is one foot and a half. The milk is worked up and down by a dash. Before the milk is put into the churn, the churn is heated and left out to air. Then the sour milk is put into it and it is dashed up and down with the dash.

When the churning is finished the butter is taken out. It is washed and salted. Then there is the sign of the Cross made over the churn with the dash. If any body comes into the house while the churning is going on he will have to churn a little, or it is said that he will bring the butter with

My Heritage photo colour restoration was used for this photo.

Saint Bridget's Day

On Saint Bridget's night a crowd of girls dress them-selves up in old clothes and they go out honouring St. Bridget. They get a turnip and a potato and make a doll of them. The turnip is used as the body, and the potato as the head. They stick two pieces of rids through the turnip and they are the feet. They put a dress on it then.

There are no hands on this doll. Bridget is her name. When the girls go into the houses they say "Honour the Bidy". The people ask where is the Bidy? They show the doll to them. The people then give them a penny or an egg. If they hadn't any Bidy they would get nothing.

Saint John's Night

The bone fire night is always on the 23rd June. The eve of St. John's day all the boys of one village go to the bog with asses and creels for loads of turf. They put the turf in one big heap at a cross-roads. They put half of it in the shape of a fire. They leave a small hole in the middle of it. The small children look out for the bone a month before a bone-fire night.

When the fire is kindled all the old people and children go to it and say a rosary around it. Then the old people go into the houses and leave the children out to enjoy themselves. The women go to the town the evening before and buy two or three loaves for the supper on the bone-fire night. They boil the milk in a pot, when it is boiling they break the loaves into it.

There is no sugar put on it that night. The family people go home and eat it. The grown ups go out again and the young children go to bed. The old people call the boiled loaf "Pobs"

The reason the people have this great festival is in honour of St. Patrick lighting the fire on Tara's Hill as a sign of the True Faith. The Irish people make a bone fire every year since.

Forges

My Heritage photo colour restoration was used for this photo.

There are the ruins of an old forge in the village of Tavanagh, Parish of Straide, Barony of Gallen. It belonged to Richard Bourke. There is one window and one door in it. There is a big fire place in it and a water -stone. This is a big round stone with a hole in the middle. It was for cooling the iron when it was red. There was also an anvil and a bellows in it.

About thirty or forty years ago Richard Bourke used to make all kinds of iron implements and tools. It was a very famous forge. At that time there was no other forge in this district and on that account the smith got a lot to do.

This forge is not working now at all. A man named Edward Bourke owns it at present.

Shoemakers

About fifty years ago there lived two famous shoe-makers in this district Parish of Straide, Barony of Gallen and villages of Tavanaghmore and Loughill. Their names were Tom Burke and John McTigue.

Tom Burke lived in Tavanaghmore and John McTigue lived in Loughill. They used to make the leather themselves with the skin of animals. Some-times they would buy it. They used to make shoes themselves and sell them in towns and to other people.

They used to sell them very cheap but they were good shoes.

Local Fairs

In the towns of Balla, Castlebar, Straide and Kiltimagh fairs are held once or twice a month. In Kiltimagh and Castlebar pigs and cattle, sheep and horses are sold. No pigs are sold in Balla or Straide.

When a man is selling a beast to another man he always asks a big price first but he might sell the animal for two or three pounds less than he demands first.

The man he sells the beast to always gives him some luck money. The person who gets it always spits on it or if he didn't some bad luck would come out of it.

Local Food

About ninety years ago the people used to have no tea at all for there was none to be found in the country at that time. "Stirabout" or "porridge" they used to have in the morning for their breakfasts and some-times herrings or potatoes.

When the men got up in the mornings they went out in the fields working while the women were preparing their breakfasts Breakfast might be brought out to the field or else they would go into the house for it. Potatoes, herrings or porridge were also eaten at dinner. At that time the people wore no shoes men or women.

Local Houses

The houses of long ago were plain thatched houses consisting of three compartments i.e. a kitchen and two bed-rooms. The kitchen was in the middle and the two rooms each side of it. The floors were flagged and the fire-place made level with the hearth.

On either side of the fire were two stone seats called "hobs". Over one of these hobs was a hole in the wall. It was there the old man used to put his pipe.

Over the fire was an iron bar with crooks hanging from it. It was on these crooks the kettles, and pots, were hung to boil.

At the end of the house there was a loft with a ladder ascending to it.

The roof of the kitchen consisted of wooden rafters going across the house, over these were bits of white thorn and over these again were "scraws". Then the thatch was put over this.

Inside in Summer you could see onions, garlic and cabbage-seeds suspended from the rafters to season.

On the side- wall of the house there was a recess in the wall. There was a bed in this recess with curtains hanging outside. This was called a “Cailleach” or “hag”

My Heritage photo colour restoration was used for this photo.

Farm Animals

We have three cows at home namely:- Betta, Blue-cow and Black-cow. We have a stable for these animals we call it the "byre". There are stakes standing by the walls. To these stakes the cows are tied by a chain or rope. There is a rack for each cow's hay. There is a partition between the cow byre and the thrashing barn. They are roofed with galvanized iron and they are plastered inside with mortar.

Long ago there used to be a red string and a horse shoe nail tied to the cows' tails before they would calf. After they had calved there is a burning coal brought out to the cow and put round her body three times in honour of the three Divine Persons, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. After the cows are milked there is the Sign of the Cross made on their hips with the thumb of the person who milked them or with a drop of milk.

A Story

About one hundred years ago there was a ship going from Ireland to some-other foreign countries. It was filled with people. When the journey was almost ended a girl looked out the window of the ship and she saw another girl in the water. She could only see her neck and shoulders. She called out saying that some-one was drowning. The captain of the ship looked out and saw the girl combing her hair. He said she was a mermaid.

The captain said to the girl who saw the mermaid first that if she went near water again before that day twelve months that she would get drowned. One day she was going for water she got drowned.

A Story

There lived a very happy old couple a long time ago. One day the man of the house caught a bird. He didn't know what the name of the bird was but he thought it was a blackbird. His wife said it was a thrush. They began to fight over the bird. The man said it was a blackbird and his wife said it was a thrush. They made a cage for the bird. Almost every day they fought over this bird. They kept the bird for over a year and they let her go away and either of them knew what bird was she.