COLLECTOR: Rita Corcoran, Prison, Balla, Co. Mayo

A Rush

Why is a pig like a protector.?

Because it walks with its head downwards,

A Fairy Story

There was once an old woman who lived in an old house which was built between where Michael Murphy's and Andrew Coleman's houses now stand in Prizon. It was in the time long ago before the Prizon farm was striped up into holdings of land. No trace of the little old house remains only a heap of stones.

In those far off days every country house used to have a spinning wheel to spin wool into thread. One night this old woman stayed up very late spinning. It was midnight and she did not think it was so late. She had her door opened when in came a big crowd of women with their spinning wheels and carders and all things that belonged to the spinning trade.

Every one of them set into a different job and worked very hard for a couple of hours. The old woman got very uneasy at last as all the women were strangers to her. At last one of the fairy women, as it is believed they were, whispered to her to go out and when she would come in to say there was some fort on fire.

The old woman did as she was told and when she said the fort was on fire all the women got frightened and each was crying and saying "My child will be burned". Then they gathered up all their spinning wheels and carders and weavers and so forth and rushed out as gast as they could. When the old woman got them our she locked her door and saw no more of them. They had the most beautiful piece of cloth woven that ever a human eye was laid on. There was not a colour under the sun that was not on it.

The old woman had the wonderful piece of cloth. Next day she brought it up to the Priest at Balla and it is said that it was put on the altar and it remained there until it was worn into threads.

A Lime-Kiln

A lime kiln is a deep round hole cut into the ground for the purpose of burning lime stones into lime. There is a hole put at the bottom of the lime kiln for the purpose of drawing air.

There is a little gullet at the side for setting fire to the kiln and taking out the lime. First there is a cart of turf put into the bottom of the lime kiln next a layer of broken lime stone next a layer of turf. Every second layer until it is level with the top. Then it is covered with turf mould and some scraws.

Next it is put on fire by putting some lighted coals into the little gullet at the side. It is then left to burn for a couple of days. Then the lime is removed out the little gullet.

It is afterwards used for many purposes such as for plastering houses and whitewashing houses. It is shaken on rough meadow ground. It makes the land grow very sweet grass and a plentiful supply of grass any where it is shaken. A fair sized lime kiln will burn between thirty or forty barrels of lime.

This can be sold at three shillings a barrel. It pays for the trouble. There is no lime burned at Prizon where I live because there is no lime stone on our land. We have to buy the lime and pay between three and four shillings a barrel for it. There is a village back near Castlebar called Colmacrade where there are a lot of lime stones.

Every man in that village burns lime. They sell it around the neighbouring towns and get a lot of money for it.

Local Marriage Customs

Long ago in my grandfather's time the people walked to church to be married. They were dressed very plainly, the men wore strong heavy suits and boots and the women wore heavy shawls and heavy boots. When the wedding party came home they had a good supper. This supper was cooked by the bride's and bridegroom's friends.

This supper consisted of plenty of boiled potatoes and bacon and cabbage.

Bird-Lore

There are a lot of birds around our place in the townland of Prizon, Barony of Carra Parish of Balla Co. Mayo. Some of those birds are the Lark, Thrush, Blackbird, Wren, Robin, Rook, Jackdaw, Chaffinch, Goldfinch. The Swallow and Cuckoo are migratory birds. The Swallow leaves here in October and spends the winter months in some warmer climate. The Cuckoo leaves us about the same time or earlier and returns again, about April.

It is supposed that the Swallow carries her ship with her and this is how-

She chooses a nice little bit of stick and this she carries across the Atlantic and when she gets tired flying, she drops the stick in the water and rests on it.

When the swallows come here in May they prepare and build their nests and lay their eggs and bring out their young birds.

These they train to fly and seek their own food. By the time the old birds migrate the young ones are fully grown and fit for the long journey on which they accompany the parent birds.

Cures

It is said every herb growing has a cure for some disease but people now-a-days don't know many of them. Boiled nettle roots are good for measles. This is the way they are used, first pull the nettles, wash the roots, boil in milk, strain, and drink the juice. There is also a cure for toothache in nettles. Put the nettle into your mouth as near as possible to where the pain is and the pain disappears.

There is kind of grey moss that grows in meadow-ground which is very good for any person suffering with kidney trouble.

Some animals and birds have cures- for instance a fox's tongue draws a thorn. Put the fox's tongue to where the thorn is, leave it overnight and the thorn is easily removed next day.

Stolen donkey's milk is a cure for chin cough (Teacher’s Correction- Milk stolen from a donkey a cure for chin-cough). Steal the donkey's milk and let the patient drink it. A man with a white horse has a cure for chin cough. When you meet a man with a white horse ask him for a cure for chin cough if you need it. Anything he tells you if it is only a drink of water is a cure. My mother once asked a man with a white horse for a cure for us.

He said the best thing you can give them is a sup of warm new milk. We got this and were improving every day after that.

The seventh son of the family has a cure for ring worm. That is if the seven sons are born one after another without any girl between. I know a seventh son.

Goose lard is very good for many complaints for instance a sprained or hurt hand, for sore throat and many other things.

The Famine

A great famine came in Ireland about ninety years ago. It was called the black famine. All the crops in Ireland failed, the corn died in the ground and the potato crop got blighted.

The poor people died for the want of food to eat. They had no money to buy food stuff and would not get it from the shopkeepers when they could not pay for it. The poor people died on the roadside.

Tinkers

Tinkers are a wandering class of people who roam about from place to place. They have different means of living, some make all kinds of tin ware such as cans, saucepans, strainers and so forth. They go around from house to house selling those, and beg a charity in every house. They get a saucer-full of flour in one house and a grain of tea and sugar in another and by the time evening comes they have the next day's supply of food gathered. There are other tinkers who make little flower tables and sell those, others who go around mending pots, ovens, spraying-machines and other things.

Some others who make their living sweeping chimneys.

Forts

Forts are raised heaps of earth which resemble little hills. They are round in shape. When you climb up on one of them they resemble a little round field. Many a tale is told about the forts. It is said there are beautiful rooms underneath the little round hills. It is not rightly known who built them some say it was the Danes and some it was the Irish.

People are always a little shy of the forts and don’t like to have much interference with them. It is said it is unlucky to till them. There is a man living near Ballavary who once tilled a fort on his own land. While his father lived he always said against its being tilled. But when his father died he tilled it. One day he was working on the fort and he got a slap on the face by some invisible hand.

His face was spoiled and he never tilled the land since. There is a fort in John Hunt's field in Prizon, Balla Co: Mayo and we see lights around it often.

When you stand on one fort you can see three others and from some nine.

Games

We play several different games around here some of which are chickens, high windows, drawing buckets of water, burrows, ghost in the garden.

This is how we play chickens:- a crowd of us gather together and we pretend we are chickens behind a hen, another hen comes to take the chickens off the hen.

The two hens fight together, one hen guards the chickens and the other hen tries to take them away.

Our Native Village

My Native Village is called Prizon. It is a valley situated between two hills. One hill is called Shieve Cáirn and the other is called Fear-Bréaga. This village is divided in two parts, the new village and the old. The houses in the old are built about seventy or eighty years, and the houses in the new are built about fifteen years. This village contains about 27 houses and about 125 people.

Potato-Crop

Every farmer around Prizon sews about an acre of potatoes yearly. They sew four different sorts of potatoes namely Regan's, Kerry-pinks, Aran-banner, Epicures. The Regans are the nicest for table use and the Kerry-pinks are also a very good kind. The Arran-banners are very good croppers. They are very large and plentiful and make very good feeding for pigs and fowl but are not good for table use.

The Eppicures are very early potatoes. They are sewn on drills in this district. In the Spring time the men plough the land. It is then harrowed. It is made into drills and the farmyard manure is scattered on them. The potatoes are cut into slits, each one having two or three eyes, then there is a shake of manure scattered over the yard manure and the slits are left a foot apart. The drills are then closed in.

Old Sayings

For age and want save while you make, no morning sun lasts a whole day.

Always taking out of the meal tub and never putting any in, soon comes to the bottom.

Blood is thicker than water.

You never miss the water till the well runs dry.

Very good about your butter-milk when your cows are dry.

Remember every kindness.

St Bridget's Day

St Bridget's day is on the 1st February. The young girls go out with the brídeóg. They go around from house to house carrying a doll which they call the brídeóg and say Honour the brídeóg.

In every house they get a penny or two and if the people have no change to give pennies they give eggs. The next day the girls go to town and sell the eggs. Then the money is equally divided amongst them and they buy a lot of nice things for herself. The young girls look forward to St Bridget's day for a long time before it comes, as they count on getting a lot of nice things for themselves with the money.

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday comes once a year. It is the beginning of Lent.

It is a day of fast and abstinence. There are six weeks in Lent and then Easter Sunday. Easter Sunday is a great day for feasting because it was on that day Our Lord rose from the dead.

The children have fires out in the fields. They make tea and boil eggs and have lot of other nice things. If you get up very early on Easter Sunday you will see the sun dancing in the sky. Everyone is happy around Easter Sunday.

Farm Animals

We have four cows two horned cows and two black polly cows.

We keep them in all night and out during day. We say "hursh" and "how" when driving them. Our cows are very good for milk. They give between two and three gallons each every day. We send some of the milk to the creamery in Balla and we give some milk to the calves and we churn the rest.

Hens

We have about thirty hens at our house. They are black, grey, white, and red. They have a little house for themselves with perches going across from wall to wall and the hens roost on them every night. People do not like to put an even number of eggs under a hen because it is considered unlucky.

The Care of the Donkey

We take great care of our donkey because he is a very useful animal. In Summer he is out in the field day and night. His feet are tied with a chain which has a hoop of iron at each end so that it will not hurt or cut his feet. After the donkey's days work he always gets a nice bit of hay.

In the winter he always gets a small feed of oats in the morning, after this he gets hay. At mid-day he gets a bundle of straw. When his day's work is over down through the meadow he takes a good run. "Up go his heels, down goes his head, its time little children be going to bed.

Local Food

Long ago the country people lived on Indian meal stirabout and potatoes. There was no tea or flour used that time. In my grand-father's and grand-mother's early days the tea just came to be known to the country people. For a very special occasion such as Christmas people would purchase a small quantity of tea and also a small quantity of flour. This was prepared for the feast and it was thought a great treat. Soon after that people started to buy it oftener and in larger quantities.

Stirabout – Porridge made by stirring oatmeal in boiling water or milk.

November Eve

All the children of the village gather together on one house and play all kinds of games. They sing songs and give around riddles.

The woman of the house usually makes a nice cake. She puts a ring and thimble in it. The cake is then divided around to all the party. The person that gets the ring is supposed to get married first.

Whoever gets the thimble will be a dress-maker if a girl, a tailor if a boy.

The Landlord

The land-Lord who owned this land before the land Commission took it over had agents in every district to gather the rent. If the people did not pay the rent they were cast out on the road.

The land Lord's name was Comptun Dunbell. The rent was gathered twice yearly.

Local Shops

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About sixteen years ago there was a shop in Tavanagh about a half a mile away from where my father and mother lived. This was owned by a family of the name of Coyles and is not in it now as the family moved away to another part of the district. This was the only local shop. They sold flour, meal and all kinds of bag stuffs. They also sold all kinds of groceries such as tea, sugar, bacon, and currants.

Oil was also sold at this shop. Many a day my father and mother went to it for oil after school closed.

The shop woman was very kind. She always gave a piece of a sweet cake to every child who went to the shop.

The people of the locality bought half their wants at this shop. When Christmas came they always had a nice present to get from the country shop. They usually got one pound of tea, a half stone of sugar, two pounds of currants and a sweet cake.

Nowadays the present they get is very small and easily carried.

A Story

There is a story told about a man who lived near the sea at Westport some years ago.

One evening he was walking along by the sea shore and he came upon a beautiful woman that was sitting on a rock combing her hair, she had a hair net behind her on the rock. The man went up and stole the hair net. But the merry-maid saw him and she ran after him to where he lived. She followed him into the house, and he threw it up on a loft.

The merry-maid asked the man for the net but he would not give it to her. The man and the maid got married, and they had five or six children. One day the man went up on the loft to look for something and the net fell down. The merry-maid saw it and she laughed and ran away to the sea. But the man or the children never saw her again.