Folklore
Brambles
Often in the old tradition, troublesome things could also be useful. The most pestilent weeds might have a cure for some ailment. The blackberry bramble was one such plant. Left unchecked it quickly took over a hedge or plot of land, but it could be very useful.
Sometimes my mother told me to gather some blackberries. I got a tin can and went to a place where there were plenty of briars. There were plenty of blackberries growing on the briars so I began to pick them. I only took the good ripe ones that there were no maggots in. When I had enough gathered I took them home to my mother and she put them in a pot and boiled them. Then she emptied them into a thin corn flour bag and squeezed the juice out of them. She set a dish under them and let the juice soak into it all night. Then she put the juice into a pot with some sugar and boiled it again. When it was ready she took it off the fire and when it was cool enough she put it into jam pots and when it was cold it was firm and ready for use. It is called blackberry jelly.
Collected by Joseph Kennedy, Treanbeg, Co. Donegal
(opens in a new window)The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1084, Page 087
A long time ago some men were making potheen on the top of Milussa. They had a mule for carrying up the material. They were busy all night making the potheen and they went for a sleep in the morning. They left the mule where the tub of potheen was and he drank it. When he had it drank he fell asleep. Some other men went in search of the potheen and they found the mule. They thought he was dead and they skinned him. After a while he got up and walked around. They put the skin on him again and stitched it together with brambles. He lived on the mountain until the blackberries grew on the brambles and when the children used to go picking blackberries they would follow the mule to pick the blackberries off him.
Collected by Miss Mary Hayes from Mr. Rody Cosgrove Gortcallyroe, Co. Clare
(opens in a new window)The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0587, Page 088
The people thatched in olden times with briars. They took the "jags" off them and seared them. These briars are called "scolps". They thatched and sewed the houses with this and it lasted for ten years. In later years the people thatched with flax, oaten straw, barley straw, wheaten straw, and sometimes rushes.
Collected by Kathleen Mc Henry from Dan Mc Laughlin, Glennagiveny, Co. Donegal
(opens in a new window)The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1118, Page 261
Ash Tree. A ‘protected’ species, with connections to the other world.
In the Parish of Rathoe there is a Holy Well called St Patrick's Well. In the townland of Kellitstown in th Brophys field. People visit it on St Patrick's Day and recite the Rosary there, and there were also a number of cured at it. People named Ricaby who lived near, were Black-smiths. They tried to destroy it. They got a kettle of the water and it would not boil. There is an ash tree growing beside it, and Ricaby said he would cut the boughs off. So he got up in the tree, and he looked round him and saw his house in a blaze of fire. He went home and it was all right, he came back to well a second time to cut it, and saw the houe again on fire. He said that he would not mind because every time he went back it was not on fire. He cut the boughs off the ash tree and when he returned home his house was burnt to the ground.
Collected by Patricia Hendricken, from John Smyth, Grangeford, Co. Carlow
(opens in a new window)The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0907, Page 251
There are two holy wells in this district. One is in Killare called St. Brigid's well. The other is in Dysart. People visit St. Brigid's well on Good Friday and do stations there. They also go there to get cured of warts or teeth aches.
The well is situated in Mr. Roche's field on the right hand side of the road. It is surrounded by a paling. There is an ash tree on one side of the well which has grown across the well. There is a statue a little bit away from the well. It was placed there by Mrs Keane, Balltacken Moyvore about nine years ago. There are the ruins of an old church behind the statue. There are nine stones at the well and when doing the stations people pray at each stone. They begin and end at the ash tree. People leave rags beads or pennies on the tree when they have finished. Then they wash or drink the water from the well, and so they get cured.Collected by Oonagh Nugent, Loughanavally, Co.Westmeath.
(opens in a new window)The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0742, Page 278
In the townland of Annakisha North about two miles from Doneraile village and about six miles from Mallow there stands on the side of a by-road a very large old ash tree named Crannahulla. Long ago in Clenor castle, about a mile east from the tree, lived a beautiful girl named Saint Cranath. She was so beautiful that she was spoken of at home and abroad. A certain Munster Prince who had heard of her great beauty made up his mind to marry her. He sent his soldiers to Clenor to bring the girl to him by fair or foul means. But Cranath fled from her father’s castle when she heard that the soldiers were come for her. She travelled west in the Doneraile direction for about a mile and suddenly she understood that ’twas her great beauty was the cause of all her misfortune. She determined there and then to destroy her beauty and catching hold of one of her eyes she plucked it out and cast it on fence. Immediately a big strong ash tree sprang up in the spot where here eye had fallen. The tree is to-day in the same place. What is locally regarded as Cranath’s eye is plainly to be seen on the butt of the tree. Strangely enough moss never grows on what is know as “the eye”. In a fork of the tree is a well which never runs dry. At one time “rounds for sore eyes” used to be paid here. People have tried and have failed to burn timber from this tree. The tree stands in a very prominent position and can be seen from several places in the parish.
Collected from Denis O’ Connell, Annakisha, Co. Cork
(opens in a new window)The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0372, Page 280-281