St John's Eve- Bonfire night.

Western Pomise

Tomorrow evening a traditional highlight in rural communities Calendar year,the lighting of midsummers Bonfire.

This has also become a tradition in urban areas.Are bonfires lit in your part of Ireland?

pedigree 6

Only when the Wexford hurling team win the All Ireland. Then the bonfires are lit.:p

restive

Still going strong here. I usually look towards the horizon to see how many I can count. Tires are a very popular fuel giving of Black smoke.

CHOPS01

pedigree 6 wrote: »

Only when the Wexford hurling team win the All Ireland. Then the bonfires are lit.:p[/quote

Wexford fire services on standby for September so !

alfaromeo84

Yep, having one, usually have a few neighbours round too, a few drinks, deck chairs, nice way to spend an hour, maybe two, am near Kinsale. I know it's still very popular in the city, northside, which will probably be in the papers on Saturday for stones being thrown at the fire brigade.

vicwatson

pedigree 6 wrote: »

Only when the Wexford hurling team win the All Ireland. Then the bonfires are lit.:p

Once every 28 years then:D

pedigree 6

vicwatson wrote: »

Once every 28 years then:D

Shur it's only 21 years since we last won it.:)

J.O. Farmer

pedigree 6 wrote: »

Shur it's only 21 years since we last won it.:)

Roll on 2024 and wexfords year again. You better start gathering stuff to burn there's only 7 years to go.

_Brian

No never see them round these parts.

visatorro

Never heard of it

Conor Bourke

It's a Sligo thing too

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=100134170

The part time boy

I had never heard of it around north cork. Found out couple of years ago it's popular in cork city.

Friend of mine who farmer daughter says it's a great way to burn some rubbish

longgonesilver

The midsummer festival predates Christianity. The lighting of fires was to honour the spirits of the summer. Fair play to what we would consider badly educated people to recognise the longest day of the year st John came much later and the day was allotted as his feast day.

The lighting of fires has long being declining in rural Ireland.

My father used say at one stage that everyone used cut bushes in spring to light on St Johns night to ward off evil spirits. The aim was to get the smoke to drift over the potato fields to keep the blight away. As people got more educated they moved away from what they considered primitive acts and used more scientific methods. My father brought up in west Cork, used tell the story of an old woman begging her two sons to light some fires, even one bush to save the potatoes, she would be of the generation that survived the horrors of the famine.

Username John

Funny...

I would be from mid cork, and no one did it, living in more west cork direction now - and no one has a fire here either...

Was in Mallow one time, and there was a few fires around for it, and a mate of mine around fermoy said twould be a thing there too...

longgonesilver

Yea I would say that most of the sun worshipers have died out now


The religious crowd rather than the tanning crowd.


The only ones doing it now are around the towns and cities, but it is just an excuse to light a fire for some and an excuse to burn rubbish for others.

The young lads in Cork and other towns used to be drawing stuff for weeks but the local authorities started taking it away. It was a very bad night for asthmatics and the firemen used to get abused when putting out fires to protect property. A lot of tyres and sofas went up in very black smoke on the northside of Cork in the past.

mayota

Plenty of fires in Mayo still. The authorities have accepted it now. Mayo CoCo have a radio ad warning people not to burn household waste ect., in the bonfires.

pedigree 6

longgonesilver wrote: »

Yea I would say that most of the sun worshipers have died out now
.

I have never heard of this bonfire night before and never around these parts but if you look in the local old graveyard here you will see an image of the rising Sun carved on some of the really old headstones.
Whether this has to do with Sun worship or the Son of God rising again or perhaps an amalgamation between the two beliefs I don't know.

I'm just wondering if it was a thing in Ireland how was it stamped out or people stopped doing it in some places and not in others?

Bleating Lamb

Got a general letter in the post about a fortnight ago from the Dept warning that any areas observed that had been burned would be taken out of ANC or BPS payment calculation and a fine would result.....or words to that affect.Presume most grass based/tillage farmers got this letter,probably as a result of the wildfires in Wicklow and Galway during the really hot spell in Spring.

Plenty of Bonfires traditionally lit in my area Midsummers night but this letter would make you think twice about it as it could hit your pocket in the future if the eye in the sky picked something up.

Del2005

longgonesilver wrote: »

The midsummer festival predates Christianity. The lighting of fires was to honour the spirits of the summer. Fair play to what we would consider badly educated people to recognise the longest day of the year st John came much later and the day was allotted as his feast day.

The Christian church robbed most of its festivals from the pagans.

Bleating Lamb

Can see four different bonfires from the living room window,all have good 'clean' smoke,probably bushes gathered up in Spring into corners of fields,no black plumes of smoke signifying tyres etc in the fire.

CloughCasey1

mayota wrote: »

Plenty of fires in Mayo still. The authorities have accepted it now. Mayo CoCo have a radio ad warning people not to burn household waste ect., in the bonfires.

Same in North Galway. We used to have massive ones when young lads. We burnt the telecom lines one yr and were at least 40feet away from it. Remember one yr we were all finished gathering. 4 tractors 2 with trailers and 2 with cocklifters going for a few hours with plenty of hooring and messing while at it. An ambulance passed at full speed as we were all chatting and few of us said together hope its not anyone we know. Turned out it was a young lad we knew from two parishes away in a tractor incident doing the same as us. He passed away in hospital.

mayota

CloughCasey1 wrote: »

Same in North Galway. We used to have massive ones when young lads. We burnt the telecom lines one yr and were at least 40feet away from it. Remember one yr we were all finished gathering. 4 tractors 2 with trailers and 2 with cocklifters going for a few hours with plenty of hooring and messing while at it. An ambulance passed at full speed as we were all chatting and few of us said together hope its not anyone we know. Turned out it was a young lad we knew from two parishes away in a tractor incident doing the same as us. He passed away in hospital.

It was some craic and the competition between the different townlands was something else. The parents of younger kids would be shouting to get the fire lit mad early maybe 6 or 7 o'clock but the young bucks wanted the fire to last through the night so tried to delay the lighting. It was all about the smoke too, if the neighbouring fires were letting off a lot of smoke a hape of tyres were ****ed on. Sad about that lad tho.