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Traditional Lore, Cures, Sayings and Curses

daviddonnelly

Can anyone provide me with old sayings and folklore e.g. weatherlore (red sky at night etc.....) Cures (nail a snail to a tree to cure warts etc..). In one saying I know of like n'er cast a clout til May is out, I always presumed May to be the month of May when in fact it refers to the May Blossom. If anyone has any others I would love to hear them.;)

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danniemcq

Kinda related, there is a wishing and a cursing stone on Tory Island.

The wishing stone is at the top of Tor Mor and you eitehr stand on it and do 3 turns (not safe at all!!! you are about 300ft up and nothing below you but a stoney shore. There is a safer way though by throwing 3 stones in a row on top of the rock. If one falls off though you have to walk to the bottom of the hill and walk up again to try again.

The cursing stone has been hidden by a priest after the HMS Wasp ran aground (in ok weather and right within sight of the lighthouse).

It was on its way to Tory to collect Tax and the islanders at the time made the wish that they wouldn't land and walked around it and it came true. Or so the story goes.

http://www.derryjournal.com/news/local/the-strange-mystery-of-the-ship-and-the-cursing-stone-1-2144722

The priest at the time buried the stone and didn't tell anyone where it was buried so something like that couldn't happen again.

Also the whole rats on tory thing is true.

There are 0 rats on Tory but loads of mice. In an effort to put this prove thr catholic lore to rest a protestant years ago brought some rats to tory to show that they can survive. They didn't!

well thats what i was told by several different people. I do know however we had an issue with Rats in a house i was renting in Letterkenny and the GF got some Tory clay (you have to get it off a certain person who gets it from a certain place) and put it around the outside of the house and we never had an issue again.

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daviddonnelly

hi danniemcq

Many thanks for your reply. I heard a similar story relating to rats and clay. It is said that if you keep a piece of clay that has been taken from Disert graveyard near Letterbarrow in your house you will never have rats. I have heard that people in the area swear by this remedy, might give it a try sometime

madalig12

Two aul women on a donkeys cart, one let a roar and the other let a fart....

There is a second verse but ill ask if anyone about home remembers it, my great uncle used to always be saying it he lived to 102 so goodness knows what era it was from.

Also have a granny who has a cure for ringworm but I don't know what she uses.

muffler

madalig12 wrote: »

Also have a granny who has a cure for ringworm but I don't know what she uses.

goat2

theres no hitch on a hearse,
and no pockets in a shroud
meaning you can take nothing with you, best share it while you are here.

daviddonnelly

I see the famous Donegal Postman has made a prediction for coming snow

Here A few words on the weather that I remember hearing as a child

When the wind's in the north,
Hail comes forth:
When the wind is in the west,
Look for a weet blast.
When the wind is in the south,
The weather will be good:
When the wind is in the east,
It is neither good for man nor beast.

or

Many hawes,
Many snows.

Many rains,
Many rowans.

daviddonnelly

Has anyone heard that the more berries there are on the trees in the Autumn the colder the winter we will have. Is this a sign of a mild Summer/Autumn or the forecast of a bad winter to come?

Madam

daviddonnelly wrote: »

Has anyone heard that the more berries there are on the trees in the Autumn the colder the winter we will have. Is this a sign of a mild Summer/Autumn or the forecast of a bad winter to come?

Yes, my granda used to say that, he was a good one for the weather forecasting too - he was a farmer. I see the Rowan trees around here are loaded this year:eek:

My grandmother wouldn't let anyone bring Holly into the house until Christmas eve(can't remember why - unlucky maybe?).

echo beach

My grandmother wouldn't allow hawthorn blossom (may flower) into the house despite the lovely fragrance. Said it was bad luck because that is the plant that was used to make the crown of thorns for Jesus.

She also had a selection of Colmcille's curses. The way she spoke about him I thought as a child that he was somebody she had known personally, or at least her parents would have known him. I was astonished to discover he had been dead for hundreds of years.
One was that you should put on both shoes before you lace up one. No idea why and I have never heard it from anybody else.

Madam

echo beach wrote: »

My grandmother wouldn't allow hawthorn blossom (may flower) into the house despite the lovely fragrance. Said it was bad luck because that is the plant that was used to make the crown of thorns for Jesus.

She also had a selection of Colmcille's curses. The way she spoke about him I thought as a child that he was somebody she had known personally, or at least her parents would have known him. I was astonished to discover he had been dead for hundreds of years.
One was that you should put on both shoes before you lace up one. No idea why and I have never heard it from anybody else.

Are we related? lol As for the shoe thing my Granny was the same! Seems thats how Columbcille was caught by the bishops people, he fell over his own shoelaces(did they have such a thing in those days?) Btw she could tell you everything he ever cursed too - he was a great man for the curses:)

daviddonnelly

Speaking of curses has anyone ever heard of a Pishogue, sounds rude but its supposed to be a form of curse. One farmer told me that he woke one day and found all his gates to his fields had been removed, not stolen just left lying in the field. He swore that this was a curse or as he called it a pishogue and everything that went wrong for weeks he blamed on the curse

Maldesu

There was having a dark haired man being the first to enter the house on New Years so you'd have good luck.
And I remember all the holly had to be burned on New Years Eve I think for luck too.

buckfasterer

Maldesu wrote: »

There was having a dark haired man being the first to enter the house on New Years so you'd have good luck.
And I remember all the holly had to be burned on New Years Eve I think for luck too.

Its a Scottish tradition to have this person to bring a piece of coal into the house and throw it on the fire. Still done in our house, even if it means going out when everyone is inside and even lighting a fire to do it

daviddonnelly

Yeh the coal thing is a widespread one, as far as i know it is supposed to date back hundreds of years when it was a necessity to carry a burning ember from place to place in order to keep the home fire burning at a time when lighting a fire wasn't as easy as striking a match

daviddonnelly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GeIJCRVg5Q&feature=relmfu

echo beach

Madam wrote: »

Are we related? lol

Probably, everybody in Donegal is related to everybody else if you go far enough back.

As for the shoe thing my Granny was the same! Seems thats how Columbcille was caught by the bishops people, he fell over his own shoelaces(did they have such a thing in those days?)

Thanks for that. I was beginning to think I imaged that one as anybody I ever said it to had never heard it before. It seems like a reasonable explanation. He would have worn a type of sandal, fastened by a long leather thong (the sort of thing you see in gladiator type films) so he could easily have tripped over it.

Btw she could tell you everything he ever cursed too - he was a great man for the curses:)

Yea, I often thought it was a strange thing for a saint but he was first and foremost a politician so maybe that explains it.

echo beach

daviddonnelly wrote: »

Speaking of curses has anyone ever heard of a Pishogue, sounds rude but its supposed to be a form of curse. One farmer told me that he woke one day and found all his gates to his fields had been removed, not stolen just left lying in the field. He swore that this was a curse or as he called it a pishogue and everything that went wrong for weeks he blamed on the curse

I would have translated piseog as an old wives tale rather than a curse and my dictonary says it is a superstisious practice. I've often heard the word used in Donegal in both English and Irish.

The removal of gates (and doors) was a common prank at Halloween and is connected to the idea of trying to confuse the fairies, or 'little people', who would trying to get from their world into ours on that night when it was believed to be possible to cross from one to another.

Until quite recently, and possibly even yet, many people who will tell you they don't believe in fairies will plough around a fairy ring and refuse to cut down a hawthorn tree. As one old farmer said about the little folk, "just because I don't believe in them doesn't mean they aren't there."

Maldesu

I remember one we used to say about horses based on the marking on their legs:

1 white sock, buy him
2 white socks, try him
3 white socks, doubt him
4 white socks, do without him.

There was also the opinion on chestnut red mares, which were just bad news and best avoided.

donegal_road

I know a couple of people with the cure for burns. There are also people who have the cure for Shingles.
The islanders thought it was bad luck to know how to swim, especially the fishermen. I heard it said that it was also bad luck to rescue a drowning person because the sea fairies would claim two more people from the family of the rescuer.
The fishermen thought it unlucky to talk about certain things on the way to fish. If you mentioned fish, the fish would hear you and knew to keep away from the boat. To get dog droppings on the net was also a bad omen.

There is a large rock leaning over the road south of Crolly and there is a superstition about red haired ladies walking past it would cause it to tumble.

I also heard that it is considered unlucky for a person to walk in the front door of someones house and without stopping, proceed to exit through the back door. (Gweedore)

Some years ago there was a course in Druidism running in an old mill between Falcaragh and Dunfanaghy. I knew a guy that did this course and from what he told me, the course material would be of big interest to the OP

Madam

donegal_road wrote: »

There is a large rock leaning over the road south of Crolly and there is a superstition about red haired ladies walking past it would cause it to tumble.

If thats true the rock must have tumbled up and down an awful lot as there's loads of redheads down that way(could you imagine a sunday morning before and after mass):)

Oh I know the rock your talking about(the Dolemon Rock? Can't remember the name in Irish).

I've just been reminded about the old gates into a graveyard where you have to open the gate - turn around to go in - then close it again before you can enter! Seems in the old days the devil couldn't get in as he only traveled in straight lines;)

annascott

daviddonnelly wrote: »

Has anyone heard that the more berries there are on the trees in the Autumn the colder the winter we will have. Is this a sign of a mild Summer/Autumn or the forecast of a bad winter to come?

Yes,I have heard this. There is a holly tree on my property and it is always heavy with berries before a really cold winter. I was told it has something to do with nature fattening up the birds...

donegal_man

Originally Posted by daviddonnelly
Has anyone heard that the more berries there are on the trees in the Autumn the colder the winter we will have. Is this a sign of a mild Summer/Autumn or the forecast of a bad winter to come?

My next door neighbour has the following. "A haw year a braw year, a sloe year no year", I'm not entirely sure whether it refers to the weather we can expect or the weather that produced the particular crop of berries.

muffler

annascott wrote: »

I was told it has something to do with nature fattening up the birds...

You're thinking of men :pac:

K-9

Madam wrote: »

If thats true the rock must have tumbled up and down an awful lot as there's loads of redheads down that way(could you imagine a sunday morning before and after mass):)

Oh I know the rock your talking about(the Dolemon Rock? Can't remember the name in Irish).

I think it's the girl with the reddest hair in Ireland passes, then it will fall. Wonder who thought that one up?

daviddonnelly

I have heard that it means a cold winter ahead and the birds being fattened etc.. but I recently heard too on an RTE tv programme where a weather presenter said something like a good crop of berries on a tree was more to do with a good spring and summer just past

daviddonnelly

The removal of gates being used to confuse the spirits and fairies seems to be something similar to the Halloween custom of dressing up. Ive heard it said that people dressed in order to confuse spirits from the other world while the veil between both worlds were at their thinnest.

donegal_road

lots of hangover cures around too

muffler

donegal_road wrote: »

lots of hangover cures around too

Indeed. My favourite is staying drunk

daviddonnelly

would love to hear a few hangover cures that really work ha ha

daviddonnelly

The saying a hair of the dog is a reference to a hangover cure e.g. a drink of the same stuff the next day will ease the symptoms but it actually comes from an old remedy where people said that to cure a bite from a dog all you had to do was place a dog hair on the wound and it would help it heal. Like cures like in a way. I've never found that this worked with alcohol though all it does is leads to another day of drinking postponing the inevitable hangover for another day