Schools Folklore Collection – A treasure trove for family historians?

Between 1937 and 1939, the Irish Folklore Commission set up a scheme in which over 100,000 schoolchildren collected local lore and history from older generations in their locality. Most of the topics are to do with local history, folktales, legends, proverbs, songs, customs and beliefs, games and pastimes, crafts and local monuments. These stories were collated by the local National School teachers in 5,000 schools across all 26 counties in what was then the Irish Free State. This material forms part of one of the largest Folklore Collections in the world, which is in the care of University College Dublin. The Schools Collection is now being digitized by Dúchas.ie and is being rolled out online. Although not all of it has been transcribed, it is searchable by place, family name, school, topic. Many of the entries are in Irish. (I hope that these can be translated in due course so that overseas researchers may reach the wealth of information on the heritage, culture and way of life in the parishes of their ancestors.)

I spend many hours idly browsing through this collection and recently was totally astonished to discover some members of our own family. Our uncle had gathered folklore and  his informants were none other than his parents, our maternal grandparents!

This was their story on Local Marriage Customs

The original entry in the Dúchas.ie collection

Most marriages take place from Christmas to the beginning of Lent, which time is called Shrove. June was thought a lucky month for marrying in, and May, July and August were thought unlucky. Friday, Saturday and the 28^th December were thought to be unlucky days.

Shrove Tuesday was known as Salting Day. All the girls who were not asked in marriage were salted on that day. They used to go to fairs and markets and as they passed through the streets the gentlemen threw salt on them. The idea was to preserve them for another year.

Matches were generally made in this district by the old people. Money was nearly always given as dowry to the bride and often stock or goods were given. It was customary for the boys and girls to go to Monaghan* fair in Mohill. A boy and girl would meet in the fair, and would stay in a neighbour’s house that night, and they would get married the next morning. Such a marriage was called a runaway marriage. This was customary about fifty years ago. The B.groom (bridegroom) used to reach the Church before the bride and wait for her to come. When the newly married couple were coming out of the Church an old boot was thrown at the bride and a thong (a strip of leather) at the groom. Rice was thrown on both of them. Those actions were supposed to bring good luck to the married couple. The boot was tied on the back of the car when they were going away.

Strawboys were called band-beggars because they used visit the bride’s house on the wedding night. They were dressed up and had sheaves of straw tied on their heads. They were allowed in to the wedding if they were mannerly, but very often they were not let in. They used to get plenty of food and drinks. When the strawboys had eaten the leader would dance with the bride.

The dragging-home was accomplished by the groom who went to the bride’s house and took her home on a side-car or on a car.

This was written by Robert Clinton of  Newtownforbes and was told to him by his father & mother.

Many accounts in this collection are handwritten by the young children and are easy to read. Sometimes too, the teacher wrote out all the stories collected by the children. Such was the case here.

The information page for Uncle Bobby’s school. County: Longford, Parish: Clongesh, School: Newtownforbes B, Teacher:F Mac énrí

This delightful discovery has added to our family history in a number of ways:

1. Our grandfather, Christopher Robert Clinton was a Station Master on the railways. This material establishes that the family was living in Newtownforbes between 1937 and 1939, which I did not know.
2. Our Uncle Bobby (The Robert Clinton who recounted the story) was aged about 13 or so at this time and we now know that he attended the local school.
3. The schoolmaster there, F Mac Enrí, or Phelim Henry in English, went on to marry our aunt Eva Clinton in 1942.  I have confirmed with our cousin that the handwriting above is indeed that of his father!

This particular piece also  feeds into Irish social history. I recently watched  a TV documentary on a minority group in Ireland known as ‘Travellers’, who spoke of the ‘dragging-away’ of girls by boys, as a means of letting them know that they liked them. The Travelling community who were once known as ‘tinkers’ and ‘itinerants’ because of their trade and nomadic lifestyle have strong traditions especially with regard to relationships and marriage.  I was  horrified by the language and the concept of ‘dragging away’ of girls, but here we have the exact same expression out of the mouths of our grandparents, 80 years ago, when telling of practices 50 years earlier. In addition, according to Uncle Bobby’s story from his mother and father it was the norm for a boy and girl who spent the night together, to marry immediately. Such is still the case in the Travelling community in Ireland, or was to my knowledge in recent years. That this was the ‘norm’ for everyone in the late 19th century has certainly been an eye-opener for me!

There is an absolute wealth of information to be found on this site. It is a bit ‘lumpy’ to navigate for sure, but hopefully as it evolves, it will become easier to get through. Transcribers are also required. The Irish pages in particular, I believe, would benefit from having transcribers with local knowledge.  Any offers?

If you have time to spare, do take a look at these fascinating pages!

Note: *The Monaghan Fair was held in Mohill, County Leitrim, about 22 kilometers from Newtownforbes in February each year. It was so named after the local Saint Manchan.

References:

http://www.dúchas.ie