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Manx Lullaby – Ushag Veg Ruy
♫ Ushag veg ruy ny moanee doo, Ny moanee doo, ny moanee doo, Ushag veg ruy ny moanee doo, C’raad chaddil oo riyr ‘syn oie? Ushag veg ruy ny moanee doo, Ny moanee doo, ny moanee doo, Ushag veg
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Manx Folksong – Cashen has gone to Sea
Ta Cashen ersooyl gys yn aarkey – Cashan has gone to Sea ♫ O, Cashen has gone to the fishing, And glad enough is he to go; His wife has a tongue like a mill-wheel, The house that she keeps
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Homage to the Holy Well
Almost invariably there was a spring or a gentle stream nearby every Keeill. It served the purpose of baptism and retained the respect associated with it in pagan times. It is regrettable that so many of them, linked for long
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The Fairies’ Share
The ‘soddhag-rheynney‘ (dividing-cake) was an extra bit of dough baked in a flat cake, broken into small pieces, and scattered on the kitchen floor or just outside the house for the fairies to enjoy in the night-time. One time, when
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Ash for Luck
Things which are simply lucky or unlucky in a general way are almost innumerable but I have seen no mention of what is called the “even ash,” a twig which bears, exceptionally, an even number of leaves. This is lucky
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Fairy Flowers
Fairy flowers (red campion) should never be brought indoors at any time. If by chance they are, that night the fairies will come for them and then woe betide the person who picked and brought them in. Their bed clothes
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Parish of Kirk Conchan
The patronal saint of this parish was St. Christopher, but he was better known in Ireland under his Gaelic name ‘Conchenn’, meaning ‘dog-head’ or ‘wolf-head.’ In the Greek churches St. Christopher was usually depicted with the head of a dog
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Folklore on the Manx Cat
An account by Joseph Train (1844) “According to my friend, Mr. Forbes, the only quadruped peculiar to the Island of which it can boast, is the tail-less cat, called in Manks, “Stubbin” and in English, “a Rumpy.” This is, he
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Corn Law Riots of 1821
During the Continental wars, corn was, in the British Isles, frightfully dear. With peace came a fall in prices and farmers were in despair. Then foreign corn was prohibited, and the price went up. In 1821 the Isle of Man
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Sea Invocation
An extract from Mona Douglas and her Songs by George Broderick. 4.4. The Sea Invocation (Geay Jeh’n Aer) ‘Collected, and the English version of the Manx traditional words by Mona Douglas’. English translation via Archdeacon Kewley. Douglas (1928, 2-3). Also
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