June 12, 2014

♫ 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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.…

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…