Irish
Customs & Superstitions
Houses
and Customs
Old
Village Street
We
hear many stories in relation to the traditions or superstitions which
the old folk practised or believed in . Most of these have to do with
the house and the 'luck' of the house. Some houses were believed to
be unlucky, and for the most part this was blamed on the choice of
site or where the house was located.
Location
was very important. First, there were practical considerations - was
the house going to be conveniently located as regards a water supply
or the public road? Or, was there going to be access to the farmers
land? Most of all, a house could not be built in any place where it
would interfere with the comings and goings of the 'little people',
or those who had died. The house should never interfere with the goings
on in the unseen world. Prehistoric earthworks and megalithic tombs
were to be avoided, for these places were believed to be inhabited
by the ancient spirits or the fairy people. Burial places old and
new were not to be built on or too close to. We are told that there
once was a house built for the clergy near a church in county Tipperary,
but one room in this house encroached on the graveyard. The clergy
who occupied that room suffered from bleeding ears until some wise
person realised the error made in the building of the house. The bleeding
stopped when that room was removed.
Old
pathways were to be respected and not obstructed in any way, who knows,
but it might be an old funeral path and to build on one of those would
be disastrous. There were 'wise' people, who knew the ways of the
unseen world, the ways of the fairies and these people were consulted
when a new house was to be built. There were solutions though, for
those house which were accidently built in the wrong place, sometimes
these worked. If a house was on a fairy path, then you could have
a front and a back door in line, and if you kept the doors open and
a full bucket of water in the house at night, then the fairies and
their cortege could move freely along their path, with water to satisfy
them when they were thirsty. (There are some who say that this was
only a folk tale told to remind people to have their buckets filled
at night, many's a person fell down the well or tripped and broke
their leg while going about through the dark to fill that pail).
If
you stopped the fairies passage or angered them in any way, then that
meant trouble. The more you angered them the more trouble you brought
on yourself. The fairies revenge could be 'dire and swift'. Warnings
begin in the form of furniture and utensils being thrown about the
house or being moved about the place and noises in the night. But
then, if you didn't find out what it was you'd done to annoy the little
people, and make amends matters got worse - much worse. Things were
broken, first small things andthen more important articles of furniture
and after that - well - after that it came the turn of the animals
and the people. The animals would get sick or the people from the
house would get sick and in the end, the house could burn down in
a storm, or the crop would all be blighted, or the people and animals
would die. Of course, there are those who tell us today about poltergeists
and the likes, but they don't know about fairies.
Before
we go any farther, do you know anything about funeral paths? Or anything
about the fairies? There's one story, told by Anthony O'Neill from
outside Foxford in Co. Mayo, and he swore that this happened.
He
said that when he was a boy his father burned a kiln of lime one time,
and set Anthony to mind it the second night. As he was sitting there
minding his own business, he saw a funeral coming down the hill and
there were two men carrying the coffin. So as they got closer to him,
one of the men said "Who is to carry the coffin?" and the
other put his hand on Anthony's shoulder and said "Tis Anthony
O'Neill" and they told him to carry it. Anthony refused but they
made him do it anyway and the weight of the coffin nearly crushed
him. So they led him through country he didn't recognise and then
they went into a graveyard and the two men began to dig a grave, and
wouldn't you know it but whatever or whoever was in that coffin struggled
to get out. It scared the wits out of poor Anthony, and the men told
him that if he let it out, then they'd put him in instead. They managed
to finish their grave and put the coffin in and shovel earth on top
of it. So then they took him to a house he didn't know, and there
was a big room in it and rows of tables along the walls. There were
big dishes of stirabout and noggins of milk, and lots of people in
the room eating and drinking, and everyone tried to persuade Anthony
to eat some food, but a woman he knew called Anne Goulding was there,
and she pinched him in the back to make sure he didn't eat. But do
you know what? The reason he didn't eat was because he knew Anne Goulding
and Anne Goulding was a woman who had died in child-birth and once
he saw her he knew he wasn't in the land of the living. Anthony got
out of the house as fast as he could and found himself back in his
own field with the kiln right in front of him. The fairies they take
women who die in childbirth to nurse the babies they steal from humans.
We'll tell you all about that - eventually.
Back
to the house - There were a few ways of deciding whether or not a
site was suitable or whether it would displease the fairy people.
One means was to lay four little bundles of corner stones or four
sticks where each of the corners of the house would be and if these
were still standing the next morning, then the building could go ahead.
In west county Limerick, the people used to toss a coin in the air,
usually a florin of the old kind (the one with a cross design on the
reverse). If the coin landed with the cross facing upwards then everything
was all right and the house could be built, but if the coin fell with
the head up then another place was tried and on and on until the coin
would fall with that cross facing upwards.
There
was another test which was carried out as well, in this one, the people
lit a fire on the site of the house ona day when the prevailing wind
was blowing. Then, they'd make a decision as to whether or which the
house could be built in that place, depending on the way that the
smoke blew. Or else, in some places they'd just throw a cap in the
air and watch the way it fell. Some would say that these were practical
tests, to make sure the house wouldn't be a smokey one, but don't
let that fool you - the fairies decided which way the wind would blow
and if they didn't want a house there, they made sure it blew the
wrong way!
