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!
