A Lucky Find

Going through the files, I came across the diary/travelogue I wrote while we were in Ireland in May, 2006.  I will find a use for this as there are too many pages to dismiss it (and the lore in it.)

Speaking of lore ... courtesy of our excellent tour guide, Dominick Dixon of CIE Tours, owned by the Irish government.

*  The Vikings were the first to mint coins, but since they hadn't gotten around to inventing purses, they would daub beeswax onto their hairy armpits and slap the coins there.

*  Baby boys were dressed in girls' clothing until age 5 or 6 because otherwise the devil might take them.

*  Ronald Reagan's people came from the village of Ballypooren (poreen means 'small potatos.'  When Reagan came to visit, a man named Jack Ryan had a new sign made for his pub.  It read "Ronald Reagan Presidential Pub (or some such) insuring that Reagan would pay a visit.  Photos went out around the world.  Shrewd lad that Jack. A rare genius for advertising.

*  Roadside memorials.  They do a rather better job than our American instant shrines.  Theirs are like mini-graves with headstones with gilt lettering on them.  The actual body, of course, is buried in a cemetery.

*  In breeding season, rams are fitted with a dye bag that leaves a mark on the ewe - say Yellow.  Two weeks later, more ewes are bred, but with a different color dye.  Blue.  Again, two weeks later, Red.  When lambing season comes, the farmer takes all of the yellow-marked ewes and puts them up in pens.  Two weeks later, the blue ewes are penned up.   And the lambs are born in safety, not out in the fields.

*  Every year there is a great three-day festival to celebrate the King Goat.  A wild goat is captured and brought in to town where he is kept on a pedestal.  This celebration draws huge numbers of visitors and is also a great horse market.  To clinch a horse sale, the buyer and seller both spit in their hands and then shake those hands.

*  As late as 1959, the Catholic church would not allow babies who died before they could be baptized to be buried in graves.   Instead they were buried outside of town in unmarked graves which were then planted with a blackthorn tree.  It was believed that they fairies came out at night and danced around said trees to amuse the poor babies.  Imagine the mothers - not only the loss of a baby, but no official place to grieve for them.

More tomorrow ...