DOI: 10.7925/drs1.duchas_4922033
title: Cromadh (B.)

description: A collection of folklore and local history stories from Cromadh (B.) (school) (Croom, Co. Limerick), collected as part of the Schools' Folklore Scheme, 1937-1938 under the supervision of teacher Dáithí Ó Ceanntabhail.
description: Béaloideas Cromtha -- Liosta Focal -- Miscellaneous -- In Cuid a hAon I referred to mounds beside the River Camóg, one opposite Poll an Chró (Powlacrow) and the other on the farm of Mr. Thos Biggane, Tullovin, Banoge Parish. -- Do bhí dochtuir i baróiste Mainistir na Féile ... / Conaill, Pádraig O -- The following childish, or perhaps better, children's rhyme preserves the names of the last dwellers in Croker's Road, Croom. -- O Toomey the poet, they called him Seán O Toomey on gline (i.e. an grinn, notice that Paddy has l for r, and the blas of the Déise) had some sort of a little shop in Croom. -- In the days of the "three" and the "four year olds", there was a man named O Regan from Garranroe, at the cross of Croom one Pattern Day. -- About the autumn of 1914 or else 1915, three brothers named Griffin of Chlorane, Manister Parish, aided by their dog, killed an otter on the Camog river, at the Sally bed. -- When the Danes were in Ireland they used to make a wonderful drink called Mead. -- When the cars will run without horses on that road - a boithrín that ran to Dursey ponit on the mainland past Dursey Island, south-west Cork - the Sasanach will be packing his bag. -- An old man named Conway used come into our house at home, of an evening. -- A mehal of men were building a new fence on the site of a tumbled-down old stone wall. -- Seán O Toomey "on gline" used often have McGrath a brother poet, in his house. -- You know the Bresnihans, well they got that place they have in Garranroe from old people named Regans. -- There was an old man named Ned Kennedy in Croom. -- In Cuid II I recounted from Pat Allen's telling, the story of how the Costelloe's got their wealth. -- There was a widow one time and she had one son. He was a wild, headstrong young fellow and nothing for him but divartin' himself. -- My grandmother's people, she was Peggy Leahy before she married, lived at the orchard, the small square filled on the rise (hill) beside the ould boreen near Williameen's ould house. -- In the bad times long ago there was a man on his keeping. -- Without title -- Customs (on the Occasion of Deaths, Burials and Births) Still More or Less Prevalent in this District -- Customs at Births etc -- There was a woman of the C___s who had a young child when the harvest came in. -- There was one of the C___s and he was stretching into a man, they knew there was something wrong with him. -- The Blakes and the Barrys were big people around here long ago. -- The "Seven Sleepers" are: the bee, the bat, the butterfly, the beetle, the porcupine, the cuckoo and the corncrake. -- Fr. Blake was out late one night. -- There was a man and a woman one time and they had a very big family. / Hartigan, Michael O -- There was a man one time and he had one son. / Hartigan, Michael O -- There was a man one time and he used be out late every night. / Hartigan, Michael O -- There was a blacksmith living one time below the Sruhaon near where the blue gate is now. / Donnell, John O' -- There was a big English officer one time (that is an officer of high rank). / Hartigan, Michael O -- Long ago when Our Lord was going about on earth, he met two men on the road one day. -- Piseoga -- Prayer -- There was this house and it was haunted so nobody could live in it or sleep in it. / Hartigan, Michael O -- There was a man in Fedamore one time and he could turn ivy leaves into money. -- Any one that gets money, handy that way, (that is in a "crock", or by the "poor scholar method"), some one in their family suffers. -- When I was a young lad at home I used often hear a story about a family in which there were three boys who lost their lives through the anxiety of their parents that their sons should have a knowledge of the English language. -- Some Stories of Biddy Early -- Some Stories of Biddy Early -- There's a certain place not far from Croom - no names no pack-drill - and St. Patrick was going through it one day. -- A certain man interfered somehow with weasels, how, rightly I don't know, but at any rate, they got on to him and night or day he couldn't rest for fear of them. -- Moll Shaughnessy / Neill, Máire O -- Woman and the Spinning Wheels / Neill, Máire O -- Biddy Early / Neill, Máire O -- Once upon a time there was a girl great with a boy and he made up with her to meet her at a certain time in a certain place one night. -- There was a man down at the end of the parish, I forget who it was now, and he had the book of Colmalle. -- Every seven years there does a plowman with a plough and a pair of grey horses come up out of the lake (loch na gcoire near Cnoc Dromh Asail) of a moonlight night and go ploughing the hill. -- There was a certain man in Manister and he used beat the pishogues. -- Seán Gabha agus an Diabhal -- Mermaid / Reynolds, Georgie -- "The Glúnach" = The gloonagh, the name by which a disease in fowl was known in my home area. -- Widow's Son -- Tósta -- Scoláire Bocht -- Pípín Ceoil -- Tamáisín the Sparkle-Smith of Hell -- There was a man out at a wake one night and it was very late when he was coming home. / Artagáin, Micheal O h -- Connor Carroll and Liza his wife lived in High St., where Monarty's flour and meal store is now. -- Gaimbín -- Thoornacrehe = Túr na Croiche. A field on the farm of Michael Toomey, Donoman, Croom. / Lane, Patrick -- Woman who Went with the Fairies / Fearghail, Seosamh O -- May Eve Customs -- Another incident in the career of Tamáisín was that he was changed into a duck by his master who was ould Nick himself. -- There was a man one time and it was his business to go into a certain place that was full of rats. -- There was a very holy lady who was so fond of praying in the church that one night she fell asleep in the confession-box. -- Sketch - actual size - of iron hay fork in use in this district from 80 to 100 years ago. -- Side view - actual size - of harness-maker's "crease". -- How a Plumb Bob was Made -- "Croom House", which has had various stages of enlargement, reconstruction and renovation, since it was first occupied by a Lyons before the middle of the eighteenth century has, within the past fortnight - on Sept 1st 1936 - passed into the possession, on a three years lease, of a Major Waller. -- There was a man from the Ballycahan side coming home from Limerick one night. / Farrell, Joseph O -- A cure for bald patches on the head is to make a cap of ivy-leaves by stitching them together (in cap formation) and wearing them. -- Láithreachán = a smooth level place, a threshing floor. / Aodha, Gearoid O h -- Maidiúr = (Moydure), thus: A person who, having done some little act of kindness and being invited to "help himself" by way of appreciaton for what was done proceeds to do so with a vengeance, earns for himself the remark: "and didn't he have the maidiúr out of it", that is out of whatever he was asked to partake of. / Aodha, Gearoid O h -- Dilín Daor (Dileen dhare) ... / Aodha, Gearoid O h -- When boot-polish - "Martindale's Blacking" - was not available in our house, oaten straws were burned over an upturned pot-lid and the particles of carbon left were carefully collected on the lid. -- When reaping with scythes was common, a mehal of men from the Foynes side went out reaping. -- There were men reaping in a field of corn and they had among them a young fellow who wasn't able to keep up his stroke. / Aodha, Gearoid O h -- Every man that lived in Tory Hill had three-quarters (of land). -- Keeramapuck (Croom) Keerapuck (Tiob. Ár.) Keerabuck (Gleann Cairbre) = Cíoradh Puc = a pother, confusion, a lot of talk about a trivial matter, "Much ado about nothing". -- There was a family named Enright lived in Tory Hill. / Casey, Paddy -- Howard (mentioned in Cuid II) was hanged and he innocent. -- Waller of Castletown-Waller, used give a feast to his tenants on the lawn. -- Cock and the Beam of Timber -- Riddle -- Well mind you, they say that it is not a lucky sign to see the two ends of a rainbow meeting the ground in the one parish. -- Bonn-leac = bownlock and boinn leac = binelock, that is, a hardening of the skin ... -- There was this man and he had but one son and the night his son was born there was a poor scholar in the house. -- There were two widows one time. / Fehilly, John -- Rat Charmer / Ceanntabhail, Daithí Ó -- Girl marries man in big house. / Coileáin, Seán Rua O -- There was a poor scholar one time and he was kept in a farmer's house to teach his sons. / Fearghail, Seosamh O -- The Mac Namaras (Drumloghan, Croom, two members still surviving) had a herb garden and they used to make ointments and cures from the weeds or plants they grew in it. -- There was a cooper where Manister chapel is now, a cooper in Yellowtown, twas Parkaree that time, three coopers at Coolavincin, and three coopers in Carnane but I never heard of one in Moinéar a-hille. -- Fee, faw, fum, I smell the blood of an Irishman's son. -- I remember the bridge at Clochandhur to be built. -- Without title -- Do thug an Sagart Óg, An t-Ath. Tomás O Suilleabháin searmóin dúinn ag an tarna Aifreann Dia Domhnaigh 29-11-36. -- They say that the most suitable place that the piseog doctor (the man who practises piseoga) could find to work his charms and practises is a double ditch that is a boundary, between two parishes. -- Queen Elizabeth (of England) was a Man! -- How the Fox Got Shut (Rid) of the Fleas -- Once upon a time there was a man very sick, in fact he was dying and the doctor who used come to him every day said he had a lump in his stomach. -- Broin O' Donnell used to come to the bog at Tory Hill for turf. -- When Fr. McCormck was parish priest of Manister Arthur White tilled the field around the Abbey, but Fr McCormick spoke to him and he stopped it. -- This man was sick. / Ceanntabhail, D. O -- There is a castle in Rosbrien (near Limerick city and I think tis what they call it is Crawford's castle. -- Fragment of a Song Composed by Kelly the Poet -- I heard it more than once that those who want to make themselves invisible, to do any bad work, can do it in this way. -- I think it was up in Belgreem I came across him. -- The gyooscadawn = ? An gúscadán. The name of a small tract of farm belonging to Mr. Hart of Cooleen, Kilmallock. -- The Koorlawd and also, the Koorlode = A place in Drum Asail (Tory Hill, Croom) which I have not been able to locate precisely or to explain to my own or any one else's satisfaction. -- The Caolawd, a place on the farm - or adjoining it - of Mr. John Morrissey, Knockanes, Adare. -- The reaper with the hook took a tá(ith) of corn in his ladhar when he was drawing the hook under it. -- Talking of yellow hammers reminds me of an odd thing. -- About four years ago there was a flock of small long tailed birds about the house. -- Do you know what Kilgobban means David? -- I heard often, but I can't say whether 'tis effective or not, that a cure for the measles, is to boil sheep droppings in new milk, and give the result, strained thoroughly, to the patient. -- To cure a sprain some old flax was taken and several knots were tied on it, not too many however, because as the sprain cures, the knots unravel and wouldn't do to have too many knots accordingly. -- When I was a young fellow my mother would make me go out for a gad of quicken tree before sunrise on May morning. -- To cure bald patches on the head, take ivy leaves and stitch them together to form a cap. -- Going to the Fair -- Comical Composition on Bill's Returning Home -- With regard to "thanawaulees" there is another thing that I forgot to tell you. -- I used often hear of a man who used be out late. -- Maidin Ceoigh is mé ag Éirí -- Wran Boys
description: Supported by funding from the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (Ireland), University College Dublin, and the National Folklore Foundation (Fondúireacht Bhéaloideas Éireann), 2014-2016.