DOI: 10.7925/drs1.duchas_5070738
title: Gowna

description: A collection of folklore and local history stories from Gowna (school) (Lough Gowna, Co. Cavan), collected as part of the Schools' Folklore Scheme, 1937-1938 under the supervision of teacher Hugh Murray.
description: Fairy Man / Ragallagih, Cathal Ó -- Hidden Treasure in Cornamuckla -- Blind Berney Reilly The Fiddler -- Carman of Bruice / Caráin, Peadar Ó -- Margaret Sweeney's Hedge-School / Shiel, Monica -- Clann McKiernan -- Ruined Mill -- 100 years ago Scrabby had a famous horsefair on the 11th December. -- Mountain Dew -- Drinking Song - Poteen -- Johnny Foley the dancing master was born in Scrabby, went to Belfast and learned the trade... -- Song -- There is a step called the Salmon's leap... -- Story / Reily, Kathleen O' -- Yale of a Dog / Raghallaigh, Caitlín Ní -- At the beginning of the 19th century Scrabby in the banks of Lough Gowna was some times referred to as the fishing village. -- Andy the point - Andy Reilly lived beside Lough Gowna at a point of land that stretches out in the lake... -- 1847 - The potato crop here failed completely and the people here had to find some substitute for food. -- The Wendy night 1839 did dreadful damage around Scrabby. -- The fashions in Scrabby were much the same in Scrabby... -- Animals -- Dan Brady's Mule / Reily, P. J. O' -- Story / Sheil, Monica Josephine -- Mistake / Hartin, Nora -- Flood the Poet / Tierney, Kate Anni -- Wooden Ploughs / White, Rose Ann -- Letter of the Widow's Son -- Put a fasting spit on a wort for nine mornings and the wart disappear -- Story / Reily, K. O' -- Story / Brádaigh, Máire Ní -- Domestic Animals - Care and Cures -- In erecting houses here long ago it was a custom to bury a horse's head beneath the kitchen floor to create an echo. -- Rheumatism - Pains - Cures -- When a cow picks calf that is throws her calf after a period of four, five or six months. -- If say a pole were put across in a gap leading from one field to another... -- Once a man was going through a grave yard and coming across a skull he gave it a kick. -- It was a common belief that if a person should drink sow's milk he would see the wind. -- The bees will sting all animals to death that disturb them... -- The Ass -- Small boys derive a great kick out of inciting a wicked goat. -- When a calf comes to the world around Whitsuntide... -- The same reason care is taken by the housewife... -- Things that Cannot be Done -- Sayings -- Mass Rock in Corfree -- On the shore of Loch Gowna beside the village of Scrabby stands the Protestant Church today. -- The village of Scrabby was known in the early part of the 19th century as the white washed fishing village. -- Tom Smith of Aughavains born about 1850 told me that in his early years the daily food and carry on... -- In the bad old times a poor man lived in this district who had a way of his own saying things... -- Hallow Eve night is the night of the year for the Ghost stories. -- In any place where there was hidden treasure it was supposed to be guarded... -- Still on Halloween night the young men go about playing pranks on the neighbours. -- It breaks one of the Commandments to heal... -- In the years following 1847 when the poor had to take up the bag and take to the roads of Ireland, they took with them and spread a lore all their own. -- In a field along the shore of Lough Gowna there is a place called the Dead Man's Hollow. -- According to the old people there is hidden treasure somewhere in Mulrick beside Lough Gowna. -- Phrases -- Very many old customs still survive here regarding wakes and funerals. -- An old man drew for me a comparison between the men of... -- At a funeral when the coffin is taken out it is left on four chairs outside. -- The work 'lock' is in very common use here... -- In calling fowl and domestic animals the old people had a particular call.... -- Slapping a game also carried on at wakes. -- Lime-Kilns -- In this district one hundred years ago cottage industries were in a fairly perfect condition. -- The Irishman saw a local wit was and is noted all over the world... -- Mats for houses were also made of straw... -- In fact years ago straw was in... -- Other college industries carried on here were carpenting, shoe-making, cooering, dyeing... -- The landlord in Scrabby was Stewart. -- Christmas -- Story - Christmas -- The old men (dead now) factions of the old men here today were very different in many ways... -- Phrases in Use of Doubtful Origin -- Sleeping Beauty -- Above is a rough diagram of the village of Scrabby. -- Unwritten Laws -- When a person set out on a journey, he was always on the look out for certain lucky or unlucky signs. -- Rules of Luck and Bad Luck -- Cures -- Hospitality -- Bean Sí -- Weird stories are told her too about the dead coach and that it goes certain old roads at the dead hours of the night. -- Clan Mac Kiernan -- The village of Scrabby stands at a distance of ten miles from Ballinamuck where the Irish Hopes died in 1798. -- The Battle of Ballinamuck was fought on an Autumn day in 1798. -- Bruise Mountain a man of the Masterson Family set out for the Battle of Granard in 1798 at the head of a good party of men. -- 1798 Battle Ballinamuck -- Battle of Ballinamuck -- Galligan's Racing Mare -- Foods Used Long Ago -- Games Played by Children Fifty Years Ago -- Salaghan Bridge -- Tale of a Dog -- Ribbon Men -- A local clan now extinct named 'The Keaney's' were Fenians and had a very strong tradition. -- Not far from the Village in a little hollow beside the road are the ruins of a little cabbin. -- This school St Patrick's, Gowna, was built in 1886. -- Hat making was an... -- The Helpless babe. The little runner. -- Furniture of an Old Irish Cabin -- Clocks were unknown here up to a hundred years ago. -- Three things that were not to be found in Noah's Ark... -- No one... to hear a cock crowing in the dead of the night -- The crowing of the cock is often referred to when any misfortune happen's in a family. -- Around this locality cock fighting was indulged in long ago. -- A very old custom here was passing the pipe. -- Sleep walking was not uncommon here in the age that is past. -- Lunacy here was not.... to families.. -- The family books of the last generation were "The Speckles from the Death"... -- The old forge of Scrabby is marked.. -- In this forge were made all things in iron then needed... -- Tommy Bradley who died ten years ago at the age of 85 was the best carpenter this district ever knew. -- The greatest combination in a farmer's cart was a McGrath... -- A grand example of a town that grew up around a ford in a river. -- Mickey lived on the shore of lough Gowna and his sort of fairy tale has everything to do with the water beside which he lived.... -- Lough Gowna -- To hear out my statement here is an example... / Govern, Sd. Mc -- Thus ends the store of folklore and scraps of history in the little district through which I moved during the past twenty years.
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.