Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/303

 Some Characteristics of Irish Folklore. 275

one as proof of their monumental origin at this sad period.^^ Now I remember well noticing these grey heaps years ago. The jarvey told me they were monuments of the dead — I think he said of people who had been killed, but the friend with me, a local landowner, laughed and said this was a special fairy tale kept for the benefit of visitors from England.

In short, any popular assemblage, anything that might bring a concourse of people together, was ruthlessly sup- pressed, even potato diggings, gatherings of the neighbours to dig anyone's potatoes as a mark of esteem and popularity, fell under the ban of the law.^^ And it will be remembered how in Samuel Lover's tale of Rory O'More the priest broke up the party at the hero's wedding, saying, " Go your ways home in time, and keep out of harm's way : it is not like the good old times, when we could stop till the night was ripe, and we could throw the stocking, and do the thing dacently, as our fathers used to do before us ; but we must make the best of a bad bargain, and go home before the sun is down."^-

" His riverence " in this case sympathised with folk customs, but this was hardly the general clerical attitude. Evidence is not lacking that the priests had more to say to the cessation of pilgrimages than had the Penal Laws. Persecution was ever a potent apostle, and it is possible — I am inclined to use a stronger word than possible — that Catholic Emancipation did much to destroy old customs the laws had failed to uproot. Moreover, the great poverty and the increased price of drinks made the peasants less anxious for holidays.^-^

If, then, Ireland's share of British Calendar Customs should not prove equal to those of other parts of the King- dom the reasons are not far to seek. Religious and social conditions, economic and political events, must have made

^^ Vol. iii. pp. 376-7. ^^ Young, ii. 192.

" Rory O'More, p. 384. ^3 cf. Shaw Martin, iii. 28.