Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 6 1888.djvu/69

Rh Rathcline, county Longford.

Veneration [is] paid to a well called St. Martin's, whither the poor at some times in the year go to pray.—(p. 291.)

Rathconrathy county Westmeath.

The only particular customs are (1st) its married women calling themselves by their maiden names; (2nd), wakes, which are productive of nothing but riot, intoxication, and indecent mirth; and (3rd), their crying at funerals.—(p. 303.)

Rosenallis, Queen's County.

Old superstitions are going out of use: even the funeral cry is laid aside. The people of Rearymore parish annually assemble on the 12th December at St. Fenian's well, to celebrate the festival of their patron saint. The well consists of three or four holes in the solid rocks, always full of water, and is surrounded by old hawthorns, which are religiously preserved by the natives. It is also customary for the common people to go round this well on their bare knees, by way of penance and mortification. On the return of the annual festival of St. Manman, the Roman Catholic clergyman performs a mass in the parish of St. Manman, which is attended by those who are to be interred in the burying-ground of that parish. The same custom prevails in the parish of Rearymore on the festival of St. Finyan.—(p. 322.)

Shruel, county Longford.

The new year, and the first day of the month or week, are considered the properest time for commencing any undertaking. No man removes to a new habitation on a Friday, because it is one of the cross days of the year, and "a Saturday flitting makes a short sitting." For a fortnight before Shrove Tuesday—the great day for weddings—it is the practice for persons in disguise to run through the street of Ballymahon from seven to nine or ten o'clock in the evenings, announcing intended marriages, or giving pretty broad hints for matchmaking in these words:—"Holloa, the bride—the bride, A. B. to C. D." &c.; their jokes some times prove true ones. On St. Patrick's-day every one in the parish wears a shamrogue, which is drowned at night in a flowing bowl. The first of April is observed here pretty much in the same way as its observance in London. On