THE BRISBANE COURIER 21ST OCTOBER, 1889
Many of our readers will learn with regret, from the following extract from the Galway Express of 24th August, that an alarming accident has happened to Mrs. De Burgh Persse, though happily no serious results were apprehended :
” On Tuesday evening last, while Mrs. De Burgh Persse and her two sons were driving home from Galway in a light-running pony trap they carne in contact with a goods-van at Salthill, whioh struck against the vehicle with great force causing it to upset, throwing Mrs. Perse and the oldest boy out on the roadway,
“while the youngest boy was caught underneath the car. The driver of the van, it appears, instead of rendering any assistance, whipped on his horse and dashed at full speed into town, and up to the present has not been identified.
Mrs. Persse was very much shaken by the accident, but the younger boy remained unconscious for several hours, and great anxiety prevailed amongst the members of Mrs, Persse’s family. However, on Wednesday morning the poor little sufferer, who is only about 7 years old, showed much improvement, and is now beyond all cause for uneasiness.
If you were born on Hallowed E’en – 1910
John William Waterhouse – 1902
Wikipedia.org
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE OCTOBER 31ST, 1910 P4
It is an old superstition that children born on Halloween night will be possessed of peculiar faculties of foresight. Such persons are reputed to be gifted with the ability to see the future with a clear vision – they are seers. Among the pagans such a person was set up as a prophet and the wise man of the tribe – to him all homage was due.
History records that it often happened that such a person was not only a seer of the tribe, but the chief and the ruler. It was from the ranks of those of the tribe, if any there happened to be, who were born on Halloween that the rulers were recruited.
Hallowe’en – not all ghosts are good! – 1864
Sacramento Daily Union, 14th December 1864
(abridged)
The customs of Holy Eve are as various as the countries where the feast is kept. A supper of the products of the orchard, connected with the etiquette of a hundred tricks, are attractive features “for the night only”. But it is not the broad board of apples and nuts which excite the midnight revelries of the occasion. A more serious practice swells it to the proportion of a carnival, which has survived the wreck of empires.
A portion of the world of spirits, and it must be said, not the good ghosts for whom we pray, wander through the earth for the sole purpose of making the single married, or place a winding sheet on the wicked frames of those who make too free with the devil at midnight. This is the spell which gives Hallowe’en its ancient power, and invests it with the mystery which secures it perpetual remembrance.
Nine is a number which, for some unexplained cause, provokes the presence of one of the gentlemen from the lower regions.
It happened that a maiden, anxious to be wedded to somebody, proceeded at dusk, with the first apple she received from an unmarried man, to her chamber, and having carefully locked the door, she stuck a pin nine times in the apple. Then she proceeded to the mirror with the apple raised on her hand. She beheld the mirror for only a brief space when her future lover appeared in it. But, alas, what appeared was only the face of the lover, with the club feet and tail of the devil.
There is another instance on record of Satan himself appearing in propria persona before a young lady who tried this spell.
She died in terror at beholding her marital fate…
The night when fairies hold high carnival – 1896
Creative Commons
THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL 25TH OCTOBER, 1896
The night when fairies hold high Carnival
In Ireland young women place three nuts on the grate bars of the fire. One that cracks or jumps is a faithless lover, while one that burns or blazes is a true one. They burn the shells of nuts eaten on Hallow Eve and cause snails to crawl through the ashes and so trace the initials of the future husband.
These glowing nuts are emblems true
Of what in human life we view.
The ill-matched couple fret and fume,
And thus in strife themselves consume;
Or from each other wildly start,
And with a noise forever part.
But see the happy, happy pair,
Of genuine love and truth sincere;
With natural fondness while they burn,
Still to each other kindly turn’
And as the vital sparks decay,
Together gently sink away;
Till life’s fierce ordeal being past
Their mingled ashes rest at last.
(Charles Graydon, Dublin 1801)
Halloween – 1908
THE SUN 1ST NOVEMBER, 1908 P10
*abridged
Halloween, or Samhain night according to the old Druidical division of the year, comes on the last day of summer. It is the gloomiest night of the whole twelve months to the fairy folk. The Fe-fiada, or spell of enchantment, is removed from all the fairy hills and raths as the last bit of daylight fades and all the fairies come trooping forth to moorlands and mountains to join in a mad revel with the ghosts and witches and banshees and, that most demonic spirit of all, the dreaded Pooka.
If you think you hear the wind wailing over the housetops on that night, you are mistaken. It is not the wind but the great lament or Caoin that the fairies make for the dead summer.
As the fairies are allowed to leave their hills, so mortals are allowed to enter them, and many a venturesome lad has gone into the depths of the raths and brought back wonderful tales of fairy palaces and gardens and the like.
Colcannon – 1914
Photo: Sarah 777
Wikipedia
THE CATHOLIC PRESS 24TH DECEMBER 1914
Colcannon – That my mother used to make (abridged)
Colcannon is a dish… rather difficult to make, and to have such a success entails much patient labour and by a skilled house keeper. On All Hallowe’en Eve — the night the fairies are ruling — it is a custom in Ireland to have a sort of ‘harvest home’ or gathering to celebrate the end of the harvest work, and at the same time various games are played, including the celebrated ‘snap the apple’. On such occasions there is an impromptu supper, and Colcannon is the piece de resistance.
The -women of Galway excel at making Colcannon…
There’s many a thing I’m missing since I sailed from County Cork,
And many a thing I’m wanting ‘mid the plenty of New York;
I miss old friends and customs, and I miss with many an ache
The Hallow Eve Colcannon that my mother used to make
Did you ever eat Colcannon when ’twas made with thickened cream,
And the greens and scallions blended like the pictures in a dream?
Did you ever scoop a hole on top to hold a melting cake
Of the clover-flavoured butter that your mother used to make?
Did you ever eat and eat, afraid you’d let the ring go past,
And some married old sprissaun’d pounce on it at last?
Then did you go blindfolded round the five plates in a row,
And find the rosary beads three times, as I did long ago?
Indeed. I’m not complaining, for I’ve plenty and to spare,
And there’s nowhere like America for one to win his share
I go thro’ life contented, but November brings an ache,
For the- Hallow Eve Colcannon that my mo ther used to make.
Eloquent indignation – 1909
The Bookkeeper
Museum voor Communicatie Den Haag
THE TUAM HERALD, SATURDAY, MAY 8, 1909
TUAM, CO GALWAY
£20 REWARD
Whereas several libellous and scandalous Letters were sent to me and other Person through the Post Office, having forged names to them, I hereby offer the above reward to any person who will give such information as will lead to the conviction of the malicious wretch who dared the outrage. Or a sum of £10 for such private information as will tend to the discovery of the offender.
*name and address on file
For Collectors of Books – 1823
Wikimedia Commons
CONNAUGHT JOURNAL MARCH 3RD, 1823
Collectors of books will not be sorry to learn, that a few drops of oil of
lavender will insure their libraries from mildew. A single drop of the same oil will prevent a pint of ink from mouldiness for any length of time. Past (sic) may be kept free from mould entirely by the same addition; and leather is also effectually secured from injury by the same agency.
Traffic – 1823
Wikimedia Commons
Connaught Journal
Thursday, May 1, 1823
NUISANCE
The turf cars, which are suffered to remain at the different corners, and
particularly near William-street, Galway town, are really a very great nuisance. They
block up the main streets, so as to render them quite impassible, especially on a market day, and the entrance to the mart-houses and shops of people of business are completely shut up.
As this is an age of improvement, would it not be well to select some place for the sale of turf? For instance, during the last summer, a handsome sum of money was granted by the Local Committee, to make a sort of market at the Bowling-green. We are not sure whether it was perfectly finished or not; but we are certain that it will not require any great finishing to render it a very proper market-place for turf. It is very much wanted; and if this suggestion shall be taken, the lives of the people will not be endangered by the furious driving of the carmen every other day.
People in business complain very much of this nuisance- and indeed, very justly.
Food for thought – 1885
“The land of Ireland, like the land of every other country, belongs to the people
who inhabit it * * * and when the inhabitants of a country leave it ‘en masse’
because a Government does not leave them room to live, that Government is already judged and condemned.”
Principles Of Political Economy
By
John Stuart Mill
Abridged, with Critical, Bibliographical,
and Explanatory Notes, and a Sketch
of the History of Political Economy,
By
J. Laurence Laughlin, Ph. D.
Assistant Professor of Political Economy in Harvard
University
A Text-Book For Colleges.
New York:
D. Appleton And Company,
1, 3, and 5 Bond Street.
1885
