The blackthorn walking stick (or Shillelagh) is cut from the sloe bush. It was once more a weapon than a walking stick. In Irish folklore it was believed that the fairies or "little people" lived in Blackthorn bushes.

The Illustrated London News, Apri 24, 1886

Posted 1908 from Ontario, Canada to Buffalo, NY

Green was a simple of revolution in the late 18th century. An unofficial Irish flag with a green background and a gold harp served from 1798 to the early twentieth century as a symbol of Irish nationalism.

Associated with the Fenian movement in the 1860s it was also used by the supporters of Home Rule from Parnell's time to the fall of the Irish Parliamentary Party in 1918.

In many instances Erin Go Bragh (Ireland forever) was printed on the flag under the harp.

This version includes the ancient Irish goddess, Eire, instead of just a simple gold harp.

Irish Petty Sessions

February 12, 1853

A local court hearing a complaint between two individuals where one accuses the other of beating him up. The accused was find 5 shillings for misconduct.

Petty Sessions were the lowest court in the land.

Bridget

One of the most common female names in Ireland. Almost every family in Ireland had a Bridget. However, the name was less used by the Irish American immigrants.

Pet forms of Bridget were: Bride, Dideia, Delia, Beesy, Biddy.

Biddy was the name usually given for the "typical" Irishwoman of the lower class.

• Bridget Walsh, the daughter of John Walsh and Fanny Feeney was baptized on December 28, 1881.
• Bridget Langan was baptized on November 19, 1879 in Ballinrobe parish, the daughter of Mathias and Penelopa Langan.

Ellen

Ellen, Eileen, Nellie, Nell, Helen, Ellie and Ella are all variations of the same name.

• Ellen Walsh, the daughter of John Walsh and Fanny Feeney was baptized on December 15, 1877.
• "Helenam" (Latin for Ellen) Walsh daughter of Joseph Walsh and Margaret Langan at 196 E 76th Street born May 13, 1906 baptized June 30, 1906 at St Jean Baptiste, 184 East 76th Street, New York City.
• Eileen Marie Goehle, daughter of Frank Goehle and Isabell Walsh, was born February 21, 1926.

Penelope (Nappy)

Finnguala (f'un-ual-a) "fair shouldered" popular in Ireland until the late middle ages. Almost obsolete since the beginning of the 18th century. The name has been anglicised as Flora, Penelope, Penny, Nappy and Fenella.

• Nappy of Michael Berrin and Nappy Naughton, Thos Swift and Honor Boyle, May 16, 1836, Mohorra

Irish males traditional did not help with the house work.

Girls were often responsible for the rearing of younger siblings.

The priest went and said mass in a country house.

The priest would often baptize children at the station houses.

Paid work for laborers was scarce and men would walk ten or twenty miles on the rumor of available work. "Every spring, workers from the poorer western provinces traveled eastward looking to earn cash and broad as extra hands for hay-making and harvesting. By the mid-eighteenth century some Irish were making their springtime migration to England, where wages were higher and returning in autumn with the money they had saved.

Rain average rainfall in the west of Ireland 60 inches a year, mostly in the fall and winter. The winters and springs are generally mild because of the gulf stream.

An intense windstorm, struck Ireland during the night January 6 to January 7, 1839 causing severe damage and hundreds of deaths. Heavy snow had fallen on January 5. In the morning an Atlantic warm front arrived - causing the temperature to rise. This was followed by an Atlantic depression bringing a cold front. The two fronts collided resulting in heavy rains and winds. The first reports were in Mayo. As the storm moved across Ireland it gather force reaching hurricane strength. The Night of the Big Wind became part of Irish folklore.

Heavy snow fell in November 1846.

According to the local custom a woman retained her maiden name even after marriage. However, when written records were concerned it depended, I believe, on how well the person recoding the record knew the woman. Unfortunately, the written record both civil and religious are not consistent.

The feast of St John, June 23, occurs at the summer solstice.

On St. John's Eve, many people in rural Ireland made bonfires in accordance with ancient customs. There was frequently singing and dancing. Coals from the fires were carried around the boundaries of gardens, to ward off evil. People jumped through the bon fire for good luck and the cattle were let through the dying embers for the same purpose.

Thomas Flanagan in The Year of the French a book about the 1798 Irish rebellion described the ancient festival of St John's Eve.

"Soon it would be Saint John's Eve. Wood for the bonfire had already been piled high upon Steeple Hill, and when the night came there would be bonfires on every hill from there to Downpatrick Head. There would be dancing and games in the open air, and young men would try their bravery leaping through the flames. There would even be young girls leaping through, for it was helpful in the search of a husband to leap through a Saint John's Eve fire, the fires of midsummer. The sun was at its highest then, and the fires spoke to it, calling it down upon the crops. It was the turning point of the year, and the air was vibrant with spirits."

They still have bon fires in the townland of Mochara in Shrule Parish near the border between Co. Mayo and Co. Galway. See Photos of Mochara