08/03/2023
Our collections hold material from many women, from informants to collectors and other archival staff, and much of this material is still yet to be explored. For International Women's Day 2023, we prepared a short profile on just one of these women - Bríd Ní Mhurae from Tonranny, Co. Galway.
Two photographs of Bríd Ní Mhuireadhaigh, who was known as Bríd Ní Mhurae, were taken by Séamus Ó Duilearga in 1937. The images were no doubt taken on one of the Director’s trips to visit the full-time collectors for the Irish Folklore Commission, as he would often travel to meet them and check in on their work. On this occasion, Ó Duilearga was visiting Seán Ó Flannagáin, who collected full-time on the border of Co. Galway and Co. Clare between 1937 and 1940, when he left the post due to ill health.
Ó Flannagáin was collecting from Bríd from the very earliest days of his time with the Commission, often in the company of her neighbour, Séamus Ó Riagáin. Ó Riagáin was an accomplished storyteller, and according to Ó Flannagáin, it was common for people to gather in his company in the evening, even though the storyteller’s health was failing by 1937.
In his diary on the 28 November 1937, Ó Flannagáin writes:
Gabhaim soir thimpeall ar an dó ‘chlog tráthnóna agus fanaim i gcuideachta Shéamuis go dtí contráth na hoíche. Buaileann Brighid Ní Mhurae isteach chugainn, agus leanann muid dúinn, a’ cur an tsean-tsaol trína chéile. Bíonn an bheirt acub a’ trácht mar seo lena chéile agus níl le déanadh agam-sa acht an t-ábhar cainte a tharraingt anuas. Bíonn an lámhleabhar ’mo ghlaic agam agus bím a’ ligint orm ná fuil aon eolas agam ar dhada thuas i mBlá Cliath, agus gurb amhla’ go mbíonn siad a’ lorg an eolais. NFC 566: 100.
I go east around two o’clock and stay in Seámus’s company until nightfall. Bríd Ní Mhurae drops in and we continue to talk about life as it used to be. The two of them chat about this together, and all I have to do is raise the topic of conversation. I have the Handbook with me and I pretend that I have no knowledge of what is happening in Dublin, as they tend to be seeking this information. NFC 566: 100.
According to Ó Flannagáin’s notes, Bríd was a farmer’s wife, and was around 84 years old when he collected from her in 1937. She was born and raised in Tonranny, Co. Galway, and presumably lived there all her life, as her address is still listed in Tonranny in 1937. The material Ó Flannagáin collected from her is varied. She describes life as it used to be in her youth, touching on local houses, famine, landlords and arranged marriages. Ó Flannagáin sketched some simple illustrations of a woman’s hairstyle, based on her description of the ‘siognán’ (presumably chignon), a piece of padding on which to pin the hair, and a hairnet, which she used to make herself:
An Hair-Net: Nuair a bhíos óg bhíodh cuid mhaith dos na cailíní a’ caitheadh ‘hair-nets’. Bhínn fhéin in ann iad a dhéanadh. Is minic a dhéanas ceann acub a chniotáil. Bhíodh cheithre rowanna do c[h]loicíní beaga geala ar na hair-nets, agus imeall elastic taobh amu’ ’na dtimpeall in aghaidh iad a choinneáilt daigean ar do chloigeann. Ní chaitheadh muid aon hataí in ao’ chor. Níor chaitheas fhéin hata riamh. NFC 433: 328
The Hair-Net: When I was young lots of the girls used to wear hair-nets. I used to be able to make them. I would often knit one. There were four rows of little bright beads in the hair-net, and an edge made of elastic so that they would stay firmly on the head. We never wore any hats. I never wore a hat in my life. NFC 433: 328
While she had no long folktales in her repertoire, Bríd related a multitude of stories concerning different aspects of popular belief and legends of the supernatural. These accounts, while speaking on aspects of the otherworld, also centre around ordinary concerns, such as children and childbirth, concern for the profit of the household, and the death of family members. This includes several stories about the fairies, the longest being a version of the migratory legend, Midwife to the Fairies (ML5070). A list of local cures were also collected from her. The following is an account of an occasion when Bríd heard the banshee’s cry. This first-hand account of a supernormal experience is remarkable for its socially realistic setting:
Tamall do bhlianta ó shin bhíos thoir ag daoine muintearach liom insa Chillín ar cuairt - ag tigh Sheáin Uí Mhathuín ar cuairt. Bhí Seán go han-dona tinn in Ospidéal na Gaillimhe agus fua’ mise [chuaigh mise] soir a’ cur a thuairisce go bhfeicfinn cén bhail a bhí ar an bhfear bocht. Dúirt Cáit liom - ba bh’in í an bhean tá’s agat - dúirt sí liom go raibh sé go han-dona agus ná raibh bonn le sparáilt aige má thabharadh sé na cos’ leis. Well bhí scurach óg ansin acub an t-am sin, Feárdí Ó Luachna. D’imigh a’ buachaill bocht go Meiriceá ó shin, agus ’sé bhí ’na bhuachaill breá aerach croíúil. Bhí mise agus Cáit inár suí cois na teine agus bhí muid ag comhrá lena chéile, an t-am ar sceinn Féardí isteach a’ doras chugainn agus séideán agus sceiteog air.
‘Dhera, Feárdí a dhiabhail, cad atá in ao’ chor ort?
‘Nár airigh sibh é? Nár airigh sibh é?’ dúirt sé agus é gar do bheith a’ titim as a sheasamh.
‘Céard ’airigh tú?’, a dúirt Cáit, ‘céard ’airigh tú, a mhuirnín?’
‘Diabhal pioc ar bith,’ dúirt sé ar fhad an tsléibhe anois, ‘acht a’ caoineachán agus a lógóireacht mar bheadh bean éicínt dá crá.’
‘Gabh a chodladh, a bhuachaill’, dúirt sí, is ná bac leis an gcaoineachán.’
D’oscail muide an doras agus nár airigh muid a’ caoineachán ar fad a’ góil anoir go dtáinig sí chomh fada leis an abhainn amu’ dhon tigh tamall maith dhon oíche. D’fhan mise insa tigh aici an oíche sin. Bhí an iomarca faitíos orm corraí as an áit.
‘Á, tá Seán bocht caillte,’ dúirt sí, ‘tá Seán bocht caillte agus is maith atá ‘fhios agam é’.
A’ lá dár gcionn tháinig scéala aniar ó Ospidéal na Gaillimhe á rá gur cailleadh Seán i dtús na hoíche céanna. NFC 389: 481-482.
Some years ago I was staying with relatives of mine, in Seán Ó Mathuín’s house. Seán was very sick in Galway hospital and I went to visit to see how he was. Cáit, his wife, told me that he was very unwell and that he didn’t have a penny to his name if he was to go. Well there was a young lad with them that time, Feárdí Ó Luachna. He went to America later and he was always a lovely, pleasant boy. Cáit and I went sitting by the fire, talking, when Feárdí flew in the door to us, panting and skittish.
‘Dhera, Feardí, what is the matter at all?’
‘Did you not hear it? Did you not hear it?’, he said and he was close to fainting.
‘What did you hear?’, asked Cáit, ‘What did you hear, pet?’
‘Nothing only crying and wailing as if a woman was in distress’, he said.
‘Go to sleep now,’ said Cáit, ‘and don’t worry about the crying.’
We opened the door then and didn’t we hear all the crying from the east until it reached the river outside the house for most of the night. I stayed in her house that evening, I was too scared to move from the place.
‘Poor Seán is gone,’ she said, ‘poor Seán is dead, and don’t I know it.’
The very next day, news came from Galway hospital that Seán had died earlier that same night. NFC 389: 481-482.
In total, Seán Ó Flannagáin collected 133 pages of material from Bríd Ní Mhurae, mainly between May and November 1937. This material can be accessed online and in the Main Manuscript Collection of the National Folklore Collection, UCD.
