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When the friars were in the abbey, there was a bakery in Quin, opposite the Church. The bakery was owned by Denis Moloney. At the right hand side of where he lived there was a one-storey house attached to it and that was the bakehouse.

One day the friars went short of bread and two of them went to this bakery. Denis Moloney and his baker were there. They went to the door and one of the friars says that they were short of bread and would he give them some.

“I will,” says Denis Moloney, “if you have the money for it.”

“Oh,” says the friar, “our rule is that we are not allowed to handle any money whatsoever. But,” says he, “if you’ill give us the bread you will be rewarded.”

“And who’s going to reward me?” says Denis Moloney.

“The Almighty,” says the friar to him.

“Go away”, says Denis Moloney.

So the friar walked away and went to the other man and told him what just happened. “Go back”, says the other man, “and tell him that the oven of bread that he has down baking will be the last oven of yeast bread that will ever be made in Quin.”

So the friar walked back and told Denis Moloney, “That oven of bread that you have down baking will be the last oven of yeast bread that will ever be made in Quin.”

He walked away from the door and out to the other friar that was waiting outside on the street. One of them went down to Ballymaclune and the other to Mooghaun looking for bread. The people of these two townlands not only gave them bread but they also gave them every kind of vegetable; onions, carrots, cabbage, parsnips, potatoes and even meat and bacon. They brought it up to the abbey to them in horse and cars. The friars said that the people of these two townlands would never be short of anything as long as they lived, nor would their families. The people of Ballymaclune and Mooghaun are some of the best-off people to this day!

But the dozen of bread that Denis Moloney had down, when he thought he had them baked, he opened the oven and pulled out the trays to find every loaf as big as four loaves. He was delighted. Himself and his baker filled the tins again and put them into the oven for the time it takes to bake.

But when he opened the door of the oven this time, his bread was the very same as when he put it in, only it turned a brown colour. It never rose! He closed the oven door and left it for another hour and a half. When he opened it and took it out you would need a sledgehammer to break it. He put in another round and it was the same thing. Denis Moloney had to eventually give up the bakery!

Years later, a woman started a bakery in Quin, well after the friars were dead and gone. But it was the same way with her! it would never rise. The yeast bread will never rise in Quin. And theres no bakery here to this day!

 

The Curse on Quin, as told by Jimmy Armstrong to Eddie Lenihan for his book ‘The Man in the Big House’.

 

 

 

Seán na Gealaí

Halloween is the direct descendent of Samhain. It was the night when the gap between this world and the spirit world narrowed.  Known as Oiche Shamhna or ‘spirit night’, the souls of the dead were expected to return to the family home. The Church introduced the Feast of All Saints (Nov1) and the Feast of All Souls (Nov 2nd) to counter Samhain. Evil spirits were also thought to be abroad and people avoided travelling alone on this night.

   “Deireann na daoine go mbíonn sidheogaí amuigh oidhche Shamhna”, Schools’ Collection (NFCS 249).

Origins of Samhain

Contender 1- Tulsk, County Roscommon

Oweynagat Cave, Uaimh na gCat, meaning the ‘Cave of the Cats’ in Rath Croaghan. The Book of Leinster names it as dorus iffrin na Hérend – Ireland’s Gateway to Hell. Demons and all kinds of creatures emerge from here on Oiche Shamhna.

 Echtra Nerai (the Adventures of Nera) is first mentioned in the 10th century Cath Maige Mucrama story,  happening at Samhain.

Oweynagat Cave is also said to be the home of the Morrigan. She is portrayed as a goddess of battle and war, with the power to transform into crows or ravens. Her dreaded cry was frequently heard over battlefields.

Echtra Nerai, the Adventures of Nera

An Irish text taken from the Ulster Cycle, dating to the tenth century entitled ‘Nera and the Dead Man’, tells of the warrior Nera who accepts a dare during a dark and stormy Samhain night to tie a withy around the ankle of a hanging dead man. As he does so, the corpse suddenly comes to life and asks Nera to carry him on his back. Nera complies. After some adventures Nera gets the dead man back to his tree. All of this takes place at Samhain at Rath Croaghan/Cruachan, hence its association with Halloween.

Contender 2 – Tlachtga, Meath

The original Tlachtga was a druidess of considerable power and importance, the daughter of Mug Ruith who lived on Valentia Island in Kerry. He is said to have lived through the reign of nineteen kings, with his lifespan stretching back to the time of Christ on earth. Tlachtga and her father could travel the world on the Rath, a fabulous spinning wheel of fire that easily transported them. Mug Ruith sought out knowledge and learning like few before him and it was in this manner that he and Tlachtga travelled to study under Simon Magus (Simon the Sorcerer), who is mentioned in the Bible.

Simon Magus and Mug Ruith sent Tlachtga out into the world to gather as much knowledge as she could find. Upon her return they realized that her knowledge far surpassed their own!
They were outraged and such was their jealousy that they set the three sons of Simon Magus upon Tlachtga, who defiled her. She returned to Ireland where she gave birth to three sons, Dorb (Doirb), Cuma (Cumma) and Muach.

It was on the hill of Ward in county Meath that Tlachtga brought her three sons into the world, and it was there that she died, unable to sustain her life in the face of the utter grief and despair she felt at the indignity she had endured.

In recent years a renewal of the annual gathering on the hill of Ward now attracts hundreds of people at Halloween. A walk from Athboy up towards the Hill itself culminates with a celebration, with elaborate ceremonies and an acknowledgement of the cultural gift to Ireland and the world that Tlachtga represents.

In the ancient kingdom of Mide, Tlachtga was considered an important assembly place alongside Tara, Teiltun and Uisneach. These four ‘corners’ are recorded as having been the location of fortresses constructed by high king Tuathal Techmar at the foundation of Mide in the early decades of the first millennium AD.

‘Much of the (archaeological) evidence points towards a long history of ritual activity. Large quantities of animal bones – a sign of large scale feasting have been found throughout all phases of the site. The lack of evidence of any residential or day to day activity strengthens the idea that it most likely it was set aside purely for ritual or celebratory activity.

There have been finds in all three phases of the site, including scattered Bronze Age human remains and the skeleton of an infant between seven and ten months old… The child burial, next to a ritual deposit of cow bones, dates to AD 450 – around the time of the arrival of Christianity.

“The child was clearly buried with care and having not found any evidence of burials on the site, we’d have to guess that This child belonged to someone significant”.

Harvest knots and Guises

 

 

Homemade masks made by village boys calling to local houses on Oiche Shamhna

Outdoors

Unlike May when the fairies are active, November Eve brings malevolent spirits. It is the night for community bonfires, especially in housing estates in the cities and towns. Collecting the last handful of fruit and nuts.

Indoors

Families would attempt to have a celebratory supper on Oiche Shamhna. Family supper might be colcannon or pandy. They would first secure the house by sprinkling Holy Water and possibly placing a religious object in the thatch near the front door.

Typical Samhain Food included pancakes, stampy (a potato and apple cake, crusted with barley, enhanced with sea spinach and rock samphire & cooked with oil) apple cakes, nuts, blackberry pies.

An bairín breac/the barmbrack or the ‘speckled loaf’, containing oodles of dried autumn fruits is still a favourite treat, with lashings of butter.

Tokens inside the traditional loaf included the ring as a symbol of love and marriage,  a thimble (spinsterhood); a button (bachelorhood); a stick (to be beaten by the spouse); a rag (poverty); a coin (wealth) and a crucifix (the taking of religious orders).

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