A presentation on the Irish Schools' Collection, the result of a folklore-collecting scheme carried out in 1937-8 in primary schools in the Republic of Ireland, now available online on Duchas.ie.

1. HEALERS AND HEALING 2018
THE SCHOOLS’ COLLECTION ON
DUCHAS.IE
Dr. Tiziana Soverino, UCD, 9th April 2018
Tiziana.soverino@ucd.ie

2. TODAY’S LECTURE
▪ Will focus on the Schools’ Collection and on how to use the website
Dúchas.ie (2nd assignment title: will be uploaded on Blackboard
soon).
▪ Will finish early: at 13.40.
▪ Last 10 minutes: individual feedback sheets on 1st assignment. Stay
in the classroom and queue for feedback.
▪ Comments or questions on your feedback? Email me, or see me after
the lecture onWednesday.

3. DÚCHAS.IEWEBSITE: DIGITISED PRIMARY
SOURCES FROMTHE NFC.
2 SECTIONS:
1) PHOTOGRAPHIC COLLECTION
2) THE SCHOOLS’ (MSS) COLLECTION
Emphasis on no.2.

4. THE SCHOOLS’ COLLECTION
▪ Folklore collecting scheme carried out in the 26 Counties of the Irish Republic, mainly in 1937-8.
▪ Pupils from primary schools, aged between 10 and 14, asked to collect folklore from neighbours,
relatives and friends, on a variety of topics, and to write short essays on them.
▪ One of the largest collections of folklore (incl. medical folklore) in Europe and in the world: 740,000
pages (288,000 pages in the pupils’ original exercise books; 451,000 pages in bound volumes), from
5,000 schools.
▪ 1,128 volumes, numbered and bound: The Schools’ Collection.
▪ Galair, Leighis, Luibheanna (Ailments, Local Cures, Herbal remedies)= among the topics collected by
pupils. Particularly important for this module.
▪ Booklet containing guidelines for teachers to assist them in the collection, and 55 headings on topics to
explore.
▪ Entire collection, in Irish and English, digitised and made available online: any time, from anywhere in
the world, on Dúchas.ie
▪ Volunteers needed to transcribe the material: handwriting difficult to decipher.

5. THE SCHOOLS’ COLLECTION
▪ Pros: detailed local folklore from the 26 Counties of the Irish
Republic.Very localized. Snapshot of oral tradition in the late 19th
century and early 20th (informants/tradition bearers often in their 50s
and older in the 1930s).
▪ Cons: Northern Ireland not included. Fantasy important for children.
Linked to school homework. Some material not suitable for children:
excluded.
▪ Irish/English material: more English material than in the Main
Collection.

6. DÚCHAS.IEWEBSITE: HOWTO SEARCH
Search by keyword.
E.g. Enter word ‘marigold’
In the searchbox at the top
of the page= 13 results.
Not all about marigolds in
folk medicine.

7. DÚCHAS.IEWEBSITE: MARIGOLD
A harmful weed, difficult to get rid of. Used:
1) to flavour soups;
2) as a remedy for measles (infusion);
3) as a cure for sprains;
4) for internal fevers, it promotes perspiration.

8. DÚCHAS.IEWEBSITE: SEARCH BY
CONDITION. E.g.Whooping Cough
798+ 169=
967 ACCOUNTS

9. Study onWhooping Cough Cures from the
Schools’ Collection
▪ Over 960 accounts in the Schools’ Collection: too many.
▪ Had to take a sample
• Methodology: school from each Barony, in the 26 Counties selected
• Cures from 270 Baronies
• Cures for whooping cough: 2nd top category overall. Only overshadowed by cures for
warts.
• Whooping cough: widespread, potentially lethal, hitting mainly children.
• Reported cases of Bordetella Pertussis (whooping cough) in 2015 in Ireland was just
118 (WHO 2017).
• However, in late 19th and early 20th Century Ireland (a pre-vaccine and pre-antibiotic
era), whooping cough was a very significant cause of morbidity and mortality in
children. E.g. 463 deaths due to whooping cough in 1937-8.

10. Study onWhooping Cough Cures from the
Schools’ Collection
▪ TOTAL CURES FORWHOOPING COUGH IN SAMPLE UNDER
INVESTIGATION: 477.
▪ DIVIDED INTO 11 CATEGORIES.
▪ EMPHASIS ONTHE 3TOP CURES.

11. 3TOP CURES FORWHOOPING COUGH FROMTHE
SCHOOLS’ COLLECTION (combined: 69% of all
cures)
1) People with healing powers, incl. anything prescribed by a man on a
white horse (or, more rarely, piebald horse): 27%
2) Food/water touched by an animal (incl. ferret’s leavings): 24%
3) ‘Three times round the donkey’: 18%

12. TOP CURE FORWHOOPING COUGH: PEOPLE
WITH HEALING POWERS
• Gift of healing: can be claimed by individuals, e.g. because it’s in the family, or people in
the community endow others with the ability to cure
• Wayland Hand : 3 ways to acquire ‘the gift’
▫ specifically conferred
▫ innate in the healer
▫ resulting from unique condition: emphasis on diversity. What is rare is wonderful.
• Date/ time of birth, position in the lineage, person’s name: posthumous child, 7th
son, women who married men of the same surname as their maiden name
▪ In cures for whooping cough, men on a white horse, or people of the
same surname, are said to possess the cure.

13. CURE 1: ANYTHING PRESCRIBED BY A MAN
ON AWHITE HORSE
‘[Whooping cough] Parents ask the driver of a white
horse for a cure and the cure he gives, even though it
might be a cup of tea, and a biscuit is supposed to
cure the child’.
(NFC S 241: 15, Co. Roscommon).

14. CURE 1: ANYTHING PRESCRIBED BY MAN ON
AWHITE HORSE
- The parents asked the first man on a white horse they saw for a cure. Often
something trivial (e.g. biscuits or water) prescribed. Grey/ piebald horses also.
- Not unique to Ireland: found in the UK in late 19th Century. (Hatfield 2004, 367;
Black 1883, 153).
- Role of the horse in this cure distinctive: only minor. It is the horse-rider who gives
the cure, but by virtue of being with the animal: temporary condition.
- White horses: unusual in Irish folklore (Ó hÓgáin, 1977-1979): powerful.
• Why a white horse? Doctors riding on horses (Logan and Halls), or linked to money,
power and education? White, red-eared animals: supernatural in medieval Irish
literature. Religious Connection: Christian Book of Revelation. A rider on a white
horse will judge people on Doomsday (Bible, English Standard Version, 19:11-16).

15. CURE 2: FOOD/WATERTOUCHED BY AN
ANIMAL
‘The cure for the whooping cough is to give a
ferret milk and let it put its mouth in the milk,
and drink it.The whooping cough will go away
then.’
(NFC S 973: 160, Co. Cavan).

16. CURE 2: FOOD/WATERTOUCHED BY AN
ANIMAL
• Ferrets' leavings’ (milk tasted and left by the ferret)/breadcrumbs falling
from a donkey’s mouth= The leftover food consumed by a ferret/ donkey
administered to the ill child to take internally.

17. CURE 2: FERRETS IN IRELAND
▪ Why ferrets? Common on Irish farms: to combat other rodents like
rats and mice and for ‘ferreting’, i.e. hunting for rabbits.
Ferreting.

18. CURE 2: FERRET’S LEAVINGS
▪ Ferrets: domesticated counterpart of weasels. Weasel’s spit said to
be poisonous (Ó hÓgáin, D. 2002, 72).
▪ Ferrets’ spit/tongue thought to kill whooping cough?
▪ Or emphasis on the breath? Breath used for healing in other cases
too e.g. 7th Son, donkeys.

19. CURE 3: ‘THREETIMES ROUNDTHE DONKEY’
▪ Sick child passed 3 times round a donkey, over its back and down its
belly, by adults.Very elaborate cure: prayers often recited, action
repeated a special number of times, breadcrumbs falling from the
animal’s mouth given to the child to eat.
▪ Cure also attested in the UK (Black 1883).
▪ Donkey: very common on Irish farms. Poor man’s beast of burden
(Estyn Evans).
▪ Blessed animal in Christian tradition: cross on its back. Gospel: it
warmed Jesus Christ in the manger; brought him safely to Egypt
when he was persecuted as a child; and brought him to Jerusalem
later on.

20. CURE 3: ‘THREETIMES ROUNDTHE DONKEY’
Image from Dúchas.ie

21. CURE 3: ‘THREETIMES ROUNDTHE DONKEY’
‘A child who is suffering from whooping
cough is put under a donkey three times in
the name of the Father of the Son and of
the Holy Ghost’.
(NFC S 1036: 113, Co. Donegal).

22. CURE 3: ‘THREETIMES ROUNDTHE DONKEY’
▪ Cure linked to transference: idea that diseases can be transferred to
other human beings, animals or objects, thereby getting rid of it
(Hand).
▪ Official medicinal cures for whooping cough until the 19th century
were often harmful: e.g. administration of opiates, the application of
leeches (Waterhouse, B. 1822. An Essay ConcerningTussis Convulsiva
orWhoopingCough with Observations on the Diseases of Children).

23. CURES FROMWHOOPING COUGH:
REFLECTIONS
▪ Psychological /Placebo effect: very important
▪ None of the 3 top cures can be said to have a scientific, or
biochemical basis.
▪ Rituals probably provided some reassurance to the parents of unwell
children (Logan 1972, 41).
▪ Whooping cough: very common. Frequently lethal.
▪ N.B.Very few herbal/mineral cures for whooping cough.On the other
hand, about half of folk toothache cures and wart cures
herbal/mineral in nature.

24. WHY NOT MANY HERBAL/MINERAL CURES
FORWHOOPING COUGH?
▪ A strong feature of all medical treatment in the past, in fact, included
a liberal dose of magic. Healers, shamans and priests, and charlatans
commonly were found (and in many places still are) believed to cure
sickness and relieve pain (Colón and Colón 1999, History of
Paediatrics).
▪ Logan 1972, 41: rituals reassured anxious parents. Even babies and
toddlers perceive the mood and mental state of their parents, and
are influenced by it (psychological experiments and trials).
▪ Lay healers.
▪ Interaction of animals and human beings.

25. DÚCHAS.IE: AVALUABLE RESOURCE
▪ Future aim: to digitise the Main Collection, on top of the Schools’
Collection.
▪ Purpose: to make the material available, and data management.
▪ Project partners: National Folklore Collection, UCD, National Folklore
Foundation and UCD Digital Library; Fiontar & Scoil na Gaeilge,
DCU;Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.
▪ Project started in 2012.

26. MANUSCRIPTS OFTHE NATIONAL FOLKLORE
COLLECTION, UCD

27. DÚCHAS.IE: LAUNCH OF PHOTOGRAPHIC
COLLECTION
National Library of Ireland,
26 September 2016.

28. DÚCHAS.IE: INVITATIONTOTRANSCRIBE
No minimum commitment.
Every little helps! 

29. SECOND ASSIGNMENT
▪ Exact title will be uploaded on Blackboard next week
▪ Dúchas.ie + Allen and Hatfield
▪ Take feedback from 1st assignment on board
▪ Writing clinic: James Joyce Library, Link Space 2. Drop in or
appointments available.