Caretakers and Christenings

Fenor 1884 – 1984

Caretakers and Christenings in Fenor Church

Edmond Murphy, Fenor, was caretaker of Fenor church from 1910 until his death in 1934. He also served at the first Mass in Fenor church in 1894. His wife Margaret was also caretaker with him until 1960 when Mrs Tom Power took over. Eddie Murphy (Edmond’s son) took over the care of the churchyard at the age of fifteen years on the death of his father.

Jim Phelan of Churchhouse and Richard Hartley of Woodstown were both christened on the same day and were the first baptisms in Fenor church. Michael Hutchinson was the second christening. While the church was being built, Mass was said using the vault (flat tomb) as an altar.

Warts & Bleeding

cuckoo-spit

Warts must have been a very common complaint in days gone by because everybody in the parish has a tretment which works. People believed that warts on the hands were caused by washing the hands in water in which eggs were boiled. A fasting spit rubbed on the wart or the froth from the cuckoo’s spit, or water from the forge, all worked a treat. There is a wart well in Drumcannon below Tramore and there was a stone in the orchard of Power’s, Islandtarsnay (the Tailors). This stone had a depression in it where rainwater collected. You just washed the affected part in this water and, appropriately, it was called the wart stone. The dew of the grass before sunrise on May morning removed warts as well as corns, bunions, freckles, and all skin blemishes, and guaranteed eternal beauty. Stranger still are the following cures. If the wart is rubbed with a piece of fat-bacon and the bacon is then buried, the wart disappears as the bacon rots away. A raw potato rubbed on and then thrown away works the same way. A very common cure is the shellakiepookie cure. You get a shellakiepookie (snail), rub the wart with him, stick him on a thorn and, as he withers away, the wart disappeares. Caustic soda and wart plant (spunk) were rubbed on the wart.

There were two people from the parish who had the charm to cure warts. They used a straw from the rick and made the sign of the cross on the wart, then they buried the straw and the wart just disappeared within a few days. If all of these failed, a hair from the horse’s tail was tied tightly around the wart until it withered. Take your pick, they all work if you have faith.

 To stop bleeding

bleedingThe charm to stop bleeding was most peculiar because it worked on animals as well as people and it worked at a distance.

William Kiely from Killfarrasy had the charm. A mare of Bob Phelan’s jumped a gate and burst a vein in her leg when she hit the top rail. The workman ran for William. He had a prayer that he used to say to stop the bleeding. The workman urged him to come quickly but he answered, “I said the prayer, it will be stopped when I get there” – and it was. The charm to stop bleeding was passed from a man to a woman to a man and could not be used unless someone requested it. (I was privileged to be given the prayer to stop bleeding by Tommy Drohan, who got it from his grandmother.) St. Martin’s blood was also used to clear bleeding. On St. Martin’s eve (November 10th) a cock or some domestic animal was killed and the blood was sprinkled on the door-post and also on a cloth. This cloth was kept safely and applied to any bleeding wound.

For every ailment there was a folk-cure – an eelskin for tralach [tráileaċ], or cork under the matress for cramps in the legs, boiling potato-water for hangnail, oatmeal water for freckles, a cobweb or a key down the back of the neck for nosebleed. Many of the old cures are lost and very few of them are used. Nowadays, however, there are still people to whom we turn in times of specific need – the healers and the people with “the cure” .

Cures

Cures

Children who survived the rigours of childbirth had then to face childhood illnesses – without the medical services and antibiotics that are available to us today. Scalds were treated with the first snow of the year. The snow water was melted and kept. Burns were treated with bread soda or linseed oil, or country butter and egg yolk made into a paste. A badly burned or scalded child was plunged into the churn of buttermilk and, of course, there was always the dog’s lick, which had great curative powers.

scotts-emulsion

Cod-liver oil and Scott’s Emulsion were taken by children to build up their strength and prevent cold and childhood illnesses. Adults took raw eggs beaten up with warm milk and a drop of whiskey, or a glass of mulled stout with sugar was almost as good. Vick was used on the chest and a spoon of honey soothed a chesty cough. For pneumonia, a poultice of candle wax on brown paper was wrapped around the body. People who suffered from backache always carried a small potato in their pocket and Our Lady’s flower was carried in the pocket to prevent stroke. This little blue flower grows commonly in the month of May. Of course, red flannel worn across the back, was especially good for low back pain. This flannel should be washed. Pepper, especially Cayenne pepper, taken fasting, mixed with a drop of water and followed by a big glass of milk or water, was a marvellous cure for arthritis, rheumatism, lumbago or sciatica.

Most of us have spent a sleepless night or two counting the hours until dawn. The cure for insomnia is very simple – onions boiled in milk, sprinkled with pepper, and taken as a bedtime drink. This was also very good for the kidneys. Hives were common in children, probably because of deficiency in the diet, so boiled nettles were eaten in March to clear the blood. Slouchán was boiled in March, too, and given to children for worms. This dose was repeated after eight days. Three drinks of barnacle water in March kept a child free from worms for the year, and “yalla male” (yellow meal) stir-about cleared a child of tape worms.

Whooping Cough

frog

[ “In my mouth, you say?” ]

Many of us remember the horror of whooping cough for which there was no medical cure, but of folk cures there were many – most of them hair-raising. A live frog put into the child’s mouth when fasting should cure the whooping. The usual cure was to ask a man riding a white horse for his cure, which was usually to pass the child over and under the horse three times. Ferrets’ leavings were given to the patient as a good cure. A plate of bread and milk was given to the ferrets and whatever was left was fed to the patients. Paddy Power has an Irish cure which goes like this: “Bhí fear ag marcaíocht go dtí an margadh i nDún Ghearbhán agus ag an droichead in nDún na Mainistreach bhí seanbhean ina suí agus d’iarr sí air., ‘A fhear a chapall bháin, cad é an leigheas ar an triuc?’ D’fhreagair sé í, ‘A Dhún Ghearbhán beirig an “whey” (boiled whey). Sin é an leigheas ar an triuc?'” (Whooping cough was also called pioc or chin-cough).

A stocking filled with warm salt was put around a sore throat and salt and water was gargled. I got a cure for jaundice from an elderly neighbour twenty-five years ago which really works. The blossom of the furze was boiled with vinegar, beer, brown sugar, and saffron. This was taken, about a wineglass per day, for nine days. Another good cure, which is still in use, is the inner bark of the barberry, infused with porter and brown sugar, and taken three times. These cures work on dogs as well as humans.

The common cure for headache and also for throat ailments was the Brat Bríde or the St. Brigid’s ribbon. The ribbon, which was left outside on the eve of St. Brigid’s Day, was blessed by the saint. The ribbon was put around the head or throat of the patient. The brat or ribbon was also put across the cow’s back when calving or if she was sick. On St. Brigid’s eve men also put out their braces or galluses so that the saint would bless them also. This blessing gave the men strength to do their daily work for the whole year. It was believed that thin, skinny children got over measles more easily than fat children and that any ailment that came with measles stayed with the person for their life. Deafness and sore eyes and often blindness or partial blindness resulted from measles, so the patient was kept in darkness to protect the eyes. Sore eyes were treated with cold tea or by twisting a gold wedding ring around the eye nine times, and the thorn of the gooseberry bush was used to let out the puss in a stye. The blessed well of St. Declan was the place to go on pilgrimage for people who feared blindness and many people went on horseback or by pony and trap to Ardmore to wash in the water and do the rounds.

[ Declan founded a seminary in Ardmore circa 416. The Holy Well served as a baptistery to the primitive Christian missionaries. Declan Christianised the area of Decies before St. Patrick came in 431. ]

Leg ulcers, which were a common complaint in the elderly, especially in women, were treated with a bandage of green cabbage or slánlus (or slanns). Skin cancer was treated with pennyleaf or dock leaf and so were nettle stings. Bee stings were rubbed with the blue bag and wasp stings were cured by rubbing a raw onion on the affected area.

The Blacksmith Doctor

rickets

Water from the forge had magical cures and was used to cure itch, chilblains, eczema, to remove warts, and to get rid of freckles. The blacksmith could diagnose and cure most of the ailments of animals, especially horses. Tom Power (RIP), who was the local blacksmith and was the seventh generation of blacksmiths of that name, could cure rickets. Rickets caused deformed limbs in children and was common early this century. He made the sign of the cross on the thumbnail of the child with a piece of iron over the anvil. He said a prayer also – perhaps the Ár nAthair.

People who have suffered from shingles tell me that it is a very painful ailment, sore and difficult to cure. There is a charm to cure shingles which works and the shingles clear up within a few days. The person with the charm pricks the finger and makes a circle of blood around the affected area. This is repeated three times. Cahills and Caulfields have the cure for shingles, so the cure is known as Cahill’s blood or Caulfield’s blood. Seventh sons have the cure for ringworms and they are also blessed with the ability to set bones and cure sprains. When a seventh son or, better still, the seventh son of a seventh son was born, a worm was put into its hand and, if the worm curled up and died, the child had the charm. In the last century, when football and hurling matches went on from after second Mass to the onset of darkness, the bonesetter was as important as today’s casualty unit in Ardkeen. Goose grease was always preserved in a jam jar for the treatment of sprains in humans and animals. Geese were killed at Christmas for St. Martin – turkeys did not take on until the 1930s.   

                                         

Fr. Connolly Remembers

Fenor 1996 – Diary of a Parish Community

“Fr. Connolly Remembers”

It was on Wednesday, May 27th 1987, while I was on sick leave from my Canadian ministry, that I motored from Dublin to Fenor for the celebration of the Eucharist. At this time Fr. Gerry Purcell, the parish priest of Fenor and Dunhill, was having much difficulty in filling the vacant curacy at Fenor. The occasion I came for was the feast of the Ascension and the following weekend, having followed Fr. Gerry’s directions and availed of his hospitality, I celebrated the Vigil Mass at Fenor.

It was a beautiful summer’s evening as I was talking to some of the parishioners at the church gate after Mass when a lady said to me, ‘Would you ever come and stay with us? We do not have a priest’. My immediate reaction was one of amazement. I was familiar with the shortage of priests in Africa and Canada but I never expected to hear what I had in Ireland. Well aware of what it means to a community to have a resident priest, my sympathy and interest were aroused as I was to be in Ireland for the coming twelve months. So as I had a good look around I felt that the ministry would be within my capacity and that the coastal environment, which had great personal appeal, would be most suitable. In due course, I went for a walk with Fr. Gerry and expressed my interest. He was very pleased to be able to help Fenor and his wish was that I might be available for two years but, at that time, I could only commit myself for one year. After the appropriate arrangements were made I took up residence and so commenced a very pleasant period of my life and ministry in Ireland.

As I reflect on that year, special memories come to mind – the faith of the community and their trust in God; their caring interest in each other; the community involvement in the annual Sale of Work; the care of the church and adjacent cemetery; the friendliness of people; my visits to homes and to the school, especially the visits to the sick at home or in hospital; the joy of the First Friday Communion visits; the beautiful singing of the children’s choir; the friendliness of clergy and my many walks on the beaches of Annestown and Kilfarrissey; the daily gift of milk; the generosity of people on my departure.

After my year in Fenor with my health renewed, a cousin said to me, ‘Fenor was the making of you’.