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Archiver > IA-IRISH > 2004-02 > 1077981600


From: "Cathy Joynt Labath" <>
Subject: [IA-IRISH] Prepare for your meals of nettles in March for good health!
Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2004 09:20:00 -0600


The following cures were collected by the Irish Folklore commision in the 1930s
and published in
Ed. Grey, Marguerite. Gort Inse Guaire. A Journey Through Time. "Local Customs
and Beliefs". Gort Heritage Trust: 2000.

[Note: Gort is in Co. Galway around the area my some of my ancestors lived. I
don't remember anyone passing along any of the following cures in my family
(except maybe soda water for heartburn), but I do know that my grandfather
thought whiskey cured all and that you should take it as a preventive medicine.
I also remember being at a family reunion when I was about 12 or so and my
sister, aged 10, sprained her toe. My aunt wrapped it in bacon. My cousin and I
giggled all night long about that and gave my sister a good ribbing about
"bringing home the bacon", etc.. I had a wart once and someone told me to bury a
potato in the ground in the back yard. I never tried it. ..And my dad always had
us drink hot peppermint water either with peppermint extract in it or a
dissolved peppermint candy in it for an upset stomach/nausea. I realized years
later that it is probably pretty close to Peptobismol! Anyone know of other
cures passed along?]



"Cures"

... Eating three meals of new nettles in the month of March was supposed to keep
away diseases for the year. A multitude of cures for almost every ailment known
to mankind at that time are recorded in the local folklore.

Back pain.
Rub paraffin oil on it.

Boils.
Use sugar melted in soap.

Broken bones.
Scrape the outside of the root of a wild plant called comfrey, put it on a
bandage and tie it tightly around the break.

Burns.
Go to a person that licked a lizard and if that person licked the burn whoever
had a burn would get cured.
Put the yolk of an egg on it.
An ointment made of fresh butter and the yolk of an egg would cure a burn from
hot water.

Consumption.
Drink the juice of a dandelion.
Cut garlic into small pieces, mix it with brandy or whiskey, and give it to the
person that was suffering.
Put garlic in their shoes under the soles of their feet (it was said that the
sap used go up through all the system to the lungs and thus cure the disease.)

Corns
Put a burning coal in the water in which you wash your feet.
Walk barefooted in the dew in the morning.
Wash your feet in bogwater and then walk through the bog with your shoes off.
Put a layer of breadsoda over it and over this pour a small drop of vinegar.

Cuts.
Put a cobweb over the cut and it would stop the bleeding.
Put moss on it.

Colds
Go under an asses legs.
Mix a compound of ginger and treacle and rub it on the chest.

Earache
Put black wool dipped in sweet oil into it.

General cures.
If anything ails you cut the head off a hen and let it go with the river. That
is supposed to cure you.

Headaches.
Kiss St. Colman's bed in the Burren.

Heart Burn
Mix a spoonful of bread soda with a glass of water and drink it.

Nettle sting.
Put a dock leaf on it.

Neuralgia.
Eat the food left over by a ferret.

Nosebleed.
Putting the key of the door down your back would stop the bleeding.

Ringworm.
The seventh son of the seventh son could cure ringworm.

Sore Eyes.
Look through a gold ring three times.
Walk three times around a sock containing water.
Wash them in tea water.
Sleep at St. Colman's well at Kilmacduagh.
Bathe them in water and soil.

Sore throat.
Put washed potatoes in a stocking and put it round your neck.
Heat bran or salt in a pan, put it into a stocking and tie it tightly round your
neck.
Put a piece of raw meat in a flannel and leave it on one's throat.

Stomach ache.
Mix soot with water and drink it and it will give relief.

Sty
Put a gold ring around it.
Stab it with the thorn of a gooseberry bush.

Sunburn
Rub cream on it.

Toothache
Put water in your mouth and turn your back to the fire until the water boils.
Put soot and salt into the cavity.
Rub a frog to the decayed part of the tooth.

Warts.
Rub a black snail on it.
Get a snail and make the sign of the cross on the warts with it and then hang
the snail on a whitethorn bush and when it rots the person would get cured.
Keep a raw potato in your pocket.
Drink water lodged in the cavity of a rock.
Leave a stone in a bag for every wart and leave it where another will find it.
That person will take the warts.

Whooping cough.
Drink the milk that the ferret has left over after his meal.
If you meet a man with a white horse say "Man with the white horse what cure do
you have for whooping cough?" and whatever he would say would cure you.




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