St Ita's Well at Faithlegg is a regular stop on any walks we do at Faithlegg. But it begs several questions; who was she, why a well and why at Faithlegg. Forgotten Lady They say no one remembers the runner-up, and St Ita must be a classic example. Often referred to...
Venus B – a tragedy long remembered
A guest blog by David Carroll tells the tragic loss of the barque Venus B on Feb 21st 1885 at Ballymacaw and how it lived long in local folklore From 1937 to 1939, the Irish Folklore Commission enlisted more than 50,000 schoolchildren from 5,000 schools in Ireland to...
Digging up our dead – The Body Snatcher era
I remember hearing many years back an account of the body snatchers who resurrected a lady in Kilkenny. The story went that a wealthy lady from Ballinlaw on the River Barrow died and was buried in Slieverue. It was a time when even the dead could not rest...
The Black Death at Faithlegg
There was once a village at Faithlegg. It stood on the left hand side of the road, past the church, heading for Waterford city. Locally it has always been said that the village was wiped out when the black death swept the country and such was the fear attached to the...
Judgement night – January 6th 1839, Night of the big wind
The night of the big wind occurred on January 6th 1839 and I often heard it referred to growing up as the storm of all storms. It was a weather event against which the community compared all others. But the storm was much more than just an extreme weather event; it...
Oiche Samhain, 1970’s Cheekpoint
As a child, Halloween was a lot simpler. There again in the early 1970's with one TV channel (RTE 1), the ability of advertisers or foreign TV shows to influence our daily lives was much less than today. Although they are very different countries between then and...
The Banshee attack at Coolbunnia
Halloween is upon us again. In the past it was a very different occasion and I've written about the Halloween of my childhood before. Now it wouldn't be Halloween without a Ghost story and here's one my Father told1. "There was a family called Walsh who lived above...
the Faithlegg woman who died twice?
One of the oldest grave stones in Faithlegg belongs to a family named Fortune. But the headstone creates a bit of a stir...it gives two dates of death for the lady...1745 & 1746 The headstone reads; Here lyeth ye body of ANSTAS FORTUNE alias QUINLAN...
St Ita’s Holy Well, Faithlegg
They say no one ever remembers the runner up. St Ita seems to be such a person, often described as the Bridgid of Munster, highlighting her position in the pantheon of Irish female saints, a close second to Bridgid of Kildare. So unlike Bridgid who's life and times...
The Irish Folklore commission’s visit to Faithlegg National School 1937
In 1937, the Irish Folklore Commission visited Faithlegg National School, then situated on the Old Road. They asked pupils in the boys class to go home and interview their relatives or elderly neighbours and to write down the stories about the village or area...
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