ireland map The Child of Prague - Cloneyquinn - Roscommon - Ireland

"In the early days of broadcasting many a person who listened to, and acted on, the advice of the Met service had reason to rue their trust. Country people didn't need them. They knew there was rain on the way when big lumps of soot fell down the open fireplace and rolled out onto the floor. There was no surer indication. My mother's mortification was complete when the chimney spat its accusing message at a time when friends or neighbours visited. She took it as a reflection on her housekeeping abilities but deftly shifted the blame onto my father: 'I told that fella to clean the chimney,' she’d fume, 'but you might as well be talkin' to the wall.'

Every area had its own weather indicators. ‘Bad luck to that oul' “whinaforlia” wind,’ Petie Rooney of Glenade in North Co. Leitrim would say when the wind blew from Crumpaun mountain, ‘it’s rain any hour from it.’ Bright mornings are a fool’s guarantee of a good day. Shakespeare, well aware of such traitorous dawnings, wrote:
'Full many a glorious morning I have seen,
Flatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye
And then permit the basest clouds to ride
With ugly rack on his celestial face.'

Where the elements were concerned a lot of people were not prepared to take chances. When it was vital to have good weather, like on the day of a wedding* or a rick, the little statue of the Child of Prague, normally kept in the house, was moved outdoors and placed under the hedge. I don't think any threat was intended, but if rain came he’d be the first to know!

Every home had a statue of the Child of Prague. But in our house its duties were different. That little figurine was our investment bank. My mother always kept a ha’penny wrapped in brown paper tucked tidily underneath. Even through a child’s eyes this seemed strange behaviour. When I asked her why she did it she told me that the Holy Child would see that ‘the house was never without money’. Her mother did it before her and the old people believed it.

Not having any money, we thought a lot about it. The Child of Prague's commitment seemed much like the promises of the Sacred Heart to the house where his heart is 'exposed and honoured’. This contract was on the wall of every Irish home. There was an important difference though. With the Child of Prague the assurance wasn’t in writing. Maybe it should have been. But it wasn’t. It was handed down information. There was nothing you could point to and say: “See! This is what you promised.” With the Sacred Heart it was reassuring to have it in print. When things weren't going well you could go to the inscription on the wall and read it again to make sure it wasn't a misunderstanding. When we had nothing else we had hope — and promises. “Have the name of it if ye never had it” my mother declared defiantly in bleak times.

In the evening's gathering dark, when the day’s work was done, my mother and I often walked along the path that ran through the meadow, cans in hand, to get water from the well. Sometimes we saw a new sliver moon suspended in the sky. When this happened and we stopped to admire, the Druid spirit of pagan ancestors stirred in her soul. Druid or saint, this practical woman was prepared to take help from wherever it came. Following a custom as old as the rocks themselves she turned a small flat stone on the ditch three times saying, ‘I see the new moon, the new moon sees me. God bless the new moon and God bless me.’ This, she said, was to bring good luck and money until the new moon came again"


Camera: Canon 100d

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Ireland - October 2015

ireland map The Child of Prague - Cloneyquinn - Roscommon - Ireland
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