Cures and Charms By FRANKWATTERS we hear about talk often Now-a-days, referred what is 'alternative' medicine. Usually or as acupuncture to are practices such another There herbalism. is, however, business 'alternative, medicine \ the mysterious three table spoonfuls he doesn't Unfortunately meant also 'recipe' for a cough mixture following out by Lizzie this. It was written illustrates of Aughantarraghan around 1920. It Cassidy was: "Squeeze 10 lemons. Add 1 oz. cod-liver oil and 1 oz. honey. Beat well together with a fork till a mixed. Bottle. One dose: thoroughly to is be when taken cough teaspoonful " troublesome taken, or applied to the affected part. A 'charm \ on the other hand, consists of a ritual of some is taken but there and no treatment sort, nothing as such. Often the two are combined. Most I suppose, have, at one time or adults, a cure and charm to a administered another, child who has been stung by a nettle, saying it like, "Don't cry. This will make something better!" and rubbing the sting with a dock leaf saying, in and out, "Docken, docken Take the sting of the nettle out!" leaf is a Now rubbing the sting with the docken 'cure', while reciting the rhyme is a 'charm'. Does it actually work? Does the juice of the to the sting? Or is dock leaf act as an antidote this an example of a situation where you don't stand there, you do something? just In the era before modern medicine, in people were in and poor people particular, general, ?^ could be made as for treating whitlow "Venice turpentine 2d, castile soap 2d, to 2 egg-whites, 2d, 2oz flour, honey flour thicken. Mix to a paste and apply twice daily." are a number of categories There of people or the or birth either who, occupation by to of their lives, have, according circumstances are: these folklore, special powers. Among * Women who retain the same surname after John Quinn around 1850: worth of sulphur and three fardins "onefardins worth of cream a-tartar and half a pinte of new milk. Put the milk on the fire and make a crud then put the sulphur and the cream a-tartar in it. Skim the cruds and put them in a cup, rub it with poet, and warm the whey. l9B A paste follows: left to their own devices and, in the to were of medical forced absence expertise, on sorts treatments. the of from all rely Apart use of home-made herbal remedies they made own use. their for various concoctions up The following medicine for home-made recipe is recorded in manuscripts written by the Acton the fire y^B^^Bli Lizzie Cassidy often at to cure. The of 'cures and charms' While the word 'cure' is often used to cover both it is, perhaps important to define initially I suppose the terms 'cure' and 'charm'. that, a context would in this 'cure' strictly speaking, some substance is refer to a treatment where the cruds the of whey." it was record what marriage; e.g. a Miss Murphy married a Mr Murphy *A child born after his / her father's death, that a boy, "who never saw his is a child, particularly father". *Widows. Take 7 POYNTZPASSAND DISTRICTLOCALHISTORY SOCIETY_ * perhaps because are Our Lord, blessed. Blacksmiths. * Godparents. *A child bom in a cowl. * son of a The seventh son, or the seventh seventh son. *Members of certain families, e.g. McElroys * a cure handed down or People who have had given to them. * Royalty. certain animals, e.g. the pig As well as people, or the donkey, are said to have special powers have at the arrived researchers Some are treatments of the of that conclusion many and the of pre-date coming great antiquity to Ireland. Christianity conventional There are certain illnesses which so to cure been unable medicine has, far, in some cases, but not cure. prevent, perhaps, association being with specially Felix McConville of Lenaderg, whose mother came from Tullydonnell, South Armagh, gave me a version of the charm she used. "Take the child to a donkey. An adult should hold up the donkey s tail and the child pass, or be passed, three times under the donkey's belly and round 'A under its tail, as the adult says three times, lagana hugana pugna, pugna hugana lagana.'" the words Felix has no idea what signify and I have spoken to, can attach no Irish scholars to them. meaning less elaborate for whooping cure, on to is 'whistle the blade of a knife.' cough in A charm for mumps also involves a donkey, that the donkey's blinkers are put on the sufferer and he or she is led to a well or to the pigsty. If to the latter you had to say, "Pig, pig, here are Another, are and whooping measles cough occur of this of which ailment, type examples in childhood, last for generally predominantly two or three weeks and usually clear up. This type of ailment is often the subject of a cure or charm. Cynics would say that the ailment will a last for limited in any case, and only period, on the that the treatment has no bearing Mumps, your mumps!" 'stye' of a different kind is a stye in the eye, a ailment. One cure for a painful and unpleasant a gold wedding to it with is touch stye ring or, Another better still, a widow's wedding ring. cure a involves the use of thorns from a ten You thorns from bush. gooseberry pick one. each Point of then discard bush, gooseberry A other than that it gives the impression outcome, the that something is being done to alleviate condition and that it helps to pass the time. One cure for whooping is 'a change of cough air'. This might the 'air of a involve breathing us who live on and for those of different county' a the border of counties Armagh and Down, was I this suffice. short walk would very given treatment when, at the age of 8 or 9,1 developed the remaining nine thorns at the stye in turn then throw it over your left shoulder. You may, or may not, touch the stye with the tip of each of the first eight thorns but you must touch it with the ninth. I was told another version of the same cure: three triple thorns from a gooseberry bush. them into thorns. nine Point Separate single the last it with each thorn at the stye. Touch thorn and say, "In the name of the Father, and of " Then throw the the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. thorn over your left shoulder. It is believed that a nose bleed can be cured by a black thread tightly round the of tying piece little finger or by holding a widow's key to the Pick The took late Ernie Hanlon cough. whooping me with him in his lorry when to he went for a load of sand. I Co Tyrone, Coalisland, presume the treatment worked for the whooping the cough cleared up and, at any rate, I enjoyed outing. Another of their close as regarded cure for whooping is to get cough a woman to eat surname from whose something didn't change when she got married, e.g. aMiss a Mr married You should get Murphy Murphy. three things, butter and bread, traditionally sugar and you should not thank her. A more bizarre charm for is cough whooping one where the patient, usually a child, is passed three times over and under a donkey. Donkeys, back of the neck. I remember being told when I was a youngster, and it was certainly widely that a cut accepted, in the webbing between the thumb and was and could extremely dangerous forefinger cause lockjaw or cause you to bleed to death. It is no doubt an old wives' tale but was widely 8 _POYNTZPASS AND DISTRICTLOCALHISTORYSOCIETY in can, indeed, be a problem bleeding Stopping In de-homing cattle both humans and animals. an animal bleeds excessively and the sometimes same can happen to some people, for example, to a man. Another man, near Armagh has also Lexie Crozier of Lisnadil got this cure. Attie never refused anyone. Mrs of. Cairns did not know what the cure consisted cut is to put a treatment for a bleeding Another In the past, locally anyone after tooth extraction. with a problem with bleeding would have been as Attie had the advised to, "go to Attie Cairns," cure. He belonged to that group of people who have had a cure given to then by another, usually of something cobweb on it. This is an example that has been shown to have a scientific basis as a cobweb has been found to be a natural source It was believed that there was no of penicillin. a scrape than to a or cut better way of cleaning and believed. older, from a woman let a dog lick it. person. are unsightly and unpleasant and are the cures. Some of the cures subject of a great many for warts are: * Cut a potato in half and rub it on the wart. As the warts will disappear. the potato decays * Rub the wart with water from a blacksmith's Warts i.r,j/i :^Wiliilft* jwP1BBBBp: MHBE^^^'MiWw trough * Rub the wart with a snail then impale the snail on a thorn. As the snail decays the wart will disappear. *Wet the wart with a fasting spit. * Treat stone. with water from a hollow * Some wart will the from you. (The buy people should be put you get for the warts money where you'll never see it again.) * Rub the wart with a coin. Leave the coin on the road. The finder of the coin will also get the wart. Am'e * Treat with of a the white juice, or milk, dandelion. Water from a blacksmith's trough was also a cure for chilblains and soot from the chimney was used to clean teeth. a could be prevented Toothache by carrying nail in your pocket, blacksmith's in your The practice of carrying something some was as ailment against protection pocket Cairns to Mrs Cairns, the late Attie Cairns According was given the cure when he went to a man who had a lived near Armagh because he, himself, with the She doesn't recall problem bleeding. man's name but he gave the cure to Attie. Mrs Cairns said, "It worked for both people and animals. often came who had cattle People or calving. after dehorning People bleeding cure over all looked the from from England, down South and all over would just ring up and Sometimes he got cards I work. didn't always " didn 'thave the faith. Attie passed the cure on In the novel 'The a Elliott records in early apparently commonplace practice, She writes, that at that time, Victorian England "... ladies in rich silk gowns wore large pockets to secure in which they carried a mutton-bone such a Mrs carried them from cramp. Glegg her inherited had she bone which from raw a in your potato Carrying grandmother..." pocket is a said to prevent rheumatism. cure for toothache the Another is to recite accepted. apparently widely on the Floss' Mill George Ireland. They Northern ask him for the cure. thanking him. The cure some people suppose to his son Adam. People as many as before. not although it. It is less enthusiastic about unusual in that this type of cure is somewhat more often passed on from a man to a woman still come, is Adam following. 9 POYNTZPASSAND DISTRICT LOCALHISTORY SOCIETY_ As Peter sat on a marble stone, Jesus came up, all alone, "Peter, Peter what makes Saying, "My Lord and Saviour, The cures in for nine that, "a burn goes is to the also of great significance days." ('Nine' to authorities in 'Macbeth'). According witches on the subject this emphasis on three and nine is you weep?" it is the toothache!" late Fred Bryson had several cures certainly pre-Christian. in his eye would, in Anyone who got something to contact Mrs be the Poyntzpass advised area, Trainor. Mrs Trainor had a charm for Molly etc. from the eye. Her father, dust removing was given the cure many Tommy Kennedy, an old called Mrs years ago by lady for earache, toothache, piles, jaundice and shingles. He passed them on to his Mrs Morton of Killylea Road, daughter, including believed also Armagh. The poet the Patrick recalled Kavanagh in his autobiographical incident following 'The Green Fool'. novel, one winter's "We were sitting round the fire the latch of the door was lifted evening when in bandages and a head all wrapped appeared who lived at the Eleven Lane Cunningham Ends. One day Mrs Cunningham said to him, "/ could give you a cure to take a mote out of your to (for it is thought unlucky eye." He accepted on the charm refuse). Tommy Kennedy passed to his daughter Molly. She has passed it on to her two nephews. The cure must be passed from man to woman, to man and so on. She had many in the lamplight. "Come inside, we called, and a man came in. "I was he McElroy's," looking for Harry explained. "I was just thinking as much," my mother said. "On yer head ye have it, God bless it." "On me head it is," he agreed. The man had erysipelas, known as popularly was 'the rose'. Any person named McElroy to to cure be able the disease by supposed the afflicted part. Harry McElroy touching to make being the only one of the name willing - had a the cure -it was considered unlucky to fill any doctor with large enough practice from England and in recent occasionally a number from the USA and years phoning Canada. Griffith Wylie told me the following: a number of years ago, while I "One evening, still had the grocer's Street, shop in Railway to go up to Church I had occasion Poyntzpass, callers, Street time. Some just closing before on at Billy Corbett's were going renovations on the roof. As I shop and men were working was going round the corner I glanced up to see what they were doing. Just at that moment a gust of wind blew a shower of dust off the roof and, as luck would have it, some of it got into my eye. It was extremely painful. When I got back to the the Mucker Road envy. As his house lay along we had many callers the Some way. of inquiring these people came twenty miles..." I don't know if any McElroys in this area or on cure. cure for elsewhere this Another carry use stones nine involved the of erysipelas A person bom after the death of his or her father is said to have the cure for thrush. The late Mrs had Josie Carson of Church Street, Poyntzpass, to this cure and was asked occasionally administer it. She also had a cure for mouth ulcers. a three and nine are regarded cures a in and charms. Often being significant patient must visit the 'curer' three times for the cure to be effective. Nine, as in the gooseberry in the eye and several thorn cure for styes The numbers ^*?jyiw^^^^^^J^m^^ BP it It was, and perhaps others, is also significant. still is, widely believed that in the treatment of a serious illness, the ninth day very often saw a for better or worse. It was significant change, ?&r^ Molly 10 ~ -^^* Trainor --1.-?- '''. ^^e *V^BB% i^^^^^^^^^^^^^^B mM* ^^^^^^^fl (left) with her sister Mena _POYNTZPASS shop I was advised to ring Molly Trainor, AND DISTRICTLOCALHISTORYSOCIETY as nobody in the shop could help me. So I lifted the to tell you the truth, I had no phone, although, in it, and asked Molly would great confidence she make the cure for me. She said she would to I closed up the shop and went be sure. Anyway out home in the van. I was hardly fit to drive my eye was so sore. When I got home my tea was ready but I wasn 't I said fit to eat it, such was the pain. Eventually to Betty my wife, 'I'm going to have to go to the I can't bear it any longer. You '11have hospital. to drive.' So we got ready to go. It was by then the pain stopped twenty to seven and suddenly all right. I told Betty and my eye was perfectly there was no need to go and that was the end of ^KBBJBBwM^^P^^Brw^^x^^^^^ Brigid Quinn that. next morning However shortly after opening time Molly, who was a regular customer, came in. She asked me how my eye was and I told her it was fine. She said, 'I owe you an apology. last After you rang night, before I could make the cure, a visitor came in. It was twenty to seven before I got doing itfor you.' Perhaps it was coincidence it worked for but I'm convinced treatment for sprains was, possibly still is, to rub as it the sore joint with goose fat or 'goose-ame' was known. Many a of goose people kept jar ame in their homes for emergency use. I often thought that not only did the patient benefit from the visits but Brigid did, too, as it a bit of chat and her with company, provided of importance in the also gave her a position me." I suppose this also illustrates that community. a certain of is suitable when person type only as Mrs passing on a cure. It would be essential, Cairns put it, that such a person had "the faith." to know the cure Molly needed the name to in order Christian and be alone patient's to concentrate. To make to put up with They also need to be prepared at for assistance all and have a hours requests stream of visitors, often strangers, to coming their door. Many couldn't be people simply bothered. Trainor told me that when offered the Molly a cure to from receive another it opportunity was very unlucky to refuse to take it. If you do accept the cure you must never refuse to help the cure for anyone who requests you to make them and you should on no account receive any of sister, the late Mrs Lizzie Turley involved had a cure for eczema. This a belt that the patient had to wear next making the skin. The belt contained quicksilver was and it essential that the sufferer (mercury) Molly's Acton abstained from alcohol while wearing the belt. a A cure for ulcers on the leg was applying cold of boiled poultice turnips. A former neighbour the late Brigid of mine, Park, had a cure for sprains Quinn of Aughan in Patrick Kavanagh's and, like Harry McElroy story, she had a large and regular 'practice'. Joe Brigid was given the cure by her employer on turn and to she in it late the Monaghan passed Peter McCamley and to a relative who lives in Dromara. Many patients arrived at Brigid's door on crutches it is true to say that and, while not everyone for your help. However payment with a cure keeps toMolly's standards. A friend told me of mine that she and her recently to to a man who travelled Co. Meath daughter a cure had for She, migraine. supposedly did not get any benefit from the unfortunately, went three times), and each was visits, (they ?20 ?120 in total. visit, per charged I have no personal of a cure that experience for me, (other than the change of air!), worked left the same way, practically all of nearly them would claim that the cure greatly helped to be really effective them. For the treatment three visits were necessary. Another local all 11 POYNTZPASSAND DISTRICTLOCALHISTORY SOCIETY_ but I must say that I am always glad to hear of an instance where an old folk-remedy succeeded The had failed. modern medicine when to I which of the anecdote, veracity following a can personally is testify, good example. the son of a Christopher Rooney, Young a in accident had little of mine colleague then 1994. Christopher, aged six, September bumped his knee getting over a fence while out - a with his grandfather very minor walking the swelled knee incident. However up, was was to the taken and the child very painful Doctor of the best efforts doctor. Despite the knee remained swollen and painful Cupples the and child, who was unable to attend school, was sent to Craigavon for x-ray etc. He Hospital in the Royal Victoria ended-up after exhaustive in Belfast, where, Hospital courses bone intensive of antibiotics, tests, scans and having his leg in plaster from the the best ankle to the thigh for several weeks, that he in the concluded land medical opinion had septic arthritis in his knee. It was in the bone and could spread. He would have to learn to live and with it as it is an incurable condition, eventually Christopher be partially he would disabled, would help. painkillers mother had, from the beginning, Christopher's on the knee a considered putting bread-poultice cure would be but felt that such a low-tech came at. child the when However, laughed although Rooney in Royal Victoria Hospital in December, she applied the home-made Three days and of bread baking-soda. poultice almost a half-inch later a blackthorn long was drawn from the child's knee. Her son made an immediate recovery and was back to school the home, ?yowamimabteft>al^f?dpfe?*o'pJiot>e24O503^t,2^1 0*? / ---????--_ T4? Oipftwrn ?? . Consultant ****_ -_?__^_? ' I ,. ' , i 12 s Christopher " appointment f/ie thorn card with attached _POYNTZPASS AND DISTRICT LOCALHISTORYSOCIETY to try it. She used it on Doctor Sovereign and it didn't work; but thousands Johnson, of the her subjects still regularly up for queued that in today's royal touch. One can imagine more credulous era, itmight once again become is day. I have been told that honey following also excellent for drawing out a thorn. All over the country there are people with cures for practically could be every ailment. Hives one For 'afasting cured with indigestion spit.' cure was to suck a lump of coal. Thomas of Lisdunwilly has a McDermott Road, Armagh, popular, a great boost for a faltering monarchy" cure for ringworm. His treatment which he says was as 'a to him', is described 'handed down dry spit'. cures involve 'nine'. A As I have said, many in who lived Irish had an Street, Armagh lady cure the for She sufferer gave croup. interesting a lock of hair from her head. This was put inside a tissue and then worn next the patient's skin for nine days. After that the hair had to be burned. had a cure for A Mrs Murphy of Pomeroy out nine egg-cupfuls asthma. She measured of were on the which oatmeal patient's placed then took the measures of chest. The patient oatmeal home. They had to be eaten dry, three a day for three days. measures Mrs Phyllis Turley of Chapel Lane, Armagh, has a cure for shingles, which the burning involves of nine sticks. A lady in Ardee, Co Louth has a cure for a verruca that also involves the use of nine burnt sticks, she uses nine burnt match ' ^^^^^^mm^KSmll^ W^mmMmmm&JL ^m?jm^^mmmmmmmM sticks. I was cure for bums, told the following by on the bum and say, nine Trainor. Blow Molly times, "Before God and the sod under the foot, that this burn should no further spread." I have been treatments told various While have found which individuals there helpful, doesn't appear to be anyone with a cure for the common the general is however cold. There a cold that "Feed and starve advice you should, a Dr. Samuel Johnson This custom was, apparently introduced into England by Edward the Confessor but it had that. in France been long before practised was introduced Ceremonial by Henry touching VII and the sufferers were presented with a gold I sometimes coin, although Charles gave silver The instead of 'touch pieces' practice gold. its height reached under Charles II, who, to Macaulay's 'History of England', according fever." in cures of this kind was, and is, not Belief to Ireland or, indeed, to ordinary folk, confined as an article in 'The Times' on 11th November, In his column, Magnus 1999 shows. Linklater wrote: touched nearly 100,000 people and in 1682 some 8,500. He states that in 1684, "the was so great that six or seven of the sick throng were to death." William III called it trampled as It was last practised, "a silly superstition." in stated in 'The Times' article, by Queen Anne alone, in "If it hadn 't been for the Act of Settlement 1701 we might still have a king or queen with to heal. The Stuarts used to practise the power curing scrofula, "touching for the king's evil" -a nasty skin disease, by laying on of hands; the divine it came with they thought right of was Anne the last British Queen kings. 1712. Well into the twentieth century there was a widespread belief in the North of England that Irish people had a cure for snakebite and that if an Irish person drew a circle round a snake it 13 POYNTZPASSAND DISTRICTLOCALHISTORY couldn't get out of the circle. This SOCIETY_ and even in this era of scientific thrive, medicine? very sensible Many people, whose word I wouldn't doubt, have told me how they seem have been which by cures, helped a is in line 'Hamlet' which There impossible. seems appropriate; "There are more things in apparently arose from the legend of St Patrick banishing the snakes from Ireland. A child bom in a cowl was sure never to be was one such as he drowned. Charles Dickens at one Sailors tells us in 'David Copperfield'. it was to buy a cowl time sought because its of it would protect believed that possession owner Johnson of Charlie from drowning. told me that he carried a cowl with Tandragee him all through World War II when he served in in Bolton the Royal Navy. His sister, a midwife than are dreamt of in and earth, Horatio, I suppose Put another your philosophy." way, and that if Horatio had lived around Poyntzpass, as had dismissed the whole superstitious thing he might well have been told nonsense, heaven like, something think you know a lot, Horatio, but "You might smart and all as you are, you still don't know it all!" gave it to him. in these charms Is there any basis for believing some and cures, of which appear totally to survive, ridiculous? How have they managed **?+ ^f+ sl^ *^ ^> ^^ %^ ^^ Bk J^ES9bhB1i ^B^^HS^H9Si^BHHMKaKB'?W^ ?Jp? Jl JBSIiMB BliiiiirJii^^^^^^^B \ H^BiiB^^8^^^BIBBMIili^BI|P^-^w^^^l^i* ^^^Jf^^c,.-^ ^B^^BhSBS|^^^^^^H||^^^HhBhI Poyntzpass No. 2 National 14 School, Railway Street
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