Folklorist Michael Fortune wishes you all a very happy St. Martin's Day...
St. Martin’s Eve/Day (11th of November) was a very important date in the local calendar and was based around the feast day of the 4th-century Saint Martin of Tours. This is still a big day in many European countries, from Germany to Sweden, and a goose was always killed if you had one; if not, a hen or a cock.
One tradition practised locally, although perhaps not widespread, was "spilling blood" on this day. The term "spill blood" made reference to the tradition where a fowl, or sometimes a beast, was killed and the blood sprinkled around the home and on the people of the house to ward off evil. In many cases, I found it was a cock that was killed, as a hen would be valuable, and unfortunately, the younger males, who had hatched out in spring, would get the chop.
- you can watch the video here
This tradition of spilling blood was practised in counties right across Ireland, and I have recorded first-hand accounts from Wicklow and Carlow to Offaly, Tipperary, and Mayo. Once the fowl was killed, the blood was then scattered on the threshold of the house and the four corners of the rooms. In some cases, crosses were drawn on the foreheads of the people of the house with the blood for protection and luck. I recorded one woman in Mayo in 2008, and she recalled to me how, as a child, her father would rub the blood on their foreheads, and in the recording, you can see her shivering from the thought of it still, years later.
Here in Wexford, the blood spilling too was once done; however, two other superstitions existed — one involved millwheels and the other fishing. As Saint Martin of Tours was killed by a mill wheel, there was once another custom in the area of a mill not turning on this day. Some years ago, I recorded Martin O'Connor in Kilmuckridge, who recalled how his father never ran the mill on this day, and, in true fashion, he mentioned a case of another mill that didn't observe this tradition and the resulting bad luck that followed. Watch the interview with Martin here.
There is also a common belief in Wexford never to go fishing on the 10th of November (St. Martin’s Eve) or the 11th of November (St. Martin's Day). Fishermen are fiercely superstitious regarding this day, and many herring fishermen would never venture out on this night or the night before, in some cases, no matter how good the conditions or the fishing was.
There are numerous accounts of tragedies in our folklore relating to fishermen who ignored this custom, found from Arklow to Wexford Town to Ballyhealy. (The most well-known account stretches back to 1702 in Wexford Bay.) The local herring fishermen in Cahore, near where I grew up, still observe this; however, I was really surprised to find that commercial fishermen, such as the Scallan brothers in Wexford Town, still maintain this custom.
Back on the 10th of November 2017, I set up an interview with John Furlong (originally from Kilmuckridge) to chat to me about the folklore surrounding the date. As we were setting up the camera on the Quay in Wexford Town, we noticed that brothers Sean and Martin Scallan were offloading their catch. We proceeded to chat to the men, and by doing so, found out that they would always try their best not to be at sea on the evening of the 10th or 11th of November out of superstition. The interview was completely unplanned, and as we approached the commercial trawler, the owner told us that he would stay on land that day due to the superstition.
One of the most well-documented accounts relating to St. Martin’s Eve comes from a disaster in Wexford Bay in 1762. The poem entitled "The Fishermen of Wexford" by John Boyle O’Reilly recounts the tragedy when seventy fishermen from Wexford Town were drowned when they did not pay heed to the warning to stay off the sea.
In the poem, we are told a huge shoal of herring arrived in Wexford Bay. Even though it was St. Martin's Eve, the town's fishermen put their boats to water regardless of all warnings. In true folkloric fashion, they paid the price for ignoring the rule.
Interestingly, this account is from the 18th century, so if it was already established in local belief at that time, who knows how far it stretched back. I also know of another similar case from the 19th century, from Tinnaberna near Kilmuckridge in Co. Wexford, where a group of men ignored the rule, and they too paid the price.
"Two fishing cots went out to fish on St. Martin’s, 11th November – between 1810–1820. There came a land wind storm, and they were blown out to sea. They had no provisions, and on the second night, the crew of one cot fell asleep, exhausted, except one man who attributed his keeping awake to the chewing of tobacco. Sometime during the second night, they were blown on the 'Rocks of Wales,’ as they have it.The crew of this cot were saved, and when thrown on the beach, they struggled inland, saw a farmer’s light. The household spoke no English, and fishermen related that after having got the minimum of food (too exhausted for more), there was made for them a ‘fol’ (whatever kind of bed this is) where they slept till morning. The bodies of their comrades were washed ashore with the morning, all except a young boy named John O’Connor, who went out with the fishermen for diversion. The survivors were landed at Ballycotton, Co. Cork, and after being given up as long since dead, word came from Wexford Town that they had arrived there. Incidentally, they walked the journey from Ballycotton. The whole district turned out to welcome them."
-Schools’ Folklore Collection account from Naomh Bríghid, Blackwater, by John Kavanagh, Killincooley.
The 11th of November is also known as Old Hallowe'en by some, or Martinmas, and is marked in many European countries (Holland, Germany, Malta and parts of Portugal and Spain) with traditions of feasting, tasting new wine, house-calling, bonfires and lantern processions. It was traditionally related to our Hallowe'en customs in Ireland but the date shifted due to a shift from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in the 18th century.
Folklorist Michael Fortune's new book The Folklore of Wexford Volume 2 is out now - get a copy and find out more about Michael and his work here
