The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #120098 Message #2609579
Posted By: Jim Carroll
12-Apr-09 - 05:54 AM
Thread Name: Folklore: the Weather
Subject: RE: Folklore: the Weather
"I love listening to the shipping forcast. WHY??"
It's all those lovely names - Thames, Humber, Heliogoland, Malin Head.... mmmmmm
Inspired by this thread (thanks Cap'n) I've just spent an hour in our local papershop talking weather lore with the owner. He is from Kilkee (look at a map of Ireland) and his family were all fishermen. He is full of weatherlore and you could listen to him for days.
We were hoping to get him to our local history sociey meeting to talk on the subject, but he says he is too shy, so we might be able to put together a forum of local people to share an evening just swapping lore in front of an audience.
Interesting place, West Clare.
Another aspect that interests me is that the whole of the Clare coast seems to have been given names by local people, rocks, creeks, inlets... everything.
Just a few miles from here is a place called The Graves of the Yellowmen, a place where survivors from the Armada who managed to swim ashore, were said to have been murdered by a local lord for their belongings.
Another sea legend here is of the mermaid. The last one in Ireland was said to have been spotted at Quilty, the next village south (which still has a reputation for insularity and roughness). It is said that when she swam towards the shore, the Quilty lads threw stones at her and she was never seen in Ireland again.
Jim Carroll