GUEST, the Quakers so named the days and months. Mary Leadbeater, the Quaker postmistress of Ballitore in Kildare, writes about sending a letter to Naas to give a good character to a neighbour, Pat Lyons, who was likely to be lynched by Captain Chenery's yeomen:

'When it was perceived that the note came from a female, it was treated with contempt "Women did not care what they said, and it was from a woman." On further inspection they observed the date; "Quakers tell truth, and it was from a Quaker" — and accordingly Pat was liberated.'

The reason 'observing the date' made the difference was that Mary Leadbeater had written it in the Quaker style, eg 'First day, fourth month, 1798'.