Tales and sketches, illustrating the character, usages, traditions, sports and pastimes of the Irish peasantry / By William Carleton.

  • Carleton, William, 1794-1869.
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Tales and sketches, illustrating the character, usages, traditions, sports and pastimes of the Irish peasantry / By William Carleton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    BARNEY BRADY’S GOOSE; OR, DARK DOINGS AT SLATHBEG. Barney Brady was a good-natured, placid man, and never lost his temper, unless, as lie said himself, when he got privication he was also strict in attending his duty ; a fact which Mrs., or rather, as she was called. Alley Brady, candidly and justly admitted, and to which the priest himself bore ample testimony. Barney, however, had the misfortune to be married at a time when a mystery was abroad among women. Mysteries, resembling the Elusinian in nothing but the exclu- sion of men, were then prevalent among the matrons in all parts of the country. Of the nature of these secret rites it would be premature now to speak ; in time the secret will be revealed ; suffice it to say, that the mysteries were full of alarm to the husbands, and held by them to be a grievous offence against their welfare and authority. The domestic manners of my beloved countrywomen were certainly in a state of awful and deplorable transition at the time, and many a worthy husband’s head ached at a state of things which no vihgance on his part could alter or repress. Many a secret consultation was held among the good men of the respective villages throughout the country at large, as to the best mode of checking this disastrous epidemic, which came home to their very beds and bosoms, and many a groan was vainly uttered from hearts that grew heavy in proportion as the evil, which they felt but could not see, spread about through all directions of the kingdom.