Chapter 1

‘The Rush Gatherers – Lough Corrib, Connemara, Ireland.’ A print from a painting by J.J. Hill and included as a supplement to the Illustrated London News June 2 1860. The group of two women and a man have load of common reed, Phragmites australis on board. Print in the author’s collection.

1

SPREADING RUSHES IN FOLKLORE AND HISTORY

Facing page, from top: Fig. 1.1 Juncus effusus, the soft rush or common rush. © Phelim Connolly.

Fig. 1.2 Scirpus lacustris, often known as bulrush. © Phelim Connolly. Twentieth-century traditions and folklore In the parishes of Ogulla and Baslick, in county Roscommon, there were, in the early 1960s, memories of a time when a coating of rushes was placed on the floor of the kitchen in houses of the poor in snow or wet weather. The clay combined with the rushes to keep the floors more or less dry. In a mountainous area near Newport, in county Mayo, a Mrs Moran was strewing rushes on the floor of her house in the same decade to help with the dampness in her home, and in north Galway, rushes were spread on the kitchen floor on a hot summer’s day: it helped to keep the air cool.1 These few references may be seen as survivals, or survivals of memories, but there is no doubt whatsoever that the custom referred to was practised universally throughout the country from earliest times.

The strewn rushes were species of the so-called ‘common’ rush – that is the field rush which comes into its own especially during the summer months and grows in such abundance in wet and ill-drained land. The Latin name of the genus is Juncus, which describes a number of plants, including Juncus effusus, the Soft rush (Fig. 1.1), Juncus glaucus, the Hard rush and Juncus conglomerates, the Common rush.2 Juncus effusus was particularly prized among the rushes as it could be plaited into strips for matting. It was used to weave chair bottoms and provided the raw material for making rushlights. The most prevalent Irish word for the rush is luachair.3

There is another plant which was also used for weaving into mats and chair bottoms, for thatching and even for making into ‘rush’ rafts. This is the Scirpus lacustris, Bulrush in English and bogshifín or bogluachair in Irish. (Fig. 1.2) However, I have not found any evidence in the Irish tradition that it was strewn on floors.4 There is also some evidence, which we will see below, of mixing fragrant foliage and colourful flowers with the rushes. This was particularly strong in the English

tradition, and Alfred Burton, the nineteenth-century scholar, believed that the ‘rush’ most frequently used on these occasions was probably the Acorus calamus, the Sweet Flag, whose rhizomes are strongly scented.5

However, before discussing the history of the practice of strewing rushes, it is interesting to note that the predominant memory in those years of information gathering in the 1960s was the association of the spreading of rushes (both on the floors of houses and in front of houses) with the following feast days or festive events: on the eve of the Epiphany, that is 6 January, also known as Nollag na mBan or Women’s Christmas, in Kilcommon parish, county Mayo; on St Brigid’s Eve in Crocknacally, Tirawley, county Mayo, Rahan, county Offaly and Rathowen, county Westmeath; on May morning ‘as a mat for the mother of God’ in Westport, county Mayo, and on Christmas Eve in Moore parish, county Roscommon, where the rushes, mixed with holly, ivy and furze, were strewn along the path leading to the house.6 In Athea, west Limerick, Liam Danaher remembered seeing rushes, ferns and mountain ash spread on floors and yards on May Eve for protection against evil.7 His neighbour, Richard Denihan, was 88 years old when his memories were recorded in 1953. This was at a time when rush spreading was no longer practised, but his memory of the custom does give some nice detail:

The St Brigid’s cross used to be made from rushes in this parish. In other places straw was used. On Christmas Eve night the old people used to put green rushes newly out on the doorstep as a mark of respect and welcome before the coming of the Divine Child. When a person is a long time without visiting a house and finally goes there the people of the house say: ‘Green rushes under your feet!’ I used to see rushes on every doorstep on Christmas Eve long ago but of late many people don’t bother about it, the same as all the other old customs. 8

The custom of rush spreading with festive events was still prevalent in the 1960s. In Kilmore, county Down, on May Eve rushes were mixed with mayflowers,9 and spread in front of byre doors to bring good luck and a blessing on the cows and their milk for the coming year. In Baile na nGall, in county Kerry, people strewed the rushes in front of their houses on both Christmas night and St Brigid’s night, while in the parishes of Rahan, county Offaly,

Fig. 1.3 Typha latifolia and typha angustifolia are both reedlike bulrush commonly seen growing at lake margins and slow streams. © Phelim Connolly Rathowen, county Westmeath and Greencastle, county Tyrone, and also in counties Carlow and Kilkenny, the strewing was done on St Brigid’s Eve. Until the 1940s rushes were spread on the ground before the feast of St John (24 June) in Kilmore parish, county Wexford.10 (Fig. 1.3)

The above are a few examples of the custom of spreading rushes on some of the more popular feast days throughout the year, with May Day and St Brigid’s Day figuring prominently in tradition throughout the country. The custom is also associated in tradition with the Catholic (and Anglican) Church feast of Corpus Christi in a more localised distribution in the south east, in county Kilkenny, but especially in county Waterford. Corpus Christi first appeared as a feast in the Christian Calendar in the thirteenth century.11 It is a moveable feast connected with the celebration of Easter and the earliest and latest dates on which it can occur are 21May and 24 June. It is therefore a summer festival and also what might be called an officially designated festival. It does not have a strong associated tradition base. Today’s town processions, involving both young and old, and the tradition of cleaning and painting shop fronts in rural towns in honour of the day, are probably nineteenthcentury introductions both by the Catholic Church and an English administration in Ireland.12

Amhlaoibh Ó Súilleabháin, the early nineteenthcentury historian and diarist, called the festival of Corpus Christi Díardaoin Álainn na mBínsí Breátha – Thursday of the Beautiful Benches – as it was a custom around his home area of Callan, county Kilkenny, to spread rushes and wild iris on benches outside the houses as a mark of respect.13An early-twentieth-century printed version of the same custom was recorded from Sliabh gCua in county Waterford – an area between Clonmel and Dungarvan which was essentially Irish speaking until the late nineteenth century. The account quoted

below, together with a further and later account from the same county, give us details regarding how and where the rushes were spread on the day known locally as ‘Rushy Thursday’:

The practice of strewing rushes on a rod bench outside the houses near the door, and on the floor from the door to the fireplace, and placing some diagonally crosswise in the panes of the windows, and placing them on the sill of the windows was carried out in my young days all over the district of Slíabhgcua. It is still in the hills and valleys from Kilnafrehan and Kilgobnet, out by Kilbrien, Lackandurra and Touraneena, and in some places close to the outskirts of Dungarvan Abbeyside. Strewing rushes before guests has been referred to in ancient times before carpets came into use. I am of opinion myself the habit in Ireland arose out of the Epistle of Corpus Christi (1 Cor. Xi. 23–29) and the words, ‘For as often as you shall eat this bread and drink this chalice, you shall show the death of the Lord, until He come’; and that therefore, the strewing of rushes and leaving the door open is in preparation for the ‘coming’, and an expression of ‘Céad Míle Fáilte.’14

Michael Beary, the author of the above account, wrote his observation in response to a request from James Coleman of the Waterford and South East of Ireland Archaeological Society, in the previous year’s journal, for information about the custom.15 Beary also remembered that a good place to gather the rushes in Seskinan parish was the valley through lower Lackendarra and Touraneena. Not only did the rushes grow in abundance there, but their growing companions, the ‘flaggers’ – the feileastream or yellow-flowered iris – also grew among them.16

By the mid-twentieth century, the custom was still practised in Waterford, and in 1947, Joe Daly recorded the following memory from 58-year-old Séamus Ó Conaire of Cnocán an Phaoraigh, An Rinn, in county Waterford:

Diardaoin na Luachra, lá saoire iseadh é sin. Corpus Christi. Rushy Thursday thugann daoine air. Chuiridís sop luachra taobh is mu’ de’n doras an oidhche ragha’ agus thart theidhmpul leis a’ bhfalla ar gach taobh de’n doras agus amu ar na finiúga. Ní fheacaí mise le blianta in aon áit anois é…Bhíodh coinne aca leis a’ Maighdean Mhuire teacht chun an tíghe an oidhche sin. Mar sin thá sé mar nús ag na daoine á

dtiocfach duine isteach sa tighe na raibh istig le tamall fada, dhéurfach fear a’ tighe leis ‘Cuirfí mé sop luachra fé’d chosa...’ Diardaoin na Luachra is a holiday. Corpus Christi. Rushy Thursday, people call it. They’d put some rushes outside the door the previous evening and around about the walls on each side of the door and on the windows outside. I haven’t seen it done now for years. They were expecting the Virgin Mary to visit the house that night. For that reason it is a custom, when someone who hasn’t visited for a long time comes into the house, for the man of the house to say, ‘I’ll put some rushes under your feet...’17

During his conversation with Joe Daly, Séamus Ó Conaire called the day Diardaoin na Luachra, an Irish phrase. However, it is telling that he also notes it was popularly known among the Irish-speaking people of the district by its English name, ‘Rushy Thursday.’ This is a good indication in itself that the custom had been introduced into this Irish-speaking district.

There is no doubt that this Corpus Christi custom was still actively practised in west Waterford in the first decade of the twentieth century.18 It is not known why it was such a strong tradition in this particular area, and seemingly unknown elsewhere. The practice is undoubtedly connected with the popular English custom of ‘rush bearing’, which is discussed in more detail below, and it is probable that the tradition was introduced to this corner of Ireland by a landowner or landlord of English descent, or with English connections, as early as the Middle Ages. Also, according to Ó Conaire, the custom was connected with the expected visit to the home of the Virgin Mary, the mother of God, on the evening of Corpus Christi – though Michael Beary was of the opinion that the rushes were spread to welcome Our Lord Jesus Christ.19 This, of course, is an echo of the custom of rush strewing in other areas on the eve of the feast of St Brigid, 31 January, in expectation of a visit by the saint, and on May Eve, in honour of the Virgin Mary and her expected visit on the evening of 30 April. It is the last sentence of Ó Conaire’s recorded memory, however, that is the most interesting part of his account, for he tells us that the spreading of rushes was also done to welcome a guest – an ‘ordinary’ visitor, a neighbour, a relative or a friend. On the basis of the surviving records which we are fortunate to have, this very welcoming tradition was practised throughout the country. The more usual custom remembered, and still practised also to some extent into the middle of the twentieth century, was the idea of spreading rushes on the floor when a guest was being welcomed to the home. Significantly for us here, the best description of this

ritual for greeting a visitor to your home was also recorded at Séamus Ó Conaire’s home place, the Irish-speaking district of An Rinn, in county Waterford:

Ó ar son Dia ‘s Muire, a Mhichíl, an tusa atá ann? ‘Sé do bheatha! Agus bhfuil aon sop luachra a chuige thimcheall an mhaca go leathfainn féd chois é, tá sé chómh fada ó chroch tú do shlinneáin bhreághtha sa macha so cheana. Oh! For Jesus’ and Mary’s sake Mícheál, is it you? You’re welcome! And are there any rushes around these parts to spread before your feet, it is so long since you were last around here.20

However, this particular custom was by no means confined to Waterford, and several questionnaire correspondents from around the country remembered it in the 1960s even if, by that time, it had become somewhat diluted. The following are a few examples:

• If I knew you were coming I’d have rushes for you.21 • If I knew you were coming I’d shake green rushes for you.22 • On the visit of a friend who had not been there for a long time, there was an old saying: ‘If we knew you were coming we would have spread the green rushes for you’.23 • If I knew you were coming I’d put green rushes under your feet.24 • If I had green rushes I’d have strewn them before you.25 • We should strew rushes at the door.26 • We must get some green rushes to put under your feet.27 • If I knew you were coming I would have green rushes placed on the doorstep to welcome you.28 • If I had green rushes, I’d throw them before you.29 • We’d want to shake a few green rushes under your feet.30

All of the above are remarkably similar in phraseology, and all are in English rather than Irish. Some correspondents to the 1960s questionnaire gave explanations by way of making sense of the custom.31 Mostly they tell us that the phrase was used in a metaphorical sense to welcome a friend who had not visited the home for some time. In these cases, while the rushes were not actually spread, the words were used to convey to the visitor or friend that they were warmly welcomed to the home.32 The phrase was still current in Castlecomer, county Kilkenny, at the time ‘as a form of extra welcome’ to visitors, even though there was no recollection of actually strewing

the rushes.33 Michael Meany from Tulla, county Clare, believed that the ‘strewing of rushes was customary in old times’;34 and John Dalton from Beal, in county Kerry, understood that the custom involved more than the ordinary greeting to a visitor:

It was a saying heard from the old people whenever a rare and welcome visitor was expected. ‘We must shake green rushes before him.’ It seems to have been a ceremonial mark of respect, but I am sure it also had a practical reason, that was of making the entrance clean and dry, at a time when pavements were rough or not at all… Up to fairly recent times one might rarely find rushes strewn about yards and dwellings in some places, for purely utility reasons, say on the occasion of a station or a wake in the winter time.35

Dalton was the only correspondent from the 1960s questionnaire who made the direct connection with the ceremonial nature of the custom, though this is, of course, implied in the above replies, that mention the spreading of rushes on special occasions throughout the year. This ceremonial aspect is explored in more detail below. For the moment, and to conclude the section on the use of this particular phrase, by the 1960s it had probably diverged somewhat from its original meaning (that is to welcome a long-lost friend) in the same way that the phrase ‘Hello stranger: long time no see’ would have been used in the same decade. The evidence for this is contained in a few replies which imply that the phrase was uttered in a somewhat facetious manner to let the visitors know that, while they were welcome, they should not have let such a long time elapse since their last visit. ‘We should have spread green rushes for you’ was the phrase still uttered in the early 1960s by either the man or the woman of the house in mid-county Clare on the occasion of the visit of a friend who had not been seen for a long time and who was expected to have been a more regular visitor to the house.36 ‘Does he expect us to shake green rushes under his feet?’ was the version of the phrase in the Grange district of Curraghboy, county Roscommon.37 The practical or functional nature of the custom noted in John Dalton’s quote above, and the examples cited earlier, show how the discontinuation of the original custom lead, over a period of time, to seeking a more pragmatic explanation. It seems in a few areas that the custom of spreading rushes on the floor may have survived when a body was being waked in the home, for example, and many people were expected to visit the wake house, or when friends and neighbours were visiting during very wet weather. In a practical housekeeping sense, rushes were spread on a kitchen floor which had just been washed, as they assisted in the drying process by soaking

up excess moisture. In all recorded examples, the rushes served to keep the floor both dry and clean.38 In Bornacoola, county Leitrim, the rushes were spread for general cleanliness, but at the same time played a role in preventing disease in a semi-religious ceremony invoking the trinity of the Father, the Son and Holy Ghost.39 In Kilcoo, Garrison, county Fermanagh, both rushes and straw were spread on the roadway directly in front of the house, and also extending some distance from it, to deaden the noise of passing traffic when there was a seriously ill person in the home. Rushes were still used in outhouses long after they ceased to be spread on the floors of the home, and were found to be a readily-available and beneficial crop to have around at turf cutting time. Spreading rushes on soggy, boggy ground made a pathway in the bog which bore the weight of a barrowful of turf.40 Rushes were spread on floors of sweathouses in the northern part of the country, and provided a soft flooring for the users of the sweathouse once the fire that heated the stones had been swept clear.41

The practice of spreading rushes also prompted a few questionnaire correspondents to relate details of the custom of scattering other foliage and flora on the ground during the year, especially in honour of Our Lady, Mary the mother of God, and to welcome summer during the month of May. Most of these references are from Ulster, where it appears that the practice had not been as popular on festive days as elsewhere in the country. In the 1960s, Mayflowers were still strewn on doorsteps on May Eve in Granemore, county Armagh, and in the Scotshouse district of county Monaghan. A correspondent from county Tyrone, who was living in county Kilkenny when the questionnaire was circulated, remembered that the Mayflower, Ór Mhuire (i.e. Marsh Marigold) was always strewn at every window and door at his home on May Eve, and it was spread in county Antrim on May Day.42 The plant was also popular in Kincasslagh, county Donegal, and, along with buttercups and daisies,43 it decorated window ledges and the front door from May Eve. In a neighbouring county, Fermanagh, it was still customary to place Mayflowers in front of the dwelling house door on the first morning of May.44 Mrs Sarah Loughran, of Cladymore townland, county Armagh, was 70 years old in 1962 when the questionnaire was circulated, and she spoke of her memory of strewing Mayflowers around doors, windows and wells as a child and a young woman.45

The above clear and reliable observations and memories are mentioned here as there is no doubt that, just as the spreading of flowers in May was observed as a mark of respect to Our Lady, the mother of God, and as a welcome to the summer season, so too was the spreading of rushes observed as a mark of extreme respect to visitors to the home from the earliest time of the practice. In a reversal of the more usual situation, where there is only scant reference material from which to find

Fig. 1.4 ‘The Rush Gatherers – Lough Corrib, Connemara, Ireland.’ A print from a painting by J.J. Hill and included as a supplement to the Illustrated London News June 2 1860. The group of two women and a man have a load of common reed, Phragmites australis on board. Detail above, full image on pages 24-25. Print in the author’s collection. explanations to understand and contextualise a dying custom, there is a plethora of information concerning the spreading or, more colloquially, the ‘strewing’ of rushes. This information spans the centuries from early historic times to within the memories of our own grandparents. It is interesting to trace the custom over the centuries, to see how it changed to accommodate the variables of improved living conditions, and its transference to several major religious feast days until it became a memory and a folklore saying, and finally a sarcastic remark. Without this rich sample of early historic references it might have been concluded that the custom was associated with poverty. In reality the opposite is the case and the tradition has been associated through the centuries with the well-off.

Spreading rushes: early historic Ireland The earliest reference I have discovered so far concerning the use of rushes in early historic Ireland occurs in the seventh-century Life of Saint Columba. The story concerns a man, Librán, who was born in Connacht and sent by Columba to Iona to do penance for seven years. Librán eventually returned to Ireland and died soon after his arrival. The story ends by telling us that Librán was familiarly known as ‘of the Rush Field’, since, for many years, his occupation had been a gatherer of rushes.46 Librán, it seems, would have used a special knife for cutting the rushes and harsh penalties were imposed on those who cut either rushes or bent,47 without permission.48 (Fig. 1.4.)

A twelfth-century reference alludes to the importance of having a plentiful supply of rushes available for the household’s needs. It is contained in a legend featuring the beautiful Étáin, a mythical lady of the Tuatha Dé Danann, her husband Eochu Airem, king of Ireland, and her lover, Midir. After challenging Midir to a board game and winning, Eochu was in a position to make certain demands. These were fourfold and included a causeway across the bog of Lamraige,49 a wood growing wild over Breifne,50 and quarrying stones throughout the bottom of Mor-Mide,51 ocus luchair tar Tethba (and cutting of rushes over Tethba).52 Tethba was co-existent with the present day counties of Westmeath and Longford, and thus Eochu added to his wealth a vast area of potentially rush-growing land.

We have already seen that, in more recent times, rushes were used for spreading or strewing on the ground for different purposes – household cleanliness, disease prevention, and as a mark of respect and welcome. The extent and importance of the latter element is quite clear from other examples of early historic texts. In Mesca Ulad (The Intoxication of the Ulstermen), a text described as old-middle Irish, and believed to date from the ninth century, there is a description of the banquet prepared by

Fintan, the warrior son of Niall Naoighiallach, for the impending visit of the nobles of Ulster:

Ro batar gríanna álli ardda, essarda do aín agus do urluachair, agus sluagthigi sithata... There were splendid lofty pavilions, littered with bent and fresh rushes, and long houses for the multitude...53

In a second reference, which is a late contribution to the Ulster cycle, written in medieval Irish and dating to the twelfth century, Conall invited Conor and the nobles of Ulster to Cooley to attend a feast in his home where the ‘high uplifted houses were strewn with reeds and fresh rushes.’54 Conversely, the failure to provide fresh rushes as a welcome to a noble person was considered a slight. Fergus Mac Róich, the mythical and exiled king of the Ulster cycle, resented the inhospitable manner in which he was treated by Conor in Emhain Macha, compared with the way he entertained strangers lavishly and with rushes a-plenty. When two particular strangers, ‘two youthful companions’, finally bade farewell to their host, baittir finna na luachracha dia n-‘eis oc imthecht. This has been translated as ‘white were the rushes behind them at departure’, and interpreted as a sign of the lengthy duration and intensity of the hospitality extended to visitors. The rushes would have been green when first scattered and white by the time the feasting and visiting was done, some weeks later.55 In a further early historic text, also concerning Fergus Mac Róich, in an attempt to increase her wealth to that of her husband’s, Queen Maedbh of Connacht sent Fergus with a request for the loan of the Donn Cuailgne (the Brown Bull of Cooley) for one year. On this occasion, Fergus was happy to be treated with respect, and both straw and rushes were spread for him.56

On a more personal level, the cutting and bearing of rushes symbolised the great affection and esteem in which a particular person was held. In ‘The Chase of Sid na mBan Finn and the Death of Finn’, the evening before setting out to kill the black boar that had killed so many men over the previous number of years, Finn and his men spent a night with Maillen, son of Midhna, ‘a noble warrior of Finn’s people.’ Maillen was expecting his guests. He had a great feast prepared for Finn and ‘all the fiana of Ireland’, and had fresh rushes spread on the floor of the banqueting hall.57

Esnada Tige Buchet or ‘The Songs of Buchet’s House’ – a poem which probably dates to the tenth century – relates incidents in the life of Buchet of Leinster and Eithne, his foster daughter, the biological daughter of Cathair Mór, king of Ireland. After Cathair’s sons visited his home and ate all his food and livestock, Buchet’s

wealth was seriously depleted so that he had no more than seven cows and a bull to his name. Buchet tried, but failed, to obtain redress from Cathair. He travelled with Eithne and his wife to Kells, in the hope of finding Cormac Mac Airt, the high King of Ireland. While there, Eithne went out one morning to collect water and milk, and to cut rushes for her foster parents:

Téit do búain lúachra luimmi his ros-rann co derb ar dó di [a] haite is dia hardmuimme, ind ingen, ní himmargó. She goes out to cut bare rushes for her foster-father and her noble foster-mother, and the girl divided these exactly into two parts, it is not a falsehood. Imbel na lúachra for leith medón na lúachra hi llige inna hairbir chaem cen chleith, ar a muin na máethgile. The edge of the rushes apart in her fair bundle, without concealment, the middle of the rushes laid on the back of the fair maiden.58

Cormac watched Eithne as she went about her work of gathering rushes and was puzzled as to why she divided the rushes as she did. She explained that she was reserving the centre sections of the sheaves, the softest rushes, for Buchet. Cormac was charmed by her answer and she in time became his queen.59

Spreading rushes: from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century By the Middle Ages, the custom of spreading rushes on floors was still in practice, particularly in the homes of the higher echelons of society. It is not quite clear whether the element of respect to visitors still existed, or if the rushes were spread solely for housekeeping purposes. We do know that the medieval Calendars of Documents Relating to Ireland are important sources, and they record that from around the middle of the thirteenth century, rushes, bulrushes,60 and also straw were spread on floors on at least three festive occasions: Easter, the feast of St John the Baptist, and Michaelmas.61

Further references relating specifically to the years 1293–1301 and 1302–1307 indicate that rushes were spread at set times in the legal year, that is, the calendar year during which the judges sat in court. The divisions of the legal year were Michaelmas (from October to December), Hilary (from January to April), Easter (from April to May) and Trinity (from June to July). At the beginning of the fourteenth century, the material spread is referred to as ‘litter’, and the houses in which it was spread are described as the homes of Barons and Exchequers.62 While this attention to housekeeping seems exemplary, it is to be wondered, from the hygiene standards of our own time, if a quarterly spreading of rushes or litter was in fact sufficient to maintain a good standard of cleanliness in these homes. The following is a description by the Dutch humanist, Erasmus, of the interior of ‘common dwellings’ in England during the reign of Henry VIII:

As to the floors, they are usually made of clay, covered with rushes that grow in fens, which are so slightly removed now and then, that the lower part remains sometimes for twenty years together, and in it a collection of spittle, vomit, urine of dogs and men, scraps of fish and other filthiness not to be named. Hence upon change of weather, a vapour is exhaled, very pernicious, in my opinion, to the human body... I am persuaded it would be far more healthy if the use of these rushes were quite laid aside, and the chambers so built as to let in the air on two or three sides, with such glass windows as might either be thrown quite open, or kept quite shut, without small crannies to let in the wind.63

Erasmus believed that the living conditions of the English – and especially their habit of spreading rushes on their floors and allowing the layers to accumulate over many years – contributed to disease and plague. This belief undoubtedly led to the adoption of more sanitary and cleaner practices during the reign of Henry VIII.64

Shakespeare makes mention of the custom of spreading rushes in several of his works. For example, in The Taming of the Shrew, Grumio has been sent ahead of his master, Petruchio, to prepare the house for his homecoming. Part of the preparations includes the spreading of rushes. Grumio asks the following question:

Is the supper ready, the house trimm’d, Rushes strew’d, cobwebs swept.65

In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo and his friends, Mercutio and Benvolio, arrive at the Capulet household where a feast has been prepared. Romeo is not in the mood for dancing but invites those with happier dispositions to dance on the rushes spread on the floor for the guests:

Let wantons, light of heart, Tickle the senseless rushes with their heels.66

And finally, in Henry IV, just before departing for Shrewsbury with the Percys, Lady Mortimer invites her husband to lie with her. As explained by Glendower:

She bids you on the wanton rushes lay you down, And rest your gentle head upon her lap.67

From the late sixteenth century onwards, references to the custom of spreading rushes in dwelling houses became less frequent, possibly as a result of floors in larger homes being predominantly tiled and paved from this time, thus obviating the original need for this practice. An increased awareness of the importance of standards of cleanliness must also have been a consideration. In church buildings, however, the spreading of rushes was retained and was still particularly associated with certain feast and festival days.68

Throughout the sixteenth century, the duties of the Churchwarden or Proctor for St Werburgh’s Church, Dublin, included the upkeep of the fabric of the church outside the chancel, the care of the church plate and stores; the provision of the necessary accoutrements for church services (books, bread, wine etc.) and the maintenance of the houses belonging to the parish. St Werburgh’s had two chapels – the Lady Chapel and St Martin’s Chapel – buildings sited north and south of the chancel. The floors of the chapels were tiled and ‘were strown’ with rushes on special occasions. In 1510–11, the rushes were spread at Christmas time and at Easter time, and also on Lady Day, 25 March, and St Martin’s Day, 11 November: ‘Item for Rochis to sent martyngs chapel martinmas day 11d.’69

Also in the sixteenth century, at Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin, there is mention of the cost incurred in buying the rushes for spreading on the Lady Chapel, the rood loft of the cathedral, and the floor of Lord Kildare’s Chapel.70 Large quantities of material were required for such large spaces, and a brisk business evolved for both hauliers and vendors of rushes. They had been allowed to transport and sell their wares, along with other agricultural produce, in the centre of the medieval town.

By 1546, however, they were prohibited from doing business within the town walls, owing both to the numbers of hauliers and vendors involved and the quantity of rushes which they were bringing into the cramped medieval city streets. They were, instead, allocated a larger and more spacious area outside the walls close to Newgate, at the medieval St John’s Church on John’s Lane, close to the Cornmarket:

And that no person ne persons hensforthe shall syll no ots, hay, leks, rushes, ne shibols, by Sainct Michels churche, ne about the highe Crosse, but to resort with the same ots, leks, haye, rushes and shibols towards Sainct Johns churche wall without the Newgate.71

Similar restrictions on the rush dealers had been enforced in London more than a century earlier:

The vast number of rushes brought into London for the purpose of strewing the floors became such a nuisance that as early as 1416 it had been ordered that all rushes laden in boats or skiffs, and brought to London for sale, should be sold by the cartload, and made up in the boats, not on the wharves near the Thames, under a heavy penalty.72

The custom of strewing rushes as a token of respect for visitors and strangers in the private dwellings of the nobility and the elite was practised during the time of Elizabeth I’s reign. The saying ‘not to give a rush’ for someone, that is, not to show respect by spreading rushes, is believed to date from this time. Elizabeth was also, it seems, the last monarch to have rushes strewn in her palace.73 It is probable that a similar waning of the custom was occurring in the larger private dwellings and official buildings in Ireland by the end of the sixteenth century. It was still retained as a custom, however, by the clergy of the established churches of England and Ireland for several more centuries, when it became ever more closely associated with saints’ days and the festival of Corpus Christi. An early mention of this latter festival and rush strewing in Ireland occurs in 1498 in the Chain Book of the Corporation of Dublin, where there is mention of the ‘Regulations for Pageants on the Feast of Corpus Christi’. One of these included the spreading of rushes on the floor of St George’s Chapel.74

The connection between rush strewing and the established church in England developed into a particularly strong tradition in rural parts of northern England.

Known as ‘rush-bearings’, the rural festivals or parish wakes were held at the feast of the dedication of the local church. In a nineteenth-century publication, Alfred Burton described this custom enthusiastically and in great detail. The responsibility for supplying the rushes for church floors fell to the residents of the parish and so they carried them to the church. Originally the rushes were made into simple bundles which gradually became more elaborate and ornate as the tradition grew and spread. The popular festival that evolved was a religious one, connected with the feast day of the saint to whom the church was dedicated. The men and women, who were the rush bearers, dressed in their best clothes and also carried flowers to decorate the church. Competition between parishes led to further elaboration and ceremony and in south-east Lancashire, in particular, the highly decorated and ornamented rush cart became the main feature of the tradition. Rush-bearing was still observed as a custom at the end of the nineteenth century,75 and in recent years has seen a revival in some areas of England.76 Burton quotes some long descriptions of the event in different areas of England, and the following is a short excerpt from a rush bearing in the 1880s at Borrowdale, in the English Lake District:

In one district with which I am acquainted the rushes, gathered and tied up in small sheaves, ornamented with ribbons, coloured papers, and sometimes improvised masks, were piled up, in form of a pyramid, in a cart or waggon, and the whole decorated with wreaths of flowers or ‘greens’, and surmounted by a garland or flag.77

In the same decade at Ambleside, also in the Lake District, elaborate rush crosses were made, generally by the women of the community, and carried in procession through the streets of the town by the school children.78

There was no similar widespread custom in Ireland, though there is some evidence in the seventeenth century that tenants did have to pay dues to the lord of the Manor in the form of supplying both rushes and straw at Christmastime and Easter.79 It is more than likely that this was for spreading on the floor of the church for purposes of cleanliness and warmth. We might also recall here the popular custom of spreading rushes at Corpus Christi in the south east of Ireland, especially in county Waterford, where the tradition was recorded as late as the middle of the twentieth century.80 The fact that no records exist for this practice in Ireland, outside a small localised area of the south east, probably indicates an introduction by persons in authority, such as church leaders or landowners, who had come to live in the area during the course either of their employment or residence in Ireland, and who had experience of the

custom from their home place in England.

While the nobility and elite may have ceased practising the custom of spreading rushes on their floors during the reign of Elizabeth I, it was still to be seen on the floors of the poorer citizens for centuries to come. In 1689, James Farewell wrote in a derisory fashion about the lack of culture and style shown by those whom he met on his travels in Ireland. The following is part of his description of an Irish cabin:

With seats of Sods, and Roof of Straw. The Floor beneath with rushes laid, stead Of Tapestry; no Bed or Bedstead.81

While he thought he was denigrating Irish habits, Farewell was in fact describing a comfortable home and one which was very typical of rural areas of Ireland and England at the time.

Rushes and straw: summer and winter When writing about the strewing of rushes in a semi-ceremonial manner and as a welcome for friends and strangers alike, there is, in a Christian tradition, a reminder of the welcome shown to Jesus Christ on his entry into Jerusalem a few days before his passion and death. To welcome him, to show him respect and to acknowledge his importance, the people he met laid down their cloaks, rushes and palm fronds in front of him, as he rode through the streets on a donkey. The event is mentioned in the four gospels, and in some Christian churches especially in Europe, Palm Sunday, which always falls the Sunday before Easter, is the day which marks the event.82 This is when palm leaves, sometimes fashioned into the form of a cross, are distributed. It is always the Sunday before Easter Sunday. It is reasonable to see a connection between this episode in Christ’s life and the spreading of rushes in homes and public spaces throughout the centuries in many European cultures. In the Irish traditional and literary accounts, the particular feast and festival days on which rushes were spread, and mentioned, include the Feast of the Epiphany, St Brigid’s Eve, Lady Day, Easter, May Eve, May Morning, the Eve of St John, St John’s Day, Corpus Christi, St Martin’s Day and Christmas. In other words, rushes were ceremoniously spread throughout the year. There is some evidence to suggest that straw and hay were also spread, perhaps as a substitute, when no rushes were available locally, or at certain times of the year when rushes were not as freely available as straw. Rushes are essentially a summer ‘crop’ being at their freshest and greenest in the months of May, June and July. (Fig. 1.5) Sufficient quantities of rushes for spreading on

floors – either the comparatively small floor areas of a family home or the larger floor areas of official buildings and parish churches – were therefore more abundantly available during the summer. (Fig. 1.6 and Fig. 1.7) It also stands to reason that there was availability of straw during the winter months after both the harvesting of the crop and the beginning, if not the completion, of the threshing. It is also reasonable to assume that if straw was the material for strewing on floors, it would be strewn in the winter months. There is some evidence for this especially in the medieval sources. For example, straw was bought for spreading in thirteenth-century Dublin during the Michaelmas term, which began around the feast day of St Michael, on 29 September;83 and in the seventeenth century, the tenants of the Manor of Carlow had to give due to the lord of the Manor of a bundle of straw at Christmas as well as Easter.84 They also had to give ‘one truss of rushes at the feasts.’85

Burton also makes reference through the centuries in the English tradition to straw being spread at Christmas time instead of the usual rushes, and gives the example of Thomas à Beckett’s house which was always kept clean and neat.86

He was...manfull in his household, for his Hall was every daye in Somer season strewed with grene Russhes, and in Wynter with clene Hay, for to save the Knyghtes clothes that sate on the Flore for defaut of place to syt on.87

Some believed that straw afforded welcoming warmth during the cold winter months, while rushes were cooling during the heat of summer.88 When we look at the uses of straw and rushes for bedding, that is, for sleeping on, we find further evidence for the use of rushes in summer and straw in winter. François de la Boullaye le Gouz noticed it in 1644, as did Richard Head in 1674, and both materials are cited as bedding by several other scholars and observers from the sixteenth to the earlytwentieth centuries.89

Rushes and straw: magic and belief As a final word, it is important to note that the materials of straw and rushes also had certain magical associations and properties. In a Scottish tradition, John Francis Campbell believed that there was ‘something mysterious about rushes.’90 In ancient Ireland, a ‘lunatic,’ or fulla, was one ‘upon whom the magical wisp has been put’, that is, the person became mad after a wisp of straw saturated with magical charms had been thrown at him or her:

Cuibrech dasachtaid, .i. cuimrech in duine m ir, .i. fo tabor indluige fulla. Securing a madman, .i.e. to fetter the mad person, i.e. one upon whom the maddening wisp has been thrown. 91

In more recent tradition, ropes of either straw or rushes around a new born calf’s neck kept it safe from the evil eye and jealous neighbours;92 three rushes were placed on a wart in order to remove it;93 a green rush tied around the neck was a cure for stiffness or a ‘crick’ in the neck;94 the ashes from rushes burned on the eve of 6 January were also effective as a cure,95 and burning rushes at this time could portend death.96 Rushes were used in the practice of magic,97 and green rushes in the form of a cross were placed under the milk tub to break a milk stealing spell.98 Straw is associated with death,99 and a sheaf of oats was often used to help in locating the body of a person drowned in a river or lake.100 The aspect of magical power associated with the rush, in particular, occurs in episodes in the lives of two early Christian saints – St Ciaran of Saighir and St Berach of Cluain Coirpthe. St Ciaran put a wisp of rushes on a blackberry bush so that he would have blackberries at every season of the year. It is recorded that he subsequently used the blackberries to cure the King of Cashel’s wife of an illicit passion for the chief of Ossory.

In the following account, St Berach miraculously used a rush to bring a decapitated man back to life:

On one occasion when Berach was in Cluain Coirpthe, he sent a monk on an errand to Rathonn, Sillen by name. Nine robbers fell in with him, who had come from the East of Tethba to ravage in Connaught, and they killed the monk, and went between his head and his body. This was revealed to Berach, and he proceeded quickly to seek them, and found

Fig. 1.5 Fethard United Irishwomen rush workers in 1934 carrying the bundles of cut rushes – Scirpus Lacustris – across the river. The rushes are cut with slashers and the best rushes grow in fairly deep water. © Phelim Connolly after black and white photographs in Scottish Home and Country, February 1934

Fig. 1.6 Fethard United Irishwomen rush workers in 1934. Making the rushes into bundles after they have been dried. The bundles are tied in three places so that they will not crack or bend. ©Phelim Connolly after black and white photographs in Scottish Home and Country, February 1934

Fig. 1.7 Fethard United Irishwomen rush workers in 1934. The bundles are thrown into the river again and made in to a raft. In the evening the workers sit on the raft and pole themselves downriver and home. © Phelim Connolly after black and white photographs in Scottish Home and Country, February 1934

Fig. 1.8 a. Leo O’Shaughnessy of Castlebar, county Mayo, with his bucket of flowers for laying on doorsteps in the town on May Eve, 2014. Ger Staunton, Castlebar, Co. Mayo

Fig. 1.8 b A close-up of Leo’s flower basket. Ger Staunton, Castlebar, Co. Mayo them [standing] over the corpse. When the robbers saw Berach, they resolved forthwith to kill him, and seized their spears with that intent. Their hands stuck to their spears, and their spears stuck to the rock near them, and the marks of their butt-ends will remain on it till doom. They did penance, and said to Berach: ‘Do not deprive us of heaven and we will do thy will, O Clerk.’ Berach then spared them and said to them: ‘Fit the head to the trunk’; and they did so. And Berach took a rush from a rushy pool on the bank hard by, and made a prayer over it, and fitted it around the throat of the corpse, and he arose forthwith.101

Conclusion As a useful housekeeping practice, the spreading of rushes, straw and other organic ‘litter’ on the floors of houses and public buildings was, in truth, probably a universal custom in most parts of the world and in most religions. Laying a carpet of flowers, petals and green leaves is still a familiar tradition in popular religious practice among Catholics on saints’ feast days in some European countries, just as the spreading of flowers on doorsteps in Mayo on May Eve continues to this day. (Fig. 1.8 a and Fig. 1.8 b)102

The aspect of strewing rushes and straw is easily placed within the wider context of the overall uses to which organic materials were put. These uses include the making of mattresses, seats and containers, horse collars and harness, spancels and tethers for cattle and sheep and nests for hens to both lay and hatch their eggs. Objects connected with ritual and custom and made from straw and rushes include not only those which have already been mentioned in association with the festival of St Brigid, but also Hallowe’en crosses and St Patrick’s crosses, harvest knots, the Cailleach and last sheaf, New Year wisps and costumes.103 While some of these are made quite simply, involving no more than a basic twisting of the organic material in use, others involve the application of both skill and dexterity. One of the most complicated methods is what I describe as a built-up plaiting technique, used for making mats, mattresses, seating and hens’ nests.104 While this latter technique was learned by observation and practice, the simpler

techniques of twisting the fibres or plaiting them into three-ply braids, required no more than basic skills which could have been employed by all, young and old alike. It is possible that the making of many of the objects associated with the various calendar customs throughout the year (the crosses, hats, belts, dolls etc.) originated from simply shaping the material that was plentiful and spread on the floor beneath the feet of the makers – straw in winter time and the rushes in summer time. Over time, with competitiveness and rivalry to make the best examples, some of the objects became more elaborate, while others remained as simply-made shapes.

The spreading of straw and rushes on floors was already dying out as a practice and custom in the homes of the nobility in the sixteenth century, but remained for several more centuries in the lives of the poorer classes. It is likely that the spread of the craft of plaiting straw, rushes and other materials into strips of matting led, from the seventeenth century onwards, to the development of more permanent floor coverings. (Fig. 1.9) (Cat. 1.1- Cat. 1.22) In the 1760s, for example, the Dublin Society provided premiums for mat-makers, in an effort to encourage the trade. John Travel was a recipient of these premiums over a number of years, and in 1773, provided the matting for the floor of the Society’s large room in their new home in Grafton Street. His trade of mat and mattress making was still practised in the 1960s.105

Fig. 1.9 John Culleton (80) and his neighbour, Mary Barry of Mill Road, Kilmore, Co. Wexford making a hay mat for the Museum in 1965. NMI

Making ‘Swastika’ type St Brigid’s crosses of straw at Toome, Co. Antrim in the early 20th century. W.A. Green, National Museums Northern Ireland