National Folklore Commission

National Folklore Commission

Between 1937 and 1939, 5000 primary schools in Ireland participated in recording local information for the National Folklore Commission. Over 288,000 pages were created by students in exercise books. Students in all 26 counties were asked to collect information ranging from oral history, topographical information, folklore, legends, riddles, pastimes, games, trades and crafts by interviewing their parents, grandparents and neighbours.

From 15 Nov. 1937 to 7 Dec. 1938 a dozen students in the Ballyfacey, Glenmore National School, under teacher Domhnall Mac Cárthaigh, participated in the School Collection. The Ballyfacey Glenmore School Collection (Vol. 845, pp 484-596) is available on line and may be found in Roll Number 9880.) For our previous post regarding this collection see our post of 27 June 2022.

Topic: Games I Play

Today, we are going to feature the topic entitled “Games I Play.” Although it is always interesting to read about the type of childhood games our grandparents or great-grandparents played before television and computers this material is more important because it was written by the children themselves and preserved. Julian Smith has noted that archival documents pertaining to children are selective, generally written by adults with their own biases towards children especially their own children.

The archaeology of childhood is a relatively new field that questions assumptions made concerning our past. (Julian Smith, “Child’s Play,” 63(3) Archaeology (2010) p. 40-45). More generally, the importance of play for children has been recognised as key to developing skills for getting along with peers, learning rules, learning sanctions for breaking rules, developing memory skills such as with the recitation of rhymes, developing creativity, resourcefulness and problem solving as well as providing physical activity for motor skills etc.

The Nine Children

There were 9 children who recorded games these children included: Patrick Phelan, of Ballywairy, Glenmore, p. 526-528 (4 April 1938); Mary Aylward, of Ballyfacey Lower, Glenmore, p. 529-530 (20 July 1938); Mary Phelan, Ballywairy, Glenmore, p. 531-532, (26 July 1938); Peggy Aylward, of Ballyfacey Lower, Glenmore, p. 532-533 (25 July 1938); Michael Fitzgerald, of Moulerstown, Glenmore, p. 533-534 (26 July 1938); William Roche, of Haggard, Glenmore, p. 535-536 (undated); Eddie O’Connor, of Ballyfacey Lower, Glenmore, p. 536-537 (20 July 1938); Peter O’Connor, of Ballyfacey Lower, Glenmore, p. 537-538 (17 July 1938); Joseph Synnott of Weatherstown, Glenmore, p. 538-539 (18 July 1938); and James Culleton of Kilbride, Glenmore, p. 540 (undated).

The Games

The games with explanations are listed in alphabetical order first and game mentioned without explanations are listed thereafter with the rhymes recorded. Given the popularity of Gaelic football in Glenmore in the 1920’s it is surprising that none of the children included football or hurling in their list of games. Most of the games listed were played with stones and sticks although one game did mention the use of a ball and another the use of dice. Original wording is employed and editorial notes or comments are in square brackets [ ].

All the Robbers Going Through—”All the robbers going through is played by sending two away and [these] decide upon two things. All the rest answer what they would like and go behind whoever [of the two] had that and then pull against the others.2 [Sounds like a human tug of war.]

Blind Man’s Bluff—”Blind man’s bluff can be played by any number. One person is blindfolded and tries to catch the others while in that way.”

Carry the Lady to London—[a short description appears to be that two children grasp each other’s hands and a third child sits on their hands and is carried.]

Colours—Colours are played by taking a colour and another person would try and guess it.

Den—”Den is a very common game with me and some other boys. This is the way played. One remains inside a certain space while the others is going away a distance from him. Then he runs after the rest trying to catch them. If they are able to get into that space they will win. This is played out in the open air.”

Donkey—“Donkey is a game played by two or more. It is played by throwing a ball from one to another and whoever lets the ball fall as many times as there are letters in the word donkey he is a donkey and he is laughed at and mocked.”

Duck—”Duck can be played by any number of persons. It is played by putting a small stone on top of a large one while each person in turn tries to knock off the small stone by throwing another stone at it.”

Four Corner Fool—Played by 5 children. “one stands in the centre of a rectangle formed by four stones with four persons standing at each stone. The four persons leap from stone to stone exchanging places while the person in the centre watches his chance to get a place at one of the stones and the person who loses his place has to go in the centre and do likewise.”

A variation was also played—Three Corner Fool—”A boy is put in each of three corners of a room and another boy in the middle. The boy in the middle is known as the fool. Those in the corners must change from one corner to another and if the boy in the middle can get in to one the corners a different boy is the fool.” [It was not explained how this might be played in a room with four corners.]

Heck-a-peck is standing on one leg and kicking a stone on a certain line.

Hide & Seek—”Hide and seek is played by two or more persons. One goes and hides and the other searches for him until he finds him.”

Hide the Button—”Hide the button is played by putting a button in one of your hands and somebody else would say ‘Pe Po Paddy pin, open the door and let me in, if I am a fairy king I shall surely win.’” Another child recited this verse for this game, “cut a sin a ma ma ma ma ma.”  

Another child explained, “Cunnie sé the má má má” or hide the button, in which a button is hidden by one of them in one of the children’s hand and whichever of them is guessing guesses wrongly he will get a slap on the hand and the person who guesses rightly he or she will be left hide it and the person that hid it before will have to guess.”

Katty—Katty or Kattie is played by making a circle and putting a stone in the centre and throwing up the kattie and getting three strokes off it. It was played by girls with a short piece of stick pointed at both ends.

Another child provided more detail, “First I would make a ring and put a stone in the middle. Then I would bat and another person would pelt up the kattie to the ring and I would get three hits off it and if it did not go more than two jumps away I would be out. When the kattie is pelted up and if it went into the ring I could not get any hit off of it. When it is half ways in on the line two hits can be got off it. When the kattie goes a good distance away four or six jumps can be given. No uneven number can be given.”

Marbles—Marbles is a game among boys. “Playing marbles is a common game also. We make three holes in the ground and try and get the marbles into them three times up and down. When we have it in that many times we lodge the marble. Then we try and hit each other and who ever will do that will win.”

Playing on Rye Grass—[used perineal rye grass]You say “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor, rich man, poor man, pothecary, weaver” and whatever you end on you will be married to that type of person. This was played “by knocking off the clumps off the grass” and when all the clumps were removed the category of husband was selected.

Another version–High boots, Low boot’s, Brogues, Slippers. Is a game played with the same kind of a plant to find out what kind of shoes you will be getting.”

Prisoner—”Another game we play is trying to bring one another to jail. One pack would be guards and another prisoners. The guards try to bring the prisoners to jail for doing such a thing.”

Púcín—Púcín is a game played by children. One of the children is blindfolded and he is to catch some one of the others in the kitchen.

Ring-a-ring-a-rosies—”is played by catching hands and saying ‘a ring a ring a rosies, pockets full of posies, chainies on the ditches, picking sally switches, asha asha we all fall down.’”

Rounders—”Rounders is played by three or more persons. One has a bat defending wickets against another who throws a ball intending to strike the wickets, but the other strikes the ball with the bat and sends it off. He then runs in a circle marked out by the players and tries to make as many runs as possible before a third person reaches the ball.”

See-saw—”is a very exciting game. The way to play it is as follows: A log of timber is got and put across a ditch or a horrizontal circular beam of timber. When this is completed a boy sits on one end of the log and another boy on the other end and they weigh each other up and down.”

Skipping—Skipping is played by turning a rope and jumping.

Skittles—Skittles is a game that is played by boys. Five small sticks are used and three big ones called pelters.

Snakes & Ladders—Snakes and ladders is played by putting a cube [dice]into a box and shaking and if you are at the mouth of a snake you go down to the foot of it. [Believe this was a board game which is similar to the modern version.]

Snap Apple—Snap apple is a game played by girls on November Eve by snapping with your mouth at an apple tied from a cord from the ceiling.

Spy—”Spy is played by two. One goes behind a wall or fence and the other comes from a certain place and takes a quick look at the person behind the wall or fence. He then runs back and the other chases him intending to catch him before he reaches the place where he came from.”

Three legged race is run by two people together with two of their legs tied.

Other Games

Games listed with no instructions of how they were played include: Boxes; Ludo; I Bought a Horse Today Sir; Going to the Cinema; Drafts/Draughts; Rings; Coising; Goose; and Fox & Goose.

Rhymes Recorded

 Roger is dead in his lonely grave, they planted an apple tree over his head, the apples got ripe and they all fell off, There came an old woman picking them up. Roger got up and he gave her a kick. This was played by “one would be picking something and the other would give him a kick.”

Mulberry bush–the verse is said when playing it is this “here we go round the Mulberry bush, the Mulberry bush, the Mulberry bush, here we go round the Mulberry bush, on a cold and frosty morning.”

Another game is played by turning a burning stick around quickly, and these words are said “Robin robin your life is lark, if you lay in my fist I will saddle your back, sticks and stones and dead mens’ bones, and around goes robin lark.” Other local rhymes can be found in our blog post of 11 Jan. 2020.

If there are any corrections or additional information please send it to glenmore.history@gmail.com. For a brief description of games played at Glenmore funerals see our post of 8 Dec. 2019.

The featured painting of the boys clasping hands was from an old postcard. The artist was John H. Bufford (1810-1870) and is by courtesy of the ARTSTOR on-line library available at https://library.artstor.org/public/28063331 (accessed 27 Nov. 2022).

The black and white photo of boys playing marbles (1943) is from Julian Smith’s article, “Child’s Play,” 63(3) Archaeology (2010) p. 44.

Dr. Kathleen Moore Walsh