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Beaver Island History - Helen Collar Papers

Irish Customs Transferred to Beaver Island

[see also Singing, Dancing, Fairies, Gaelic Language]

Brought from Ireland:
Matchmaker[s]
Fairy hill (rath)
Communal pasture
Keening
Curses
Wakes - Emma Hurt[?]'s "fine long funeral"

"The single life that was so prevalent in Ireland seems to have extended to Beaver Island, for we had many bachelors and spinsters."

  1. Eddie O'Donnell (Edgar), corresp. with Clink

"I was eight when my dad passed on. He had the old Irish custom of holding us on his knee in the dusk & singing."

- Ibid.