The May Bush in County Wexford (Selection of Pgaes)

The May Bush in County Wexford

Folklore, observations, accounts, images, verses, songs and films.

Ancient and contemporary accounts on the May Bush tradition and May folklore and customs which have been researched and recorded by Michael Fortune and Aileen Lambert. .

This publication was produced by Michael Fortune and Aileen Lambert. Funded and supported by Wexford County Council in partnership with Creative Ireland.

Published in 2024 by Michael Fortune/Aileen Lambert Curragraigue, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, Ireland.

© 2024 Michael Fortune/Aileen Lambert and individual authors of articles and verse and owners of photographs.

ISBN: 978-1-7398403-5-8

Printed by Walsh Print, Castleisland, Co. Kerry.

While every effort has been made to obtain relevant permissions to reproduce published material, the publisher will be happy to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity if any such material has been included inadvertently.

Editorial content: Every care has been taken to confirm the accuracy of the information presented and we acknowledge the sources where possible. However, the authors, editors and publisher are not responsible for errors or omissions and make no warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the currency, completeness or accuracy of the contents of this publication

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, digitised, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior permission of both the individual copyright owner and the publisher. If you wish to do so, please email folklore.ie@gmail.com

Thanks to all individuals and organisations for the use of their images and texts. All images/texts have been credited where possible. These include individual photographers, the National Library of Ireland, the National Museum of Northern Ireland, the National Folklore Collection in UCD and The Library of Congress.

Front cover: Marie Coleman, Curragraigue, Co. Wexford. Image: Fortune, 2023. Back cover: May Bush detail, Ballindaggin, Co. Wexford. Image: Fortune, 2017.

Introduction by Aileen Lambert and Michael Fortune

The County May Bush, Wexford County Council, Carricklawn, Wexford Image: Fortune, 2021

The month of May and the coming of summer is a significant time in the Irish calendar Whether you ’ re a young child or a farmer, the hope is that there will be long sunny days and bountiful crops. We find that the two richest times in the Irish folklore calendar year are May/Bealtaine and Hallowe’en/Samhain.

May, in particular, has an wealth of folklore and beliefs surrounding the month and many are related to the days when agriculture and farming were at the heart of our very existence So much hope was centred on the protection of cows, their milk yield and of crops, whether they be drills of spuds or fields of oats and barley It was also a time of celebration when people marked the start of summer and the long sunny days and the abundance of light.

The May Bush is part of that story in Ireland. In most cases it was put up, on May Eve or the 1st of May, to keep the ‘pisheógs’ and ‘fairies’ away. The fairies were considered bad luck in Ireland and you did everything to keep them at a distance but also to keep them sweet and happy. Not everyone had that story, mind you, and they simply put up a May Bush or did a certain thing because it was custom to do so. Sometimes we do things and we just do them and never think of why. How many of you consider the reason why you put up a Christmas tree or why we deliberately hang a St. Brigid’s cross over the door in our homes? Some do, but most don’t And that’s alright We don’t need to know or understand everything

Mick’s late mother, Ann Fortune from Ballygarrett, put up a May Bush when she was a child. So did his grandmother, Jane Fortune, who was born in 1912. Aileen’s father, Pat Lambert and his mother and siblings did the same in Curragraigue. Mick’s family were farm labourers and their May Bush was stuck in the ditch by the road. Aileen’s family were farmers, and they put theirs up on the dung heap, in the yard, which was a common site for it on farms.

This book charts the May Bush, in all its forms, and we have deliberately stayed within the confines of our native Wexford. We understand this tradition was, and is, part of a wider countrywide practice, but we deliberately went local and deep. We also highlight the bigger picture and hope this book gives you a wider understanding of the parallel practices across Europe and beyond. We hope the book answers some questions for you but also inspires you to be involved in the tradition and find out more. Our promotion of the May Bush tradition has been a 20+ year journey for us, and we hope you enjoy the fruits of our labour.

Decorating a furze May Bush with my late mother, Ann Fortune, at our family home in Ballygarret. Image: Robert Laffan, 2010

Aileen’s aunts, Eileen, Peggy and Annamai Lambert from Curragraigue, decorating the May Bush in their family yard. The three women were nuns in Australia and were home on holidays. Peggy and Annamai have since passed away Image: Fortune, 2011

Michael Fotune and Aileen Lambert, April 20th 2024

The May Bush and the Coming of Summer

On the first of May summer officially begins in Ireland and, in centuries-old fashion, it's also the time that many people in Wexford will gather their painted egg shells, ribbons and bunches of flowers, to decorate their May Bush. The May Bush tradition is not just practised in Wexford. It is found in other counties in Leinster, East Munster, East Connaught and Ulster. Wexford, however, is regarded as one of the strongholds of the tradition, particularly in recent decades.

The May Bush is a piece of a whitethorn (known locally as a ‘sceach’) or a furze/gorse bush, which is erected on May Eve or May Day.

In most cases they were decorated with painted egg shells, ribbons and seasonal flowers. Traditionally, May Bushes were erected in a prominent place in a bid to keep the ‘pisheógs’ away (i.e. the fairies/bad luck) and, like so many of our customs, the May Bush was centred on the protection of the growing crops and the milk yield. Egg shells were kept from Easter Sunday, mostly by girls, and then painted and hung on these bushes. As a child, my late mother used balloons which were bright for a moment, but they didn't last long!

Scan QR Code to view a May Bush being decorated by pupils from Castlebridge NS in 2014 as part of work I was doing in the school.

Maypole, Waterford. Image: Poole Collection/NLI 1909.

Scan QR Code above to see people decorate a May Bush in Ballindaggin, Co Wexford Image: Fortune, 2017.

Not everyone uses a whitethorn or furze and many people use what tree and shrub they have growing in their garden. Another contemporary take on the eggs these days is the use of plastic Kinder egg shells. These can be spotted on May Bushes around the county. I have also noticed over the past two decades, here in Wexford and also in Offaly, that people use the leftover coloured foil from their chocolate Easter eggs

The late Elsie Donnolly, from Cottage Row in Taghmon, always included a bit of this foil on her May Bush and you’d even find the cardboard boxes at times. Old Christmas decorations were also used, and I always thought that if someone didn’t know what a May Bush was, and they were passing by, they could easily think someone emptied a recycling bin on a bush by the side of the road!

These days, people leave their May Bush up for the month, while in the past it was often left to wither of its own accord. The key thing was to get it up on May Eve/Day, as this was the turning point in the year when “the fairies” were out and it was used to keep them and bad luck away from your home and farmyard.

Above is a fantastic image of Kathleen Cullen née Leonard standing by a May Bush at her home in Coolgreany around 1950. Rare to have family photos like this and I was delighted to be sent it by Margaret Nash back in 2019. 7

Kathleen Cullen née Leonard by a May Bush at her home in Coolgreany. (c. 1950). Image: Margaret Nash.

Scan the QR Codes to view features I wrote for RTÉ on The May Bush tradition over the years.

Decorating the May Bush with Easter egg foil Image: Fortune, 2019

Elsie Donnelly’s May Bush, Taghmon, various years. Image: Fortune, 2017 and 2020.

I took these photos outside Ballymurphy, in south Carlow, on my way home to Wexford in early May 2023. They were taken quickly, as the timing was limited, as I just happened to chance upon the scene. They are of Luke Doran (a man I’d filmed previously) bringing in his cows to be milked. Like so many country farming people, Luke put up a May Bush every year, and had the same story that it would “keep the fairies and bad luck away ” .

The thing is, the May Bush has to be in a spot where the cows pass, and as you can see it is tied to the tubular farm gate. This is as real as you’ll ever get with the May Bush tradition in Ireland. Also note the flowers had died off the whitethorn but on May Eve they would have been in bloom, and this was crucial. Nothing staged, or re-interpreted, or new-agey here - this is rural real.

On leaving Luke, I called on his neighbour Peggie Foley, and she too had a little May Bush stuck at her gate. She also uses had to include five bunches of flowers on it

Luke Doran, Ballymurphy, Co Carlow Image: Fortune, 2023

Neighbours Luke Doran and Peggie Foley with their May Bushes, Ballymurphy Images: Fortune, 2023

Eggs and Decorating the May Bush

One of the strongest elements to be seen on a May Bush in Wexford, is the use of egg shells. In the past century, these would have been kept up from Easter Sunday onwards and used to decorate the bush I found it was mostly young girls and women who kept up the egg shells, and this continues to this day. If you had paints you would colour them but many were left in their natural state. The method of hanging the eggs has changed in recent decades, and I have found that in the past the egg shells were made into a garland and hung around the bush.

Nowadays, I find eggs are painted individually and hung using wire, pipe cleaners etc. The colours and textures on May Bushes have certainly become more vibrant in recent decades, and there are many more decorations too.

The correlation is similar in ways to the development of Christmas trees which were once very small decorated branches and are now full size trees festooned in lights, baubles and tinsel. In many cases in Wexford, you can often find Christmas tree baubles and tinsel on May Bushes.

May Bush decorations Image: Fortune, 2023

Scan the QR Code to hear about the tradition and what you need to decorate your May Bush.

Scan the QR Code to hear my grandmother from the Macamores recall accounts of the May Bush from the early 1920s.

Joe and Nora Dwyer, Moyadd, The Swan, Co. Laois. Image: John Coffey, May 1980.

Contemporary egg shell decorations, Ballindaggin Image: Fortune, 2021

Katty Byrne, Ballindaggin, with her collection of egg shells for her May Bush. Image: Fortune, 2022.

Egg shell decorations for the May Bush in Ballindaggin Images: Fortune, 2022

Katty and Jim Byrne, Ballindaggin. Image: Fortune, 2017 and 2022.

May Day Celebrations Across Europe

Putting up and decorating a May Bush was part of a wider European May Day celebration, marking the start of summer. The May Bush is, without doubt, related to the May Pole tradition that you still find in parts of Germany, Sweden, England, Wales, France and northern Spain. In fact, in parts of Clare and Galway, many older people referred to the sprig of furze or rowan that they'd stick up on May Eve as "The May Pole".

This confusion is interesting, as in some parts of Ireland there were actual May Poles, like you'd find in England and Germany. However, many of May Pole accounts that you'd read in the Schools' Folklore Collection, for example, are actually referring to May Bushes, May Boughs and May Trees.

Detail of May Bush from ‘Festa dos Maios’, Combarro, Poio, Pontevedra, Spain Image: Jose Goncalves, 2013

Poster for ‘Día dos Maios’ Redondela, Spain.

I found the closest connection to our May Bush tradition is in Galicia, in north west Spain. Many villages there celebrate Fiesta de los Mayos on the 1st of May, and one of the central practices is decorating a May Tree. The tree has the same aesthetic features as some of our furze bushes, while they also mark the day with music, song and dance. What is also really striking is that across northern Spain and the Basque Country, they have similar costumed dancers/performers like our Wexford mummers who perform at these May Tree and May Pole events. Our mumming tradition in Wexford originates in the west country of England and Cornwall but I think there are wider maritime connections between England, Cornwall and northern Spain which reveal themselves here. As you can see, there is uniformity to the clothes worn, but the wooden swords/sticks which are raised, swung and banged are identical.

‘Festa dos Maios’ in Vilagarcía, Galicia, Spain Image: La voz de Galicia, 2022

The Drinagh Mummers at the Ballindaggin May Bush Dance Image: Fortune, 2022

May Bush/Tree from ‘Festa dos Maios’, Combarro, Poio, Pontevedra, Spain

Image: Jose Goncalves, 2013

Here is a May Bush/Tree from Pontevedra. Note how it has similar decorative uses of egg shells to those in Ireland They also have ornate crowns and many are dressed with flowers and oranges

May Tree Tradition in France

Here are photos from the evening of April 30th 2023, from Château-sur-Allier in France. They have a similar tradition of decorating a freshly cut down bough of a tree and decorating it with ribbons and lanterns. They parade these through the village, going from house to house playing tunes and singing songs.

Maypole festival in Bavaria, 1848. Image: Carl Millner, 1848.

May Tree Procession, Château-sur-Allier, France Images: La Chavannée, 2023

May Tree Procession, Château-sur-Allier, France. Images: La Chavannée, 2023.

Germany.

May Pole Tradition in England, Wales, Germany and Sweden

Our nearest neighbours in England and Wales still have a strong tradition where they erect a May Pole on the 1st of May and also crown a May Queen. This May Pole ritual is also done in Sweden, and in pockets of Germany, to this day. In fact, the tradition is on the rise in Germany and many villages are reinstating their May Poles. These poles are enormous affairs, and are erected often with a tree or boughs on top, with a garland of green, and raised towards the heavens This May Pole tradition was also found in towns in Ireland, and still is done in some, most notably in Holywood in Co. Down, where they have big May Day celebrations to this day.

May Pole festival in Bavaria, 1848. Image: Carl Millner, 1848.

Maibaum, Germany. Image: Konrad Schweizer Weißenstadt,

Image: Florian Miedl, 2022

May Pole, Co. Waterford (27th of April 1909)

Here are some images taken on the 27th of April 1909, in Co Waterford Although the May Bush tradition was most popular in Ireland, the May Pole tradition was also practised in parts. These images were taken for a Mr. Knight and feature in the Poole Collection, which is now in the National Library of Ireland. Interesting to see the boys in their smock tops and the girls with the flowers in their hair. Fantastic images.

May Pole dance, Co. Waterford. Image: Poole Collection/National Library of Ireland, 1909.

May Pole dance, Co. Waterford. Image: Poole Collection/National Library of Ireland, 1909.

May Pole dance, Co Waterford Image: Poole Collection/National Library of Ireland, 1909

May Trees and June Trees, Branch and Point Lance, Newfoundland

Here are photos I took in the two neighbouring Irish-Newfoundland communities of Branch and Point Lance. The tradition of the May Bush/Tree was brought out here by the south eastern Irish who came over in the late 1700s/early 1800s. To this day, some of the older people decorate a tree with blue ribbons for the 1st of May. This particular one was beside where we stayed on a visit there in 2019 and had blue ribbons on it and a statue of the Virgin Mary to the side: blue being the colour related to Mary and the month of May. Come the 1st of June, the blue ribbons are taken down and red ones put up instead, and the May Tree becomes a June Tree. The red colour is related to the Sacred Heart which is associated with the month of June. Catherine Conway, in Point Lance, does this every year too but she uses a smaller tree

Maypole festival in Bavaria, 1848 Image: Carl Millner, 1848

May Tree, Branch, Newfoundland. Image: Fortune. 2019.

Catherine Conway’s May Tree, Point Lance, Newfoundland Image: Fortune, 2019

Catherine Conway’s June Tree, Point Lance, Newfoundland Image: Fortune 2022

I visited this May Tree at the home of Catherine and Wilfred Conway in Point Lance, Newfoundland, in 2019. It is adorned with blue ribbons and fairy lights, and is located in a remote community of Wexford, Kilkenny and Waterford descendants on the Cape Shore.

In the past, many people in Wexford put small candles on their May Bushes and this is a contemporary take on this. This is similar to 19th century Christmas trees in Germany and England where people fixed candles to the boughs and lit them on Christmas Eve. This all changed with the advent of electricity and fairy lights took over instead.

May Tree, Point Lance, Newfoundland Image: Fortune, 2019

Scan the QR Codes to watch a video on YouTube with Sadie Nash of Branch, Newfoundland talking to Michael about the May Tree tradition

Mother and son, Catherine and Wilifred Conway beside their May Tree, Point Lance, Newfoundland Image: Fortune, 2019

May Tree outside Fatima Academy School, St Brides, Newfoundland Image: Fortune, 2019

Pupils from Fatima Academy in St. Brides, Newfoundland decorating their May Tree Note how they started to use eggs after our visit in 2019

Principal of Fatima Academy in St. Brides, Darlene Daley Walsh, with Aileen Lambert by the school May Tree Image: Fortune, 2019

Mollie and Darlene Daley Walsh from St Brides, Newfoundland with their May Tree. Image: Darlene Daley Walsh, 2021 Tree. Image: Fortune, 2019.

May Kings and Queens

Around Wexford there is also the tradition of selecting a May Queen and King. This is another direct import from our neighbours in Wales and England, which in turn came there via mainland Europe. This was once very popular around the county and particularly in north Wexford.

Above is a photo of Máire Comerford in Gorey, which was taken in the early 1990s, of her and her friends at Sean Lios estate in Gorey, crowning a May Queen and May King, and also putting flowers on the little tree behind them. The writing on the crown says “1990”, but it could have been reused for other years. Photos like these are precious, as they visualise the tradition in the region and place it in a wider timeline.

Like many of us who grew up with these traditions we never thought about documenting them, as they were just things that we did. Below is another photo, featuring Margaret Nash née Leonard of Coolgreany as a

May Queen, May King and May Bush, Gorey, Co. Wexford (1990). Image: Máire Comerford.

May Queen and May Bush, Coolgreany. The three girls are Mary O’ Raferty, Evelyn Lennon and Margaret Nash née Leonard Boy with accordion is Tom O’Donnell. Image: Margaret Nash, c.1950.

May King and Queen Procession, Ballindaggin Image: Ken Hemingway, 2023

“All the children dress up in lovely dresses, veils, and wreaths, and go to a certain place, where the loveliest girl would be selected and made "Queen".

They take her and put her on a throne; then march in a procession through the town or village, holding up her long train. They also throw flowers at her and honour her, as though she were a Queen. This, of course, makes the old people very happy for it makes them remember their own youth.

On May Day morning, children get a small hawthorn bush or at least a branch of one on which there is hawthorn in bloom. On this bush they tie all kinds of coloured ribbons, papers, tinsel or other decorations left after the Xmas decorations till it is a gorgeous sight.

Then, they take it and carry it in procession around their village singing rhymes such as:

"Here we go gathering nuts of May, Nuts of May, On a cold and frosty morning”

The old people are so pleased at the sign of summer which the "May Bush" surely is, that they shower pennies on the children, who buy all sorts of sweet things and towards evening they have a feast under the "May Bush" where they finish up the day dancing around it and still singing the rhymes their mothers taught them”.

You will find accounts of May Queens and Kings all over Ireland, from Clare to Dublin and Donegal to Cork. Our version of the May Queen is very similar to versions found in England, Scotland and Wales, which in turn are similar to versions found around Europe, from Germany to Spain

The May Queen in Ireland was usually elected in the local school, and the ceremony was often tied in with the class that had just made their First Holy Communion, as they already had the white dresses.

May Queen processions were a big elaborate affair across the water, and a quick search on the British Pathé Archive will find dozens of great examples, from all over England and Wales, at the start of the 20th century. Luckily, we can also find great examples from Ireland, which were recorded in Dublin in the 1920s and 1930s. Below are some stills from two films, and you can see the young girls in Ireland wearing white veils and communion dresses, with a statue of the Virgin Mary raised up high and adorned with long ribbons.

Crowning the May Queen at Elstow, England, 1936. The May Queen is 12 year old Betty Crouch. Video stills from British Pathé film

Procession at the church at Inchicore, Dublin, 1929

Note the statue of the Virgin Mary and the amount of clergy Video stills from British Pathé film

The May Queen ceremony is less religious in England and tied in more with a play on the roles of royalty and monarchy. In Ireland, in the late 19th and early 20th century, the Catholic church had a huge influence on this practice, and you can see members of the clergy in large numbers walking with the children, in a rather joyless and sombre affair in the Pathé recordings.

It’s great to see this footage, as we can compare it to similar processions over in Wales and England, and take whatever we want from that. Personally, I prefer less formal affairs, and would prefer to see the more child-centred play in the picking of the May Queen and King That is why I love the photo from Máire Comerford in Gorey, as the children picked and elected their own King and Queen in their childlike play.

The May Queen tradition continued in Bunclody right up until the latter part of the 20th century, and later on in the book there are accounts of this, transcribed from recordings I made in the town in 2002.

Looking back, this was a particular time in Irish history, and, even to this day, you will often find May Bushes/Trees here in Wexford (and also Newfoundland) with a statue of the Virgin Mary on the bottom or tied to the top. I love the layers, to be honest, as they reveal periods of our history. And these are layers that have made us - good, bad or indifferent.

May Queen and May King by the school May Bush in Bunscoil Loreto in Gorey. What is really special here is the person who introduced these pupils to the tradition is Máire Comerford, their teacher. Máire is the young girl in the photo taken in 1990 and has carried on the tradition to the next generations This little May Bush was planted in the school in 2019 as part of the May Bush planting scheme. Image: Máire Comerford. 27

It is also worth pointing out that the May Queen and King tradition was also practiced in North America, and there are numerous examples of this recorded, including these fantastic photos below from the Library of Congress in America.

May Party in Battery Park with the King and Queen of May, New York Image: Library of Congress, 1908

Eamon Keating, Gusserane, Co Wexford Image: Lorraine Keating, 2020.

Kilmyshall May Bush and Altar Image: Fortune, 2022.

Queen of the May, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Image: Library of Congress/The Fellows

Photographic Company. c. 1891.

Winifred Huck, May Queen, Church of Nativity, Washington, DC Image: Library of Congress, 1927

May Queen and May Pole dance at May Day Health Day festivities at Irwinville Farms, Georgia Image: Library of Congress, 1939.

‘Around the May Pole’. Children's Dancing Festival promoted by the women ' s National Health Association of Ireland, May 1929. Video stills from British Pathe film. Scan

film.

May Altars in Wexford/Newfoundland

Here is a lovely May Altar, thanks to Martina Jordan Foy up in Kildare, but originally from Ballindaggin. The statue she used belonged to her husband’s grandmother Image: Martina Jordon Foy, 2019

Another May Altar thanks to Mary Deegan from Bunclody. Mary shared a lot of folklore, words and sayings with me over the years and sadly she passed away in 2022 Image: Mary Deegan, 2020

May Altar belonging to Whelan’s of Monamolin. Love The Simpsons playing beside it. Image: Fortune, 2005.

Grotto/May Altar, Monamolin. The grotto is adorned with flowers for May Fortune, 2019

The May Altar belonging to the late Marie Coleman in Curragraigue Fortune, 2019

Catherine Conway, Point Lance, Newfoundland, with her May Altar. The tradition was/is identical in the Catholic Irish communities Note the use of blue and the candles and flowers Image: Fortune, 2019

May Queens in Killenagh

May: The May Bush dance was held up there at Curratubbin.

Mick: And what was it at? Was there a bush or was there a pole?

May: Oh, there was a bush there, yeah. And I remember poor Mick Breen and Peter, we used to be in Mrs. Breens as well. Yeah. That's Mrs. Breen where she…

Statia: Where I’m living now

Well, they used to get egg shells. And they paint the egg shells, you see, and hang them up on the…

May: …on the bush.

May: Yeah. But I remember this Furlong girl being crowned the May Bush Queen.

Statia: Oh, right.

May: A lovely big tall girl. Yeah. She was related to Teresa's Daddy.

Statia: Oh, right Tom Redmond?

May: Tom Redmond. Oh, right. The Furlongs that lived up there.

Statia: Oh, there was Furlongs there in Ballinvalley.

May: Yeah, yeah.

Statia: Just over from Curratubbin Cross there.

May: That girl. Yeah.

Statia: Oh, right.

Mick: And what would be at it, lads? Would it be a fella with an accordion?

Sisters May Murphy (Glascarrig) and Statia Redmond (Killenagh) Text extracted from interview with Michael Fortune on the 18th of June 2019.

Statia: Oh, yeah. Yeah, Peter Breen used to play the accordion, of course. Maybe he was playing.

May: I was young that time. But we used to walk up because it took place in the afternoon. Not at night time, Michael. Took place in the afternoon. And there was crowds at it On the crossroads Now that's gone back a long time because there was no motorcars much that time. It was the horse and cars and the pony and traps.

Statia: You wouldn't have to be getting in away from the traffic. You wouldn't go up on it now, anyway.

May: No, surely wouldn't.

Mick: That's the 1st of May?

May: 1st of May.

Statia: 1st of May, yeah.

Mick: And that's up on the main road up at Curratubbin?

Statia: No, we didn't have one. I don't ever remember one in Killenagh at all now. No. No.

May: And that was the first and last one I was ever at.

Statia: Well then that would be in Killenagh all right, because Curratubbin was Killenagh

May: Yeah.

Statia: It wouldn't have been in the village of Killenagh. It’d have been up Curratubbin.

May: Just a couple of miles up. Up by Ballinadrummin and Annagh Lane there. They are out to the main road, Michael. When you go from Porter's like. When you go up that road, one road will bring you into Ballycanew, out to Wexford, out Monamolin and Ballyedmund. Where Sam Brien’s was. Back that way.

Statia: Sam Brien’s Cross it was always called

Scan the QR Code to watch this interview between Michael, May and Statia on YouTube

Location of May Bush Dance

May Queens and Kings in The Duffry

In May 2021, we elected our first May Queen in Ballindaggin. We were still in the middle of the Covid pandemic, and trying our best to normalise life and grasp any chance of a bit of hope and positivity.

We erected the village May Bush, like we’d been doing since 2017, and decided to give a little bit of acknowledgment to the older people in the area who kept the tradition going locally. Two stalwarts of the tradition in the area have been Katty Byrne from Ballindaggin and Marie Coleman from Curragraigue. Both women appeared on an RTÉ Radio 1 feature with me, back in 2017, when Brenda Donohue came down to the area and did a feature on May customs.

So, with that in mind, on the 30th of April 2021, we made a DIY sash and crown, and crowned Katty Byrne the May Queen for 2021. The following year restrictions had lifted, and we gathered in the village, in the rain, to decorate the May Bush. We made sure Marie Coleman was to come to the village and, as the evening went on, we surprised her with the title of May Queen 2022. She was delighted. In 2023 we picked two pupils from Ballindaggin NS, one from the youngest class and one from the eldest.

Katty Byrne as The May Queen 2021 Image: Fortune, 2021

Scan the QR Code to listen to the 2017 RTÉ May Bush feature on YouTube.

Nan Fortune crowning Marie Coleman, Curragraigue, as The May Queen 2022. Image: Fortune, 2022.

John Redmond as May King and Sophia Jordan as May Queen, Ballindaggin, 2023 Image: Fortune, 2023

The May Bush and May Altar in Ballygarrett

Transcribed conversation between Jane Fortune and Michael (Mick) Fortune on the 18th of October 2002 Recorded in Jane’s home in Parkannesley, Ballygarrett Please scan QR Code to listen to the the original recording

Accounts by Jane Fortune from the early 1920s. (Born 1912 - Died 2015)

Mick: You make up an altar as well, don't you?

Jane: That's in May. May Altar. For Our Lady and then makes one then in June for the Sacred Heart. But generally the May Altar. Our Lady.

Mick: When did you make that?

Jane: On the first of May.

Mick: You always make it there on the top of the stairs, don't you?

Jane: Used to.

Mick: When did you stop doing that?

Jane: I don't know Mick.

Mick: Did you ever make an altar outside?

Jane: No (but) the May Bush. That's a right night when they make the May Bush. Big bushes and decorated all with ribbons and egg shells and decorations of all sorts. “All around the Mulberry Bush”.

Mick: Where did they do that?

Jane: Well, there used to be a great night up in Killenagh. The May Bush.

Mick: And what kind of bush it would be?

Jane: I suppose any sort of a thorn or bush or something like that. Decorate it, I don't know.

Mick: Did you bring up, would you bring up stuff? Would you bring up stuff and tie it on it?

Jane: Old bits of old ribbons and old egg shells. Stick them up on it.

Jane Fortune, Parkannesley, Ballygarrett Images: Fortune, 2002 and 2012

Mick: Did you paint the egg shells at all?

Jane: No, we didn't. I was never at a May Bush (dance) but we used to make one as childer. With old egg shells and that.

Mick: You'd make a May Bush? Make them?

Jane: Put down things on a bit of a thorn or something. Stick it down and put the old yokes on it.

Mick: You'd bring a thorn inside or would you do it outside?

Jane: No, outside. In the yard.

Mick: And when did you do that? The first of May?

Jane: Yeah, May Day.

Mick: Would you not have school then?

Jane: Jesus, I forget whether we had school or whether the school would be closed or what. Sure the days, the evenings, would be as bright and as long You’d never see the children going through the fields now picking a bunch of primroses and buttercups and everything. We used to have every jam pot in the parish full with them.

Mick: The whole time?

Jane: Yeah, outside in the windows and everywhere we had them. Jam pots and primroses, buttercups and cuckoo flowers.

Nellie Fortune with her great-grandmother Jane Fortune’s May Altar Image: Fortune, 2022

Mick: Would you put any flowers in the May Bush?

Jane: Yeah, you could, yeah.

Mick: Would you ever make daisy chains?

Jane: We made daisy chains, we made everything

Mick: For the May Bush?

Jane: Yes.

Mick: And when would you take the bush down?

Jane: I suppose maybe in a week or so, I don't know. Maybe it’d weather down.

Mick: What was the yoke in Killenagh then?

Jane: They used to have a bit of a dance and all it it. A bit of sport.

Mick: You don’t make a May Bush anymore, do you?

Jane: No, I don't.

Mick: You were saying, you'd made the thing on the first of May, the May altar. And then you made one for the Sacred Heart in June When in June was that?

Jane: First of June too, started for the month of June.

Mick: And what did you do for that?

Jane: Same, same, same. The flowers up to the Sacred Heart there.

Mick: Fresh flowers? Would you put fresh flowers up every day, would you?

Jane: No, I wouldn't. Ain't you a nosey auld divil? Turn the fecking thing off will you.

This was my grandmother’s May Altar and its design was based on the PreVatican II Altar that was once in the Church in Ballygarrett, Co. Wexford. It was made for her in the late 1950s/early 1960s by her neighbour Dan Whelan of Ballinastud, out of an old tea-chest, or “tay-chest”, as they were known. You can still see the text on the back from the chest and apparently all the little features were carved out using only a penknife.

Jane Fortune’s May Altar. Image: Fortune, 2022.

and Michael (Mick) Fortune. Recorded by Michael Fortune in Ros Aoibhinn Nursing Home, Bunclody, between August and November 2002.

Mick: Did you ever make a May Altar?

Annie: Oh yea. That was, that was a yearly affair. That was in the house, there was no.., that was only a family affair.

Mick: Did you always make one?

Annie: Yeah. But I don’t make it now.

Mick: Where did you make it? You’d make it in the house, wouldn’t you?

Annie: Oh yeah, make it in the house In the bedroom or in the sitting room.

Mick: Any reason why you’d put it in the sitting room or the bedroom?

Margot: If you were expecting a crowd I suppose it would be in the sitting room.

Annie: You’d put a table at a wall out of their way that you wouldn’t be passing it too often to upset it.

Mick: And what would you put, would you put fresh flowers on it?

Annie: Yeah. And candles and a statue of Our Lady. Little things like that.

Mick: You wouldn’t put any egg shells or anything like that on that one, would you?

Margot: I’d say it’d be all flowers on those.

Anita Fennelly’s May Altar, Slieverue. Image: Fortune, 2024.

Margot: They’d be flowers moreso, would it?

Mick: You wouldn’t put egg shells like you did with the May Bush?

Annie: Ah no, no.

Margot: It’s a pity all those customs have died out, isn’t it?

Annie: Holy God, well the youth today don’t go in for them kind of thing’s now at all.

Margot: No, not at all. They want everything on the screen.

Mick: Did you make one, Jenny?

Jenny: They were always in our home.

Mick: Always.

Jenny: Yeah.

Mick: Did you put the same thing; flowers and a statue of Our Lady?

Annie: Lot’s of youngsters, yea, they’d make them of course.

Margot: Pardon?

Annie: It’s more where there were a lot of children..

Margot: Oh yeah, keep them quiet.

Annie: Making those things to amuse them.

Jenny: It was a devotional thing that time.

Mick: Right

Margot: Did anybody do them Jenny?

Jenny: Oh, I think near everyone, had them, in the schools and everywhere sure. ‘Cause I used to give flowers to the school. From home, from me own place up there. I used to always give flowers.

Margot: Would the teachers do the bush before?

Jenny: No, it wouldn’t be the bush, it’d be the May Altar.

Margot: Oh right.

Mick: Would you make up any other altars during the year?

Jenny: No. Not that I know of.

I love reading these as you can still hear the conversation play out. Also love how at one time Annie comes out with “Holy God” which was a great old expression. Also the reference to the “ screen ” , and that was 2002, years before the smart phone. I also like how Margot suggests the job of putting up the May Altar was as much about keeping the children busy as anything else.

The May Bush Planting Scheme

The tradition around the May Bush went into a steep decline around the county in the 1960s/1970s. In 2017 we started a ground-up festival called ‘The Wexford May Bush Festival’. Using social media, local papers, radio and word of mouth, we have successfully re-established the tradition into the fabric of County Wexford. Between 2019 and 2021, we distributed thousands of little whitethorns, which were planted in homes, schools, villages, crossroads and towns around the county, as part of The May Bush Planting Scheme.

As a result, the tradition has grown and flourished, and it has helped thousands of people, young and old, to embrace the tradition once again. Social media has proved to be the biggest factor in this success story. Every year, we are sent photos showing how the tiny little slips that we gifted have grown into young healthy whitethorns, which are rooted in the lives of people all over Wexford. The following pages feature photos taken in February 2020, as we gave out whitethorn slips from New Ross to Gorey, and Kilmuckridge to Rosslare Harbour. We received the trees from the Environment Department of Wexford County Council and the planting scheme was run on a voluntary basis. All the packing, sorting, replying to emails and calls, fell back on us, and every one of those little trees was handled by Aileen and myself, and our three young daughters, Nellie, Eppie and Nan.

Nellie, Nan and Eppie Fortune with bags of May Bushes to distribute Image: Fortune, 2019

Wexford Town

Curragraigue

Kilmuckridge

Bunclody

Oulart

Kilanerin

Kilanerin

Kilanerin

Enniscorthy

Enniscorthy Enniscorthy Enniscorthy

Rosslare Harbour

Rosslare Harbour

Wexford Town

Wexford Town

Ferns

Gorey

Taghmon

Gorey

Gorey

Gorey

Planting the County Wexford May Bush outside County Hall Liz Burns (Arts Officer), Cliona Connolly (Environment Department) and Aileen Lambert Image: Fortune, 2019