The stories told on these pages are from  a collection of folklore compiled by schoolchildren in Ireland in the 1930s. 
The children recorded (over&nbsp740,000 handwritten pages) of this material from their parents, grandparents and neighbours.

These are their stories in their own words.

Dividing Buttons – a funny story


SCHOOL: Cavan | ADDRESS: Cavan, Co. Cavan


Proud Irish Children playing games
Dividing buttons in graveyard

Two fellows were going to divide buttons. They went to divide them in a graveyard. As they were going through the gate they dropped two of the buttons outside the gate. They said they would leave them there until they would come back.

When they were inside counting the buttons a man came up riding a horse. He got down off the horse and he said he could hear them saying “That’s mine, That’s yours, That’s mine, that’s yours.”

He thought that it was God and the Devil dividing the souls in the grave-yard.

He got up on the horse and rode on. He met another man riding on a horse and he told him what he had heard in the grave yard and asked him to come along to the grave-yard with him.

Both got down off their horses. They could hear them saying “That’s mine, that’s yours, That’s mine, that’s yours,”

One of the boys said “What about the two outside the gate?”

The men thought it was they. They got up on their horses and galloped away as quickly as they could.


Bibliography

The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0975, Page 163” by Dúchas © National Folklore Collection, UCD is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.

Proud Irish Heritage Certificates