This folklore account suggests various ‘cures’ for the common and often persistent skin condition, warts. It was told by John Lynksey from Barnaderg, Co. Galway in 1937/38.

A snail rubbed on the wart every morning and evening until a wart begins to go is said to cure warts. Sap of the dandelion squeezed on the wart is said to cure it. Rubbing the wart on stubbes is said to cure it. Rubbing water on a stone (and then ) on a wart (the stone must be found accidentally). If a person who has a wart steals a piece of bacon and hides it under a stone. While the bacon is decaying the wart is decaying also.

John’s ‘cures’ forms part of the Schools’ Folklore Collection, a large and important corpus of material, whose compilation occurred between 1937 and 1938. This far-sighted scheme, run by the Irish Folklore Commission, saw over 100,000 schoolchildren collecting local folklore from their parents, grandparents and older members of the community.

Notes

Related by John Lynskey of Barnaderg to Mary Lynskey. The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0026, Page 0105

