Local Games

12th July 1938


Geney Joe.

At first two girls sit on a chair one holding the other. Then one girl comes up to the two that are sitting on the chair and says;
"I am one Lord that came from Spain to court your eldest daughter Jane." One of the girls that is sitting on the chair says;
"My daughter Jane is too young to be controlled by flattering tongues." Then the person that is standing up says;
"Be she young and be she old and upon my word she is fit to be sold." Then the person that is sitting down says;
"Go back, go back the spoons are bright and take the fairest lady in your sight." They continue like that until all in the ring are brought.
They all gather round the two that are sitting, and they say;
"Geney_Joe, Geney-Joe how is she now. The two that are sitting down says, "She is washing clothes, washing clothes, and you can't see her now." Then they all go back and come in again and say the same.
Each time they come in the person that is sitting down says a different thing.
After saying about the washing, she then says she is ironing, after-wards she says she is putting away the clothes. Then she says she is ill, had the doctor and the priest and she is dead.
Then a great cry rises, and four girls take her shoulder high and leave her on the ground as if she is buried. That finishes it.

INFORMANT: Mrs Kearns, Age 40, Manulla, Co. Mayo
— Dúchas.ie