re: I happened to be on the Aran Islands some years ago when there was a spring fertility rite, which involved large bonfires and (apparently) some otherwise unacceptable extramarital rustlings in the bushes far removed from the light of the bonfires. I was told at the time that the two or three priests on the island
simply left for the night.
yup-- it caused no end of bother that the irish have not only keep many of the old ways, but have incorported so many of them into what used to be a Roman Catholic church. It was because of that, the one and only english pope insisted that England get involved in Ireland and set them straight.. and so started 400 year of english involvement with ireland! (this came about when he discovered in Rome, that many of the practice he thought were catholic, were really remnants of irish ways..)
All would have been fine, if ireland had keep quiet, but the irish have never been known for keeping quiet!
some have become institutionalized, like All Souls day..(Nov 1st) which is now a holy day of obligation.. it was the most somber and important days of the irish calendar.. and halloween, has become a big holiday in US.. nothing like what is was when i was a kid.. then it was only big in irish catholic neighborhoods, though kids everywhere liked it.. but we always had real outfits--not store bought costumes, and lots of Jack o'lanterns, and apples, and always a piece of candy left on the door mat before we went to bed!
(and my parents where citified, and removed from many of the old ways that the country folk practiced.)
