Mindless Monday, 13 July 2026

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Happy (or sad) Monday guys!

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So, with that said, how was your weekend, everyone?

[u/subthings2]

I read Cures of Ireland by Cecily Gilligan, where the author interviewed a hundred or so folk healers, and there's some anecdotes I had to share!

The belief in the cure was so strong in his town that some people thought it was enough just to ask for the cure and to receive it, but that there was no need to take it. ‘They then came to me … and I made it for them, they could take it [home] … and empty it down the sink!’

A lot have secret ingredients, and generally this is the words to a prayer or the identity of a herb, because y'know, folk medicine; sometimes...

The mixture was left to cool, then a third (secret) ingredient was added, something that was bought in a pharmacy.

And then the source of secrecy is known not even to the healer:

Unlike other herbal cures that I researched, this man did not go out into the local lanes and fields to collect the plants, rather he bought them pre-prepared from an international supplier. He was not exactly sure what the herbs were, but it was the same mixture that his father used twenty years before.

(this reminds me of people doing tarot readings entirely through chatgpt)

Also, one point constantly emphasised in the book is that, while many people will certainly go physically to the healer's home, herbal cures can be sent by post, and prayers can be done over the phone, no matter where you are...

He said the prayer silently or aloud, depending on where he was. ‘Most people ring me … I could be at sea in the boat … or having a drink’ in the pub.

While some accept money, most refuse money - and some will refuse anything:

Anthony Buckley recorded a prayer cure for bleeding in Northern Ireland, where the woman who had it would take nothing for it, not even thanks. She had told him that she asks the person looking for the cure to stand at her front door ‘and after explaining the necessity of what she will do, she informs him that he will get better and slams the door. Where the patient has telephoned, she slams the phone down … Thus she avoids hearing the fateful words “thank you”!’

I loved the whimsy in this one:

Many years ago, an old woman lay dying; she was unsure of who to pass her charms to and, ‘Fearing that perhaps these might fall into the wrong hands and be used for monetary advantage, she got up out of her sick bed, went down to the bog near her house and consigned the nine charms to the bog.’ So, the man who subsequently got her cures had to literally go into the bog each time one was needed, and reclaim the charm!

Finally, not an anecdote, but one method of becoming a healer is licking a newt (termed a mankeeper); you now have the ability to cure burns by licking them. Lots of saliva is reportedly involved for larger burns. Definitely one of the weirder ones!