IRELAND.
In the County of Antrim this day is observed by several thousands of the working classes of the town and vicinity of Belfast resorting to the Cave-hill, about three miles distant, where the day is spent in dancing, jumping, running, climbing the rugged rocks, and drinking. Here many a rude brawl takes place, many return home with black eyes, and in some cases with broken bones. Indeed it is with them the greatest holiday of the year, and to not a few it furnishes laughable treats to talk about till the return of the following spring. On this evening a kind of dramatic piece is usually brought forward at the Belfast Theatre, called The Humours of the Cave-hill.—The Table Book, p. 507.
Co. Clare.
On Easter Monday multitudes go to Scattery Island for the purpose of performing penance on their bare knees, round the stony beach and holy well there. Tents are generally erected on this occasion, and often times more whisky is taken by the pilgrims than is found convenient on their return in crowded boats.—Mason, Stat. Acc. of Ireland, 1814, vol. ii. p. 459.
Co. Down.
At Holywood the trundling of eggs, as it is called, is an amusement common at Easter. For this purpose the eggs are boiled hard, and dyed of different colours, and, when they are thus prepared, the sport consists in throwing or trundling them along the ground, especially down a declivity, and gathering up the broken fragments to eat them. Formerly it was usual with the women and children to collect in large bodies for this purpose, though nothing can be, to all appearance, more unmeaning than this amusement. They yet pursue it in the vicinity of Belfast. It is a curious circumstance that this sport is practised only by the Presbyterians.—Mason, Stat. Acc. of Ireland, 1819, vol. iii. p. 207.
On Easter Monday several hundreds of young persons of the town and neighbourhood of Portaferry resort, dressed in their best, to a pleasant walk near that town, called “The Walter.” The avowed object of each person is to see the fun, which consists in the men kissing the females, without reserve, whether married or single. This mode of salutation is quite a matter of course; it is never taken amiss, nor with much show of coyness; the female must be very ordinary indeed, who returns home without having received at least a dozen hearty kisses. Tradition is silent as to the origin of this custom, which of late years is on the decline, especially in the respectability of the attendants.—The Table Book, p. 506.
