Wedding Flickr
When researching your Kerry ancestors, have you noticed that almost all marriages in the 1800s took place in January or February?
Did you wonder why?
Well into the 20th century, the busiest time for match-making in Ireland began right after Nollag na mBan, January 6th. This was because the Irish had misinterpreted a Church ruling set forth in November, 1563 which prohibited weddings during Lent. The popular reasoning that evolved from this decree was that if you could not marry during Lent, then you had to marry before. Thus, it was taken for granted that Shrovetide was the proper time to marry and Shrove Tuesday – the day before Ash Wednesday – became the most favoured day of all.
Marriages Dingle 1822
I was reminded of this last week when I was searching for a marriage in 1822 in Dingle records. On the 27th February 1822 there were 27 marriages on that day alone with 18 in the previous fortnight.
Often if one had not married by Shrove Tuesday a year could lapse before an opportunity presented itself again; responsibilities to the land with tilling and harvest work prevented many from marrying from late spring until winter, while Advent and Christmas were also times when marriage was forbidden, leaving Shrovetide as the best opportunity for many to marry. But of course in Kerry there was a suggested solution to the problem
Skellig Michael Flickr
The unlikely solution was connected to the medieval island hermitage of Skellig Michael, 13km off the Kerry coast, whose ascetic monks calculated the date of Easter differently from the rest of Christendom.
The whole of Ireland had initially used a different calculation table from the one adopted by Rome; it seems that, even though the rest of the country eventually conformed, Skellig Michael somehow maintained the older system.
Whatever the cause, Easter and Lent always fell later on Skellig than on the mainland, opening a window of opportunity for couples wishing to marry, and ingraining in the popular imagination the association between courtship, marriage and the Skellig Rock.
Sorry to disappoint – we have no records of any marriages on Skelligs so … ?
Sources:https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage, Curtin, Jeremiah. Memoirs of Jeremiah Curtin. Edited by Joseph Schafer. Wisconsin, 1941
That is so interesting, thank you for sharing.
Quite a few firstborn must have arrived around Christmas. A first cousin, thrice removed, Jeremiah Lynch, born September 1, 1859, Fahamore, Maharees, emigrated to America, circa 1884/85, and was never heard from again. Two siblings waiting for him in Massachusetts. I don’t know the name of the ship he was on.
Fascinating Kay. Thanks for the knowledge.
My ggg-grandparents married 5 Feb 1822 in W. Gurrane, ,Killorglin, Kerry so your blog explains the winter marriage time frame. Also, my gg-grandparents married 15 Jan 1856 in Ontario, Canada so the marriage time frame tradition followed into the Irish immigrants into Canada. – Thanks for the explanation – Bill Murphy
Thank you for this insight. I must take greater note of the marriage dates of my Irish ancestors.
Probably this was because no marriages were allowed during Lent which was a movable event and could start as early as mid February .This being decided on the Sunday of Easter which was and is still
decided on by the the first Sunday after the first full moon after the 21st of March. In past times if a couple in the south west of Ireland a couple who were eligible to marry but had failed to do so before shrove Tuesday night could go to The Skllelligs Island and get married there as lent did not start there until a week after it started on the mainland. Hence the Skellig Nights celebrations of my youth with rivalry between youths both male and female from different areas of the town pulling burning timber etc in containers to a central point in town to see which group could build the biggest fire at the end of the night and singing and dancing around it all innocent fun but most partcapents were warned be home by eleven o’clock as Ash Wednesday was a school day
What a great segue to write about the ‘Skellig lists’………………………… :-}
I was interested to check on my great great grandparents and their Dunkerron Templenoe, County Kerry wedding which was February 12, 1839 and sure enough, it was a Tuesday! Peter Coffey and Honora Doyle married that da as well as some others I remember seeing on that day when I saw the record in the past.
What is the latest date, for example 1940 /1950 that the records are available for.
You can find Births up to 2023, marriages to 1948 and deaths to 1973 on http://www.IrishGenealogy.ie/Civil. This goes up one year in Jan/Feb of each year.
Thank you so much Kay