14.08.2025
The weaving of the súgan, as an activity is analogous to the weaving of dialogue in storytelling. It can be twisted in sections and joined but there must always be two people. One twists and one feeds in the straw. An activity, that from a literary perspective serves as an embodiment of narrative, conversation and collaboration. The buicidín was often made with the ends of the súgan for play and leisure purposes or to entertain children. Every harvest fair day in Glenties, local storyteller and farmer Condy Campbell kept the age old tradition of súgan making alive, by giving a demonstration on how to do it. That’s the same Condy with the story of the ram on the cliff face who was great friends with Jimmy Carr of the Turas Colmcille. Condy was there every year to pass on his knowledge, songs stories and games; keeping the traditions and old ways of knowing alive. The buicidín pictured here was made by Condy shortly before he passed away in July 2025.
There’s a corresponding description from Anna Nic an Luain (who we spoke of yesterday) on how the buicidín game was played. ‘There was a pass time when we were children’, she begins, ‘where we’d take the buicidín a little straw doll made from the súgan’…. according to her account, you’d put the doll in the centre and each person would have a go at hopping on one leg around the buicidín three times. After you completed the third circle, you’d crouch down, still on one leg, and pick up the buicidín with your mouth. Anyone who could do it without loosing balance won the game. But everyone got a great laugh out of the activity.
Anna Nic an Luain was born around 1884 and her childhood memories situate the buicidín as a popular game during the 1890s, though the ubiquity of straw as a material means the game was probably popular hundreds of years before this too. The account below was gathered by folklorist and fisherman Seán Ó hEochaidh (1913 – 2002) who was from Teelin, Co. Donegal. It is often said that because of him, Teelin is one of the most documented regions in Irish folklore, he made it his life's mission to meticulously record south west Donegal’s oral traditions. He documented Anna Nic an Luain’s description of the game the on the 4th of November 1947 at her home in Cruach Thiobraide about 60km east of Teelin by the old roads. This documentation of the game was then gathered from Ó hEochaidh by Áine Ní Dhíoraí’s for her 1985 book Na Cruacha; Scéalta agus Seanchas….
15.4. BUICIDÍN
Bhíodh caithimh aimsire againn inár bpáistí ag gabháil don bhuicidín. Rud beag cosúil le bréagán a bheadh ag páiste a bhí ins an bhuicidín agus é déanta d'fhéar nó de chochán—trí cosa beaga air ar an talamh agus ceann beag cruinn air. Chuirtí an buicidín seo ina sheasamh i lár an urláir ar na trí cosa. Chaithfeadh na páistí ansin—duine i ndiaidh an duine eile—breith ar leathchois dá guid féin agus a dhul thart trí huaire ar a leathchois eile agus an tríú huair a bheadh siad ag dul thart cromadh sos ar an bhuicidín lena méal agus a thógáil amach ón talamh. Bhíodh mórán acu a bhíodh tuirseach go maith nuair a bhíodh siad thart na trí huaire ar an bhuicidín ar an leathchois agus nuair a théadh siad a chrom-adh síos thiteadh siad ar an talamh agus ansin bhíodh ábhar mór gáire ag an chuid eile. Is minic nuair a bhí sinn inár bpáistí a chaith sinn leath-oíche ag dul don chleas seo agus chomh maith linn féin bhíodh greann mór ag ar muintir ag coimheád orainn.
15.1. Cluichi Páisti
RBE 1032, 406-408. S. Ó H. a bhailigh ó Anna Nic an Luain, Cruach Thiobraid, ar an 4.11.1947. Tá cuntas ar chluichí páistí tugtha ag An Seabhac, Béal. 12 (1942) 29-54.
