Faction fights: the Eeaskawallahs and CoflFeys — Paternal
chastisement — A doctor in livery — I bear the Olive branch
— ^Battles of the buryings — Dead men's shoes — Fairy
Doctors : their patient spoils a coachman's toggery —
Superstitions about birds.
When we went to the county of Limerick there
were many factions there — the Shanavests and
Caravats, the Coffeys and the Eeaskawallahs, the
Three Years Old and Four Years Old. All these
are now extinct except the last named, who still
have a smouldering existence, in the neighbourhood
of Emly, which occasionally flares up into a little
blaze; but the glorious fights of other days are
gone.
The factions nearest to us were the Cofifeys and
the Eeaskawallahs, the latter so called from the
name of a townland near Doon, where its chieftains
had lived for generations. In our time its leader
was John Eyan, generally called " Shawn Lucash "
{i.e. John, the son of Luke), a powerful man who
had led his men in many a hard-fought fight ; while
one Coffey of Newport was chief of the Coffeys.
32 SEVENTY YEAB8 OF lEISH LIFE.
