The truth behind some old wives’ tales

September brings the riches of the Irish countryside to life. Growing up in Mayo, this was one of my favourite times of year to explore the boreens around Carnacon and pick as many rosehips and blackberries as we could find.

Since then I’ve learned that the hedgerows and fields around such rural boreens bear many scientific secrets – realised by our ancestors and shared through local practices and pisreogs – or piseogs, depending on where you’re from.

Over the past number of weeks, you might have enjoyed a beautiful sweet smell in the countryside, emanating from a white flower called meadowsweet. Known in Irish as “airgead luachra”, or the mercury of the rushes, this plant was used across Ireland to clean out butter churns and was strewn across cottage floors to keep the air fresh.

In parts of Galway and Mayo this plant was known as “tae na ngarrantaí” or the “tea of the fields” and was used to make a tea for those working to save the hay. It was locally believed that this tea was good for pains in muscles and joints and could be good for arthritis.

This custom of the meitheal has since been found to have merit as meadowsweet (or Filipendula ulmaria) contains salycilic acid – known for its ability to relieve aches and pains.

Another example of an historical Irish custom which has since been found to have scientific basis was the use of Sphagnum moss to treat cuts and wounds. This moss grows in the boglands around Ireland and it was reported after the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 that Irishmen and women used this moss to cover and fill warrior’s injuries from the battle field.

This moss was recognised as having medicinal powers and is even said to have been used in infant cradles to keep babies clean, dry and warm. During the first World War, cotton wool was commandeered for gun cotton and explosives and instead both the German and Allies used Sphagnum moss in treating soldiers’ wounds.

This moss, on order from the British War Office, was collected across Ireland, Britain and Canada and was shipped to hospitals across Europe and Africa. The moss, twice as absorptive as cotton wool, could soak up to twenty times its own weight in fluid and was invaluable in hospitals on the front.

However, due to the relatively filthy uniforms of soldiers, contaminated with soil and sewage bacteria from the trenches, there was a very high rate of wound infection. Using this natural remedy, medical staff began to notice that Sphagnum moss seemed to prevent wounds from becoming infected.

It has since been found that the cell walls of Sphagnum moss have the capacity to lower the PH of their environment and therefore inhibit the growth of bacterial colonies. This local knowledge of warriors and old wives around Ireland has been found to have scientific merit.

Another local Irish tradition which holds a scientific secret is the unusual practice of using cobwebs to treat cuts and scrapes. Tadgh O Cuinn, regarded as one of the great Gaelic physicians of the middle ages, wrote in a 1415 manuscript that “the spider’s web, cold and dry, it has the retentive virtue. It stops the bleeding of wounds and it heals”.

A more recent story suggests that when Charles Stuart Parnell crushed his hand in machinery at his Arklow quarries, a servant of his used this remedy to try to curtail the bleeding. In some parts of Ireland, the practice was also used to staunch bleeding when dehorning cattle.

The tradition of using spider silk to treat wounds seems to date back to ancient Greece, where vinegar, honey and then spider webs would be used to treat wounds.

Recent research from Germany has since evidenced the benefits of using spider silk to scaffold skin growth and for patients with serious skin injuries, such as burn victims. This pisreog may lead to breakthroughs in treating serious injuries.

This is not to suggest that all pisreogs should be believed. For example, while nettles have long been used in Ireland to reduce pain and swelling, only a small number of studies suggest that there may be any relief from using nettles as a treatment. And while we all learned as children that dock leaves are a remedy for nettle stings, there is no scientific evidence for this tale.

While I won’t be putting my faith in keeping the rain away with a Child of Prague, there are some local traditions and stories which are steeped in Irish scientific heritage.