Sir, – I am looking forward to buying John Creedon’s An Irish Folklore Treasury for Christmas. However, I was intrigued to see the well-loved universal blindman’s buff game shown in the illustration (Magazine, October 1st) being described as “bluff”. A perusal of the 1937 Folklore Schools Archive collection, shows that, with a single exception (Cappamore, Co Limerick), all other references are to blindman’s buff. Does that suggest, perhaps, that somewhere between Cork, Kerry and Limerick there may exist the Land of Bluff, while the majority of the Island opted to be in the Buff category. Shades of Swift’s war between Lilliput and neighbouring Blefuscu to decide which end should eggs be broken: at the big end or the little end? – Yours, etc,
PATRICK JUDGE,
Dún Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.