‘Ould Cow Days’ give way to the bliss of Easter sun

Country Living with Francis Farragher

A few of us bemoaning the vicious end to March last week, as we stared into the embers of the weakening flames in the local bar with diminishing prospects of getting the last pint, were reminded by the man on the low stool, that we were foolish not to have taken into account the impact of the ‘Ould Cow Days’ on the late Spring weather.

True enough, the end of March and the beginning of April can be a volatile enough time in terms of weather: there are years when it can be positively balmy and in other times, especially if the wind blows from the east, the run up to Easter can be hostile enough.

The ‘Ould Cow Days’ have their root in Irish lore and the tale of the bó riabhach or the brindled (streaky or spotted colour) cow who had the misfortune to complain too loudly how nasty March had been to her in terms of the weather.

Perhaps though, the Bó Riabhach went a step too far when she boasted that despite the awfulness of March, she had still survived the ‘badness’ of the month. Ireland, being what it was with gossip, ended up with March getting wind of the complaints from the Bó Riabhach, and the third month embarked on a path of vicious revenge.

March summoned a meeting with April and borrowed the first three days of the month during which it unleashed 72 hours of the most vile weather imaginable. The Bó Riabhach, was caught on the hop, having discarded her winter warmers, and promptly cocked up her toes at the end of the three days – stone dead.

Anyway, the other night in the local, by the time we’d heard the end of the story, the fire had gone out and so too had the barman: as we headed into quite a nasty night of wind and rain, we were careful though not to complain too much about the malign nature of the previous days.

It is one of those lovely stories from Irish folklore where we have to suspend normal rules of logic and science, but barely a March or April passes without a mention of the ‘Ould Cow Days’, as we make the transition from the season of darkness to one of greater light and lengthening days.

The vagaries of March can be gauged from the contrasting fortunes it brought us this year. Most of us will look back at the month and have memories of a very dry spell through its centre period, but in actual fact it turned out to be a wet enough month when the statistics are perused.

Abbeyknockmoy weather recorder, Brendan Geraghty, said that it was our fourth wettest March over the last 25 years with just under five inches (4.97) of rainfall arriving during the month, and all that over the course of just 13 days, five of those delivering a real sting in the tail just before the arrival of April. Those five days brought with them over two inches of rainfall.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.