Enjoy a safe bonfire night in Cork
THE practice of lighting bonfires on St John’s Eve has long died out in most areas of the country, but the Rebel County has kept the home fires burning, despite an attempt at banning the custom in the 1950s.
Cork City counsellor and local historian Kieran McCarthy has explored the origins of the tradition. “I know it’s an old pagan ritual. Gougane Barra in the 1700s 1800s kept on this ritual of lighting bonfires on a pilgrimage site. After doing the rounds, 13 stations in Gougane Barra, they’d really let their hair down. I know they lit bonfires on the hills all around there on the 23rd of June, St John’s Eve,” he said.
