Divinations are a reflection of the fierce loyalty of the Irish to their ancient ways which took precedent in many households over the views of the established church(es).

The force of the seasons was recognized as a way to explain and understand that which the church cloaked in mystery. Life therefore was looked upon with a unity with death which could be understood and "lived with" on a daily basis.  Divination allowed cultural adaptation to extend into the next dimension. Read on to find out when to expect death and in some cases how to avoid it......
 

"A  child  born on May Day.....almost certainly would die young"- p.125

"Among others it is thought right and proper to have the threshold swept clean on May-Eve.  Ashes are then lightly sprinkled over it, and in the morning the print of a foot is looked for.  If it turns inward a marriage is certain, but if outward then a death will happen in the family before the year is  out."- p.125

"Any creature, human or animal, born at Whitsuntide was fated to cause death or die a violent death. A foal so born would throw  a rider or trample  or  kick him to death, a bull  or  cow would  gore somebody. Even smaller creatures were fated to cause evil; a dog or cat or fowl might bite or claw an infant. A human so born would either murder somebody  or himself be hanged or killed in some startling fashion, or, worse than all, possess an evil eye of unusual virulence. Such a person or animal was known  as a cingciseach) (Cingcis=Pentecost, and while  still young must be protected  from its fate by taking steps to nullify the evil.  The simple way to do this was to make the infant creature kill something."

"People, especially children, who are ill, are more likely to die at this time (Whitsuntide) than at others. In parts of the midlands a counter-charm to this evil influence was the laying  of a green sod on the head of the sufferer..." (a mimicry of burial) p. 129

A Traditional Samhain Divination:
"Four plates having been  set down  on a table, water was poured into one, a ring placed on another, some clay in the third, and in the fourth was placed either some straw, salt, or meal.  A person  would then be  blindfolded  and led up to he table, and into whichever plate he or she placed their hand, so would their future turn out.  The water signified migration, the ring marriage, the  clay death, and the fourth plate prosperity. On re-arranging the order of the plates, others would be blindfolded  and led up in like manner."- p.219

R.H. Buchanan in Ulster Folklife, 1963, p.68 records another Samhain divination:
"Another Mourne  custom, which was also recorded a century ago in Armagh, was to fill a thimble full of salt and turn it upside-down on a plate. "Stacks" of salt were made for each person, left overnight, and if one should have fallen by next morning the person so named would die within the next twelve months." p. 227

Mason in Parochial Survey  notes that in Shruel parish, County Longford:
"A large candle is lighted on Christmas night, laid on a table, and suffered to burn out.  If  it should happen, by any means to be extinguished; or more particularly if it should (as has sometimes happened) go  out without without visible cause, the untoward circumstance would be considered a prognostic of the death of the head of the family"- p.238

On Epithany....."over a considerable are of north Leinster, east Connaught and south Ulster"....
"A round cake of sufficient size was made of dough, or of ashes or clay, or even of dried cowdung, and in it were put standing a number of small candles, rushlights or bogdeal splinters, one for each member of the family, and each named for a particular individual. In the evening, when the whole household was assembled, these were lighted and then carefully observed and the order in which they burned out or quenched was regarded as an indication of the order in which the persons represented by them would die.  This was usually a solemn occasion, and no levity was permitted. Indeed, this ceremony was almost always carried out during the family's evening devotions, when the saying of the rosary or other prayers...." was interrupted when one of the burning objects went out with a person saying the name of the person "will be the next to go"- p. 264
Source:  Danaher, Kevin. The Year in Ireland.,Mercier Press., Irish Books and Media, Minneapolis,1972.

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