The Hungry Grass

A belief recorded in Co. Clare held that certain patches of ground could strike a person with sudden, disabling hunger. It could happen even after a meal. One account tells of a man walking from Ennis who became so desperate that he pulled the lace from his boot and chewed it. The hunger then left him.

Another story, collected at Dangan school in 1938, begins with a fasting girl crossing a bog after early Mass. At the top of a hill she grew weak, fell asleep and dreamt of a table covered in bread she could not eat.