The May bush in Westmeath

Sir Henry Piers wrote in 1682 that on May Eve every family in Westmeath set up a green bush before its door, strewn over with the yellow flowers that the meadows yielded in plenty. Where timber was plentiful they put up tall slender trees instead, which were left standing almost the whole year. A stranger, he said, might well think every one of them an ale-seller’s sign and every house an ale-house.