FOR THEM WITH THE IRISH/FRENCH CONCERN...

IT IS CLEAR THAT MUM BROUGHT A PRACTICE FROM THE OL SOD.

IN HIS BOOK JOHN KEAN (MARGO'S GREAT UNCLE) SHARED AN INTERESTING PRACTICE IN THE IRISH COUNTRY SIDE.

ON PAGE 180 HE SHARES...WRITING ABOUT A MAN HEADING TO TOWN TO FETCH SOME PORTER FOR THE WREN DAY PARTY..."Get up now, he called to the mare as he lifted himself stiffly into a sitting position next to the shaft.  "Don't you dare leave the yard, you rotten heathen, till I cast the holy water on you."  So saying Delia Bluenose hurried indoors and re-appeared moments afterwards with a black porter bottle partly filled with the sacred water which had been blessed and sanctified by Canon Peter Tett in a hundred-gallon barrel on the Easter Saturday  of the year before outside the entrance to the transept of Saint Mary's Church in the town of Trallock.  "Here child,"Bluenose's wife Delia handed the bottle to Katie.  "Sprinkle the wretch well with it.  Maybe your innocence and virtue might knock harm from him and separate the ungodly scoundrel from his brother Satan."

SO YOU SEE CLEARLY MUM DIDN'T GET THE HOLY WATER IDEA FROM ANY FRENCH BACKGROUND.  IRISH FOR SURE!