GOAT, men's T-shirt black, Druid collection

GOAT in Bramble Men's T-shirt from the Druid Collection, Black. In Ireland Blackberries, or Sméara Dubha in Irish, played an important part in people's lives. It was believed that you should not eat them after Samhain, which is a harvest festival marking the beginning of the cold part of the year, because the Púca spits or even urinates on them. The Púca is an Irish fairy folk spirit.

An arch of bramble which had rooted at both ends was believed to have special powers and if you wished to invoke evil spirits you could do so by crawling through the arch at Samhain while making your wish. An arch of bramble could also be used to cure for example a child with whooping cough by passing it under the arch three times before breakfast for nine consecutive days while saying "in bramble, out cough, here I leave the whooping cough".

If you found a piece of bramble attached to a cows tail at Beltainne, a festival at the beginning of the summer, it was considered suspicious as it meant someone was trying to put a spell on the milk.

In Ireland the flower of the Blackberry was a symbol of beauty to the Gaelic poets, and a well-known love ballad is called Bláth na Sméar, Flower of the Blackberry.

Bramble was classed as one of the bushes of the wood in the Old Irish Brehon Laws on Trees and Shrubs and you could be fined for cutting it.

Blackberries were traditionally eaten mashed up with oatmeal to make a tasty porridge and people also made blackberry jam. The roots were used to make an orange dye, the core for hurling balls and pipes, the long shoots made perfect wickerwork and were even suitable for securing thatch.

Medical uses include using the leaves in a cure for diarrhoea in both cattle and people; it could cure dropsy and was considered to have fantastic curative powers for coughs and colds. It was also utilised for a variety of skin complaints such as scalds, burns, boils, shingles and spots.

• 100% cotton
• Detailed design
• Quality print
• Printed in the Czech Republic
• T-shirt by Gildan, USA
• Manufactured by Naav fashion brand