Picking Bilberries, Fraocháns and Whorts in Ireland: The Human Story by Michael J. Conry

This book outlines the history of picking bilberries (Vaccinium myrtillus) in Ireland from pre-Christian times to the present day and the impact it made on the lives of people, especially in the areas where they were picked for export to Britain. Wild bilberries have been harvested for centuries in the woodlands and mountains of northern hemisphere countries in Europe, Asia and North America. Large quantities are still picked in various European countries and especially in Eastern Europe (i.e. Poland, Romania etc.) both for domestic use and for export to countries such as China and Japan. In Ireland, the bilberries, which were known by a plethora of names (fraocháns, fraughans, whorts, bilberries, blaeberries, whinberries, heatherberries and mulberries), were picked on certain Sundays in July to celebrate the Festival of Lughnasa from pre-Christian times up to the early 1940s