The Great St Mullins Mullein

The Mullein Cures No37

Verbascum thapsus),

“So, you don’t know what a Mullein is, shame on you!” well they say it originated in St Mullins along with The Mullicháins long long ago in the mists of time. Walking down the hill from the monasteries in St Mullins over the summer you will see the Mullein along the road and in the fields beyond standing proudly.

The Mullein is a tall staff with a yellow flower that grows in sandy areas along the side of the road. The first year the plant grows beautiful velvety green leaves and stays close to the ground. The second year it shoots like a rocket to form a staff of bright yellow flowers six-foot-high you will see it from June to August. Sometimes it is called Aaron’s Rod. Flannel Worth, Poor Man’s Blanket because of its soft leaves which were also put into shoes to keep your feet warm. The Mullein was also known as “Hags Taper” because the superstitious Irish believed that witches used the wicks for their lamps and candles when casting spells.  

Every year when the flowers are gone and the rods dry out all you have to do is bang the rod off the wall and spread the seeds for next year, it’s a great bit of Craic (fun). Isn’t it great all the entertainment we have down in the Mystic Valley of St Mullins?

The Great Mullein features among the Irish folk medicine records down through the centuries with cures from consumption to tuberculosis, as a cough suppressant and for sore throats. Its Antiviral properties have been reported to work against herpes and influenza. It also cures inflammation of the eyes, heals wounds, cures asthma and Bronchitis. Sure, it would nearly put the pharmacy’s and miracle workers out of business and poor old St Moling would be demoted, no need for miracles anymore.

Now with all these herbal teas on the go Mullein tea isn’t getting a look in, I would suggest that our tea tasters try slurping the Mullein brew  with its wonderful aromatic flavour .The Mullein leaves make a great cup of Tea, sure haven’t we been using it for centuries until the tea bag arrived and Lyons and Barry’s tea took over .When the Irish go abroad all they can dream of is a proper cup of tea and that’s not English Breakfast tea .The Mullein is also used as a flavouring agent in alcoholic drinks, now there is one for the cocktail makers.

The Irish would smoke anything from turf to leaves of the Mullein plant that were dried and put in a clay pipe and smoked like tobacco. Smoking dried Mullein leaves was an Irish pastime with no health warnings given. Now the arrival of that American Tobacco brought from the new world by Sir Walter Raleigh took over and ruined the health of world. As a young fella I remember seeing an advertisement for Craven A cigarettes “for a real cough, smoke Craven A “.

This plant's leaves are food for the distinctive mullein moth caterpillar and the seed heads are wintering habitat for ladybirds all wrapped up and cosy.

  Country People in Ireland believed that carrying a mullein preserved the wearer from enchantments and witchcraft as well as the curses from the neighbours. 

The dry staff was soaked in tar and used as a torch right up to 1930s when party campaigners were out hustling for votes in the election and they needed protection from the local witches and the opposition.

Now the next time your out walking with your pal you can be the authority on Mulleinism, great new word for the dictionary. 

Author Martin O’Brien