School: Baile Theas (B.), Malla (roll number 4953)
- Location:
- Ballyhass, Co. Cork
- Teacher: Tadhg Ó Hanluain
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0364, Page 309
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- Crafts. Candle Making
This method of making candles was told to me by a man named William Murphy aged seventy-three residing at Ballygibbin. First of all the people had to get the tallow which was got from goats and twelve moulds which were like the case of a bicycle pump and they made the wicks out of cotton threads. Then they put the wicks in the middle of the moulds and melted the tallow and poured it into the moulds around the wicks and before the tallow was quite cool it was slipped out of the moulds and cooled.
Thatching
When farmers' houses that are thatched are in bad repaid the farmer when threshing makes reed of the wheaten straw. Then he gathers or buys scallops and has to point them. Then he has to hire a man who is able to thatch to work for him. The thatcher has to have a ladder or two to get up to the roof of the house. He ha to have a bow with an iron hook to stick in the house to keep it firm and on this bow he holds the straw. Then he spreads the straw on the roof of the house and sticks them near each other to keep the straw from blowing off when the hard Winter comes. When he has what he calls a bay made he has to pare that bay with a sharp knife, and then he commences another bay. It takes about them ten days to thatch a large sized
house.
Butter making
Long ago the people used to make butter in their own houses. Now this was a hard task and the people would have to get up at three o'clock in the morning and make the churn. The used to have the milk in pans for three days until they would have enough of ripe cream. They had to skim off the cream from the milk and put it into a cream tub(continues on next page)
