School: Walterstown (roll number 10356)
- Location:
- Walterstown, Co. Meath
- Teacher: Proinseas, Bean Uí Cheallaigh
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0686, Page 177
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- In the harvest-time of the year, a batch of say then or twenty men would come down to this Parish. They would walk down from Longford and Cavan. They brought reaping hooks on their shoulders. They would reap all the harvest round here. They would start on a certain field at daybreak, and one man who was the best would start off to reap first. He was called the Forehook and he got a few pence extra for doing this. If any man kept in to him, that man would be the "Forehook" the next day. When reaping, they never used a scythe. They said that a scythe was very awkward and that it did not cut the stubbles right and that it left too much of the straw after it. These men reaped from daw to dark night for two shillings and sixpence or for three shillings a day. They used to sleep in a loft in the "big-house" in Fairland. They all slept together. They got the breakfast about eight oclock in the morning. The breakfast was Indian Stir a-bout. The dinner was potatoes and the supper was Indian Stir-a-bout. they got a cup of tea on a Sunday morning.
- Collector
- Alphonsus Kelly
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Monktown, Co. Meath
- Informant
- John Byrd
- Gender
- Male
- Occupation
- Farm-worker
- Address
- Kentstown, Co. Meath
