School: Naomh Eoin, Béal Easa (roll number 14176)

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1. Old Trades

   

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   Old Trades.
   Mary Mc Tigue.
   Foxford

   Long ago the people had no lamps so they had to make their own candles to give them light.
   Candles
   The things used in candle-making were grease or tallow, and rushes. First of all the rushes were gathered in bundles. Then of all the rushes were gathered, the skin of the rushes were taken off. The rushes were then soaked in melted grease or tallow, then they were hung up to dry. A candle in the olden times would last about one hour. In some houses where the people were very poor the family would gather bog-dale, then they would chop it and leave it in a heap. Every member of the family used to hold a lighted piece of bog-dale during his supper and the Rosary.
   Thatching
   First of all the oats was thrashed, the grain was sold and the straw was kept. Then the us falmer cut the sally rods that he set. He got the rods and he cut them about two feet in length and he pointed both ends. Then he left the rods to season. The thatcher came and he put on a row of thatch, the width of the house and the length of the pieces of straw. He put the second row on, then the first row covered four inches of the second and the second row covered four inches of the third row. The was three rows in every house top. The "scollops" were stuck in a line into the thatch about four inches from the top of the roof in the top, and four inches

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. activities
      1. economic activities
         1. trades and crafts (~4,680)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Mary Mc Tigue

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Foxford, Co. Mayo