School: Leitir Mhic an Bhaird (Robertson) (roll number 15283)

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1. Houses in Olden Times

   

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   The houses were thatched with straw usually. The people had little patches of corn sown. They saved it and thrashed it with the flail. Some houses were thatched with Bent, but a house thatched with heather was a thing of the past.
   The bed in the kitchen was always in the corner beside the fire and opposite the door. The old man and wife slept in this bed. It was called “leabaidh cludach”.
   The (chimney) fire was in the gable, Some of the houses had no chimney except a creel without a bottom set on the top on the outside. The smoke went up the side wall towards the whole in the roof. More came out of the door sometimes than went up. The brace was the name given to the inside part of the chimney. Of course it was seldom that one was seen in a house. The brace was made of wood. No old person in this district has ever seen the fire in the centre of the floor.
   Usually there was just one door an odd time you would see two. The door was on the front wall. There was one window, seldom two. Before glass came into existence the window just consists of a hole in the wall and if it was too cold inside something was stuck in it to keep out the breeze. Earthen floors. The doors were made of rods. Fires were made of turf and fir. Light. A piece of fir, then the rush candles.

   

   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. objects
      1. man-made structures
         1. buildings
            1. residential buildings (~2,723)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Nábla Nic Amhlaidhé

   Gender

   Female

   Occupation

   Múinteoir

   Informant

   Matthew Morron

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Mín an Ghabhann, Co. Donegal

   Informant

   Mrs Melley

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Tuaim, Co. Donegal