School: Abhainn Bheag (roll number 3924)
- Location:
- Owenbeg, Co. Sligo
- Teacher: Criostóir Mac Gáfraidh
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0165, Page 233
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- XML “Old Houses”
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- By the description of the old people we come to the conclusion that the houses nowadays are built much better than the houses of long ago. It was customary in times gone by to build the houses in old marshy land, because the land was scarce, and the good land was kept for tillage.
The houses were built with stones, and bad mortar. There were no chimneys on these houses, but holes used to be made in the gables. They were thatched iwth rushes, and tied with straw ropes to pegs in the walls. There was only one room and it was usual to see a horse or a cow tied to the lower gable. The pigs used to be under the bed in corner. There was also a roost in the end of the house on which the hens stayed for the night.
There was very little furniture in those houses. Small boxes were used for sitting on, and a big box took the place of a table. it was the custom also to put false-windows in the houses. This was done to avoid paying window tax.
Rushes dipped in tallow took the place of a lamp. The old people say that total blindness was more common long ago than it is at the present day.
- Collector
- Maggie Gibson
- Gender
- Female
- Informant
- William Higgins
- Gender
- Male
