School: Barradubh (Sixmilebridge)
- Location:
- Barraduff, Co. Kerry
- Teacher: Dómhnall Ua Donnchadha
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0457, Page 286
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.
On this page
- At present there are only a few thatched houses in the school district. They are thatched with the straw of wheat and is called Reed. Wheat for thatching is cut with a reaping hook and when stacked for some time is scutched to remove the grain. The scutching (or scotching as it is called) is done by striking it on a table which is got to incline towards a wall by putting stones under two side legs. In this way the reed is not broken. The reed is then cleaned by pulling it through the prongs of a four pronged pike (or dung-fork).The fork is put through a hole in the wall with the points of the prongs turned up or its handle is put between the top and second laths of the back of a chair and securely tied.The thatcher uses spars for fastening the reed to the house. The spars are made from Sallow (sally) or hazel. The spars are about two feet long and pointed at both ends. When a spar is being made if it too thick it is split into two or more(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Dómhnall Ua Donnchadha
- Gender
- Male
- Occupation
- Múinteoir
