School: Urlingford (B.)
- Location:
- Urlingford, Co. Kilkenny
- Teacher: Seán Mac Coitir
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0869, Page 274
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- XML School: Urlingford (B.)
- XML Page 274
- XML “Food in Olden Times”
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
- In olden times in Ireland the food of the people was much plainer than it is nowadays. The breakfast consisted of Indian meal mixed with oaten meal which was parboiled, and then baked with red coals, under and over the oven. Such porridge was very sustaining when taken with milk and it was often mixed with young nettles. The old people said it was the very best of food, as the oatenmeal would strengthen the arm, and Indian meal was good for the blood. Boxty bread which was made on a griddle consisted of raw grated potatoes was much used. Meat was seldom eaten by the poor people, and then it was salt meat, vegetables were a staple food.
The nobles feasted on the flesh of deer and they also ate salmon.
The dinner of the poor consisted of mashed potatoes mixed with butter and boiled sheep's milk. This was very sweet food. Potatoes and buttermilk was much used. Tea was unknown. Before cups(continues on next page)
