School: An Clochar, Neidín

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1. Tales of a Grandmother Born 1830 (continued)

   

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   farmers and their boys had to go out knee deep in the water often in the night time, and by the light of the moon capture with pikes and bring ashore sea-weed to manure the land. They were obliged to walk back sometimes a few miles by the side of the cart of seaweed in dripping flannels, only to return for another load without changing clothes.

   This was what a farmer considered his hardest work, and the ambitions of every poor farmer was to have a son old enough to "keep him from the sea".

   
   Up to 1887, there were few farms which did not contain a Lios. Up to that time no one would disturb the Lios. By 1900, all the Lioses had disappeared, and the plough had gone over their Sites.

   
   Up to 1887 a fair quantity of wheat was grown, each year after that the wheat crop was reduced, until in 1900 only two farmers (in Killiney) grew wheat and had it milled for their own use. In former times when wheat was being threshed people of the house boiled the grain in water with a little sugar - Gráinseachán they called it. It was a little luxury for threshers. Some of the wheat was roasted with sugar. Children brought tins full of this to school to share among their friends.

   On Summer afternoons the village girls brought washed clothes in "cools" - half tubs with upright wooden handles

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Bridget Mc Loughlin

   Gender

   Female

   Age

   57

   Occupation

   Teacher

   Informant

   Mrs Johanna Crowley

   Gender

   Female

   Occupation

   Teacher