School: Rathcoffey, Donadea (roll number 6174)
- Location:
- Rathcoffey North, Co. Kildare
- Teacher: Bean Uí Laideáin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0771, Page 184
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- People long ago had three meals a day, breakfast dinner and supper. For breakfast, they had potatoes and buttermilk. In latter years, they used oatmeal stirabout and buttermilk for breakfast. They grew their own oats and ground it by means of grind stones. Mallets were also used for this purpose. They boiled the oaten meal for a few hours. Then they put this food into noggins and used it with buttermilk. They usually worked for a few hours before having this meal which was eaten about 8 o clock.
Dinner: This meal was eaten about 12 or 1 o'c. It consisted of potatoes and buttermilk. They dipped the potatoes in salt and drank buttermilk.
People sat around the table which was usually placed near the wall. One end of the table was fastened to the wall by means of a fastener or hinge. When not in use this table was turned up and hung on the wall. They were called 'press tables'.
Some of the old people tell us that the table was placed in the centre of the floor for the Sunday meals, and on week days they left it by the wall. If they did not do this, they said,(continues on next page)
