School: Aghalustia (roll number 12484)
- Location:
- Aghalustia, Co. Roscommon
- Teacher: Máire Ní Dhubhthaigh
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0241, Page 022
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- XML “Food Long Ago”
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- The food eaten long ago was quite different from the food nowadays. Our forefathers ate only two meals a day - their breakfast which consisted of oatmeal porridge - and their dinner which was of potatoes and skim milk or porridge. The former was eaten in the morning and the latter in the evening. The third meal a day was eaten some years after. The "four o'clock" or fourth meal was introduced about thirty-five years ago. This was much needed as the men working in the fields had a long fast from dinner time - about one o'clock - till suppertime which in those days used to be very late. The eight-hour day was unheard of then. The four o'clock meal or lunch consisted of bread and butter and tea.
Tea was introduced into Ireland about the time of the battle of the Boyne. It was so dear that the working class knew nothing about it. After the price of tea came so low that the working class could buy it, they were as ignorant of its use that they did not(continues on next page)
