School: Gort an Ghainimh (roll number 16127)
- Location:
- Gortaganny, Co. Roscommon
- Teacher: M. Ó Cobhthaigh
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0242, Page 219
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- XML “Food in Olden Times”
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- In olden times the people were generally satisfied with two meals a day and on certain occasions they took three if they could afford this extra meal.
These meals were of the simplest nature and consisted of Indian meal porridge, potatoes used with milk, fish, potato-cakes, cally, and oaten meal bread.
For the morning meal they took Indian meal porridge and at dinner potatoes and butter milk Again at supper time potatoes were used and forks were not in use as is evidenced by the fact that they peeled them with their fingers. This meal was eaten by the firelight.
It was customary to do a few hours work before breakfast. Tables were not in general use, and the people sat around the fire, or placed the the basket on the middle of the floor. They rarely used meat as they could not afford to buy it.
Tea was first used in this district about fifty years ago. Very little tea was used then by the old people. In those days, when it was introduced here the people did not know how to use it. First they put the tea into a tea-pot and poured boiling water on it. When it was drawn(continues on next page)
