School: Bellanagare (roll number 2968)
- Location:
- Bellanagare, Co. Roscommon
- Teacher: Seán Mac Dochair
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0244, Page 130
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- There are not any tailors in my district nowadays as the last one died about six years ago. He worked at his trade in his house but long ago the tailors went from house to house and did their work in that way. The last of those tailors was a man named John Donovan. At that time all the clothes which were worn were home made.
Wool was carded and spun by the women folk and then sent to the local weaver to be woven. It was then thickened into frize in a mill for that purpose which was in the district. The tailor then made this frize into overcoats the like of which is not to found nowadays. Linen was also made from flax grown plentifully in the district at that time.
When the flax was cut it was steeped in a bog hole and then dried. it then went through a process called "scutching" in which which all the boys and girls of the district joined and after which a dance was held. It was then woven into linen and made into shirts collars and sheets. The frize, linen, tweed and courdroy were the principal types of cloth worn in the district. There is also a rymhe concerning those clothes
"Oh, don't despise the Irish frize, I wore it when a boy, and breeches too , red, white and blue, made of good cordroy".
- Collector
- Mary Geraghty
- Gender
- Female
- Informant
- Michael Geraghty
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 65
- Address
- Bellanagare, Co. Roscommon
