School: Maoilinn (B.), Áth Treasna
- Location:
- Meelin, Co. Cork
- Teacher: Diarmuid de Brún
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0350, Page 146
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- (continued from previous page)so as to make it still finer and to bring out the toe. A Cloving-tongs was about four feet long.
The flax would then be 'hackled' for the purpose of bringing out any coarse stuff in it. The coarse flax left after hackling was used for making coarse heavy sheets many of which are still to be seen in many of the farmers houses of this locality.
A hackle was a piece of very smooth timber about a foot and a half square and having steel prongs like ordinary nails but much longer. They were not very plentiful and they would be 'hired-out' to those who would require them by people who would have a number of them.
The flax would be now in a most fine state and it would next be spun into ‘scéins’ on a spinning wheel. The people used send it away to be woven into cloth. There were certain men in each locality who used weave the flax into cloth. John Linehan who lived near the church was the weaver in Meelin. He died several years ago. People used make sheet, bolster and pillow-cases, table-cloths etc of the flax-cloth.
