School: Tuar Árd, Áth Treasna (roll number 8893)

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1. Old Houses (continued)

   

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   people of the house to sit on it, if they had no chairs. This is how the chimneys used to be made, they were not built into the walls as they are now, instead, they first built the walls, then where the fire-place was to be they built two piers, one at either side of it, on those piers they laid an oak slab, this they called the mantle, on this slab they built an arch of stones and mud up to the rood getting narrower as it went up, the top of the chimney used to be only about half a foot from the thatch.

   The rafters were generally made of bog deal. cross lathes being then pegged to them, as they had no nails, then bawn ''scraws'' were placed over the whole roof as a first covering, these being sewn on to the rafter sugáin. Then some rushes were put on next and this was also sewn. Then it was finally thatched with rushes and ''scolops''. Half doors were not so common in the district nowadays as long ago. The floors were made of mud but later they paved them. This work was done by tradesmen called pavers. There were many of these tradesmen in this district long ago. The floors nowadays are either boarded or cemented. Over on the rooms there usually was a loft but there was no stairs leading up to it only a ladder.

   For lights by night they used a splinter of bog deal. They used make their own candles also, these were called 'dipps''. These were made by rendering the tallow of a goat and then get pieces of cotton thread about twelve inches long and dip them into the tallow, then leave them dry and they kept dipping them into the tallow until they were as thick as an ordinary candle. They had also rush lights that were made by getting the white pith of rushes and

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. objects
      1. man-made structures
         1. buildings
            1. residential buildings (~2,723)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   John Foley

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Glanycummane Upper, Co. Cork