School: Baile Theas (B.), Malla (roll number 4953)

Location:
Ballyhass, Co. Cork
Teacher:
Tadhg Ó Hanluain
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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0364, Page 337

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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0364, Page 337

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  1. XML School: Baile Theas (B.), Malla
  2. XML Page 337
  3. XML “Old Houses”

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  1. The houses long ago were very small and they fell in the course of years because they were made of yellow clay. The walls were made of yellow clay because earth would not do because it would not hold together. The clay was mixed like mortar is mixed nowadays and chopped hay or straw was mixed through it to give it bond. These walls were very dry and they were usually about three feet thick. They had no chimneys except a hole in the roof with an old box plastered on top of it. The gable wall near the fireplace was built of stone for fear of the clay cracking. These houses were known as mud wall cabins. Sometimes they were thatched with rushes or strong reeds that grew by the riverside. A hole in the wall with a bag stuck in it by night served as a window. During the Penal times the English Parliament put a heavy tax on the price of glass and the people used as little as they could of it and the poor people only used one pain of glass. They had earthen floors. The ruins of these old mud wall houses are still to be seen and there are the ruins of a town or village where Mr Falvey's house now stands at Ballyrushon. These houses must have been used ages ago because the house that I am living is over one hundred and fifty years old and the walls of it are made of stone and it is roofed with rough heavy slates. The walls were made of mud and straw and are about three feet thick. It is said that there was a group of them where Mr. Falvey's house of Ballyrushon now stands. It is said there was a group of them in Mr. Denis McCarthy's land of Gneeves but the ruins of them are falling now and the reed is plain to be seen between the walls. People had their own light because they made their own light
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    Topics
    1. objects
      1. man-made structures
        1. buildings
          1. residential buildings (~2,723)
    Language
    English
    Informant
    Mr D.M. O' Connell
    Gender
    Male
    Address
    Knockardsharriv, Co. Cork