School: Ashfort (B.), Ráthluirc
- Location:
- Ashford, Co. Limerick
- Teacher: Muiris Ó Mathúna
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0493, Page 227
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- About ninety years ago the famine was in this county. Owing to the failure of the potato crop, food was very scarce. So they had only the turnips to eat three times a day. The only weapons they had were the spade, the pike and the scythe. They had no ploughs or harrows or mowing machines with the spades. There were no shops in olden times. The people used to pull with their hands. They used to make their own clothes. They used to pull the flax with their hands, then spread it out to bleach. Then they would gather it up and make a hurl, and put it up on the hill, and put a fire under it to dry. Then they used to pound it with bittles, clove it with a cloving tongs. Hackle it then spin it into thread.(continues on next page)
