School: Lacken (C.), Cill Mhichíl (roll number 13827)
- Location:
- Lacken, Co. Clare
- Teacher: Bean Uí Mhaonaigh
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0602, Page 043
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.
On this page
- Linen
Long ago the line trade was carried on in every house throughout the Country. For this purpose flax was grown in every farm. The flax was first pulled by hand, and made into bundles or sheaves. Then it was taken to the bog-hole and buried there. After a time it was taken out and spread in a field to dry. It was again made into bundles and left in a dry place.
It was then taken and pounded with sticks called "Túrgíns". This beating was to clear off the hulls for it was the fibres that were used. It was then cloven with a cloving tongs. It was then hackled. The hackle was an instrument with iron pegs. The flax was then drawn over these, and the part that remained of the pegs was called tow and this was used for the coarser linen. There was a second run given, and this was called Dowlass. Then that was a first class linen.
Then it was made into skeins or hanks. Then it was washed and boiled with a substitute for soap made of ashes of ferns. Then it was put out to bleach, during which it had to be turned and shaken. Then it was wound up,(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Brigid O' Leary
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Cahercannavan, Co. Clare
- Informant
- Michael O' Leary
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 62
- Address
- Cahercannavan, Co. Clare
