School: Kilbeg (roll number 11039)
- Location:
- Robertstown, Co. Meath
- Teacher: Aodh Ó Duibhgeannáin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0709, Page 163
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- XML School: Kilbeg
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- XML “Food in Olden Times”
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- Long ago people ate different food to what people eat now. An old man named Philip Patterson, Rahood, who has since died told me that he used to eat stirabout for his breakfast. It would be boiled fresh each morning. The woman of the house used to rise early, about six o’clock, and put on the fire of turf on the heath. Then she put on a big pot of water and when it boiled she added oat meal and boiled it until it was thick. It had to boil for three hours. Then it was taken from the fire and left on the floor. All that were for breakfast sat on stools around the pot and each got a noggin half full of buttermilk and a big iron spoon. They filled in the stirabout to the noggin and ate it. For dinner they turned the potatoes out on a wooden tray called a losset, a pan of cabbage and bacon was laid in the centre of the potatoes and each person was supplied with a spoon and buttermilk(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Philip Melady
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Robertstown, Co. Meath
