School: Rathwire (B.) (roll number 8415)

Location:
Rathwire, Co. Westmeath
Teacher:
C. Ó Gallóglaigh
Browse
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0727, Page 391

Archival Reference

The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0727, Page 391

Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.

See copyright details.

Download

Open data

Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

  1. XML School: Rathwire (B.)
  2. XML Page 391
  3. XML (no title)

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

  1. (no title)

    There are three forges in the parish.

    There are three forges in the parish. Two in Rathwire village and one in Killucan. The names of the smiths are James and John Gaynor and James Cooney. The trade has been hand down in the families for years. The forges are situated on the side of the street and are just ordinary sheds. There is only one fireplace in each forge. The bellows is a big wooden one with leather sides and is worked by a pull chain. The smith uses a sledge hammer rasp, tongs, shoeing knife, punch and cutting iron. He also uses a square and compar(?) when making fancy articles. The smiths shoe horses and asses.
    James Cooney won prizes for sets of shoes he made. He is also a great gaelic footballer and handballer. He makes gates, harrows, firegrates, drags, and fish spears. The water used for cooling the hot iron was supposed to cure warts on the hands. The smith was always respected and a favourite with the people. All the smiths have a knowledge of horses and farmers consult them about any defects or ailments. The local forge is a great place for news and many old stories are told in it when farmers meet together there. There was a third forge in Rathwire. The smiths name was Tom Lynch. There was another in Thomastown.
    The shoeing of cart wheels and barrow wheels
    (continues on next page)
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    Topics
    1. activities
      1. economic activities
        1. trades and crafts (~4,680)
          1. smithing (~2,389)
    Language
    English