School: Balrath (roll number 9770)
- Location:
- Balrath, Co. Westmeath
- Teacher: Bean Uí Oirghiall
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0738, Page 011
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- XML School: Balrath
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- XML “Churning”
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- In some houses around here they still have the old fashioned churn but in our house we have an "End over end" as it is much harder than the dash churn. We have it about eight years and it is a very big one as we have a lot of cow's.
I saw a dash churn in Gallagher's. It stood on the floor and was very wide at the bottom and had a narrow waist and went out wide at the top. There was a round lid on it with a hole in the centre to let the dash up and down. The dash was like a pole with a flat piece of wood at the bottom to beat the milk until the butter came on the top.
Told by Thomas Nugent, Grange geeth, Bunbrosna
The old people believed that it was not right to give away milk on a May morning. It would mean bad luck with the butter for the year. If a person came in when you were churning and he did not take a hand at the dash it was believed that he would charm your butter away.
A woman who was supposed to be a witch lived long ago in the district. She used to go out on the first of May and take a(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Rose Nugent
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Grangegeeth, Co. Westmeath
