School: Ballymore (C.) (roll number 7444)

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1. Old Houses

   

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   Long ago people in Ireland of the small farmer or peasant class as they were called lived in small cabins, with one apartment, or at most three, Built of clay called mud walls, sometimes with small little holes for windows and more of them none at all, as at one time even the windows were taxed so that they were nearley all built up to avoid the tax. Usually the fire place was in the gable end of the house, and sometimes in the corner with an old-can stuck in the roof for a chimney. The floors were made of clay the yellow clay that was down in the ground very far: In Kerry and Clare when a new floor was in the making when the clay was mixed with water a lot of goats were collected an driven in to tramp it down. In the kitchen there was always a wooden bed called a settle bed. It would be let down on hinges at night and closed up in the day. There are plenty of them in use still but as they get broken no one gets a new one made. They are slowly wearing out. With regard to light the old people used to make candles themselves. They pulled big rushes and pelled them, and

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. objects
      1. man-made structures
         1. buildings
            1. residential buildings (~2,723)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Kitty Martin

   Gender

   Female

   Informant

   Edward Mulrean

   Gender

   Male

   Age

   70

   Address

   Maddadoo, Co. Westmeath