School: Blessington

Location:
Blessington, Co. Wicklow
Teacher:
Séamus Ó Cuinn
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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0913, Page 179

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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0913, Page 179

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  3. XML “Homemade Toys”

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  1. Girls still make daisychains. They make also caps and teacosies out of plaited rushes. They do not make rag dolls like long ago. Boys sometimes made toys out of thread spools; they use to have a stick that would fit down through the hole in the spool, the stick had a very sharp point on it, thus it was made into a top
    Boys also amused themselves with elder canes. They used to put a red poker up through the cane. the smoke would come gushing out. Finally when the poker reached its destination it shot like a bullet which gave such a game the name of gun pastime.
    Snares are still made locally to catch rabbits and hares. There was a simple woman who lived in the Red Bog named Mrs Holmes. She use to set snares in fairy rings, hoping to find a fairy caught in one, but she never succeeded.
    When making dolls the girls drew the head and body together by means of a string put through the neck. The eyes and nose were made of of blackthread sown into the head before it was stuffed. The head had
    (continues on next page)
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    Topics
    1. activities
      1. social activities (~7)
        1. entertainments and recreational activities (~5,933)
          1. toys (~1,598)
    Language
    English
    Informant
    Mrs Kavanagh
    Gender
    Female
    Address
    Newtownpark, Co. Kildare