School: Drom an Mhadaidh
- Location:
- Drumavaddy, Co. Cavan
- Teacher: S. Ó Murchadha
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0990, Page 023
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- The Care of our Farm Animals
There are nine farm animals at home, consisting of two cows, a pony, two pigs, two goats and two calves. Our two cows names are “Crumby and Daisy.” When I am driving the cows back and forward I shout “cow-on”! “cow-on”! Our byre is a large stone building covered with galvanised iron, and there are three air holes for ventilation at the head of the byre. Then there is a place for the fodder, and it is called a “manger”. Our cowhouse is called a byre. The cows are tied by the neck by means of a chain, and on each chain there is a loop put in on a stake, so that the cows can stand up and lie down without any difficulty. If the cows happened to “thieve” (that means to break away) the owner would put a spanchel on them. The spanchel used is home-made, it consists of a hay rope. Blessed palm is hung in the byre for good luck at easter. In olden times people used to take butter, and people used to guard themselves against it. On May eve they got a branch of rowantree, divided it up, put some of it in the byre, some of it on the cows tail and some of it on the churn dash to break the spell. In olden times when cows were fresh after calving, when milking, the people would put a pinch of salt in the bottom of the gallon, In the name of the Father, And of the Son, And of the Holy Ghost. Amen. to bring good luck for the coming year. We have one pony and he is very tame and gentle. We call him Beauty. We keep him out on the grass in the Summer(continues on next page)
