School: Athboy (C.)
- Location:
- Athboy, Co. Meath
- Teacher: Brighid, Bean Uí Mhácháin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0696, Page 429
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- XML “Food in the Olden Times”
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- The people had three meals a day in olden times. The meals were called breakfast, dinner and supper. They had breakfast at eight o'clock, dinner at three and supper at nine. The people used to work in the morning before they ate any food. They often mowed a meadow before they had thier breakfast.
The breakfast consisted of porridge and buttermilk, the dinner of potatoes, cabbage and bacon and the supper of porridge or sometimes oaten bread. At the time of the landlords they had potatoes and buttermilk at every meal because they had to sell the grain to pay thier rent. The people who were rich used to sit around the table in the centre of the floor. The poorer people had no table at all. They all ate out of a big basket in the centre of the floor. The table in many of the old houses used to be hung up against the wall when not in use. The bottom part of it would serve as a seat.
The most common bread that was eaten long ago was oaten bread. It was(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Betty Cusack
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Athboy, Co. Meath
- Informant
- Jack Daly
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Athboy, Co. Meath
