School: Machaire Áirne
- Location:
- Magherarny, Co. Monaghan
- Teacher: P. Mac Aodhgáin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0945, Page 177
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- Thatching houses with straw is a trade that has nearly died out of this county. Long ago when people wanted to thatch a house they cut up a lot of meal bags and sewed them all together and made what they called a "Winning cloth". They spread it out on the ground beside a stack of corn, took the sheaves off one by one put them down on the cloth, and a man threshed to take off the corn with two sticks tied together called a flail. When the corn was take off they took the straw in their two hands and shook the weeds out of it and placed it together so that all the straws were all the one lengeth, then tied it up in bundles and brought it out to the house. A man went to a hazel hedge and cut a lot of thin sticks dressed them and sharpened them at at the two ends theses were called "scallops for keeping on(continues on next page)
- Informant
- James Toal
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 50
- Address
- Magherarny, Co. Monaghan
