School: Stoneyford, Thomastown (roll number 3029)
- Location:
- Áth Stúin, Co. Chill Chainnigh
- Teacher: Finghín Mac Íobhair
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0849, Page 038
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- XML School: Stoneyford, Thomastown
- XML Page 038
- XML “Homemade Toys”
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- There are a lot of home made toys and these are some of them. It was an old man that showed me how they were made. I could make tops, snares for hares and rabbits and catapults to kill birds. He showed me how to make these toys one night when I went up to his house. The first thing he made was a spinning top. He got a suitable bit of timber and shaped it like a top. Then he got a nail and he put the nail up through the centre of it. Then he got a file, and he smoothened the top of the nail. When he was going to make the snares he got six even strands of snaring wire. The he got a nail and put it in the lid of the pot. Then he kept twisting the lid until the strands of wire were twisted. Then he got some twine and a big stake to put in the ground and one little stake to hold up the snare when it is set. He showed me how to make a catapult. He got a "gowlogue" and two pieces of rubber. He put a piece of rubber on each side of the "gowlogue" and got a piece of soft leather such as an upper of a boot and tied it to the other end of the pieces of rubber. Then he showed me how to use it. So one evening after I set the snares I caught two rabbits.
- Collector
- Vera Dunne
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Inis Snag, Co. Chill Chainnigh
- Informant
- Jack Dunne
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Inis Snag, Co. Chill Chainnigh
