School: St Peter's, Phibsboro
- Location:
- Phibsborough, Co. Dublin
- Teacher: Ss. Breathnach
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0799, Page 196
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- Interest in problems, many of the connundrum type, but some genuinely mathematical was common among the older people of the Broomfield district some thirty years ago. It was undoubtedly a remnant of the once widespread interest in and love for learning whihc was a marked characteristic of the Gaelic peasantry of olden times.
Some of these traditional problems were in verse form:-
Example:-
"How many fat chickens at three pence apiece
Will cover an area all over with geese
The geese to be sold at two & ninepence a pair
An every goose to occupy one foot square"?The above problem was a common mathematical "poser" in the Laragh district Castleblayney, where Irish survived as spoken language among older people down to the first decade of the present century."Nonsense" Problems:-Problems of the "Nonsense" type were by no means uncommon in the rural districts of Monaghan(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Séamus Breathnach
- Gender
- Male
