School: Uachtar Achaidh (roll number 9762)
- Location:
- Oughteragh, Co. Leitrim
- Teacher: Caitlín Knott
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0224, Page 093
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- XML “Old Houses”
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- Long ago there were five old houses in this district, they were made of clay.
The houses were thatched with straw or rushes. They used to grow the corn and when they trashed it, they kept the straw to thatch. The old houses had a bed in the kitchen. It was in the corner. They had it and it was called a "settle bed". The fire place was always at the gable-end. It was never in the corner or against the wide-wall. Some of the houses were made of stones but most of them were made of clay and wattles. The old people never heard of houses having no chimney or of a house having no chimney or of a house having the fire in the centre of the house. There are accounts of having no glass in the windows, bags and boards were used instead. The floors were made of clay. Half-door were very common and there are numbers of them to be found yet. Turf was used for the fire. All the kind of light they had was rush-light. They were made locally.
I got this information from my father,
- Collector
- Annie Parke
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Lahard, Co. Leitrim
