School: Coillte Mághach (roll number 12520)

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1. Buying and Selling (continued)

   

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   for even these.

   Out in the country there were little shops selling salt, herring and such commodities. There were women who huckstered these from house to house in a cliat sling on their back. In the towns there was no Sunday closing then not even of the public houses and much buying was done after mass on these days.

   At present practically every shop is closed on Sundays. Some of the drapers sell goods after mass though they do not open their shop as on other days. The chemists' shop is usually kept open for a few hours after mass on Sundays.

   If a person got goods on credit, the phrase used was "he 'strapped' them, or he got them "on strap". The Irish phrase for change was often used, as indeed it is up to the present day, e.g. "I wouldn't like to 'break' a pound." "Have you the breaking of a pound for me?" If money were borrowed from the bank or the gambeen-man a similar form of expression was used e.g. "He "raised" ten pounds in the bank."

   Apparently in the old shops on the

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. activities
      1. economic activities
         1. trade
            1. buying and selling (~3,622)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Máirtín Ó Cearbhaill

   Gender

   Male