School: Curraigh (B.) (roll number 12066)
- Location:
- Curry, Co. Sligo
- Teacher: Peadar Ó Braonáin
Open data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- XML School: Curraigh (B.)
- XML Page 0454
- XML “Country Shops”
Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.
On this page
- Country Shops.
In the olden times, shops were not as plentiful as they are nowadays. The people had to do most of their shopping in the town. The type of small shop, which flourished then was the "shebeen." The "shebeen" sold the usual goods, sugar, tea, starch, blue etc. The reason it was called a "shebeen" was because it sold whiskey and tobacco without a license. As those shops were often raided by the police, those forbidden goods were generally hidden outside. Buying in shops then, was largely done by barter - eggs (chiefly) and butter being exchanged for the shop goods.
Boot: If a person exchanged an article of superior value for an article of less value, then he was supposed to get money in compensation which was called "Boot".
If goods were got on credit, the credit was called "tick" "Cants" are still in existance in Mayo + Sligo. They specialise in selling second-hand clothes In former years they attended markets with horse vehicles on which they carried the "standing" and goods. "Cants" are sometimes called "standings", though "standings" are really carts covered with canvas in which sweet, oranges, etc, are sold). Nowadays the(continues on next page)