School: Cluain Abhann (roll number 16127)
- Location:
- Cloonown, Co. Roscommon
- Teachers: Seán Ó Riain Máirtín Ó Riain
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0270, Page 124
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
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
- In this district about seventy years ago each housewife made a large quantity of linen from the flax which was sown on the farm. My grandmother who lived in Buggawn always made the linen for the family wear, and the following is an account of it given to me by my mother.
First the flax was sown in Spring in large ridges. In harvest a blue flower came on the the stalk, and when the flower withered the flax was considered ripe. It was cut by means of a reaping hook. It was then scutched. The tow was thrown into a bog hole, and the seed was used to make a drink for calves. The tow was left in the in bog hole for three weeks. After this it was taken out and "heckled" as the old people called it. When it was "heckled" it was made into large strips of about forty inches long. These strips were then put on a loom and spun into yarn. The yarn was then left to steep in a large tub of water, and as there was no lux at that time a lather of soap was made and the yarn was left to steep for a(continues on next page)
- Informant
- Mrs Lawrence Geoghegan
- Relation
- Parent
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Boggan, Co. Roscommon
