School: Gleann Bruacháin (B.), Cnoc Luinge (roll number 12613)
- Location:
- Glenbrohane, Co. Limerick
- Teacher: P.B. Shine
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0511, Page 386
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
- (continued from previous page)from dampness coming from the roof or soaking from the soil they are rapidly disappearing. They were always thatched with rushes. This quickly decays and if not renewed frequently disappears.
The chimney of the bohans were made of mud strengthened with wattles, and tempered with straws. The outer portion was bound with strong punsn. This sugán was renewed regularly to prevent moisture from soaking through the mud.
As these chimneys were very low it was a general practice among the playboys to watch till a crowd had gathered inside, then tie the door and throw a bag over the chimney top. The result generally was that the door had to be broken open to escape from the smoke if some venturesome one inside didn't succeed in going up portion of the chimney wall and succeed in removing the bag with the brush handle.
The usual ceiling for kitchens was to nail bags to the rafters and these were regularly whitewashed. This gave the house a very bright appearance. Where the bags were not used the farmers used clean reed to cover the inside of the straw. This was either sewn to the laths or pushed inside them.(continues on next page)
