School: Lurga, Patrick's Well (roll number 10317)

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1. Washing Clothes Before Soap Came into Use

   

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   Washing Clothes Before Soap Came Into Use. The clothes were first taken to a pond, or preferably to a running stream. Where large flat stones were placed. Those stones were called bittling stones. The stones were rinsed or steeped in the water. They were then pounded and beaten on these stones, with wooden bittles. There were two kinds of bittles used. One was the shape of a mallet, and the other resembled a hand rack, which is used by house thatchers for beating and levelling the thatch. When the clothes were thoroughly bittled, they were finally rinsed in the stream, and then placed on a hedge to dry. It was said that the clothes when dry were as white as snow. You would often hear this expression. "Hello Michael, it is often your mother and my mother, bittled in the one pond". Recorded from Mrs. Foley, Clounanna, Patrickswell, Co. Limerick.

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   Topics

   1. activities
      1. economic activities
         1. trades and crafts (~4,680)
   2. objects
      1. clothing and accessories (~2,403)

   Language

   English

   Informant

   Mrs Foley

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Cloonanna, Co. Limerick

2. Making of Household Linen

   

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   Making of Household Linen.

   
   The People of this locality made their own linen sheets and shirts from flax. Flax was extensively grown at the time.

   When the flax would be ripe, it would be pulled and put in to a bog for a period of ten days. Then it would be brought home and put on a "Hurdle" about two feet high, before the fire to dry it properly. Then it would be "Hackled or "Cloved". This meant shaking the hulls off. When "Cloving" , a thing called a "Cloving thongs" was

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

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