School: Knocktemple (B.)

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1. The Famine Period (continued)

   

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   for three men.
   The best reaper was put as leader or "fore-hook" and any man unable to keep his place was immediately dismissed. I knew several old men who worked for "Padna" Tuite Knockaraheen where the rate of work was three men to the acre. They suffered from a pain in the wrist of the left hand (the hand which grabbed the corn) and this pain was called a "Thala" (phonetic), to relieve the pain a strap was tied very tightly around the wrist. These reapers, even when old men, thought very lightly of reaping fifty stooks in a day, a stook contained either twelve or fourteen sheaves. Stooks were always "headed" that is head-sheaves were bound on the tops. Most men of this period threshed the corn in their bare feet, lest a single grain should be injured or destroyed. Inside the barn door there was always a "beesum" of heather and it was the duty of anyone entering the barn to sweep up any scattered grains out of his way. Neglect to do so would greatly annoy the old man, who would view such behaviour in much the same manner as we would now, a man who failed to remove his hat on entering the chapel. The amount threshed by flail again leaves us, in these days of threshing machines, filled with astonishment.
   A woman named Mary Lynch called "Maugus" carried a sack of meal containing forty-eight stone on her back into a house from a cart, the distance being about fourteen yards. She was able to bind an acre of oats in a day.

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

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