-stacks and so on but when a stronger rope is needed for carrying purposes such as carrying corn sheaves to the stack (and if no suitable hemp rope is to be had) people can very quickly convert a single ply hay or straw rope into one quite sufficient for their purpose. This is done by making carefully a single rope about seven or eight yards long then rolling up the rope for about four yards the single rope being held at one end by the person who twisted it. The other person now proceeds to double the rope which he does by taking hold of the single rope tightly

Rope Making: The rope commonly used

Rope making is a local “craft” Hay ropes, as strong as hemp ropes, are made locally -
How to make a rope:- Get an armful of good long spray hay and shake it well. Get the twister and twist the hay into a rope.
A man and a little boy generally make the ropes, the boy twists the rope and the man let’s go the hay through his hands. The man gages the rope between between the thumb and first finger of the left hand. He supplies the hay to make the rope with his right hand. He never has a break in the rope and the rope must be of even thickness. When the rope is long enough he coils it up into a ball.
When roping a Rick he holds one end and throws the coil of rope over the Rick. The weight of the coil unrolls the rope. The man on the other side catches the other end. Each gages the rope into the correct place and fastens his end into hay pulled from the side of the Rick. In this way ropes are fastened

their shoes worn up to the uppers in search of work, but could fine none. One day they were very hungry and they came to a church. Paddy and his companion went in to rob it and they began to gather everything they could get. They could not tie them as they had no rope. They saw a rope hanging from the belfry. Pat climbed up the rope until the bell stopped him and so released one hand and one foot and held on with one hand to the rope. He put the other hand in his pocket, and got our his clasp knife and with one slash he cut the rope above his head and fell down into fifty feet below. "oh that's no way to steal a rope" said his companion. "Mick just lend me your knife". He climbed up the rope like a monkey and when he got to the top of the rope he cut it under his feet, and of course the rope fell and Mick was left hanging above. Pat shouted to him not to come down; with the tugging and pulling the bell began to ring and the bell-ringer came. The first thing he eyed was Pat moaning on the ground all broken up and the bell ringing. "Then he saw Mick clinging on to the belfry." Then he got a ladder and took him

"The Rope Walk:
New Ross being a seaport doing a large export grain trade, rope-making ws carried on to an appreciable extent, in the long ago. A long rope walk belonging to Brownes North St. extended from the Town Wall at Nunnery Lane end to Bosheen-a-Slawn. All rope walks have been forgotten but this particular stretch is still referred to as "The Rope Walk."
One of the forgotton rope-walks was in Michael St. This stretched on towards Mary St.

One morning a farmer went for the cows to milk them. Across the gap where the cows were to come home there was a rope tied to two trees. The farmer went over ripped the rope and took it home. When the man went home he carried the rope into the barn. When he went into the barn there was a barrel turned up side down. The farmer then put the rope in under the barrel and never thought of it till they were drawing in the hay in July. The servants said to the farmer that if they had an other bit of a rope that it would be very handy. The farmer just thought then of the rope that was under the barrel in the barn. "Run in" said the farmer to the son "and bring out the bit of the rope that is under the barrel in the barn. The son went into the barn but was not able to lift the barrel He came out and said to his father "If I got Ireland this minute I could'nt lift the barrel. The father was mad to his son. "Go on our that you big bostun you could'nt lift an empty barrel." "Alright so" said the son "Go in and try it yourself." In the farmer went but had the same story as the son; he

hay fork is stuck down through the bundle of hay to make it secure. One man works the twister and the other pulls out the hay. The man who is pulling out the hay first pulls out a small handful and the other man sticks the crook of the twister in it and begins to twist. While one is drawing out the hay for the rope the other twists it and moves backwards while he twists it and so on till the rope is long enough.When a short rope is being made the twister is not used at all. The man who is making the rope pulls out the hay and twists it with his hands at the same time. As he twists the rope he rolls it into a ball and as he turns this ball in his hand the rope twists also. When he has enough rope made it is rolled up into a bundle.

and as it is coming to the ground they jump up and they let it pass under their feet. They give a few skips and then they jump out the other side. In skipping we enjoy ourselves very much.
We play swinging by getting a long rope. Each end of this rope os tied securely to two brambles of a tree and it is let sling down to within three or four feet of the ground. A bag of hay is got and it is left down on the rope. Then a person sits on this bag that is on the rope and she catches hold of the rope on each side of her with her two hands. There is a girl at each side of the rope. They catch hold of the rope and they swing it out as fast as possible and back again. When she has got enough swings another girls goes up on the rope in her place. In playing this we have great pleasure.
In playing see saw we leave a long plank across a ditch. A child goes up and down on each end of the plank and they both weigh up and down. As the child on one side is going up in the air

A girl take a rope and holds an end in each hand. She then puts the rope behind her back and quickly draws it over her head. Then she jumps and lets the rope out under her feet. She keeps doing this as often as she can without letting the rope get caught in her feet. The girls who can do this the greatest number of times wins the game.

the ring used hit the boy in the centre with the rope. The boy (in centre) used make a grab to take the rope from him but he'd pass it under his legs to the next boy who used hit the boy in the centre with the rope also. The boy, from whom the boy in the centre would take the rope, used have to go into the centre of the ring then. And so the game was continued in this way for hours

A number of men make a straw rope. They dip it in a barrel of water. Then about nine or ten sit down in a ring and one man in the middle. They pass the rope to each other and if the man in the middle catches the rope, the man that he catches the rope from has to go in the middle.

Ballyhale by twelve men who found him guilty and condemned him to death. They took him out to an out house tied his hands behind his back put a rope around his neck put him standing on a box and then tied the rope to the rafters and then pulled the box away he was hanging for a short time when a man named Tierney found him he cut the rope and saved him not a moment to soon. The mark of the rope was on his throat till the day he died.

Most farmers keep a horse mainly for taking home turf which are from 4 to 6½ miles distant. He is tied in the stable by means of a rope round his neck. The other end of the rope is passed through a hole in the top of the manger and a block of wood is then tied to this end. This lessens the danger of the horse getting entangled in rope & perhaps choked, as the weight of the block will always keep the rope taut. Except when taking home the turf when he is given feeds

To trap birds you must get a flat basket a piece of stick about a foot long and a rope. Put the basket up on its end and tied the rope to the stick then support the basket with the stick and hold the other end of the rope in a place of concealment. Scatter a few crumbs under the basket as a bait. When the birds are tempted to eat the crumbs you pull the rope which knocks the stick out of place and the basket fall over the birds.

rope on the cows neck, drove her up on the house, he let the rope down the chimney and in order to steady the cow above on the house he attached the rope around his own lef in the kitchen, but he hadn't this very long done when the cow stumbled and fell down off the house and John was pulled up the chimney with the rope, he was in a terrible plight now. The people working in the field were wondering what was wrong it was long past dinner time and they were not called, so his wife came in to see what was wrong and when she came near the house she was astonished to see the cow hanging between heaven and earth, she ran as quickly as she possibly could got a knife she cut the rope and let the

We grow potatoes on our farm. We have out an acre of ground under potatoes and we grow the same amount each year. My father prepares the ground for the potatoes in the following manner -: First of all he mows the rushes off the field which he intends to dig and fences around it. Then he gets a scoring rope with a peg knotted at each end of it. He starts at one end of the field and stretches the rope from top to bottom. He then gets a loy and cuts the ground along by the rope. He lifts the rope again and stretches it one yard from the first score and cuts the ground along by the rope. He continues that until he has the field scored. He draws the farm-yard manure to the field and spreads it between the lines. Then a gets a loy and digs a sod each side of the manure and he continues that until he has the field dug.

a master He shouted Harrow Harrow Then each man drew the rope and beat the master a couple of strokes on the back He would have a search for the rope and any man that the rope was found with would have to go into the ring and take the masters place. How "hanging other" was played. There was a certain man to be hung, he was taken out to be hung. There was a rope placed out of a beam and when the hangman came to hang him the prisoner covered his hand with dirth and when the rope was being put around his neck he caught the hang man by the hair of the head with the dirt he had on his hands How Sewing the old coat was played Every one had to sit around the floor in a ring There was an old coat thrown

in the left hand and proceeding to twist the half rope in the roll, round the stretched half. He does this by a peculiar twisting, hard to describe but not so difficult to perform. Having the rope doubled in this way he secures the end by making a hard knot.He then places his right foot on the end of the rope thus made and taking the other end in his hands he draws it across his shoulder and then giving a bend forward he pulls the rope out somewhat causing the coils to lie more evenly and generally improving the newly-finished rope which is by this time

On a May morning about a century ago a man from the Effishmore district went out walking along the road. He came alongside a hedge and he saw cows graze in a field and an old woman standing beside one of the cows. She had a rope in her hand and she was calling "come a' to me" and each time she said these words she made a knot on the rope. The man by way of fun called out "come half to me" and instantly the old woman disappeared leaving the rope behind her. The man took the rope home and left it on the top of the dresser. Some time after they were churning in the house and the hoop came off the churn. The man reached for the rope and tied it round the churn. When they began to churn again they could not lift the churn staff as the churn was full of butter.

The chief priest hanger was Seán Browne or "Seán - na - Sagart" as he was called. A priest was being hung in Castlebar once and the rope broke. Another rope was found and this time Seán shouted "Soap the rope". The rope was soaped and the priest was hung. Ever since Seán went by the name "Soap the Rope". One day he gave a feast. All the English Protestant gentry of Mayo attended. In the middle of the feasting he showed his guests a rope