Told by Patrick Reilly
Food of long ago
The food the people used long ago was potatoes and porridge and oaten bread. When the people used to go out to work long ago, they had to work about three hours before their breakfast.
When they would go in for their breakfast it would be oaten-porridge and butter-milk. There were three sorts of boxty they used namely boxty loaf, pan boxty, and dumplings.
On Hallow Eve they used to eat culcannon or boxty. They used to eat oaten porridge for their

The principal bread used by the people around here 40 years ago was oaten cake. It was made of oaten meal wet with water mixed first with the hands like dough afterwards flattened out on a board or table until it was not much thicker than the edge of a knife. It was then baked BEFORE the FIRE (a turf fire) on a bread stand which was an iron stand with one foot standing behind and the cake was put standing up in front of it.
The grown up members of the family ate this cake with an egg or boiled bacon to breakfast. This cake with boiled bacon was taken by men to fairs for lunch. It with a bottle of buttermilk was taken by children to school.
Another kind of bread used here was boxty. This was of two kinds boiled boxty and baked boxty.
The boiled boxty was prepared in this way:- Potatoes were peeled and grated. Then the water squeezed out of them through a cloth. What was left in the cloth was mixed with

and she told me besides that the old people considered soda bread bad for the stomach as the soda was poison etc, and that people who were eating it hadn't such good health.Fried Boxty
Then boxty is very nice when fried in the form of pancakes. Grate the potatoes as for boiled boxty. Strain off the water but it's not necessary to wring, add salt to taste a little carraway and then about half cupful of new milk or freshly skimmed will do, thicken this batter with flour not too much flour and blend as in ordinary pancakes. Beat well and just before putting on the pan add half teaspoonful each of soda and cream of tartar or baking powder in proportion to the quantity made which all good cooks know how to do. Fry in nice hot fat to a good brown and turn and when both sides are brown lift on to paper to absorb grease. Serve with butter, and sugar can be used according to taste.
Boxty is indigestable if eaten cold. Best and nicest eaten hot.

some horses and carts. The marriage feast consisted of oaten bread, boiled bacon and whiskey punch. Very wealthy marriages might have a goose for the feast when the married couple entered there was oaten bread broke over their heads. The customs of Shrove Tuesday were pan cakes oaten potatoe cake and fried bacon for supper and boxty cake or starch cake this was made in this way by scraping raw potatoes and straining the juice through a cloth mix some flour and salt that made the boxty cake.

Long ago the people used to make boxty bread potatoes bread, and oaten meal bread. They used to make boxty bread of potatoes some of them boiled and some raw. They used to scrape the potatoes with a scraper and then they used to mix them together with some flour through the potatoes and mix them together and bake it on a griddle. Potato bread was made of boiled potatoes, salt and flour this was the most common bread, people used

In the olden times the people used to have oatenmeal bread, bread, boxty cake, and potato cake. The way they used to make boxty cake is they peeled off the skin and then scraped it on a grater and then they put it on a dish and made it. They had only raw potatoes at that time. The manner they used to make potato cake is they peel off the skin and then mash

Long ago people used to make boxty. This is how it was made. They would get a bucket of fine big potatoes, clean them till they were as white as snow. Then they would get an iron grater and grate the potatoes, and put them into a big white enamel bucket and mix it with flour and butter and bake on a griddle. It was eaten with sour milk. They used to say this verse when beginning to eat it.
Boxty on the griddle,
Boxty on the pan,
If you don't eat boxty,
You will never get a man.

The various kinds of bread made in Ireland within the past hundred years are Potatoe bake made from potatoes. Boxty bread principally in Connaught made also from potatoes and baked in a griddle. Oatenmeal bread is also baked in a griddle. The bread know as Stampy in Munster is only another name for the boxty of Connaught. Bread

to make potato - cakes, boxty bread, and oaten - meal bread. They used to make Potato - cakes out of boiled potatoes and flour and they used to mix it with milk. Boxty - bread was made from raw potatoes and water. They used to make bread each night for the week. The people used to put a cross in the cakes the way they would not burst.

Boxty Bread is made around here at the present time. It is made of raw potatoes rasped and mixed with flour and salt. It can be made thick and baked, when it is known as a boxty loaf or it can be pressed out thinly and sliced and fried on the pan. It is also known locally as Rasp.

Another favourite food was boxty or rasp and potato bread. They used to grate the potatoes and then drain off the water of it. Then they put a pinch of salt and a few handfulls of flour. They baked the boxty on pans. The potatoes were boiled for the bread. They were mixed with flour and salt and baked on a griddle.

In olden times the people got four meals a day, their breakfast dinner tea and supper. They got porridge to their breakfast and sometimes hard bread and milk. They got bull milk and boxty bread, bull milk was made of oaten meal steeped in water and strained into a cup. Boxty bread

salt and butter-milk was used with the potatoes. The butter-milk was placed in small wooden vessels called "noggins". Oaten-bread was a novelty. In this area fish and some vegetables were also used.
A drink called "sowans" was made by steeping oat-meal in water for a certain length of time and boiling the juice. This drink was used all during Lent when there was a "black-fast".
Sometimes the people sat at a table close to the wall. This table was secured to the wall and could be hung up against the wall when not in use. These tables were known as "falling tables" and many of them still are used. A calf or pig was sometimes killed. The flesh was salted and lasted for several months.
"Boxty-bread" was and still is considered a treat. It is usual to still make "boxty" for certain occasions - Xmas, Easter and Hallow E'en. There is "boiled boxty" and "baked boxty". Raw potatoes are grated and mixed with

On this night, the old people used to have colcannon, boxty and tea for supper. Colcannon was made by mashing boiled potatoes and adding new milk. Boxty was a kind of bread made from potatoes and flour.
On this night the young people used to "dress up" to prevent their being known. The boys used to be dressed as girls and the girls as boys. They would go into some neighbour's house and steal the cake of boxty. Then they would go to some other house, make tea and eat the boxty.
The souls in Purgatory were supposed to be let loose on this night so as to return to the homes of their living relatives. Many of the old people would not bolt the doors on this night. The hearth would be cleanly swept, a fire left burning and a supper left ready for the dead relatives.
Many superstitious beliefs were connected with this night. A girl who placed

was a straight piece of metal joined to the front at the top. The bread when done was quite hard.Boxty bread was also made at Halloweve, Christmas and Easter. Boxty is made from raw potatoes, and some boiled ones. The raw potatoes are grated put into the boxty bag, wrung quite dry, salt added to both kinds of potato well mixed and put into a hot oven.It was the custom in olden times to take the lighted turf from the part of hearth where the fire was and spread cabbage leaves on that part, turn a pot down over the boxty, put the turf around the pot, and leave till next morning.The way to make potato bread is to get boiled potatoes and mash them up fine and put salt on them and mix it up with flour, roll out and bake. It can be eaten for tea with butter and sugar, or fried with bacon for breakfast.

All the bread was made with corn, with the exception of "potato bread" and "boxty". All the corn was grown locally. "Boxty" was used on Hollow Eve night and pancakes on the occasion of Shrove Tuesday.

The bread eaten in olden times was oaten bread, boxty bread, rye bread, barley bread and potato. All the corns used for making these different kinds of bread was grown locally. Boxty was made withy cooked potatoes and raw potatoes squeezed and mixed with a little flour.

Bread was often made from wheat and oats grown locally. Boxty bread is made with raw potatoes, boiled potatoes and flour. Boxty bread is eaten in some houses on Hallow Eve night. A cross is cut on the cake when made, so that the cake would be baked through and through.

Long ago the people made three kinds of bread, potato bread, boxty bread, and oat bread. Boxty bread was made from two or three boiled potatoes and two or three raw potatoes ground with a grater.

in a cloth and then have some boiled potatoes to mix in the Boxty and some flour. Bake it on a pan or in the bottom of an oven pot without a lid. Before this the Boxty cake was baked on a raked out turf. Fumble a pot over on it and leave it all night and put coals on the oven.