GROWING POTATOES IN IRELAND IN THE 1940s

By Richard Barber

Submitted to Philip Donnelly's Blog - November 2011

PREPARATION

The production of potatoes, the staple diet of the Irish for many centuries, was a very labour intensive procedure. In that time, before tractors and electricity came to rural Ireland, everything had to be done by hand except for a horse to do the ploughing. Potatoes were not only produced for human consumption but were also widely used to feed animals as well, so large quantities were required. Acres of land had to be prepared for the crop which started in March and ended with the harvesting in October and sometimes into November. First the field would be marked  out into what was called ridges. Each ridge was about three and a half to four feet wide with a furrow of about two feet wide. This was often done with a horse-drawn plough, but also, just as often, by manual labour using spades and shovels. Care was taken in marking the ridges as pride was taken of having a very straight ridge from top to bottom of the field. Now the hard work begins. Farmyard manure, called dung, had to be applied in large quantities to ensure a good crop. The dung, which was taken from the sheds during the Winter, was in a heap outside the sheds in what was called a dunghill.(pronounced something like 'dunkell' in the local Cavan-Meath lingo). Dung was loaded onto a horse cart with a tool that was called a grape. The grape was much like a common garden fork but with much thinner prongs that were quite sharp. This was a very heavy task as it was difficult to tease out the dung from the heap, being full of straw and bedding. Everyone knew when dung was being drawn for you could get the stench for miles, and I have even seen strong nosed farmers sometimes flinch at the aroma. The dung  was put in little heaps on the ridges four or five yards apart to prevent drying out until planting day. Every other ridge was done as it made it easier to plough the furrows. The seed potatoes were prepared often by the housewives sitting for hours in a barn cutting seed. The ideal seed potato was about the size of a hen egg. Bigger ones had to be cut to size ensuring that each segment had an eye or it would not grow. 

PLANTING

Potato planting was one of the major tasks of the Spring involving all of the family in some capacity. At this stage the dung would be evenly spread all across the ridge again using the grape. Then the children would be employed in dropping the seed potatoes. This job was usually done by the boys, equipped with a sack apron filled with as many  potatoes as they could carry. The seed potatoes had to be placed three across the ridge with the cut side facing down. The next row was placed about nine inches apart. This was a back breaking task, hence the use of children. The potatoes, taken by the cart-load from the barn in sacks, were placed in convenient places for the droppers to get new supplies. When the seed was down, the men came along again with grapes to the ploughed furrow, and put all the sods onto  the ridge taking care not to put a sod directly on top of a seed. When all the sods were taken out, they would come along with long-handled shovels to cover over all the ridge. Emphasis was always put on putting in a good brow in the ridge to prevent it from drying out. Potato planting usually took place in April and took weeks rather than days to complete. It would depend on how much potatoes were needed for the year.    As the Spring went on, the potato shoots would begin to appear over the ground. Another course of action had to take place. This was called shovelling, a process of earthing up or covering all the  young shoots. This is a much easier task. The furrows are ploughed again, and again, with the shovel, the earth is put onto the ridge, but this time, half of each ridge was done at the same time. 

SPRAYING

Potato blight, a fungus to which potatoes and also tomatoes are susceptible, was a major cause of concern. One has only look back in history to know what happened in Ireland in 1846 & 1847 to find what havoc the famine caused, being solely dependant on the potatoes. Countless thousands died of hunger and probably millions had to emigrate.  A solution was found by spraying at least three times with a mixture of bluestone and washing soda. A ratio of five lbs of bluestone to seven lbs of soda were mixed in a 45 gallon barrel of water, applied by a two gallon back sprayer called a budget. The sprayer had a two nozzle lead on one side, and a handle for pumping on the other side. The light green coloured liquid got everywhere, and you were always sure of a good soaking before you got finished. The water had to be brought to the field by a horse and cart in barrels from a river or well. When the barrels on the cart were filled, they were covered with sacks to prevent spillage during transit. An empty barrel was needed in the field to be filled from the one on the cart. Melting down the soda crystals was a difficult task and had to be done in a bucket before being added to the barrel often helped with the aid of a fire.  After spraying, the crop did not need much more attention, except the occasional weeding. 

HARVESTING

St Peter and St Paul`s day June 29th was the first time to sample the new crop. Very limited amounts were dug as the spuds would be small, and had to be left to develop in their own time. Harvesting the crop, or potato-digging as it was called, was another major task, usually started in October. Men with spades would start early in the morning, and as the days were getting short that would not be too early. The ridge had to be turned over bit by bit and the potatoes were left in a neat row on the middle of the ridge. Care was also taken not to let much earth into the furrow as it would hinder drainage during the winter months. Picking the potatoes was again the job for the children, (school was not too much of a priority in those days). Picking was done in two stages. All the good spuds were first picked and carried to a pit, made in a cleaned out furrow. There would be three or four pits in a row down the field. New pits would be made when the carrying distance got too far. All the small and black potatoes were later collected for immediate use in feeding the animals. As frost was often a problem, the potatoes mostly had to be covered at night. The pit was tidied into a nice  long A shaped row. A covering of rushes were spread all over the pit, then it was covered with  about a foot of earth. which would prevent the frost from penetrating during the Winter. Potato-digging took several  weeks to complete depending on man power and the weather.     Boiling potatoes for the animals,(mostly pigs, hens, and turkeys,) was always a problem, as they had to be boiled in big metal pots over an open peat fire. Often (especially if there had being a bad Summer) the turf which had to be dried out in the Summer would not be properly dry, so it would be difficult to get the fire burning  with enough heat to boil the potatoes.  An ingenious way of cooking the spuds was discovered to boil large quantities in one go. It involved going to the saw mill and getting lots of saw dust. You had to be at the saw mill at a certain time because you could not go near the saws when they were working. Dinner time was the preferred time but you could also get in just after knocking off time as well. The idea was to get a steel barrel, make a round hole about 3inches in diameter, pack the barrel, with the saw dust leaving a hole down the middle, (this was done by putting a shovel handle or another suitable round object into the barrel before filling with the saw dust). The barrel was placed on some concrete blocks to keep it off the ground. A large container  of potatoes was prepared  Usually a half barrel would be placed on top of the saw dust on two separate iron bars, the tops of the potatoes were well  covered with heavy sacking to prevent the steam escaping. The saw dust was lit from the bottom and the hole had a funnel effect and all the heat was placed directly on to the drum of potatoes. The potatoes were steamed rather than boiled, and it was a quicker procedure. The cooked potatoes were mixed with various sorts of corn meal, and that made a perfect diet for all the hungry mouths. Alas, as with the milk production, the potato crop has gone the same way, and potatoes for the dinner have also to be got from the supermarket. What ever did we do before their invention ????.

THE ART OF BUTTERMAKING ON THE BARBER FARM IN TIERWORKER WHEN I WAS YOUNG

 By Richard Barber, submitted to Philip Donnelly’s Blog April 2011.

In the good old days, (that is before rural electrification came to Tierworker in the mid-1900s) as with everything else, butter was made mainly by hand. I t was a long and tedious task, from the cow milking to the butter being harvested. After milking, the milk was strained through a piece if linen cloth which was specially reserved for the job. (In later years proper strainers were produced. They were shaped like a big funnel but with a wide, fine wire mesh bottom). Milk was then collected in large earthenware vessels called crocks and left to go sour. The crocks contained about three gallons each, were left in what was called the parlour to go sour. Up to four or five crocks could be there at any one time, depending on the milk production.

Milking was always done by hand, no milking machines in them days. I always remember when my Mother was milking she would always be singing to the cow, and coming in with a bucket-full of warm frothy milk. Something she taught me when I started milking was to put a little cross on the near front teat when finished, something I always did till the end of my milking days.

 The churn for making butter was of a very specific shape. Like an odd-shaped barrel, it was made by the cooper, and was wide in the bottom and narrowing in to the shoulder then widening out again for about nine inches to the top. There was a lid with a hole in the middle where the dash, as it was called, went through. The dash was a long shaft with a round two inch thick piece of wood about a foot in diameter with holes so that the milk could get through.  The churn would hold about thirty gallons if filled. Great care had to be taken in the preparation of the churn, always thoroughly scrubbed with a brush, and then sterilised with lots of boiling water - the only sterilising fluid in them days. The crocks of sour milk was brought in from the parlour and poured into the churn. Only the top layer of cream was used. The whey was left to feed animals. The churn was never more than half full to leave space for churning.

Churning was usually arranged for dinner time when the workers would be in. Churning was performed by simply pounding with the dash up and down till the cream turned to butter. That could take anywhere between thirty minutes and an hour. Everyone was expected to take a turn with the dash, and it was considered very unlucky if a stranger came in and did not take a turn at the dash. I can remember standing on a three legged stool to do my turn as I was not tall enough to reach the dash .The butter formation depended on the milk being near a certain temperature so hot water was added. A spoon was used to skim milk from the dash shaft to keep an eye on the progress.    

With the churning finished, the butter was all skimmed from the top of the buttermilk and put on a large flat board, and with two butter paddles which had fine groves on them,  one long and one much shorter, the butter was patted for some time to remove all traces of milk. Salt was added mainly as a preservative and to add taste. Butter was then placed in the coldest part of the house, as there were no fridges in them times either. There was nothing nicer than a big tin mug of fresh buttermilk to drink, but it had to be just churned because after a few hours it would be very sour and thick again. The buttermilk was used to feed calves and pigs, and of course bread making which is another story. In olden times an ingenious way to preserve the butter was to put it in a wooden tub and bury it in a peat bog, proof of that was that turf cutters have come across the tubs hundreds of years later and the butter was still believed to be edible.     

 As time went by and more milk was being produced, it was sent to Bailieboro` Creamery. The milk was sent in galvanised drums, called creamery cans, supplied by the Creamery, but I expect that the farmers had to pay for them. They were of eight and ten gallon sizes. Numbers were painted on each can to identify which farm they came from.  Like the churns, the creamery cans had to be properly cleaned. Any trace of milk from the previous day would turn the milk sour, and the milk would be returned by the creamery as unusable. Milk was regularly tested for butter fat content, and that would determine how much was paid for the milk.

 When I was young, the milkman who took the milk daily, with a mule and cart, was called Old Curran. He lived on the corner of Moyhill cross (I think he was named Packie). As time went by and the supplying of milk became more popular (and Packie was getting on in years), the job of collecting the milk came into the hands of Teddy McCabe with a tractor and trailer. Teddy could take much more than the mule and cart. As Teddy kept to a more strict time schedule, the race would be on to have the cows milked in time. Often, we would be trying to cool the milk in a tub of water as it was necessary to have the milk cool before adding it to the previous night’s milk.

 With the increase in the supply of milk, Teddy graduated to a milk tanker drawn by the tractor. After I left Tierworker, and milk supplying became big business, with lots of cows to be milked, it was not possible to milk all the cows by hand any more (it took about eight to ten minutes to milk a cow depending which one you got as some were a lot easier to milk than others) . The boys had a milking machine installed. A milk tank was put in a shed and the milk piped direct from the cows to the tank. This system made it possible to supply more milk and more cows were added to the heard. At this time supplying milk became a very lucrative business and lots of farmers getting into the supply line, with the result that the creamery was being over supplied with milk and a limit was put on each farmer as to how much they could send to the creamery in the form of a quota. Some time later the milk was collected by a motorised tanker from the creamery, and I don’t know what happened to Teddy.  Gradually, as with other things, producing milk became unprofitable, with the result that the cows were not milked any more and the cows were left to feed their own calves.

 The farm has now totally diverted to producing mainly beef and no milking at all. When I go home and see the lads going to the supermarket to buy a plastic bottle of milk for the tea, I think back to the time when hundreds of gallons of milk were going out every day, O how the times have changed!  

A few weeks ago, when Richard Barber paid a visit to the Tierworker Ceidhle House, he reached back into his memory to interpret some entries in George Townley's diary of 1947. Richard is George's nephew, and remembers him very well.

Richard Barber	George Townley, Feb 25, 1981 (submitted by Richard Barber)

 We thank Richard for this, and anticipate receiving more feedback from others who read George Townley's very interesting diary.

Please refer to the entry for December 17, 2010 below.

The George A. Townley Diary - 1947

Introduction

It is with a sense of great respect and sincere appreciation that the Tierworker Ceidhle House receives this diary for the year 1947 which was kept by George Townley, who lived at Killagriffe House near Tierworker, County Meath.

The contributors to DonnellyCanada and Heritage Tierworker continue to provide opinions, comments, and literature references that will interest those with connections to Tierworker. Here are a few:

Matt Carolan in a recent email says - "I liked the story that lady in New Zeland told you; that's exactly what went in the Ireland of the eighteen hundreds; I guess we are lucky we left later; I contacted Anna Ryan if she could get some local people and compile all the inscriptions in Moybolgue cemetery and put them on the web like she did with Moynalty and the old cemetery in Mullagh; ........  told her I will gladly help finance it ........... it would be nice to remember all the old folks we knew interred there ...... I don't believe that's finnegan's (Finegan's) pub as far as I remember (Refer to photos posted on Blog June 6, 2010) .. "

Peter Martin draws attention to a paper written by Professor Seamus MacGabhann entitled

Landmarks of the people: Meath and Cavan places prominent in Lughnasa mythology and folklore

The link is

http://eprintsprod.nuim.ie/770/1/Landsmarks.pdf

It is written in the academic style and makes references to several events and locations in the townlands around Tierworker, including Bilberry Sunday and The Fair of Muff.

Leslie McKeague of Urcher, Bailieborough, who recently published his magnificent book - Bailieborough, A Pictorial Past - provides photos 1 and 2 below. They are probably photos of the shop at Tierworker crossroads when it was owned by Finegan in the 1940s. However, someone has suggested that it may be a shop at Cormeen. Can anyone provide the definitive answer?

For comparison, photo 3 below shows The Royal Breffni in July 2009. The Royal Breffni is an enlarged version of the Finegan Shop.

Can the former owner of The Royal Breffni, Brendan Reilly, confirm if photos 1 and 2 do, in fact, show Finegan's at Tierworker?

Photo 1 - Is this the old shop owned by Finegan in the 1940s? What is date?

Photo 2 - Is this the old shop owned by Finegan in the 1940s? What is date?

Photo 3 - This is The Royal Breffni at Tierworker in 2009. Can someone confirm if Photos 1 and 2 are the base-building for The Royal Breffni?

Teresa O’Reilly in New Zealand writes to DonnellyCanada to say that her great grandfather Thomas Reilly, had a farm at Tierworker. Thomas’ son, Philip O’Reilly, her grandfather, was given a horse by his father to take to the local fair to sell.  He never returned with the money and the next time his parents and brothers and sisters heard from him he was already in New Zealand. Philip emigrated to New Zealand in 1879 and his parents and 9 brothers and sisters emigrated to New Zealand 5 years later in 1884. Thomas’ brother, Patrick Reilly, also had a farm near Tierworker. She has photos of his house taken when she was in Ireland in 1996. Teresa is writing family history books and also hopes to make a film for TV.

In those years, a long long time before electricity and tractors came to the farms near the border between County Cavan and County Meath, and long before the days of radio and television, the neighbours gathered in the ceidhle house every evening