My School Days

As a schoolboy my big interest was in dogs and horses.  On our little farm we also had a donkey, about twenty cattle, forty sheep, as well as some geese, ducks, turkeys and hens.  In the summertime my Dad used to take the sheep to the mountain called Larricas which is the lower one across the road from Muckish.   He left them there until the weather turned cold.  We also had a few goats because our Mamma

thought their milk kept us immune from colds and coughs.  Dad had another reason for keeping them.  He 

arranged for them to have young about the same time as the ewes.   If after giving birth a ewe had no milk ...he would put a new-born kid to sleep ...then skin it and put the skin on the lamb so that the goat would adopt it.   Such lambs usually thrived well and grew rich wool.  They also copied the foster mother in climbing trees and jumping to the top of walls.

 

  As well as milk we had eggs every day.  Mamma churned cream to make butter and baked wonderful brown bread.   At weekends we had chicken, turkey or duck for dinner.  Dad trapped rabbits who lived in the sand dunes and sometimes shot a curlew or a wild duck.   We caught the odd trout in the Ray river or in the lakes between the mountains ; we were never short of food !  There was always a fire in the kitchen for cooking, drying clothes and to keep us warm in cold weather.  For fuel we used turf although it involved laborious work.  It came from the bog which was five miles away.  Cutting it meant two days work.  After lying on the ground for a week or so in dry or sunny weather every four sods would be able to stand up against each other.  After a further fortnight they would have shrivelled to half their size and be ready to put into eights.  After a further week they could be ready to be put into the two baskets on iether side of the donkey and carried out of the bog to the side of the road.   I still remember enjoying the job of leading the willing donkey.

There was little profit in farming at that time.  Prices for the fat bullocks, lambs, oats, potatoes and eggs we had for sale were low.   There were not enough animals reared to justify a monthly auction being held.  There was a fair in Falcarragh on the last Thursday of every month.  Cattle and sheep were the main exhibits but there were also some horses, ponies, donkeys and fowl and also geese and turkeys at Xmas.  There were rarely more than two purchasers interested in more than five or six cattle or sheep with the result that they had an advantage over the vendors.  I also remember  an "economic war" with Britain which hurt the Irish economy.   I cannot forget one depressing day when Dad had to accept £22 for seven cattle. !  The poverty we experienced made my three brothers, two sisters and myself work hard at school  and get into positions where we would not be dependent on poor land.