Mná na Éireann

“Work”

“The woman of the house was never idle. We knitted socks and jumpers, we sewed and darned and mended. Most of this was done at night by lamplight or sometimes by candle. Children wore bibs to keep their clothes clean. The girls always wore their bibs to school and there was always a clean bib for Sunday. We made them out of flour bags which, when bleached, were beautifully white. My mother would crochet a little white frill around the neck. She was always knitting. Even when she was nearly ninety she was still knitting socks for the men. We always had flour bag sheets too – four flour bags made a sheet. You would bleach them with washing soda and leave them folded with the wet washing soda in them to take the “Heart’s Delight” out of the middle of them. We made our petticoats out of them too. Sure, but for flour bags we wouldn’t have a stitch to wear.”

“The most difficult and back-breaking job of the week was washday. In some houses it was possible to collect rainwater in a barrel − this was lovely soft water for washing. Water had to be carried from the well or, if you were lucky, from the pump in the yard, two buckets at a time. The water was then boiled in big pots and kettles over the open fire. In damp weather there was always the danger of soot falling into the pot and destroying the water. This meant you had to start all over again. The clothes were washed in a big tub which stood on two chairs facing each other. Sunlight soap was used to make a lather and the wet clothes were scrubbed on a washboard. Whites had to be boiled and rinsed and, in the final rinsing, a squeeze of a Rickets blue bag gave them that extra sparkle. We had to wring them out by hand. This was difficult and heavy work on the arms. Then they were either hung on the line or the whites were laid flat on the grass to be bleached by the sun. It was hard work. All the lifting of pots and tubs would break your back.”

[ Here is a video of a film made in 1896 (two years after the Fenor church was built) advertising Sunlight soap. To view it just click the arrow in the centre of the picture. – Comms Team. ]

[ Many hands make Sunlight work. – Comms Team. ]

Threshing

“We worked inside and outside milking cows, feeding calves and pigs, looking after the fowl, and looking after the children and the housework. Then there was the threshing. We were busy with food all day − tea and currant cake and apple tarts, and then a big dinner for twenty or more hungry men. We milked by hand too and, later, the milking machine came in. The separator which separated the cream from the milk was a great invention. We churned the cream and sold butter and eggs. The few shillings we got kept the family going from one harvest to the next. The money was always kept in a jug in the dresser. That was our bank. We were poor by today’s standards but we didn’t know we were. Everybody was the same.”