In the olden times all the people used to live in thatched houses. Slates were unknown at that time.

The people used to set rye and when they had the oats cut the rye was ripe and they cut it and made stooks of it in the field until it seasoned, then they brought it into the haggard and when the winter came they brought it into the house and scutched it and then they hammered it with a short stick to knock all the grain out of it for fear it would grow on the roof.
They thatched the house with the straw and kept the grain to set the next year.
They had no light but splinters of bogdeal which they lit in the fire.
There were no chimneys in the houses but they had holes in the roof.
They always cut turf and saved it. They burned then most of it and they sold the rest of it. They got a lot of bogdeal in the bog and they cut a lot of wood to burn instead of turf.

Date
1959
Location
Carrowroe; Carraroe, Co. Galway
Photographer
Simon Coleman
Archival information
Roofs & Thatching: Roof construction: twisting and bending lúbán. The same length of hazel stick is used for both scollop and lúbán: both are taken from the same bundle of prepared sticks. Point of lúbán cut bias to avoid having soft centre of stick coincide with sharp end. Scollop and lúbán in position for holding down thatch - lúbán is pushed in with hand and driven home with mallet till the long leg oes into the scraw, deep down. Scollops are stuck into roof along the edge of straca just finished to keep the straw in position and to mark the position of the lúbán hidden under the thatching. they are taken out one by one as the thatcher moves up towards the apex and used as the scollops for the fresh stráca as in x.