Thatching a House
16th May 1938
The first thing a man must do who intends to thatch a house is to procure the necessary articles for doing so, namely a sufficient quantity of rye straw, a ladder a mallet a sharp knife and scollaps for tightening the straw. He next rears his ladder on to the roof of the house in a slanting position with one end resting on the ground. He then places a heavy weight at the end of the ladder to keep it from slipping when he mounts it. The position of the ladder is then that it lies on the roof about eighteen inches from the gable of the house. The distance between the ladder and the gable is the width of a streak of thatch. The next thing he does is to mount the ladder to the top of the house and pull down the old thatch off the damaged streak. When that is done he comes down the ladder to the ground and takes a bundle of straw scollaps and a mallet up again with him as far as the eve of the house He places the bundle of straw on the roof at his left hand side and drives a scallop or two under it in the thatch to keep it from falling down.
He places the mallet between two rungs of the ladder above him. Now he is ready to begin to put on the first streak of thatch. He loosens the bundle of straw takes about four handfuls and leaves it across at the eave of the house from the gable to the ladder, he then takes a scollap and sticks one end of it down by the gable the point of it dircetex up ward. The other part of the scollap he brings towards himself across half the streak and he drives the end through the roof. Another scollap is driven likewise to tighten the remaning of the streak. He takes the mallet now and strikes down the scollaps to tighten them. He continues this process until he reaches the top of the house. He then puts on the rigging to finish off the streak and scollaps it down. He now takes his knife and shaves it down to make it look well and so that the rain will spill off it. He also cuts it straight across at the eave. That is one streak now on. He comes down and change his ladder and leaves the width of another streak between it and the new streak and carries on in this way until he finishes the house.
“INFORMANT: Edward Bourke, Age 55, Tawnagh More, Co. Mayo”