There are certain things that are common in farming households all over the world or perhaps some of them are isolated to Irish farms? Anyone else find these things happen to them?
#1. If a farm wife ever wants to summon her husband, all she has to do is sit down for a cup of tea and a slice of cake. He is bound to arrive in to the kitchen within ten minutes and say “Is this what you’ve been doing [...]
We bought a new pup a couple of months ago. Sam, our hardworking collie, will soon be ten years old and apart from thinking that he probably needs a rest, we’re very conscious that we would be lost without a good dog. Put it this way, I’d need to improve on my fitness! Indeed, when we see him next to an exuberant pup, it really brings home that he’s worked hard his whole life and is starting to slow up [...]
Matchmaking has a long history in Irish courtships and it seems to be making a comeback in the number of matchmaking (not just dating) websites out there. Before I debate whether it should make a comeback or not, let’s have a look at how it worked in the past.
HV Morton reported on his experiences of viewing matchmaking in the 1920s in the West of Ireland (In Search of Ireland, published 1930):
In Ireland, as I noted in Kerry, the separateness of [...]
I’m working on my third book (Ideal Farm Husband) at the moment and while doing some research in newspaper archives, I came across some articles on what women in the post considered to be an ideal husband. Partly because they are quite amusing and partly because we’re all depressed between bad milk prices, rain and Brexit, it’s time to have a bit of a laugh, I’ve decided to do a couple of comparisons.
According to the Kilkenny People on 22nd October [...]
It has come to the end of the calving season. While we stocked up at the beginning of the year with essentials such as stomach tubes, calf bottles, long gloves, iodine, milk replacer, tags and every other essential for the calves not to mention the essentials for the humans such as bars and bars of chocolate, I still have quite a long list of [...]
