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 [...]
When I attended the #farm1916 commemmorations in Athenry last Friday (organised by Teagasc and a superb event), I was really excited to see this egg weighing scales. As you can see, a single egg sits neatly into it and the little dial goes up and down. The measurements are nearly worn away but I’m sure they were clear a century ago.
When feeding calves on Easter Sunday morning and wondering what could I wear to church that was clean and ironed, while also debating why the hourwas going forward on a weekend when church was earlier than normal and sleep was in short supply due to calving, I thought of something my dad had said recently – how his sisters and mother and indeed, probably all his female relations and other female parishioners often got new clothes for Easter Sunday and [...]
Would you believe that the Irish farmer was not seen as a good catch in the 1950s? There were many bachelor farmers eking out an existence on a farm and of increasing concern to society. De Valera even tried to persuade the government to finance the building of a dower house on every farm so the older couple could move to that and the son could marry and live in the farmhouse.
My father moved up to Garrendenny Castle when he was 7 back in 1945, his father having inherited it from an uncle who bought it around 1908. Before that it was owned by the Warren family for about 30 years and before that were relatives to the Butler family of Kilkenny Castle, albeit very much the poorer relations.
Garrendenny was often described as a “poor man’s castle’ consisting of relatively small rooms, one room wide in the 3 storey part with [...]
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