Food People Used to Eat

People ate a lot of potatoes even for breakfast. Sometimes they ate potatoes and ‘plumery’. Plumery was the bad seed from the meal. A woman would put on a white dress and a white pair of stockings and after spreading a clean sheet on the ground she would sieve the meal. The best part of the meal was used for porridge and the seeds for plumery. The seeds would be placed in a pot for a week and then boiled for the dinner.

Potato cake was the most popular thing to eat and people would drink with milk as there was no tea.

The table would be placed against the wall when not in use and meat was eaten very seldom.

Potato Cake would be eaten on Christmas night and eggs on Easter morning. Tea only became available about 30 years ago and people drank from wooden mugs called noggins.

Cappataggle, Co. Galway

Collector: Bridie Jennings, Cappataggle, Ballinasloe, Co. Galway

Informant:Michael Jennings, Cappataggle, Ballinasloe, Co. Galway

Duchas, ‘The Schools’ Collection’, www.duchas.ie