Irish folklore about spinning and weaving and some old photos online.

Those interested in Irish folklore and old photographs can visit this website www.duchas.ie, where the National Folklore Collection has been digitised and is free to view to all users.
I am particularly interested in the Schools' Collection; let me just copy the explanation directly here:

The Schools’ Collection

Approximately 740,000 pages (288,000 pages in the pupils’ original exercise books; 451,000 pages in bound volumes) of folklore and local tradition were compiled by pupils from 5,000 primary schools in the Irish Free State between 1937 and 1939.

This collecting scheme was initiated by the Irish Folklore Commission, under the direction of Séamus Ó Duilearga and Séan Ó Súilleabháin, Honorary Director and Registrar of the Commission respectively, and was heavily dependent on the cooperation of the Department of Education and the Irish National Teachers’ Organization. It was originally to run from 1937 to 1938 but was extended to 1939 in specific cases. For the duration of the project, more than 50,000 schoolchildren from 5,000 schools in the 26 counties of the Irish Free State were enlisted to collect folklore in their home districts. This included oral history, topographical information, folktales and legends, riddles and proverbs, games and pastimes, trades and crafts. The children recorded this material from their parents, grandparents, and neighbours.

The scheme resulted in the creation of over half a million manuscript pages, generally referred to as ‘Bailiúchán na Scol’ or ‘The Schools’ Collection’.

There are 1,128 volumes, numbered and bound, in the Collection. A title page prefaces each school, giving the name of the school, the parish, the barony, the county and the teacher. A further collection of approximately 40,000 of the children’s original copybooks are stored at the NFC.

********

I love that I can search for 'spinning wheel' and read what children in the late 1930's wrote about spinning and spinning wheels from the accounts given by their parents or neighbours or grandparents. Obviously, the accounts are written by children but there is often a good description given of the steps involved.

There are 602 hits! That will take a while to read them all.


Along with this there are old photographs on the website. There seems to be only 3 hits when one searches for spinning wheel photos. But luckily those 3 photos show the 3 different types of spinning wheel used in Ireland, namely:

1 a great wheel with tall legs, typically used in Connacht and at which the spinner would stand to spin; this is a spindle wheel,  no treadle, no flyer, no bobbins.

2. a pencil diagram of another type of spindle wheel, but this time with shorter legs, from Kerry; typically the spinner sat beside this wheel and this wheel was common in Kerry, according to Helen Lillias Mitchell in her book about spinning wheels in Ireland.

3. a tall flyer wheel, used originally in the North of Ireland for spinning flax but subsequently used equally often for spinning wool, and often referred to as Donegal wheels these days; This wheel was photographed in Co Sligo.

The photos can be found at this link: https://www.duchas.ie/en/src?q=spinning+wheel&t=CbegPhoto

Interestingly, if one searches for just 'spinning' there are 13 photos and so one can get a better idea of the spinning wheels used in Ireland in the past.

As for weaving and looms: yes, plenty hits there and some photos too.
So if you want some interesting accounts of spinning and weaving in the past, plus old photos, pop over and have a look at www.duchas.ie.