Thomas Tully:Oristown

Ballintlieve, Moynalty

This shows a small thatched house at Ballintlieve, Moynalty, Kells. It has three small windows, two to the right and one to the left of a traditional half door. A small flat roofed porch appears from the stonework to be original.

By permission of Jack Fitzsimonst

Ballintlieve, Moynalty
By permission of Jack Fitzsimonst

Ballintlieve, Moynalty

This shows a small thatched house at Ballintlieve, Moynalty, Kells. It has three small windows, two to the right and one to the left of a traditional half door. A small flat roofed porch appears from the stonework to be original.

By permission of Jack Fitzsimonst

Enlarge image

Thomas Tully started to thatch when he was about eighteen years old. His uncle was debilitated and Thomas thatched his own house from then. Many people were able to thatch their own houses. He never thatched for anyone else because he considered it a rather menial occupation; in his youth there were journeymen craftsmen such as blacksmiths, tinsmiths and thatchers, who were badly treated and poorly paid. For most of his life he did carpentry work. It was usual to thatch a house about every five years but if the roof was sprayed with bluestone it could last up to eighteen years and would keep its colour for six or seven. Mostly oaten straw was used. Wheaten straw was better but it was too hard to work; wheat grew too strong in County Meath and was like sally rods to handle. Rooms extended the full width of the house and one room opened off another but he recalled three old houses in the locality that had corridors, which he referred to as passages. Nearly all houses had half doors, very few had back doors and most had a window on the back in the kitchen.

When thatching his house he plaited the ridge off and on. This was done by twisting a wisp of straw into a "V"shape and tying it leaving a small aperture. Several of those were placed tightly together on an ash rod and fitted to the apex. The sides were then secured down with wire or laths fixed with wire staples. Laths would then be painted white. Sometimes the laths were made up in the form of a decorative diamond band. Otherwise, and particularly in later years, a timber ridgeboard, in the shape of an inverted trough, was used and painted white. Even though windows were small many of them had shutters and bars. Nearly all houses had ashpits in the hearths. To suspend pots for cooking iron cranes were common but some houses had crooks and a chain supported on an oak beam in the chimney. Walls were whitewashed every year.

External doors were painted red. Timber chimney stacks were painted white but were occasionally painted to imitate brickwork. Because the chimneys were so wide they seldom caught fire. Most houses were well built and maintained b ut Mr Tully recalls one temporary structure built on the side of the road around 1926 by a family that was evicted. The shelter was built near the Stone Cross, Oristown, beside the graveyard, on the other side of the road. It had four posts in the front wall, one at each end and two for the door. The roof timbers were rough, round scantlings with similar wallplates of ash or elm. One of the wallplates was secured to a tree and for that reason the landlord of the area got on order for demolition, because when it was affixed to the tree it was deemed to be a permanent structure.

The building consisted of a single storey about forty feet by thirteen. There was no chimney, just a hole in the roof to let out the smoke from the fire in the centre of the room. The front wall was made up of sacks on a rough timber framework, one end wall consisted of straw platted through rough timber stakes and the other end and back were cut into the bank. The roof was a lean-to with a low pitch and covered with hay or rushes thrown loosely over the timbers. There were no windows and the height of the eaves was about five foot.