"A Peasant home in Ireland

All their life long this unlettered man and woman had to fight against poverty; they have had worries and sorrows not a few, yet the Irish temperament is so cheery that they have sunshine to spare. This scene is typical throughout rural Ireland; the old, old cottage whose stone walls are as white as the woman's apron and the thatch of oat straw which is as neat as her hair. When you travel in Ireland you see many such roadside cottages, hospitable homes where the housewife is always busy. If she is not at some household task she is either spinning or knitting. She also takes care of the chickens and very probably the goat which gives rich milk. There is not a great amount of tillable land in Ireland, but it is very certain this couple have a little patch and somewhere in a pen very near there is sure to be a fat pig. There is generally a house dog also and where fortune permits a donkey and cart. Ireland has so much rainfall that a great part of the country is marshy and too wet for farming. Where the land is not too low and flat, however, the abundance of rainfall makes farming very profitable.

The Irish people have recently been given a large measure of independence from the domination of Great Britain for which they have loudly clamored for centuries and they are more contented and prosperous than they have ever been before. Perhaps this newly-found prosperity will result in better and more sanitary as well as happier county homes for the Irish people.

I am sorry about the discoloration at the bottom of the picture. The card would not lay flat in the scanner, so the image was effected by some outside light .

While none of the following pictures are of Mochara, they give some idea of the life in rural Ireland.

No postmark

No postmark

Turlough, Castlebar"

No postmark

John Walsh and Fanny Feeney were married in Castlebar and it is likely that some family came from there.

No postmark

The humble cot beneath the mountain side"

Postmarked 1910

Posted 1904

Not posted

A Poor Man's Cabin, County Galway

The Home of an Irish Peasant

A Farm House in Donegal

'Sights and Scenes in Ireland' by Cassell and Co. Ltd dated about 1901.

"A HOME IN ACHILL

In passing over a mountain-side in Achill, I noticed smoke apparently coming out of the ground. Thinking it was a poteen whisky still, I hurried up, and was much disappointed to find it instead only a habitation out of which came five people. It looked like a hole in the ground, but on closer examination I saw it was a hollow roughly roofed over with sods. In the low wall there was a small door which answered the purpose both of chimney and window. The people who live in this hut look after the sheep and cattle on the hills. It is some miles from the nearest village, and very lonely; the only other sign of human habitation in sight being the roofless ruin of what was one the lodge of the late Captain Boycott."

"A VILLAGE IN ACHILL

In the extreme west, situated a few feet above the sea level, is the village of Dookinella. It is often flooded by tied, river, and lake, and gives an impression of desolation and bare life without hope. The cabins are of the most primitive description, and the thatched roofs are weighed all round with stones as a precaution against storms. The inhabitants live on small holdings rescued from he sea, which is too wild here for fishing, and daily carry up after each tide seaweed to fertilize their farms. When seedtime is over, the men migrate to England or Scotland for the harvest, returning in the winter with their earnings, to maintain their families and pay their rents.