St Joseph's N.S.

This year all of the schools in Ballingarry got to take part in an art project called THE MINES OF INFORMATION. It was all about the coal mines in Ballingarry. Every Thursday KATIE GOODHUE came in to work with us. We learned about how people used to live back when the mines were open. We made figures, tubs and trees. We had good fun.
by Lauren McGovern (3rd. Class)


Katie Goodhue is one of the visitors who comes to our school. She is doing a project called 'Mines of Information' with us. On the first day Katie and a man called David Quinn came to the school to show us how to use video cameras. For a few weeks different children brought the cameras home to video people talking about what they did in the mines. The next thing was drawing pictures and then making models. I think that this project is good and we all appreciate it.
by Sarah Patchell (5th. Class)


Katie Goodhue and David Quinn came to our school to do a project with us on the mines. We used cameras on each other and someday we are going to bring the cameras home. Today (Feb 7th.) Katie came and showed us a video and some old photos. Then we had to paint a picture. I painted a picture of the miners on their lunch break underground.
by Maria McGrath (2nd. Class)


The initial phase of the project involved training the children in the use of video cameras so as they could record their older neighbours and relatives as they spoke about their experiences of the mines. These interviews were then shown to the children as a stimulus. The next phase involved creating models and scenes inspired by the mining stories.

All the art work from the four schools was then gathered up and exhibited in the Museum in Clonmel. Katie was then allowed to exhibit the work in Ballingarry Hall where none other than former Education Minister Mary Hanafin came to view it. The exhibition looked marvellous and everyone was astounded at the extent and the quality of the work that went into it. The children really enjoyed learning about the mines and making the models and setpieces. We would like to thank Katie and her husband David for including us in this project. We appreciate the huge amount of hard work, organisation and indeed patience that they invested and we were delighted to see that the project was such a success.

Here is an example of what the children learned from interviewing their relatives and friends.

I INTERVIEWED MY GRANDAD AND THIS IS WHAT HE TOLD ME

A day in the life of Richard Butler when he was young.

He woke at 7.30am and helped to milk cows and feed calves. He ate his breakfast after milking, which was usually porridge and then tea.

He went through the fields for school which started at 9.30. at break time they played hurling and football in the Fair Green. When he came home from school he helped milk and to make the hay. There were no bales at that time, it was in trams instead. He was an expert at making the trams and sometimes they made pikes.
So to finish off the hard work, the milking had to be done again and then homework before bedtime.
Before bedtime the Rosary was said every night.

That was a day in the life of my Grandad.

Paul Butler

Food nowadays and long ago

Before in the mines the miners would bring their lunches to the mines. Home made bread and butter and cheese if they were lucky. All they had to drink was
water or tea out of a tin mug. Nowadays people have a great variety of food e.g. ham, cheese, salad, chicken and lots of choices, lots of work went into making just one lunch. Nowadays we have the easy way out. Most people think that it would be great to go back to those days but it would be very hard work.
When the miners went to work deep deep in the mines, they had to hang their bags out of the beams so the rats wouldn’t attack their lunches, although at tea break they fed the rats a little bit of food.
Life has changed in the last decades. It is an entirely different world out there now. Is it all for the better? Who knows!

Katie Power

Some of the children descibe the scenes that they made

Tea Break Under Ground

The scene was set back in the olden days down under ground in the mines. It was dark and cold and it was very wet. The miners worked very hard and when they came up from the mines they were very dirty.
In Ballingarry we had our mines. Three hundred men used to work there when it was in full production. The men used to get coal to take home at a small price, it was called rations. We are very sad that the mines are closed down now. People who worked in the mines long ago have not found other work and are now long term unemployed.

Rory Hayes

TEA BREAK!

Long ago in the mines they had 2 tea breaks during the day. They didn’t have ham sandwiches or chocolate bars. They just had homemade bread and jam. They had about two cups of tea one at their first tea break and one later on. There were always rats in the mines. When the workers were having their tea break they gave the rats some of their food. The rats were like their friends. After the tea break the workers returned to work. Then the next group of miners come in for their shift. They worked for a number of hours and then they get their tea break. Each miner had his own tin cup. They boiled the water for the tea in a Billy can. They got the Billy can from a shopkeeper. The shopkeeper would have got a Billy can full of had boiled sweets. When he had sold all the sweets a quarter of 1b at a time he would wash the tin can and sell the empty can to the miners. It was ideal for the miners to boil their water so they could make about 12 cups of tea at a time. The water they used to make the tea was rainwater collected in barrels how different it was then in comparison to now. Most workers now go to a canteen for their food. Yet the miners looked forward to their tea break every day and chatted and joked together. It was an important part of the day.


Leanne Prout

COAL FACE

In the scene the men were mining for coal. They have to bend down and crawl on their bellies to find
the coal. When they found the coal seam, they made wooden supports to prop the ceiling up so that it would not collapse. The men who were called “colliers” dug out the coal with their picks. Sometimes Dynamite was used. Then they loaded the coal into tubs.

The tubs were hauled up the crank by rope or winch to the surface. The coal was then sorted by the overhead workers on the bank. The coal was stacked in heaps. The empty tubs were sent back down the mine for the next load. Local people came in with their donkey and cart to buy coal for the fire. Lorries came from different parts of Ireland to buy coal and distribute it to willing customers.

“Culm” the dust of the coal was also bought by local people. Miners bought it at a reduced rate. The culm was mixed with yellow clay and water, sourced locally. My friend paul told me that his Grandad and Dad remember dancing the culm. They danced the Culm to combine the water, clay and culm. When the dancers feet got really stuck they knew the culm was ready. It was slapped up in a heap at the back of the house and covered until it was ready to use.

They rolled the culm into balls by hand. Then the balls were left out in the sun or wind to dry and then put into the culm house for storage. As time went on some people made shooters to make the culm balls. The first shooters were made of wood and later were made of iron. From using the Shooters the Culm balls were cylinder in shape. Most households at that time had glowing Culm fires which lasted all day.

Thank You Katie!