Food

The traditional measure of wealth in rural Ireland was the cow and visitors to the country were fascinated by the Irish diet of bánbídh or 'white meats' which included sour milk (bainne clabair), curds and whey, buttermilk, butter and cheese. Women's work included milking cows, churning, cheese-making and producing bánbídh.

Surplus butter was preserved by submersion in bogs and is occasionally found by people cutting turf. Some butter may have been buried in the peat for centuries. It would have changed colour and texture over the years.

Women ground oats in a quern, made flat oat cakes and baked them on a griddle to be eaten with large quantities of butter. By the nineteenth century many were producing soda bread using wheaten flour with bread soda as a raising agent.

Fish provided relish and variety and herbs such as watercress and nettles were eaten but kitchen gardens were not common. Near the seashore edible seaweeds included dulse and carrageen.

People drew blood from living cattle and cooked it with milk or grain and they shared fresh meat with their neighbours whenever they slaughtered surplus animals.

Potatoes were introduced to Ireland about 1590 and from being a novelty at first, soon gained acceptance.

• They stored well through the winter when dairy products might be scarce.
  
  
• They grew underground and were easier to protect from the burnings and lootings that accompanied warfare.
  
  
• They were relatively easy to grow and harvest even in boggy land.
  
  
• They were warm, nourishing and filling.
  
  
• One acre (.4 ha) of land could yield enough potatoes to provide a large family with up to about 8kg each per day.

The Irish poor were relying dangerously on potatoes as a staple food by about 1750 and the population was increasing at an alarming rate, but about 1778 Arthur Young studying Irish farming, remarked that the poor in Ireland looked healthier than those in England. He wondered whether potatoes were better than the bread and cheese of the English poor but had no doubt, 'that the milk of the Irishman is incomparably better than the small beer, gin or tea of the Englishman.' Eventually, millions of Irish cottiers were reduced to subsisting on an acre of potatoes, together with a cow and a pig or two. The family lived on cow's milk and potatoes and they fed extra potatoes to the pig which was sold to pay the rent. A second pig, if they could afford it, could be killed and salted to provide bacon for the family.

Digging potatoes

Drink

While observers in early modern times agreed about the vast amounts of milk consumed by the rural Irish, they disagreed about the consumption of alcoholic drinks. Taverns, selling French and Spanish wines could be found in cities and large towns while women seem to have dominated the brewing and sale of ale at times.

Taverns were not common in Gaelic areas, though many women brewed ale at home and alcoholic drinks were offered by the 'woman of the house' as a feature of hospitality in Gaelic homes. The rural population held celebrations outdoors at venues such as hills, wells and woods but they frequented taverns and shebeens (illicit drink shops) and sometimes got drunk when they attended fairs and markets in local towns. The following extract from Fynes Moryson, a hostile witness who wrote about his travels in Ireland 1609-1625, is likely to be exaggerated.

Arthur Young, a more objective witness, noted in 1778:

Various attempts were made from time to time to control aspects of the drink trade. For instance, English authorities became alarmed at the gradual spread of public houses to Irish rural areas. They saw them as dangerous places where rebels and traitors could meet and plot against the government and they tried in several ways to control them by licences.

Local authorities sometimes issued regulations forbidding women to serve or to purchase alcoholic drinks and the Irish pub came to be a space generally reserved for males until about the 1960s.

Questions

1. Explain the terms bánbídh and bainne clabair.
2. What evidence is there that Luke Gernon was being scornful in his descriptions of the cabins he visited?
3. Discuss the value of Luke Gernon's account as historical evidence.
4. Why did potatoes become such a popular element of Irish diet?
5. Eventually, millions of Irish ____ were reduced to ____ on an ____ of potatoes, a ___ and a ___.
6. Do you agree that the evidence of Fynes Moryson is likely to be exaggerated? Give reasons for your answer.
7. Write a brief paragraph on the history of the Irish pub.

Activities

1. Discuss the preparation of an early modern Gaelic meal with your Home Economics teacher. [Note. Bainne clabair was made from soured fresh milk which is more palatable than soured pasteurised or homogenised milk. Perhaps you could substitute buttermilk or yoghurt for bainne clabair.]
2. Research the history of food in your own area.
3. Research the history of any item or aspect of food that interests you.
4. Study the extracts 'Josias Bodley' in Documents at the end of this section.