Conway Mill Trust

The winter of 1338-39 was an especially brutal one for Ireland.  The Liffey actually froze and the people held festivals on the ice.  Herring were cooked over turf and wood fires.

Lazy Beds, a method of growing potatoes although not widely used, can still be seen in rural parts of Connemara and Antrim. Potatoes thrive on seaweed and manure.  These were spread and then covered on both sides with sod and the potatoes planted in these ridges.  This method provided 3 times higher yield than in horse drawn ridges.  Before the famines in the 1800’s one acre could produce 6 tons of potatoes and feed a family for almost a year as compared to England where 20 acres were needed.  By the 1830’s, one-third or 3 million people relied on the potato for 90% of their intake. Padraig Pearse on the eve of his execution in 1916 wrote of the lazy beds: “Some quiet hill where mountain man has sown and soon would reap near to the gates of heaven.”

Alice Kyteler was the first woman to be tried as a witch in Ireland. In 1317 the Bishop of Osspry held a violent version of Christianity and terrorized the town with heresy trials. He became suspicious of Alice after her fourth husband died and charged her with the use of sorcery to harm others. She managed to escape and leave Ireland but her servant was charged and burned as a witch.