Laois memories featured in National Museum book on rural life

A beautiful compilation of memories about rural life in times gone by, including memories of Laois, has just been reprinted for a third time due to its ongoing success.

Happy Days and Hard Times is a collection of memories, stories and images, compiled by the National Museum of Ireland, and it includes a wonderful submission from a Co. Laois visitor who remembers her mother milking six cows before school each morning!

The book came about through a reminiscence project, which encouraged visitors to the National Museum at Turlough Park in Co. Mayo, to submit their memories, inspired by the folklife objects on display in the museum galleries. From saving hay and bringing home the turf to shoemaking and the fair day – each of the stories are told in the visitors’ own words alongside an image or object from the Irish Folklife Collection.

The book was compiled by the Museum’s documentation officer, Joanne Hamilton, who first started collecting visitor memories in 2013. Welcoming the ongoing popularity and third print run of the book, Ms. Hamilton said:

“It is wonderful to see Happy Days and Hard Times reprinted for a third time. The thought provoking stories resonate with so many; those visits to the bog with the flask of tea or cycling the countryside. It brings people back to a simpler past, a past filled with colour and conversation, a past where children ran through fields till dusk and neighbours sat for hours whiling away time.

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“Of course, as the book title suggests, not all of the rich memories of country living are surrounded with a nostalgic glow; these were hard times as well, and this comes through as people recount their stories.”

Visitors from all over Ireland and many people living abroad contributed to the book. The book even features a contribution from the famous Christy Moore who recalls listening to Michael O’Hehir on the wireless and hearing day-old chicks chirp underneath the settle bed.

Members of the public can still contribute memories and stories of country life to the project either via the memory sheets available in the reminiscence corner at the National Museum in Turlough Park or by downloading a memory sheet from www.museum.ie.

Copies of the book are available now at any of the book shops at the three National Museum of Ireland locations – Turlough Park, Castlebar; Kildare Street, Dublin 2 or Collins Barracks, Dublin 7.