It will be hard to adequately describe the learning and great fun that our P6 and P7 boys and girls had during their trip to the Ulster American Folk Park in Omagh. From the very early start of 7.50am until our return to school at 6pm the sound of children’s laughter was infectious ❤️
We started our journey in rural Ireland, in a single room cabin dating from the late 1700s. It was originally located in the Sperrin Mountains and illustrates the type of home where a landless farm laborer or cottier and their family would have lived. We were able to sit on the ‘creepy’ stools and re enact having a peasant’s meal of lumper spuds and a noggin of water. Jenson and Isla did a roleplay of a conversation between the poor peasant farmer and the rich English landlord … they were given a script to read from and even put on the accents of their characters, which was fantastic!! We saw the rows of ‘lazy beds’ where the family would have cultivated their potatoes outside the cabin, until blight struck and the potatoes rotted in the ground.
In the forge we learned how the highly skilled blacksmith recognised changes in the metal by observing its colour in the gloom of the building and by listening to how it sounded when struck. We could smell the singed hooves and the rhythm on the hammer striking the anvil.
As we continued our journey we visited the weaver’s cottage where the flax fibers were spun into thread by the womenfolk. The children of the family helped with this very important job!
When we reached the dockside we boarded the big ship ‘UNION’ and set sail on a passage to Baltimore, Maryland. We experienced what it would have been like down below deck in the steerage, for so many starving and diseased; crushed into small berths with no light, food or water. No wonder the rats jumped from the sinking ships 🐀🦠
As we landed in the Frontier land of America, we saw what a different life had awaited so many! 🇺🇸
The owner of the General Store told us how local farmers bartered their goods such as bacon, dried apples and buckwheat flour for coffee, maple syrup and tobacco.
The store was also home to the local post office, which would have been a very welcome sight to Irish emigrants keen to hear news of their loved ones ‘back home’. ✉️
It was amazing to visit an authentic rural American log cabin, a Pennsylvanian farmhouse and a red brick Plantation house.
It is fair to say that the P6/7 children and staff will remember this experience for a long time. It brought our topic of An Gorta Mór to life, and allowed us to empathize even more fully with the poor O’Driscoll children from Under the Hawthorn Tree.
Mrs Breen and Mr Denvir, Collette and Cindy were so proud of you all, boys and girls!
