Rationing
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| Food production was very important during the war because German U-Boats in the Atlantic Ocean sank ships carrying supplies of any sort towards Britain or Ireland - whether they were military or civilian ships. The sinking of supply ships meant that food and materials were in short supply. Food shortages led the British Conservative government under Prime Minister Winston Churchill to impose rationing on the people living in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. By rationing food, it was hoped that everyone would get an equal share. Food prices were standardised so no one would be charged too much. Each person was issued with a ration book to ensure they could get small amounts of food, clothing and petrol. Many other things including chocolate, shoes and soap were all rationed. If someone lived in a city, it was difficult to get extra food unless they bought on the Black-market. It was easier to get extra food if you lived in the countryside such as in Fermanagh. County Fermanagh farms produced so much food that much of the milk, eggs, crops and beef could be exported to cities in Northern Ireland and Britain where food was scarce. In addition, local people could smuggle goods across the border from the Irish Free State (the Republic of Ireland). Women were advised to throw nothing out but to mend and reuse any broken machinery or clothing. They were encouraged to recycle paper, glass jars and bottles. Government advisory posters and leaflets were created with slogans such as 'Make Do and Mend', 'Hints to Help Housewives','Save Kitchen Waste to Feed the Pigs' and 'Don't Take the Squander Bug when you go Shopping'. People were encouraged to grow their own vegetables. Farmers ploughed new land to plant crops. Please email us your stories to: castle@fermanagh.gov.uk |
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Sound File | |
| Title: | Rationing & Smuggling |
| Speaker: | Mr Robert Thompson |
| Sound: |
90-04-106.mp3 |
| Description: | Interviewer: Did the war have much effect on, say, life in the country or did you just go on with your...? Robert Thompson: Ach well there were shortages of things but you smuggled from across the border. We went off to buy butter or went off to buy sugar or whatever it was. It was more plentiful there than it was here. So being so close to the border here, and being country people, country people it didn't affect them very much for they had a good - Like egg rationing for one example, didn't affect us at all. Meat rationing didn't affect us, bacon rationing didn't affect us, because you kept a pig or two and you killed your own pig. That was being done anyway. We always killed and cured our own pigs. That was, well again it was an economy system. We would never have bought meat in the thirties, meat wouldn't have been bought in our house until after the war. In fact, I suppose the rationing maybe encouraged us to buy it a bit, cause you were inclined to look for what you were entitled to, I suppose. Ref: 90-04-106. Interviewer: Sandra Matchett, Fermanagh County Museum. © Fermanagh County Museum. |
Sound File | |
| Title: | Rationing had little effect in Fermanagh |
| Speaker: | Mr Patrick Kerrin |
| Sound: |
90-26-48.mp3 |
| Description: | There was terrible rationing, but farmers there again didn't feel the rationing as much as people in towns or cities because they had their own bacon, their own fowl. At least they could have a meal, they might've maybe got fed up with it, the same meal six or seven days a week but they had, they had all, and they got extra sugar and extra flour for heavy manual labour. And they did get sugar in the harvest time for jam making. In towns it was different. They had no, they had just to go buy it or else get out and cross the border where they bought butter, sugar, meat, at black market prices, y'know, dearer than what would be the controlled price like. Swanlinbar was boomin', before the war Swanlinbar was, well very little business in it and Blacklion would have been something similar. Well, when the war years come, everybody was goin' to Swanlinbar and Blacklion for what was short here and they were takin' into both places what was short there, tea, bicycle components, tyres, all the rest of it for bicycles and flour. There was more flour here than there was in the south and it was thirteen shillings, that was old money now I'm talkin' about, for eight stone. It was two pounds if you got it to the border and if you got it far enough in it was even dearer. It was a least two pounds. There was people smuggling, they made lots of money. Ref: 90-26-48. Interviewer: Sandra Matchett, Fermanagh County Museum. © Fermanagh County Museum. |
