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| Title |
Employed at a Hiring Fair. |
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| Description |
Cassie Ray: The first time I hired was with a man the name of Murphy from Trillick, Co. Tyrone, for fifteen pound for six months. He picked me up in the fair on the nineteenth of November, returned me on the twenty second of May. He gave me fifteen pound in me hand, and thought it was a lot of money at that time. Made up with it.
Interviewer: What age were you?
Cassie Ray: Sixteen. And we started at six o'clock in the mornin', feedin' pigs, chickens, ducks whatever else. Come in then, and got breakfast, what it was. Bit of bread and margarine, that time you had your rationin'. Two ounces of margarine for the week, half an ounce of sugar and a half an ounce of tea. And to survive it all, the farmer had cows, men used to milk the cows, gave me a can of milk on the side. When the aul man would be away durin' the day, I used to make a saucepan of rice, that was our food, for most of the day, potatoes and buttermilk. You got no sweet milk; buttermilk, potatoes and margarine and that was it. It was tough but we survived.
Interviewer: You were employed for six months?
Cassie Ray: Six months.
Interviewer: And were you paid at the end of the six months?
Cassie Ray: At the end of the six months and if you didn't stay the full six months you got nothing. Nothing at the end if you didn't stay your full six months. So you were left back to where you started, pony and trap and back again, asked to put in another six months. But no, one six months of punishment was enough. And it was only the fact that you really couldn't leave because you knew you were goin' to get nothing, so you had to stick it out.
Ref: 90-07-29.
Interviewer: Sandra Matchett, Fermanagh County Museum & Harold Johnston, Local Historian.
© Fermanagh County Museum. |
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| Speaker |
Cassie Ray |
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| Sound |
90-07-29.mp3
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