Gastronomy of Moycullen

As part of Heritage in Schools and the Galway Gastronomy Project, 2018 Clare Doyle visited Scoil Mhuire Moycullen, Co. Galway. The two half-day visits aimed to emulate the School's Folklore Scheme of 1937 when the Irish Folklore Commission, in collaboration with the Department of Education and the Irish National Teachers' Organisation, initiated a revolutionary scheme in which schoolchildren were encouraged to collect and document folklore and local history.

The first part of the visit focused on the 5th class children of Scoil Mhuire and their own favourite food. We also listened to an older woman talk about her memories of eating ice-cream for the first time in the 1920s and how she had loved it so much she thought she would buy some for her brothers and bring it home in a paper bag, only for the bottom of the bag to burst open and all the melted ice-cream fall out! Each child looked at old recipe books and picked out a recipe that interested them, writing out the method of cooking and drawing a picture. Most of the recipes were very old and used ingredients we don't hear about anymore – lambs’ tails and heads, liver, sweetbreads, and kidneys.

A questionnaire was sent home and each child worked with their parents and grandparents to gather photos, recipes, and stories about food in the past - in the home, at school, working in the bog or on the farm. The drawings and details will be uploaded to the Galway Community Heritage website and each child received a certificate of participation. The original submissions by the children have been deposited with the Irish Folklore Collection in University College Dublin.