I
remember going to school by boat. We lived in a remote area in
Co. Fermanagh near the border with Co. Cavan on a farm on the
shores of Lough Erne. Before the building of Galloon Bridge in
1926 we would have been an island community. Our farm was not
linked to a road; we were about a mile and a half from the
nearest road walking through the fields or half a mile across
the “Lough”. The Lough was our highway or road and the boat our
principle mode of transport. There were many advantages by going
by boat, it was certainly faster and weight was not a factor
once the cargo was aboard. Before the Lough Erne drainage scheme
was implemented many farms including our own was prone to
flooding. We lost about 10 acres under water from November to
April each year.
Our boat would have difficulty in traversing the shallow flood
water; it was then that the Fermanagh Cott came in to its own.
For those not familiar with this type of craft it was basically
an oblong flat-bottomed craft with no keel allowing it to travel
in shallow water and was rowed with very long oars for better
leverage obliging the oarsman to row or “pull the Cott” with
crossed arms, an acquired technique. There were three sizes of
Cott, the most popular and the one most us families used was the
“Wee Cott” capable of performing most domestic chores relating
to the small farm including ferrying us kids to school. Some
larger farms made use of a slightly larger Cott this craft was
known as “A lump of a Cott” capable of transporting a few young
calves enclosed in a “Rail” around to prevent any unfortunate
animal for going for an unpredicted swim. The largest Cott and
the only one I knew about at that time was the “Big Cott” which
was housed at Crom Castle we called it the “Crom Cott” and was
used by the workers on Crom Estate to transport larger cattle to
their outlying farms. Our Cott was prominently a winter craft
performing a wide range of duties ranging from taking the daily
milk churns across to the creamery stand, transporting meal
rations for the animals; the hens to which I seem to remember we
had quite a lot of required their special brand of meal. Egg
production was a vital part of the farm income at that time.
Everyone had a role to play and chores to do, from parents to
the youngest member of the family. Egg collecting being one of
my after school chores, cracked ones were used in the home made
soda bread cakes. I think we were reared on these; a shop bought
loaf was a treat in those bygone days.
Saturday was my favourite day of the week not because we were
off school (as I happened to like school and my teacher, but
that’s another story) but we got to go to town on a shopping
trip. This necessitated downing on our Sunday clothes and
Wellingtons, tying out shoes around our necks and carefully
making our way to the Lough shore into the Cott and across to
“Darlins landing” where we carefully (under pain of being left
there if we got dirty) made our way up to the lane which after
half a mile or so walking we arrived at the tarmac road where we
had our hiding place, there we placed our Wellingtons and
changed into our shoes. My father and mother had bicycles which
were kept in “Rehills barn” but by the time they bicycles wheels
were pumped and the bikes cleaned after Rehills hens, which
seemed to take delight in using they handlebars as convenient
perches, we had walked more than halfway to town. We took
delight in being able to name all the houses and lanes leading
to off road farms on our way to town, if we by chance were to
meet someone we were careful not to speak first, be seen and not
heard was one of the lessons we were taught. Cars were few and
far between in the early 50`s and we knew the sound of each
vehicle long before it came into view.
Treats in those days was usually a tupanny (two penny) bag of
sweets in the winter or an ice-cream in the summer which I
remember as being made in the shop and was always lumpy but
delicious and well worth the trip. Looking at the shop windows
and seeing all the delights which we could never afford was high
on the chatting list at school the following week, from Davie
Crockets hat to Bowie’s knife to Hopalong Cassidy’s six
shooters. I am sure the girls had there favourite dolls to talk
about as well.
Our needs were simple because we knew no better, we were in
harmony with nature because we had to be, we had respect for
everybody and their property because we were taught so, but most
of all despite all of our hard ship we were happy.
