Posted by murrisk on January 01, 2001 at 00:23:08:
In Reply to: Re: Some dates of possible interest posted by Butch on December 31, 2000 at 21:41:54:
Provocative Butch!I checked my wallet and found my Social Security card issued in 1969,
when I and a number of Castlebarbarians had a hoot in New York. Unfortunately, I couldn't
find my membership of the Teamsters Union, the first union I ever joined. Now before you
start, Jimmy was reported to be doing just fine when I left. The number of fulacht fiadh
reported does not surprise me. I expect these sites were used probably into the middle
ages, maybe even later - iron cooking utensils were not readily available and village/communal
life was the norm. Also, the extent of stone age and iron age settlement in Ireland has, I believe,
been underestimated. Significant new discoveries are emerging from excavations of the pre-blanket
bog landscapes throughout the country. For example, Ceide Fields near Downpatrick Head in north Mayo,
is a 5,000 year old village with tilled fields now emerging from beneath the bog. I visited the
area with Seamus Caufield in the 1970's shortly after the discovery was made. The settlers were
obviously hardy people to settle there 3,000 years BC. Post holes for house frames were clearly
visible. Cross sections of the tilled fields showed the fields had been abandoned and reworked at
a later date. The ridges were "firabeens" (phonetic)or lazy beds in English. From experience I can
truly say that whoever coined the name lazy bed never worked a spade in grassed ground!