This picture, from the famous Welch Collection (Ulster Museum), shows lint being taken from the flax dam at Cloney Farm, Knocknacarry around 1914, Lint (Flax) plants were soaked in a dam or water hole to partially rot the stems of the plant which enabled the fibres to be separated for spinning into flax thread. The process was known as retting. They say it smelled awful !
The building in the background is Knocknacarry National School, which later became St. Ciaran's Primary School. This picture was requested by Mr Edward McDonald of New Jersey USA, whose great-grandfather was a pupil at this school. He emigrated to Canada about 1912.
Glens Index