Transport in Ireland The simplest way of moving about was by foot and people carried things on their backs, the donkey or the ass was the most common beast of burden. In Galway baskets were carried by both men and women, but, traditionally the heavy loads were carried by women. When Henry Coulter travelled through Ireland during 1861-2 he reported: "I have seen more than one poor woman labouring like a horse, toiling backwards= and forward from the seashore to the field with a heavy load of seaweed, which she had to spread upon the land, whilst her husband performed the much easier task of filling her basket when she returned' (seaweed was used as manure) Burden ropes were usually used when large loads were to be carried, they were made from any of a variety of materials - hay, straw, bog wood, rushes or horsehair and werer used for carrying hay, furze, seaweed, rushes, wool, straw, osiers and firewood. In Cork they were called 'iompair' ropes and in Co. Louth, soogan corn or soogan awtha. A loop was put around one end of the rope, the load was laid on the rope, the opposite end of the rope was threaded through the loop and pulled tight and then the load was lifted over the shoulder. Back baskets were widely used and were made in almost every part of Ireland. Some had shoulder straps of twisted straw, worn in a manner similar to todays' backpacks. They came in a variety of shapes and sizes and the design suited whatever was to be carried - baskets with larger woven panels for hay or turf and smaller weave for potatoes. On the Aran islands, when carrying wet loads of seaweed, a sheepskin was used over the back and under the basket to protect the back. Goods were also carried on top of people's heads. In the late 1950's a survey carried out by the Irish Folklore Commission recorder that this tradition was found in all the southern and western counties from Cork to Sligo and again - it was mainly the women who carried loads on their heads. One informant from Newcastlewest in Co. Limerick said : "About 50 years ago, my mother used to make a ring of her apron, place it on the crown of her head, place a box of butter 56lbs in weight on it and carry it a mile through troublesome country from Killaghteen to Sheehans in Rooska. Usually a pad of some sort - the ringed apron above - was placed on the crown of the head to form a flat platform and various types of containers could be placed on this pad. Liquids could be carried without spillage, eggs without breakage. Neck muscles were developed to such an extent to enable loads to be carried that people today would think impossible to carry in this manner. In parts of Co. Clare milk pails, tubs of butter and baskets of clothes being brought to streams for washing were carried in this way. Tinsmiths made special containers for carrying water on the head and in Galway, women regularly carried baskets of fish on their heads, as they did from Lough Neagh to parts of Armagh. This method of carrying is remembered in Waterford, Cavan, Carlow and Derry, but little is known of it in Co. Donegal. Jane http://www.from-ireland.net