In a fast-paced, modern Ireland it can be difficult to imagine how different our lives are to those that went before. In this book Olive Sharkey lovingly describes the lives, activities and material possessions of irish people living between 1800 and the 1930s. The implements of the home, the farm, the garden and home-crafts are recounted, with detailed drawings and photographs. These once familiar objects - bittles, butterworkers, noggins and truckle beds - are explored, as we are shown a lifestyle where people made much of their own furniture and clothes, and fed themselves from their own land.

Based on Olive Sharkey's Ways of Old, this new addition to the O'Brien 'Heritage Series' will draw the reader back to a time when people were much more tuned into the rhythm of the year and the ground beneath their feet.

[O’Brien Irish Heritage series] is building up to be a handsome collection of well produced hardback books, well illustrated by photographs and drawings, complete with ribbon bookmark … a great gift for any visitor or relative living abroad, but equally it deserves a place on the bookshelf of anyone who values our past

wonderful little books which reflect the old ways … contains evocative descriptions and detailed drawings … part of a series by The O’Brien Press, exploring and celebrating Irish heritage and I could not think of a more appropriate time for readers than now, to delve into what makes this small but beautiful country of ours so unique'