In this episode, I discovered a forgotten tradition from rural Ireland—when butter wasn’t just food, but a way of life, a source of income, and a reason for women to gather and work together.

Between the 18th and 19th centuries, Irish women would collaborate to churn, salt, and sort butter in their kitchens. They called it being "joined in butter." It was backbreaking, skilled work—but it was also a form of community, friendship, and economic survival.

Historian Claudia Kinmonth shares the hidden history behind this practice, how it worked, why it mattered, and how it faded away with the rise of industrial creameries.

This story first aired on The History Show on RTÉ Radio 1.

Listen to learn about:

• How Irish farmhouse women worked together to make butter
• Why they pooled their butter to sell at the Cork Butter Exchange
• The grading system of butter (first, second, third class)
• The simple things they bought with the money they earned
• What this forgotten tradition tells us about community, collaboration, and survival

Links & Resources:

📖 Irish Food History: A Companion – Free PDF of Claudia Kinmonth’s chapter: https://arrow.tudublin.ie/irishfoodhist/1/

🧈 Visit the Butter Museum in Cork: https://thebuttermuseum.com/

🎙️ More from The History Show: https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/the-history-show/

Credits:

Produced and presented by myself and Lorcan Clancy

Featuring: Claudia Kinmonth

Originally broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1, The History Show on 30th March 2025

#IrishHistory #ButterMaking #WomenInHistory #FarmingHistory #RTÉ #TheHistoryShow #Podcast

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[Fingal Poetry Festival Podcast] "Suantraí with Mammy" by Nessa O’Mahony

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First published on 7th August 2022. Here's the episode description from the original podcast:

"In this episode, co-producers Regina Fitzpatrick and Conor Sweetman talk about the GAA Oral History project and the making of 'Hurling and Us'.

Thanks to the GAA Museum and Archive at Croke Park for permission to share excerpts from the collection. The full archive is available at https://www.gaa.ie/the-gaa/oral-history/.

Produced by Regina Fitzpatrick and Conor Sweetman. Narrated by Regina Fitzpatrick.

This series is brought to you by the Heritage Office of Kilkenny County Council."

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First published August 7, 2022 on The Hurling & Us Podcast. Here's the original episode description:

The people we interviewed for this project love hurling. They love recalling matches, passages of play and their hurling heroes. Listen as they take you back in time and share the joy that hurling has brought to them.

Special thanks to our interviewees and their families. Featured in this episode are: Paddy Buggy, Martin Mulhall, Ned Quinn, David Rice and Henry Shefflin.

Thanks to the GAA Museum and Archive at Croke Park for permission to share excerpts from the collection. The full archive is available at https://www.gaa.ie/the-gaa/oral-history/.

Produced by Regina Fitzpatrick and Conor Sweetman.

Narrated by Regina Fitzpatrick.

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First published August 7, 2022 on The Hurling & Us Podcast. Here's the original episode description:

"For more than a century, people have journeyed from near and far to hurling matches. From local derbies and school games to big days out in Croke Park. The GAA Oral History Oral History collection contains hundreds of accounts of these epic journeys. Tales of crossing the landscape by trains and buses, airplanes and boats, horses and carts, on lorries, on foot and on bike.

Special thanks to our interviewees and their families. Featured in this episode are: Paddy Buggy, Nicky Brennan, Jim Cantwell, Pat Delaney, Seamus Delaney, Sean Doherty, John Henderson, Dan McEvoy, Martin Mulhall and Tommy Walsh.

Thanks to the GAA Museum and Archive at Croke Park for permission to share excerpts from the collection. The full archive is available at https://www.gaa.ie/the-gaa/oral-history/.

Produced by Regina Fitzpatrick and Conor Sweetman.

Narrated by Regina Fitzpatrick.

This series is brought to you by the Heritage Office of Kilkenny County Council."

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First published August 7, 2022 on The Hurling & Us Podcast. Here's the original episode description:

"Schools are the lifeblood of hurling in Kilkenny. With accounts spanning over 100 years, the Kilkenny GAA Oral History collection tells the central place of hurling in school life across the county.

Special thanks to our interviewees and their families. Featured in this episode are: Nicky Brennan, Joe Dumphy, John Henderson, Dan McEvoy, Gerry O'Neil and Ned Quinn.

Thanks to the GAA Museum and Archive at Croke Park for permission to share excerpts from the collection. The full archive is available at https://www.gaa.ie/the-gaa/oral-history/.

Produced by Regina Fitzpatrick and Conor Sweetman.

Narrated by Regina Fitzpatrick.

This series is brought to you by the Heritage Office of Kilkenny County Council."

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After the 1916 rising, many of the rebels were sent to a makeshift prison camp in Frongoch in Wales. Much has been made about this camp - it later became known as ollscoil na réabhlóide, the "University of Revolution".

But what did the locals think?

This story looks at Frongoch Internment Camp from the perspective of the people of rural North Wales.

Special thanks to Mabon Ap Gwynfor and Alwyn Jones.

(Broadcast 27 February 2022 on This History Show on RTE Radio 1)

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