Festival helps to make history come alive

IT’S another world as far as children of today are concerned — a place apart with smoke curling from the chimneys of thatched houses, horses ploughing and homely women in aprons baking bread.

Up to 700 Kerry youngsters, more accustomed to the internet and play stations, are getting a taste of how their ancestors lived, worked and ate in simpler times when the horse was still king in a land that had yet to see electricity. Muckross Traditional Farms, outside Killarney, provide a realistic insight into times that are long gone.

The five-day Feile Chultuir Chiarraí, run by Muckross House trustees and Kerry County Council, is a well-established annual event, featuring workshops in which the children actively participate.