Old Irish Cottages & Flagstones, Co. Clare, Ireland 1977

This extract looks at the replacement of old traditional homes with modern bungalows. Presenter Christopher Fitz-simon asks why.

We move out of the farmhouse or cottage, which was remarkably practical, into the sort of bungalow which is at home on the Kingston by-pass.

In this extract Christopher Fitz-simon looks at the move from old traditional homes to modern buildings. He also looks at the use of Liscannor stone in the building of homes, bridges and walls.

The film shows with a pan from an old thatched cottage to a modern bungalow. Two girls on a bicycle pass another modern house built beside an old thatched home. Zoom out from the thatched roof of cottage to show the front of the building. Two thatched cottages on the edge of a busy road outside Galway. A woman carrying a shopping bag enters one of the thatched cottages.

The camera pulls out from a modern built factory to show the two thatched cottages. Under these shots the Christopher Fitz-simon talks about the modern trend to move from the ancestral traditional built home to a modern bungalow. As well as this move towards living in newly built homes is where modern urban buildings encroach on the smaller traditional homes. Only the visitor from abroad seems to appreciate the cottage because it is pretty and it is Irish.

The exterior of two cottages with stone roofs in Liscannor, County Clare. Inside one of the cottages which has been renovated by an overseas visitor. In the second cottage which has been owned by one family for generations. The owner, an old man sits by an open fire with a glass in his hand.

Christopher Fitz-simon on how thatch is not the only traditional build in Ireland. He talks about the differences between the two cottages one recently restored and one that has been lived in by the same family for years.

The camera pans over potatoes planted between walls built of Liscannor flag stones. The camera shows the stone roof of an out house and a narrow lane with tractor and and trailer travelling one way and a girl driving cattle in the opposite direction.

Christopher Fitz-simon on how stone is used in so many different ways in this location. The flag stones are called Moher or Liscannor flags after the area they are from. A narrow country road with a stone bridge. A man drives a donkey and cart. Various shots of a triangular shaped stone cattle shed built beside the stone bridge. Christopher Fitz-simon on the interesting shape of the bridge walls and the stone flagged roof of the cattle shed.

Two men at work. The men are removing a flag stone from the land using hammers chisels and crow bars. They lever the flagstone free and remove the outer layer of stone.

Christopher Fitz-simon on the number of small quarries in the area, how the stone is formed naturally and how it is cut. Shots of flag stones that have been used to fence fields.