Memories of her father cycling from Galway to Dublin to a hurling match in the 1940s – or singer Christy Moore listening to Michael O’Hehir on the wireless and hearing day-old chicks chirp underneath the settle bed….just two of the outstanding contributions to a new book on rural life through the decades, republished for a third time by the National Musuem.

Happy Days and Hard Times is a collection of memories, stories and images, compiled by the National Museum of Ireland, and it includes a wonderful local submission with one visitor recalling how her father cycled from Galway to Dublin to a hurling match in the 1940s.

Visitors from all over Ireland and many people living abroad contributed to the book. The book even features a contribution from the famous Christy Moore who recalls listening to Michael O’Hehir on the wireless and hearing day-old chicks chirp underneath the settle bed.

The book came about through a reminiscence project, which encouraged visitors to the National Museum at Turlough Park in Co. Mayo to submit their memories, inspired by the folklife objects on display in the museum galleries.

From saving hay and bringing home the turf to shoemaking and the fair day – each of the stories are told in the visitors’ own words alongside an image or object from the Irish Folklife Collection.

The book was compiled by the Museum’s documentation officer, Joanne Hamilton, who first started collecting visitor memories in 2013.

“It is wonderful to see Happy Days and Hard Times reprinted for a third time. The thought-provoking stories resonate with so many; those visits to the bog with the flask of tea or cycling the countryside,” she said.

“It brings people back to a simpler past, a past filled with colour and conversation, a past where children ran through fields till dusk and neighbours sat for hours whiling away time.

“Of course, as the book title suggests, not all of the rich memories of country living are surrounded with a nostalgic glow; these were hard times as well, and this comes through as people recount their stories.”

Members of the public can still contribute memories and stories of country life to the project either via the memory sheets available in the reminiscence corner at the National Museum in Turlough Park or by downloading a memory sheet from www.museum.ie.

Copies of the book are available now at any of the book shops at the three National Museum of Ireland locations – Turlough Park, Castlebar; Kildare Street, Dublin 2 or Collins Barracks, Dublin 7.

Pictured: A horse fair in old Eyre Square, from the National Museum publication, Happy Days and Hard Times.