Sir, – My memories of washday go further back than those of Fionnuala Ward (“Memories on a clothesline”, An Irishwoman’s Diary, July 19th).
Every Monday my mother used Sunlight carbolic soap and a washboard – a ridged glass contraption which added traction to the scrubbing – before being put through a mangle and hung hung out to dry.
Table and bed linen were collected and returned by a laundry van from a neighbouring town.
Years later the first washing hung out at my own new home, achieved with just the flick of a switch and little effort, gave me similar satisfaction and a peculiar sense of proprietorial satisfaction. – Yours, etc,
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We built a bungalow on what was initially a boggy patch in my parents’ sloped front garden in Kerry
MARION WALSH,
Donnybrook,
Dublin 4.
