Meitheal : a study of co-operative labour in rural Ireland / Anne O'Dowd.

Includes bibliographical references.

Co-operation in agricultural work is an old practice in Ireland. Sporadic references to it are found in written sources from the Brehon Laws onward, and official reports and other documents of the 19th century have many references to people helping each other with their work on the land. Very little, however, is in print about its social and economic importanct to the rural dwellers themselves. This gap in our knowledge of a most interesting feature of Irish life is filled by material directly derived from folk tradition. In this survey of the traditional material the author presents a much fuller and much clearer picture than that which might be derived from the printed documentation alone.