Primary 7 go Potato Harvesting
18th September 2026
An extract from Seamus Heaney's poem,
At a Potato Digging
"A mechanical digger wrecks the drill,
Spins up a dark shower of roots and mould.
Labourers swarm in behind, stoop to fill wicker creels.
Fingers go dead in the cold."
Linking perfectly with our topic Hunger and our study of The Great Irish Potato Famine, the Primary 7 pupils took a lovely autumn walk to a potato field to experience the tradition of potato gathering as it would have been carried out before machinery transformed farming practices.
The children were excited from the moment they arrived and were eager to get stuck in and get their hands dirty. Through plenty of chatting, laughter and the occasional moan, they successfully gathered potatoes from ten drills that Johnny had kindly opened for them.
As part of the experience, the pupils were encouraged to engage all their senses, taking in the sights, sounds, smells and textures of the field. Back in the classroom, they worked together to create a rich sensory word bank which will help inspire their upcoming Haiku poetry writing.
It was a memorable day of hands-on learning that brought history to life and gave the children a greater appreciation of an important period in Irish history.
Well done, Team Primary 7!
Enjoy the video.
