Why were sieves used?
Poor Irish properties in the 18th and 19th century lacked barns and outhouses, resulting in the need for sieves to remove dirt and grit that remained after threshing with the flail outdoors. These sieves had various mesh sizes and were used in a strong draft or on a windy day to separate grain and chaff. The wind blew the lighter chaff aside, while the heavier grain fell onto a sheet on the ground. The cleanest grain was on the windward side, but some still required an extra winnowing through a fine sieve to remove weed-seeds and chaff.
Winnowing corn near Rossguill Peninsula, Donegal.
Meal Sieve
This sieve had a very fine mesh and was used for sieving course ground wheaten meal for obtaining finer flour.
This meal sieve was made by the Irish Traveller known locally as "The Twigger" who taught John Hamilton how to make wooden sieves (F:1957.19)
Dallán / Blind Sieve
The Dallán is technically not a sieve and get its name from the Irish word Dall (blind) due to the lack of spacing between the lacing strips. It had many uses such as domestic transportation of grain and measuring feeds for animals. It could also have been used for winnowing flail-threshed corn on a windy day. The grain would fall directly onto a sheet laid on the ground and the wind would take the chaff away in the process. This was more commonly performed with a Bodhrán (leather bound sieve).
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