History Of Ireland In Pictures

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A Knocker-up (sometimes known as a knocker-upper) was a profession in England and Ireland that started during and lasted well into the Industrial Revolution and at least as late as the 1920s, before alarm clocks were affordable or reliable. A knocker-up’s job was to rouse sleeping people so they could get to work on time. Mary Smith earned sixpence a week shooting dried peas at sleeping workers windows – Photograph from Philip Davies’ Lost London: 1870 – 1945. S)