Murty O’Sullivan: Masonry, building Trade, Celtic Tiger
Title
Murty O’Sullivan: Masonry, building Trade, Celtic Tiger
Subject
Stonemasons: Occupational Lore:
Description
Murty O’Sullivan, who grew up in Blackpool, is the third generation in the building trade as a stonemason, with the fourth generation just starting. He describes the tradition of families passing on trades through the generations and the difficulties facing anyone seeking to enter the trades without a family lineage. He describes his four-year apprenticeship and the building trade in the late 1970s. He gives a detailed account of his years working in America in the mid to late 1980s. He talks about the camaraderie in the trades and the relationships he built with his fellow tradesmen over the years.
Murty's mother was interviewed interviewed by the Cork Folklore Project: CFP_SR00581_osullivan_2016;
Murty's mother was interviewed interviewed by the Cork Folklore Project: CFP_SR00581_osullivan_2016;
Date
23 November 2015
Identifier
CFP_SR00565_osullivan_2015
Coverage
Cork, Ireland 1960s -2010s
Relation
From Stonemason Collection:
CFP_SR00566_fahy_2015; CFP_SR00569_fahy_2016; CFP_SR00570_steele_2016; CFP_SR00574_jones_2016; CFP_SR00577_fahy_2016; CFP_SR00581_osullivan_2016; CFP_SR00583_johnson_2016; CFP_SR00589_lysaght_2016; CFP_SR00590_varian_2016; CFP_SR00595_Jones_2016; CFP_SR00609_Cooney_2017; CFP_SR00610_McCarthy_2017; CFP_SR00611_Buckley_2017:
Published material related to the collection:
Moore, Michael (2016) ‘A Tale of Two Masons’, The Archive Journal, Vol 20: 8-10.
Source
Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive
Rights
Cork Folklore Project
Language
English
Type
Sound
Format
1 .wav File
Interviewee
Interviewer
Duration
52min 53sec
Location
Killeens, Cork
Original Format
.wav
Bit Rate/Frequency
48kHz/24bit
Time Summary
The following is a short extract from the interview transcript, copyright of the Cork Folklore Project. If you wish to access further archival material for this interview or other interviews please contact CFP, folklorearchive@gmail.com
MOS Oh yeah, there was yeah, there was, everyone was a character and there’d be fair rivalry between the different trades as well on the site you’d have plasterers, you’d obviously had carpenters, you’d have the plumbers and ah electricians, like obviously you’d have all the trades but like electricians and plumbers wouldn’t be there, wouldn’t be as labour intensified as our trades now and the plasterers and the roofers and that kind of thing but there’d be fair banter between the whole lot, big soccer matches actually were a feature of the lunch time, we’d a lot of very good soccer players from around Cork who played at a very high standard actually and some of the current managers of, former managers of Cork City played with us on site and they weren’t treated any better, well like I mean in fairness some of the tackles were a bit on the tough side to say the least
MOS Oh yeah, there was yeah, there was, everyone was a character and there’d be fair rivalry between the different trades as well on the site you’d have plasterers, you’d obviously had carpenters, you’d have the plumbers and ah electricians, like obviously you’d have all the trades but like electricians and plumbers wouldn’t be there, wouldn’t be as labour intensified as our trades now and the plasterers and the roofers and that kind of thing but there’d be fair banter between the whole lot, big soccer matches actually were a feature of the lunch time, we’d a lot of very good soccer players from around Cork who played at a very high standard actually and some of the current managers of, former managers of Cork City played with us on site and they weren’t treated any better, well like I mean in fairness some of the tackles were a bit on the tough side to say the least
Collection
Citation
Cork Folklore Project , “Murty O’Sullivan: Masonry, building Trade, Celtic Tiger,” accessed April 19, 2024, https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/178.