John Steele: Masonry

John Steele 4sept14 CFP00524 and CFP00570.jpg

Title

John Steele: Masonry

Subject

Stonemasons: Occupational Lore:

Description

John speaks about his time as a Stonemason

Date

6 April 2016

Identifier

CFP_SR00570_steele_2016

Coverage

Cork, Ireland 1960s -2010s

Source

Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive

Rights

Cork Folklore Project

Language

English

Type

Sound

Format

1 . wav File

Interviewee

Interviewer

Duration

58min 03sec

Location

Carpenter’s Hall, Father Matthew Street, Cork City

Original Format

.wav

Bit Rate/Frequency

24bit/48kHz

Transcription

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

JS 
Well the working day was from half, was it eight o clock till five and eight o clock till four on a Friday, but you had to go in Saturday morning then eight o clock till twelve, that was your normal day, we had a forty four hour week or something like that, you know, and well you’d have to be there on time because bad time keeping was a no, no, you know. You had to be there on time because if you weren’t there, the men that were employed to tend you would be standing around, so you were always there on time, to be quite honest with you. And the first job I did was laying blocks as I did in this place called Tivoli restaurant, which is now where the entrance is to Merchants Quay. So, in my lifetime, it was built, knocked and Merchants Quay built on it, and it was a couple of store, stories high, it was a restaurant downstairs and it was something else then whatever on the other level. But one of me jobs then would be to collect the billycans, the cans to make the tea. So, one of the lads would say, ‘John, ten o clock’. You’d get the bare ten o clock till twenty past, so you always sort of had your tea near where you were working cus you’d get that few minutes extra waiting for the foreman to come up to you, you’d, so, I’d be sent off down maybe with four or five billycans on sticks and they’d have this thing, you’d bring a gauge of tea, which was tea and sugar mixed, and you’d put it in, I’d go down to the big boiler, oh god there were huge, berto boilers like, but they were old fashioned berto boilers, and you’d fill the can and I’d go up and I’d tell them all to come on, I have the tea, tea. So, we’d go in, we’d be sitting on a plank, sitting on a block, but always put something underneath your backside, if you’re sitting on the block, or you’ll end up with piles, that’s what we were always thought or anyway, it was true too because it was very uncomfortable. So, you’d have the tea, twenty past, I’d get the job then maybe of ‘John go down just rinse out the cans and the cups’. And I’d just go down to the nearest tap, wherever there’d be water, I’d wash out the stuff and have it ready for the one o clock, so I’d go back then, I’d be in between two men and I’d, first I’d be spreading for him and then I’d be spreading for the other lad, and then they’d say, ‘Come on, start laying a few blocks there now’. And I’d be laying blocks and of course like it was, even though the blocks were heavy, the blocks were heavy, way heavier then, than they are now, but as I said I was a big strong boy and I just loved it so much, I would have stayed there, if they said you have to stay till midnight tonight’, it wouldn’t have passed me a thought, I’d have stayed, because I came from the Lower Road, so I’d be up to the job in five minutes because from the Lower Road to Patricks street, like up past the station, I’m there. And then I was very lucky with the men I was with because there was a lot of brick going into the job and straight away they put me on brick, which was very unusual, but they said, ‘Look come on you’re going doing brick now’. And I took to it like a duck to water.

Citation

Cork Folklore Project , “John Steele: Masonry,” accessed March 29, 2024, https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/181.