Joseph Lane: Gurranabraher, Milk and Cake Shops, Pranks

MemoryMapCollection.jpg

Title

Joseph Lane: Gurranabraher, Milk and Cake Shops, Pranks

Subject

Life History:

Description

Joseph grew up in Gurranabraher. He remembers three pawnshops of Cork. When people left Ballymacthomas to move into new corporation houses, they left their old houses behind, still complete with furniture and fittings.
Joe recalls a childhood expression, “Up the Ux” which was used to claim the right to eat part of an apple. He remembers cinemas of Cork city including The Lido, Blackpool. There was a milk and cake shop in Cork until the 1970s. He remembers living conditions: without washing machines or fridges; and having an outside toilet. There was a prank they played called “Thunder up the alley”, where this lit paper in people’s drainage pipes. He remembers one of the first Polish people who came to Cork, after the Second World War. He remembers the ice cream sold in Cold Storage. He recalls two public baths in Cork.

Date

24 August 2011

Identifier

CFP_SR00434_lane_2011

Coverage

Cork, Ireland, 1940s-2000s

Relation

Other Interviews in the Colection:

CFP_SR00387_sheehan_2010; CFP_SR00388_sheehan_2010; CFP_SR00389_healy_2010; CFP_SR00390_kelleher_2010; CFP_SR00391_crean_2010; CFP_SR00392_mckeon_2010; CFP_SR00393_twomey_2010; CFP_SR00394_stleger_2010; CFP_SR00395_speight_2010; CFP_SR00396_lane_2010; CFP_SR00397_obrienoleary_2010; CFP_SR00398_jones_2010; CFP_SR00399_saville_2010; CFP_SR00400_magnier_2010; CFP_SR00401_marshall_2010; CFP_SR00402_marshall_2010; CFP_SR00403_murphy_2010; CFP_SR00404_prout_2011; CFP_SR00405_walsh_2011; CFP_SR00406_prout_2011; CFP_SR00407_newman_2010; CFP_SR00408_newman_2010; CFP_SR00409_leahy_2011; CFP_SR00411_newman_2010; CFP_SR00412_newman_2010; CFP_SR00413_finn_2011; CFP_SR00414_ohorgain_2011; CFP_SR00415_oconnell_2011; CFP_SR00416_sheehy_2011; CFP_SR00417_mcloughlin_2012; CFP_SR00418_gerety_2012; CFP_SR00419_kelleher_2012; CFP_SR00420_byrne_2012; CFP_SR00421_cronin_2012; CFP_SR00422_ohuigin_2012; CFP_SR00423_meacle_2012; CFP_SR00424_horgan_2012; CFP_SR00425_lyons_2012; CFP_SR00427_goulding_2011;

CFP_SR00491_fitzgerald_2013.

Heritage Week 2011: CFP_SR00429_casey_2011; CFP_SR00430_tomas_2011; CFP_SR00431_newman_2011; CFP_SR00432_stillwell_2011; CFP_SR00433_oconnell_2011; CFP_SR00435_montgomery-mcconville_2011; CFP_SR00436_ocallaghan_2011; CFP_SR00437_corcoran_2011; CFP_SR00438_jones_2011; CFP_SR00439_ohuigin_2011; CFP_SR00440_mccarthy_2011; CFP_SR00441_crowley_2011; CFP_SR00442_obrien_2011; CFP_SR00443_jones_2011; CFP_SR00444_mcgillicuddy_2011; CFP_SR00445_delay_2011; CFP_SR00446_murphy_2011;

Video Interview: CFP_VR00486_speight_2014

Published Material: 

O’Carroll, Clíona (2011) ‘The Cork Memory Map’, Béascna 7: 184-188.

O’Carroll, Clíona (2012) ‘Cork Memory Map: an update on CFP’s Online Project’, The Archive 16: 14. https://www.ucc.ie/en/media/research/corkfolkloreproject/archivepdfs/archive16.PDF

Dee, Stephen and O’Carroll, Clíona (2012) ‘Sound Excerpts: Interviews from Heritage Week’, The Archive 16: 15-17. https://www.ucc.ie/en/media/research/corkfolkloreproject/archivepdfs/archive16.PDF

O'Carrol, Clíona (2014) 'The children's perspectives: Place-centred interviewing and multiple diversified livelihood strategies in Cork city, 1935-1960'. Béaloideas - The Journal of Folklore of Ireland Society, 82: 45-65.

The Curious Ear/Documentary on One (Cork City Memory Map) http://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/2011/0816/646858-curious-ear-doconone-cork-city-memory-map/

To view the Cork Memory Map Click Here

Source

Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive

Rights

Cork Folklore Project

Language

English

Type

Sound

Format

1 .wav File

Interviewee

Interviewer

Duration

20min 21sec

Location

Civic Trust House

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

C OC: Do you remember what kind of clothes people would wear. Say your parent’s generation?

JL: Well I suppose the women always had shawls. Moreso on the Northside than the Southside. They were ideal for keeping children warm. They kind of wrap them up in that. Were the men were concerned I suppose the suit of clothes would be used on Sunday for going to Mass and that would be put back into the pawn then again on Monday. Pawn played a very important role in people’s finances. But they were dreary places. Where we went to school there was a pawn broker next to the school and any time you’d go in there, there was always this smell of kind of musty clothes.

C OC: Was that on Blarney Street?

JL: That’s right.

C OC: They must have been peculiar places to walk into?

JL: But people used them all the time. Now saying that next to the pawnbroker there was a bar, and it was known as The White Eagle, and then like he’d have been one of the first Polish people to come to Cork. He was married to a Kerry woman and he was well known, and he was known locally as Mr K. I always say to people, ‘do you remember the Pole that lived in Blarney Street’, and people forget it. And he came over after the Second World War, and settled down. There wasn’t that many Polish people in Cork.

C OC: No, there wouldn’t have been.

JL: And what he’d done. He painted the bar the same colour as Poland with the eagle and all. So we had that little bit of influence of European just by him being there. He was a small man. He always struck me like Hitler because he had a small little moustache. His son went on later to win the lottery , when the lottery started in 1986. There was thirty six numbers in the lottery, and he had a son called Stefan, and above in Scruffy Murphy’s in Dublin, they formed a syndicate and when it came up to a million they were able to do every accumulator and they won it.

C OC: No way! Jeez.

JL That has nothing to do with the past but like it shows you the Pole coming to Cork’s son won the lottery.


Citation

Cork Folklore Project, “Joseph Lane: Gurranabraher, Milk and Cake Shops, Pranks,” accessed March 28, 2024, https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/144.