Marie-Annick Desplanques: Brittany, Breton, Coiffe, Crêperie, Foodways, France, Children's Games.
Title
Marie-Annick Desplanques: Brittany, Breton, Coiffe, Crêperie, Foodways, France, Children's Games.
Subject
Life History
Description
Marie-Annick Desplanques grew up in Brittany, west France. She moved about frequently as a child because her father worked on the railways. She discusses food, games, Christmas in France as well as moving to Ireland from Newfoundland and the development of Cork City between 1988 and 2004.
Marie-Annick Desplanques spent her early childhood in Brittany, west France. She has three younger brothers, two of whom emigrated to England and Canada. Her father worked on the railways and she lived with her grandparents until she was five or six years old. After this, she moved around with her parents frequently: she mentions that she may have attended as many as twenty schools. Her earliest memory is of going with her grandmother to the ‘Lavoir’, in the local village to wash clothes, as well as going to the beach. She recounts various children’s games such as rolling tyres, a kind of skipping elastic game, and marbles. She remembers older women in Brittany that dressed in black and wore a ‘coiffe’, a traditional headdress that gave them difficulty getting in and out of cars. Her grandmother ran a shop that also kept wine under the table for customers who wished to stop in and chat. She recalls her grandfather telling stories as well as catching what he called ‘Japanese Chickens’ by putting glue on trees. The family diet would have been mainly fish, potatoes, and chicken. The village in which she lived would have been quite poor and Marie-Annick recalls getting an orange for Christmas as well as a wooden train made by her father.
When asked about moving to Ireland, Marie-Annick discusses the close connection between Breton villages and Ireland. She discusses moving from Newfoundland, where she met her Irish husband, to Cork in 1988 and relates that her arrival in Cork was delayed by twenty-four hours because she was searched at Heathrow Airport due to her husband having a similar name to someone serving in Portlaoise prison. She mentions getting lost in Cork after her arrival, as well.
Marie-Annick then observes that it was easy to make friends due to the fact that both she and her husband are musicians. She also discusses meeting with French people in Cork and makes mention of the creperie in French Church Street as well as Isabelle Sheridan’s stall in the English Market. She remarks on the growing ease of getting certain food ingredients as the city develops but relates some disappointment at the way the smaller community areas of the city are being built over in favour of bigger spaces.
Marie-Annick Desplanques was the Research Director of the Cork Folklore Project from its inception in 1996 until 2010.
Marie-Annick Desplanques spent her early childhood in Brittany, west France. She has three younger brothers, two of whom emigrated to England and Canada. Her father worked on the railways and she lived with her grandparents until she was five or six years old. After this, she moved around with her parents frequently: she mentions that she may have attended as many as twenty schools. Her earliest memory is of going with her grandmother to the ‘Lavoir’, in the local village to wash clothes, as well as going to the beach. She recounts various children’s games such as rolling tyres, a kind of skipping elastic game, and marbles. She remembers older women in Brittany that dressed in black and wore a ‘coiffe’, a traditional headdress that gave them difficulty getting in and out of cars. Her grandmother ran a shop that also kept wine under the table for customers who wished to stop in and chat. She recalls her grandfather telling stories as well as catching what he called ‘Japanese Chickens’ by putting glue on trees. The family diet would have been mainly fish, potatoes, and chicken. The village in which she lived would have been quite poor and Marie-Annick recalls getting an orange for Christmas as well as a wooden train made by her father.
When asked about moving to Ireland, Marie-Annick discusses the close connection between Breton villages and Ireland. She discusses moving from Newfoundland, where she met her Irish husband, to Cork in 1988 and relates that her arrival in Cork was delayed by twenty-four hours because she was searched at Heathrow Airport due to her husband having a similar name to someone serving in Portlaoise prison. She mentions getting lost in Cork after her arrival, as well.
Marie-Annick then observes that it was easy to make friends due to the fact that both she and her husband are musicians. She also discusses meeting with French people in Cork and makes mention of the creperie in French Church Street as well as Isabelle Sheridan’s stall in the English Market. She remarks on the growing ease of getting certain food ingredients as the city develops but relates some disappointment at the way the smaller community areas of the city are being built over in favour of bigger spaces.
Marie-Annick Desplanques was the Research Director of the Cork Folklore Project from its inception in 1996 until 2010.
Date
5 August 2004
Identifier
CFP_SR00333_desplanques_2004
Coverage
Cork; Ireland; Brittany; France; New Foundland; 1960s - 2000s;
Relation
Cork 2005 Collection Catalogue Numbers:
CFP_SR00329_mccarthy_2004;
CFP_SR00330_odriscoll_2004;
CFP_SR00331_claffey_2004;
CFP_SR00332_hanover_2004;
CFP_SR00334_bale_2004;
CFP_SR00335_sheridan_1996;
CFP_SR00336_steiner-scott_2004;
CFP_SR00337_rot_2004;
CFP_SR00338_stafford_2004;
CFP_SR00339_odonoghue_2004;
CFP_SR00340_hawkins_2004;
CFP_SR00341_ocarroll_2004;
CFP_SR00342_ikebuasi_2004;
CFP_SR00343_ogeallabhain_2004;
CFP_SR00344_geaney_2004;
CFP_SR00345_wulff_2004;
CFP_SR00346_abdoulbaneeva_2004;
CFP_SR00347_gunes_2004;
CFP_SR00348_fourie_2004;
CFP_SR00349_henderson_2004;
CFP_SR00350_valdman_2004;
CFP_SR00351_carmody_2004;
CFP_SR00352_osullivan_2004;
CFP_SR00353_mahknanov_2004;
CFP_SR00354_oflynn_2004;
CFP_SR00355_akhter_2004;
CFP_SR00356_walker_2004;
CFP_SR00357_kelleher_2004;
CFP_SR00358_manresa_2004;
CFP_SR00359_wimpenny_2005;
CFP_SR00360_skotarczak_2005;
CFP_SR00361_vermeulen_2005;
CFP_SR00362_owen_2005;
CFP_SR00363_dsouza_2005;
CFP_SR00364_setter_2005;
CFP_SR00365_obrien_2005;
CFP_SR00366_botan_2005:
CFP_SR00329_mccarthy_2004;
CFP_SR00330_odriscoll_2004;
CFP_SR00331_claffey_2004;
CFP_SR00332_hanover_2004;
CFP_SR00334_bale_2004;
CFP_SR00335_sheridan_1996;
CFP_SR00336_steiner-scott_2004;
CFP_SR00337_rot_2004;
CFP_SR00338_stafford_2004;
CFP_SR00339_odonoghue_2004;
CFP_SR00340_hawkins_2004;
CFP_SR00341_ocarroll_2004;
CFP_SR00342_ikebuasi_2004;
CFP_SR00343_ogeallabhain_2004;
CFP_SR00344_geaney_2004;
CFP_SR00345_wulff_2004;
CFP_SR00346_abdoulbaneeva_2004;
CFP_SR00347_gunes_2004;
CFP_SR00348_fourie_2004;
CFP_SR00349_henderson_2004;
CFP_SR00350_valdman_2004;
CFP_SR00351_carmody_2004;
CFP_SR00352_osullivan_2004;
CFP_SR00353_mahknanov_2004;
CFP_SR00354_oflynn_2004;
CFP_SR00355_akhter_2004;
CFP_SR00356_walker_2004;
CFP_SR00357_kelleher_2004;
CFP_SR00358_manresa_2004;
CFP_SR00359_wimpenny_2005;
CFP_SR00360_skotarczak_2005;
CFP_SR00361_vermeulen_2005;
CFP_SR00362_owen_2005;
CFP_SR00363_dsouza_2005;
CFP_SR00364_setter_2005;
CFP_SR00365_obrien_2005;
CFP_SR00366_botan_2005:
Published Material;
‘How’s it Goin’, Boy? radio series (six thirty-minute episodes, broadcast 2005 and available on the Cork Folklore Project website)
O'Carroll, Clíona for the Cork Northside Folklore Project (2006) How's it goin', boy? Dublin: Nonsuch Publishing.
Source
Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive
Language
English
Type
Sound
Format
1 .wav File
Interviewee
Interviewer
Duration
34m 25s
Location
Farrinferris, Cork, Ireland
Original Format
MiniDisc
Bit Rate/Frequency
16bit / 44.1kHz
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 please contact CFP, folklorearchive@gmail.com
M-A D I arrived in Cork then twenty-four hours late, and Seamus was working and I was basically exploring the City and getting lost and lost and lost because of the bridges, so I went from one bridge to another, and then I walked in the city not knowing where I was, then within that week I decided – we were living in the North Side at the time in St. Luke’s – and I kind of decided that I looked at the city from the South side, and I decided that’s grand, now I decided that I am going to walk from Sunday’s Well into St. Luke’s, and I didn’t realise that there was Blackpool in the middle, I thought I was going to be uphill, on a hill all the time, so I remember the steps, the famous steps of the old Fever Hospital, I remember them, because that was the only way to go back up the other side, so that would be my first memories.
M-A D I arrived in Cork then twenty-four hours late, and Seamus was working and I was basically exploring the City and getting lost and lost and lost because of the bridges, so I went from one bridge to another, and then I walked in the city not knowing where I was, then within that week I decided – we were living in the North Side at the time in St. Luke’s – and I kind of decided that I looked at the city from the South side, and I decided that’s grand, now I decided that I am going to walk from Sunday’s Well into St. Luke’s, and I didn’t realise that there was Blackpool in the middle, I thought I was going to be uphill, on a hill all the time, so I remember the steps, the famous steps of the old Fever Hospital, I remember them, because that was the only way to go back up the other side, so that would be my first memories.
Collection
Citation
Cork Folklore Project, “Marie-Annick Desplanques: Brittany, Breton, Coiffe, Crêperie, Foodways, France, Children's Games.,” accessed April 25, 2024, https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/21.