Eileen Claffey: Childhood Games, Food, Farming, Festivals, Irish Language,

Eileen Claffey: Childhood Games, Food, Farming, Festivals, Irish Language,

Life History

Eileen grew up on a farm in Inchaclough, West Cork with one brother and four sisters. She was the third child. They had a cousin and a neighbour’s child living with them. Her parents were hardworking– her mother used to work at least 12 hours a day. Eileen left school at 16.

Shares details of a typical day on the farm. Seasonal work on the farm, saving hay, harvesting potatoes. Their farm jobs, milking, feeding chickens and pigs. Childhood games they played. Girls played hurling with boys. The food they ate daily. Annual festivals and the stations. School days and being taught through Irish.

Note; This interview was conducted as part of the Cork 2005 Project

15 September 2004

CFP_SR00331_claffey_2004

Cork; Ireland; West Cork; 1940s - 1960s;

Cork 2005 Collection Catalogue Numbers:

CFP_SR00329_mccarthy_2004;
CFP_SR00330_odriscoll_2004;
CFP_SR00332_hanover_2004;
CFP_SR00333_desplanques_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.

Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive

English

Sound

1 .wav File

24m 31s

Ovens, Co, Cork, Ireland

MiniDisc

16bit / 44.1kHz

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


S.C: When someone got married or a child was born, how was it celebrated?

Mrs C: Well they would have a lot of people would come to the house, and they would have a sing song and dance, and some drink would be there, and much the same as today really.

S.C: How did people prepare for the celebrations? Was any animal killed or chicken or?

Mrs C: Oh yes, yeah they would kill chickens, and they used to kill a pig, they would get a pig killed every so often and it would be shared amongst a few of the neighbours, and my uncles.

S.C: Were any religious festivals celebrated in your house?

Mrs C: There used to be stations called stations in the houses every six months there would be stations, where a Mass would be said, and a meal after the Mass, and sometimes they would have entertainment after like singing and dancing and that sort of thing.