Michael Murphy: Worklife; Murphy's Brewery; Childhood

Michael Murphy: Worklife; Murphy's Brewery; Childhood

Life History:

Michael was born in 1941. He was born in Francis Street. He had 6 brothers and 5 sisters. His earliest memory is of his grandfather’s funeral, with a hearse pulled by two horses, in 1945. His mother’s pregnancies and the arrival of newborn children was not discussed. His children’s clothes were passed on to a neighbour’s child. He recalls the practice of buying a habit for a dead person.

His father (b. 1910) started work at the age of 10 at Murphy's bacon factory on Evergreen St.

Michael’s best friend was a Jewish boy, Isaac Charger.

He went to the Savoy cinema, dancing in Francis Hall and the Arcadia, drinking in O’Riordan’s, Merchant’s Quay. He went to confession after the pub; the owner gave him tea leaves to chew to take away the smell of drink.

He started working in Murphy’s brewery in 1959 and rose through the company.

07 April 1998

CFP_SR00140_murphy_1998

Ireland; Cork; 1940s-1960s

Published Material:

Hunter, Stephen (1999), Life Journeys: Living Folklore in Ireland Today, Cork: The Northside Folklore Project.

Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive

Cork Folklore Project

English

Sound

.wav

58min 55sec

NCE Ltd, Sunbeam Industrial Estate, Mallow Road, Cork

Cassette

C.C: So where did ye socialise, that time, when you started I suppose and socialise, where would ye have gone?

M.M: I suppose dancing it would have been the Francis Hall (Sheare’s Street) in the Arcadia (lower Glanmire Road).

CC. Did ye go to Pubs?

M.M: When we got to the Pub scene, it would have been, O’ Riordan’s Pub in Merchant’s Quay.

C.C: O’ Riordan’s pub.

M.M: Yeah and she had a cafe overhead and we liked going there because we had to go to Confession nearly every Saturday.

C.C: Yeah.

M.M: And if you didn’t go to Confession on Saturday, and came home and still said you did that was another lie, that’s another lie you have to tell next week.

C.C: That’s an extra one to add on to the rest.

M.M: One on to that and Mrs. Riordan was very good cos we go down of a Saturday and we be playing darts or cards and when it’s time for Confession she’d hunt us out the door and she would give us a tea leaves on the way to chew on the way up to the Chapel, to take away the smell of the stout.

C.C: Did she?

M.M: Yeah.

C.C: Get away?

M.M: Yeah, malt tea leaves and you just suck on them on the way up to the Church..

C.C Jes, and then go into Confession.

M.M: Go into Confession.

C.C: And would yea go back down there again after yea come then?

M.M: And back down to the pub then.

C.C: And would there be a group of ye together?

M.M: Oh yea, four or five, going to Confession.

C.C: And what time was the closing time?

M.M: Oh, we never be there at closing time, at that stage, you were always back.

C.C: Probably falling on the ground, were ye? (Laughs) Before that?

M.M: You were back on the hunt at around nine o’clock .

M.M: C.C: (Laughs)