G O’D: Thinking back to the street you grew up on, are there, are there any kind -- are there many kind of major landmarks or streets and lanes nearby, that have since been demolished or got rid of?
M C: Well, I suppose there was Jackson’s Terrace which is now gone. It was off Langford Row. That’s the one that sticks out. I remember as a child saying when I was bigger I’d cross Langford Row and go over and see the -- I thought they were spectacular houses. Sure the poor people probably didn’t think -- they were two-storey houses and a narrow kind of entrance to them and obviously like, the distance between their front doors was very little and I think there was a toilet down at the end, a communal. But they used to say it was beautifully kept, you know. The people kept the place very well. But there was -- like you couldn’t -- you’d only get a bicycle in between the, the houses but I thought it was -- you know, as a child. And I was going to cross the road and see those houses, and by the time I was ready to cross the road, Jackson’s Terrace was knocked and ‘tis the apartments there in, in -- it was a garage afterwards and then ‘tis an apartment in Langford now. And I suppose like, that whole community at the end of High Street, like there was about seven houses, like cottages in Langford Row, which was, you know, whole families. And then there was Mrs Donnelly and Curtin the bookie, and Fitzgibbon’s and Cosgrave’s and Curtin’s and Dorgan’s shop, all taken, and at the other side of the road then, there was Houston’s pub and all the houses in Summer Hill South, their gardens were shortened to make the road wide. So ‘twas a -- and then there was a whole -- there was as many more, there was about five or six houses in Summer Hill South taken as well, small houses. So ‘twas like a whole community just for progress but it was a whole community removed, you know.
G O’D: Mm, and where were they -- would they have -- where were they re-settled then?
M C: Well it -- if the people owneded the houses they just were compensated and they bought houses elsewhere, and if they didn’t they were housed in different places, mostly in Ballyphehane.
DG: Douglas Street is a fantastic place to live. I mean it took a while for people to get the hang of what exactly was going on in that bar yeah I mean there were old men, it was the early ‘80s there were quite a few old men who would start drinking at one end of the street and work their way along the street and would always come into me and I’ve great memories of some old guys with soft hats, and eh pipes and whatever and would always eh and even when the bar got busy and even when the bar became quite gay those guys still came in [laughs] I loved that, I loved that. Now I was always particularly attentive [pause] I loved that anyway. So I would always be particularly attentive to older people and whether they're comfortable eh I suppose I got that from my parents. There was one man who lived two doors up Charlie Callnan and he used to come in and he had a soft hat, and he was just a sweet man and he always referred to his wife as The Queen. Yeah. And I actually became very friendly, she was very tall, very elegant lady. Mrs Callnan and I used to be quite, eh a little fearful of her she was quite a formidable looking lady, yeah and actually poor Charlie got Alzheimer’s in the end and I knew, you could see how he was getting. He didn’t know who I was after a while it was kind of sad then. And he used to tell wonderful stories about the pub. Yeah. Which he lived next door to all his life. So he had fantastic stories about who ran it and who lived in it and you know all the people who used to drink in it and all the crazy stories from years ago.
AC: What type of thing did he tell you?
DG: Ah, things like they used to do on Good Friday. On Good Friday the pub would close and eh rather than not drink on Good Friday the fellas would contrive all kinds of schemes and he told me this great story of some fella he used to drink in the bar used to drive a Tayto van and Good Friday all the lads eh he kitted the van out as a bar just for Good Friday, the madness of it like, they drove down to the Monahan Road and parked the van, the boys went on the piss for the day in the back of the van like, just because it was Good Friday you know. Crazy stuff like that. And fellas then who were [pause] in those days there was a snug. There was a little mark on the ceiling in Loafers which was the snug, the mark of the snug and of course in those days the snug was for women. Women would come in and have a bottle of stout in the snug right and he told me this lovely story of this woman who eh came in with a friend of hers and she had her bottle of stout in the snug and her husband didn’t think she drank and her husband never drank, well it was The Shamrock Bar in those days, her husband never drank in The Shamrock Bar right but on this particular day she was doing her shopping and came in with her friend and had a bottle of stout and went into the snug and closed the door. Whilst she was in there her husband and a few friends came in and she couldn’t leave. [laughs loudly], so that was another story and also Lunhams Bacon factory was in, when I opened Loafers there was a laneway directly opposite into what was the car park. That was Lunham’s Bacon factory which I remember from when I was a young fella in Cork and all the workers from Lunham’s Bacon Factory used to drink in all the pubs along you know and at lunchtime what they would do they would bring over a lump of bacon and the people who used to own The Shamrock Bar, the lady of the house she would boil up the bacon and then she’d have sandwiches and stuff ready for them at tea time and they’d come in and sure they’d stay there half the night then eating the bacon sandwiches that she was after making, stuff like that. Real old. And I remember Douglas Street from when I was, the early 60’s from when I was a kid and I remember actually number 27 Douglas Street which I eventually made and made part of Loafers was O’Callaghan’s bicycle shop and eh I remember bringing my bicycle in to have the puncture repaired in to Mr O’Callaghan little did I know as a 15 year old that I would eventually own the building but yeah so I always loved Douglas Street, because Douglas Street was always like to me the main street of a country town as opposed to being a town in the city it had that kind of atmosphere and it had a lovely curve on it. You couldn’t stand at one end of Douglas Street and look directly down it because of this little kind of a mischievous curve that was in it and all the higgledy-piggledy buildings you know there were two storey houses and three storey houses it always gave off that atmosphere to me of a main street in a country town and actually when I moved, when I bought Loafers in 1960 eh, losing track of time here, 1983 there was actually a little shop in Douglas Street run by an old woman and all she sold was tea towels and if you can imagine this little Dickensian shop about seven feet wide and a little counter and a woman in there sitting there and selling only tea towels.
CFP_SR00502_kay_2014;
CFP_SR00516_browne_2014;
CFP_SR00518_dee_2014;
CFP_SR00519_casey_2014;
CFP_SR00521_mccarthy_2014;
CFP_SR00532_davis_2014;
CFP_SR00534_kiely_2014;
CFP_SR00547_curtin_2015;
CFP_SR00548_mcallister_2015;
CFP_SR00549_neville_2015;
CFP_SR00555_whelan_2015;
CFP_SR00556_lynch_2015;
CFP_SR00558_doherty_2015;
CFP_SR00561_kerrigan_2015;
CFP_SR00576_odonnabhain_2016;
DC So do you feel in your own little way the small interactions in your everyday life and just been living down here in Mallow and your not the two point four children white picket fence family, that you are a bit alternative that you are making some changes, and sometimes that’s all you need to do, you don’t need to be part of this massive activist kind of group maybe sometimes getting on with your life quietly in the small day to day interactions you are actually making small changes.
CB Without even realising it, yeah, on of, you’ve just reminded me but apologies my pet fly Freddy has come back (laughter), when we had our ceremony our neighbours they used to be ourselves and our other neighbours up the road, we were the only ones here just until recently and we just got to know them, we never said anything and then we were having our ceremony and we invited them and I never forget the wife, she is a lovely lady, Joan and she turned around and she said you know what she said delighted to be invited but I’ve also never been to one of these before and I just wanted to see what way it would turn out and even at the ceremony one of my cousins turned around, I’ll never forget she was walking by me, the language, it wasn’t bad language she said feck sake this is better than my own wedding, heterosexual couple, so we are making probably slight changes as you say but we still get a few little knocks. There is a crèche here in Mallow that we used to have our son in, we took him out for health reasons for him and the owner turned around and when we were speaking to her she said well we did make allowances for your family unity. Now when she said it at the time I was, okay fine, we are doing the right thing by taking him out of here and putting him in another place and not a bother, I think we’re, myself and Tracy the ones who are more conscious of peoples reaction, do they think I have lied to them, you know because I haven’t said we are a couple but yeah making small little changes, I wouldn’t be surprised when Sean starts school that there might be another same-sex couple who might be putting their child in cause I remember ringing up. I rang up last year to put Sean's name on the list and the lady turned around and said you are not living in Dublin dear you can ring next year and put his name on the list whereas in Dublin when the baby is in the womb you have to put the child's name on the list to get them into the school but this is Mallow I think you could probably put the child's name down a couple of weeks beforehand. So I just said to her also look I was looking to see if we could meet the principle. I said em, Sean he has two mothers, I’m assuming I probably shouldn’t but that it was an old dear because there was a bit of stuttering and coughing and pick yourself up off the floor kind of thing, no problem whatsoever whenever you want to make an appointment that’s fine my dear, yeah, you just ring back whenever you are ready and I rang back and it was the same lady, and I said I am looking to make an appointment with the principle to come in just to explain about Sean and that he has two mothers. Oh, I was speaking to you before, come in whenever you want, there is no problem, come in whenever just call in. We haven’t gone in, no need, we think if we go in it will kind of make it a bigger thing. He is going to be bullied, he is going to be bullied anyway everyone gets picked on for something, in my eyes, kids are pass remarkable unless the parents are behind to give them a clip around the ear but eh yeah probably making small changes without even realising it, yeah.