Tommy Lysaght: Masonry, Horticulture,
Stonemasons: Occupational Lore:
The interview begins with how Tommy got into stonemasonry. Tommy then goes on to talk about the Blackwater Valley, restoring boundary walls, Training in Dingle in stonework.
He mentions the ‘lads’ in Dingle, The west of Ireland have a special relationship with stone, Irish building with stone for thousands of years, the resurgence of stone, building proper stonework and not just cladding.
Tommy learnt as he went along reading books about stonework, lime-mortars. His first job, repairing an old wall by the road, a road accident that brought a lot of work.
Pure stonework- replicating old work, famine walls, working in Castletownroche- massive caps on the wall, Annesley Gardens- the story of how Lt-Gen Arthur Annesley got men to make a bend in the river Awbeg- these gardens were decimated by a storm a few years ago, lovely limestone down there.
Tommy talks about Stone carving festivals, bringing granite back from Britanny, working as a teacher, designing gardens, meditation garden for people with brain injuries, Quimper in Britanny- finding a quarry there to get stone for carving, people with brain injuries learning to carve- using a Dremel drill- seeing the progression of these people is fantastic.
The Cosgrave's of Blackpool- stone cutters, horticulturalists, getting people to grow food and making things, projects for stone carving, garden café in Blackpool- developing skills, people with disabilities, fundraising for the meditation garden, features of meditation gardens.
Cross agency work, the medium of creativity, cutting slabs, cutting of stone, preparation work for the garden.
Horticulture college in Dromcoller Limerick, connection with plants, herbs- comfrey- poultice, marry knowledge of stone gardens and wood, charity work with people with disabilities, getting funding for dream work.
Course in stone carving in Aran Islands, stone lettering, story of Amazing Grace- writer shipwrecked off Donegal, not liking the carving and then trying it again, staying on the Island for a week on my own learning to sculpt- a pagan style carving of Jesus.
Tommy finishes by talking about teaching carving to people with brain injuries, a carving of an owl- comes together piece by piece.
Cork Folklore Project
Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive
Cork Folklore Project
12 October 2016
Interviewee: Tommy Lysaght
Interviewer: Michael Moore
Cork Folklore Project
<strong><strong>From Stonemason Collection:<br /></strong></strong>
<div class="element-text five columns omega">
<p><a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/178" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00565_osullivan_2015;</a> <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/179" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00566_fahy_2015;</a> <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/180" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00569_fahy_2016;</a> <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/181" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00570_steele_2016;</a> <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/182" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00574_jones_2016;</a> <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/183" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00577_fahy_2016;</a> <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/184" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00581_osullivan_2016;</a> <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/185" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00583_johnson_2016;</a> <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/193" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00590_varian_2016;</a> <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/194" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00595_Jones_2016;</a> <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/195" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00609_Cooney_2017;</a> <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/196" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00610_McCarthy_2017;</a> <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/197" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00611_Buckley_2017:</a></p>
</div>
<strong>Published material related to the collection: </strong><br /><a href="http://corkfolklore.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Archive20-WebEdition.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Moore, Michael (2016) ‘A Tale of Two Masons’, The Archive Journal, Vol 20: 8-10.</a>
1 .wav File
English
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CFP_SR00589_lysaght_2016
Cork, Kerry, Galway, Ireland 1970s -2010s
Eileen Kearney: Grattan Street, Healthcare, Working Life
<p><span>Eileen grew up in Tallow in west Waterford in a family of seven. Her father ran the family butcher business attached to the house. She recalls him singing and whistling, and the sawdust on the shop floor. Recalls meat and tripe being sold and drisheen being made by her mother, explains this process. </span></p>
<p><span>Describes the family home and routine chores. Speaks about the importance of sport especially tennis in her family upbringing.</span></p>
<p><span>Recalls her school days including instances of corporal punishment and the negative effects it had on people. Went home for lunch, mother prepared their dinner using meat from their butcher shop.</span></p>
<p><span>Describes secondary boarding school in Loreto Fermoy, especially the structure it imposed. </span></p>
<p><span>Speaks of how she had always intended to become a nurse. May have learned traits and habits useful for her career from her mother’s work ethic. Describes her nursing training in the Mercy Hospital and how the rosary was said there every night. </span></p>
<p><span>Describes her path to Public Health Nurse training in Dublin. Talks about her desire to work in the community rather than in the constraints of a hospital. Describes the wide range of PHN duties from pregnancies, births, infants, acute injury support, addiction, disability, older adults to dying and palliative care.</span></p>
<p><span>Discusses her current role as Assistant Director of Public Health Nursing where she advocates for early intervention to prevent behavioural issues in children. Mentions the large staff turnover due to the difficulties of the work. Much of the work involves building relationships.</span></p>
<p><span>Speaks about how poverty, social disadvantage, addiction, alcoholism affect children’s health and create a negative cycle which PHNs have a role in breaking. Speaks of how difficult it is for someone who hasn’t had parental role model to function as a parent themselves.</span></p>
<p><span>Talks about the move from Grattan Street to St. Mary’s Primary Care Centre and how she misses the other medical teams. </span></p>
<p><span>Describes Grattan Street as happy place to work, enjoyed the building and its quirks such as the gallery which facilitated casual conversation and the rattling windows. Believes people enjoyed working there because they got something positive from the building. Mentions the difficulties with parking there and its impact on the wider community. Feels that the building owned them.</span></p>
<p><span>Speaks of her hopes for the future of Grattan Street building once services move out.</span></p>
<p><span>Discusses caring for and moving vaccines as a School Nurse. </span></p>
<p><span>States that Grattan Street was a special place.</span></p>
Cork Folklore Project
Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive
3 May 2019
Cork Folklore Project
<strong>Other Interviews in this Collection</strong><br /><br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/240" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00696_O'Regan_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/242" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00704_Collins_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/243" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00706_Higgisson_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/244" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00712_O'Brien_2019</a>;<br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/246" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00714_Cunning_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/247" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00717_Ward_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/248" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00727_OhUigin_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/249" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00728_Scanlan_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/250" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00729_Mulcahy_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/251" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00732_Cassidy_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/252" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00760_Morrissy_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/253" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> CFP_SR00762_OConnell_2019</a>;
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CFP_SR00713_Kearney_2019;
Don Morrissy: Grattan Street, Healthcare, Working Life
<span>Ireland; Cork; Dublin; Middle Parish; The Marsh; Grattan Street; Occupational Lore; University; </span>
<p><span>Don recalls his entrepreneurial great-aunt who owned the Grand Hotel in Fermoy. </span></p>
<p><span>Recounts early years in the Grattan Street Dispensary building where his father was the pharmacist. </span></p>
<p><span>Describes growing up on the Mardyke close to St Joseph’s School and Presentation Brothers School which he attended. Talks about the violence of corporal punishment. </span></p>
<p><span>His mother ran a guesthouse in the family home, including preparing all the meals for the customers who were mostly university students and commercial travellers with their own cars which was rare.</span></p>
<p><span>Remembers summer holidays on a cousin’s farm.</span></p>
<p><span>Describes his time in University College Cork as the most important in his life. Discusses student societies, debating and the university grounds.</span></p>
<p><span>Outlines his working life in pensions, career direction, marriage as well as living accommodation.</span></p>
<p><span>Expresses his hopes for building developments in Cork and the emerging opportunities of remote working there. </span></p>
<p><span>Reflects on how his background has formed his outlook on life.</span></p>
<p><span>Describes cycling to collect cream from Bradleys Dairy on Sheare’s Street in an Andrews Kruschen Salts jar. Also mentions his distaste for tripe and drisheen.</span></p>
<p><span>Talks about a hierarchy of respectability in Cork based on types of clothing, with shawlies being the lowest rank.</span></p>
<p><span>Discusses Cork dancehalls in the 1960s including UCC, the Arcadia and the people who organised them.</span></p>
Cork Folklore Project
Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive
Cork Folklore Project
<strong>Other Interviews in this Collection </strong><br /><br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/240" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00696_O'Regan_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/242" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00704_Collins_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/243" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00706_Higgisson_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/244" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00712_O'Brien_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/245" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00713_Kearney_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/246" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00714_Cunning_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/247" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00717_Ward_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/248" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00727_OhUigin_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/249" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00728_Scanlan_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/250" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00729_Mulcahy_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/251" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00732_Cassidy_2019</a>;<br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/253" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> CFP_SR00762_OConnell_2019</a>;
1 .wav file
English
Sound
CFP_SR00760_Morrissy_2019;