Tom Jones: Shandon Street, Emigration, Childhood

Tom Jones: Shandon Street, Emigration, Childhood

Life History:

Tom was born circa 1950 in a building at the bottom of Shandon Street.
He remembers watching the Cork Opera House on fire in 1955. He recalls childhood games and explains the game of Kick the Can and Pitch and Toss. He talks about the nature of relationships between parents and children.
At 16 he went to London and began to educate himself, finishing up in America. He talks about how Cork has changed. He remembers what the allotments were like, and collecting turf in a pram.
He explains how children could get into soccer games free if they pretended to be with a man, who was often a stranger. He recalls a shop called The Pantry, in Blackpool, where he had gudge cake and rasa [raspberry juice]. Youngsters caught tiny fish in bags and took them home.

24 August 2018

CFP_SR00438_jones_2011

Cork, Ireland, 1950s-2000s

Other Interview With Tom Jones: CFP00443:Other Interviews in the Colection:

CFP_SR00387_sheehan_2010; CFP_SR00388_sheehan_2010; CFP_SR00389_healy_2010; CFP_SR00390_kelleher_2010; CFP_SR00391_crean_2010; CFP_SR00392_mckeon_2010; CFP_SR00393_twomey_2010; CFP_SR00394_stleger_2010; CFP_SR00395_speight_2010; CFP_SR00396_lane_2010; CFP_SR00397_obrienoleary_2010; CFP_SR00398_jones_2010; CFP_SR00399_saville_2010; CFP_SR00400_magnier_2010; CFP_SR00401_marshall_2010; CFP_SR00402_marshall_2010; CFP_SR00403_murphy_2010; CFP_SR00404_prout_2011; CFP_SR00405_walsh_2011; CFP_SR00406_prout_2011; CFP_SR00407_newman_2010; CFP_SR00408_newman_2010; CFP_SR00409_leahy_2011; CFP_SR00411_newman_2010; CFP_SR00412_newman_2010; CFP_SR00413_finn_2011; CFP_SR00414_ohorgain_2011; CFP_SR00415_oconnell_2011; CFP_SR00416_sheehy_2011; CFP_SR00417_mcloughlin_2012; CFP_SR00418_gerety_2012; CFP_SR00419_kelleher_2012; CFP_SR00420_byrne_2012; CFP_SR00421_cronin_2012; CFP_SR00422_ohuigin_2012; CFP_SR00423_meacle_2012; CFP_SR00424_horgan_2012; CFP_SR00425_lyons_2012; CFP_SR00427_goulding_2011;

CFP_SR00491_fitzgerald_2013.

Heritage Week 2011: CFP_SR00429_casey_2011; CFP_SR00430_tomas_2011; CFP_SR00431_newman_2011; CFP_SR00432_stillwell_2011; CFP_SR00433_oconnell_2011; CFP_SR00434_lane_2011; CFP_SR00435_montgomery-mcconville_2011; CFP_SR00436_ocallaghan_2011; CFP_SR00437_corcoran_2011; CFP_SR00439_ohuigin_2011; CFP_SR00440_mccarthy_2011; CFP_SR00441_crowley_2011; CFP_SR00442_obrien_2011; CFP_SR00443_jones_2011; CFP_SR00444_mcgillicuddy_2011; CFP_SR00445_delay_2011; CFP_SR00446_murphy_2011;

Video Interview: CFP_VR00486_speight_2014

Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive

Cork Folklore Project

English

Sound

1 .wav File

24min 36sec

Civic Trust House

.wav

24bit / 48kHz

The following is a short extract from the interview transcript, copyright of the Cork Folklore Project. If you wish to access further archival material for this interview or other interviews please contact CFP, folklorearchive@gmail.com

C O C: How did kick the can work?

T J: Kick the can was a – I believe someone threw the can and whoever called out the name, he had to stand there with the can and guard it and then everybody hid and he had to go looking for them. So if somebody – if he didn’t find somebody closer that were closer and they ran and kicked the can I guess he had to do it all over again. It was something like that, I’m not sure if I remember eh perfectly.

C O C: We used to do something called like called tip the can but we used to use a lamp post as the can and again it was you had to run in and if you tipped it while they were gone again, it started all over again or something.

T J: I’m sure somebody else mentioned it was the gambling game it was eh playing feck. where you throw h’appennies.

C O C: Oh, no I don’t know that.

T J: Well what it was was that you know first of all the eh – to determine who tossed first, meaning toss was to flip them in the air, there was a jack meaning a piece of a stick or a stone and you pitched and the nearest, the nearer one to that stone got there between the two.

C O C: And what were you throwing to the stone?

T J: Again, it would be I think it was eh I think H’appennies were still around. The farthings were gone in my time but the h’appennies were still there and it would be h’appennies that you pitched towards this eh stone or whatever and then the first one who – the nearest to that, what was called a jack em had a choice to pitch and how a winner was was that you had eh flick them in the ear and it had to come up two heads. If it came up two tails or two harps you eh lost, if it was a head and a harp or a head and tails then of course it was null and void. So then the other kids would, would bet again on his heads or his tails.

C O C: Right.

T J: Because when was the tails we were betting on – and of course that created some troubles throughout that. I’m sure there’s other people that have told you what the ways; when somebody dived in and grabbed the pot. If there was money on the ground and somebody was losing he would shout ‘all away’ and I think that was the word, which encouraged everybody to jump in, maybe grab what was there at their own, at their own risk obviously because at that time there was [word unintelligible] legs, everything else you know you just kick the thing and got a bit wild. But they were the basic things you know..