Mary Mulcahy: Grattan Street, Healthcare, The Marsh

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Intro

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Tenement Life and Friendships

Mary grew up in 44 Grattan Street. Despite there being tenements it was a magic experience. It was one big happy family, everyone knew and helped one another. All the children played and went to school together.

6 families lived in 44 Grattan Street, all had lots of children and still friends and went to each other’s marriages.

Tenements today would be apartments. All had separate entrance but one main toilet in the yard. It was tough but they knew no other experience and everyone was the same. There was one family which was a bit better off than them, but they received the same treatment from them as everyone else and never interfered with their friendship. She still knows where all her neighbours are, and for going to funerals.

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Typical Day

Get up, have breakfast go to St Maries of the Isle school [Bishop Street Cork], and most of Middle Parish went to that school at the time. Came home for lunch and returned to school at 2pm. And finished school at 3pm. Then went home, did the homework and went to play on the street. There were no cars on the street but there was an occasional horse and cart. Played all their games on the street: skipping and pickey. One of Mary’s happiest time because all the children were at the same level- no one was looking down on them.

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Children’s Games

Skipping and Piggey

Skipping and piggey with a piggey box or a shoe polish box taken from someone’s house. Mary’s sister-in-law once did not have any chalk to draw the boxes for piggey (or picky or pickey) [hopscotch] and she broke the finger of her mother’s holy statue of the virgin Mary and used it instead of chalk. Mary describes it as innocent, there was no harm involved. The statue was on the landing. They didn’t have the money to buy chalk. Still laugh about that story today.

Release- game.

Boys and girls were involved. 6 or 10 children all in a square drawn on the ground. One appointed to stay in the box. Someone would shout “Release” and everyone would scatter and hide. And the person in the square had to try to find them.

Cat and Dog- game

Place a small stick which is pointed a both ends at the edge of a kerb. Then take a bigger stick and hit it so it would fly into the air. The person who hit their stick the furthest would win.

It was simple but very enjoyable.

Hide and Go Seek- game

[doesn’t give a description]

Thunder up the Alley- game

Lighting papers and put them up the drainpipe/chute and the draught took it up the chute. Mary says they should not have done that but they did, and says that they were bored.

Playing Shop and Playing House- game

Used the tombstones in the Protestant graveyard [St Peter’s on Grattan Street] They put all their “googles”? [8:10-8:20] on the tombstones and their friends came to “buy” them. They used coloured glass for sweets.

Played with neighbours boys and girls.

Run Away Knock-game

People would claim they would tell Mary’s parents about playing this game but they never did because they knew it was innocent.

Reminisces about childhood with friends now.

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Compares her childhood with that of today

Things that she did people might frown on eg. playing on a tombstone.

Mentions having a picnic on a gravestone on holidays.

Contrasts this with deliberate vandalisation of graves.

Wasn’t afraid of graveyard because her mother said mother said that “The living are doing the harm the dead can’t do anything to you”.

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Food and Meals

Porridge for breakfast sometimes called gruel. They had tea and could toast bread in front of fire, no toasters. Doesn’t think there were cornflakes at the time.

Simple life but great happiness. “everybody was on the same level”

“we had nothing but we had everything” “we had love, happiness, peace and there’s no money can buy these things”, “If you hadn’t it you did without it.”

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Pawn Shops

There were loan offices available but Mary said they would try to avoid those because they couldn’t afford it. There was only one man’s wages coming into the family.

Pawn shops were “rampant” at the time. Suits for Sunday mass were sent to the pawn on Monday morning and on Thursday when you got your wages you would get the suit back out from the pawn. “that was living in my time”, “no shame in it” People had to survive and get food for their children, and wages were small. “We managed”. Her brother doesn’t agree with her that they were the happiest days of their lives.

If they got something it was like Christmas. “We made do with what we had.”

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A Sunday Treat

A penny on Sunday from her father for sweets. There was shop across from where they lived. They could get bonbons and other sweets.

4 farthings in a penny. You could get change from a penny!

Thinks most people were happy at the time.

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Clothes: Repairs and Hand-me-downs

Fathers would repair shoes. They would buy leather form Davisons Shop [16:40 or Davidsons?] shop on North Main Street. Used a strip of leather to put heels on shoes using a “Last” [cobbler’s last- a tool similar to the shape of a human foot used to make or repair shoes] tacked leather onto the shoe Used paring knife to remove excess leather. And then “Blackened it with the polish”. Repaired both shoe heels and soles. It was expensive to send them to the shoemaker and they couldn’t afford it.

Tough times but great times.

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Father’s work in the Munster Arcade and his family bringing him Lunch

Father, mother 6 children 4 boys and 2 girls lived in one floor of a 5 floor tenement.

Dad worked as porter in the Munster Arcade. His job involved work around the shop and delivering parcels. Munster Arcade and Cashes were the best shops in Cork, very expensive.

His children used to help their dad. Galvanised pot for tea and bread and butter brought to his work for his lunch. Everyone did something similar for lunches at the time.

Couldn’t afford to buy ham. No such thing as going to a café for them.

Munster Arcade was an elite shop for people who had big jobs. The staff were very lovely.

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Father having to Deliver a Tie. Attitude of the Elite.

Once a woman from Montenotte or St Luke’s bought a tie for her husband and Mary’s father had to deliver the tie at 5.30pm when he was due to finish at 6pm. Father often spoke, cribbed and cursed about that incident.

“That’s the way people lived at that time like. They were up there like and we were down here.” She puts this attitude down to ignorance.

“They wanted to be up there looking down on us” but “We were better off because we had what they couldn’t buy: love and contentment.”

Describes a world of the haves and have nots. Feels sorry for people who have to pretend that they are well-off rather than being themselves. Describes her thinking as old-fashioned.

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Change of Attitudes to Work today. Positive Change in role of men in Housework.

Thinks everything is “put on a plate” for people- that everything must be done for them and people are not grateful for what they have. Thinks it’s degrading to tell people “but that’s your job.”

Men were never expected to do housework or look after children in the past and now it’s changed and she is glad.

Fathers would take children for walks, fishing or to matches. But everything else was done by the mother.

Is glad that her children turned out well, thinks it was worth her effort raising them when she thinks back.

Recalls a recent news story of a 10 year old drunk and questions the role of parents today.

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Pub Culture Then and Now

Describes how when men were paid their wages they would go to the pub, and how women and children were not allowed in pubs. Believes children were not allowed in pubs then.

Thinks now women are worse than men from what she hears as regards drinking behaviour. Believes this is unfair on children.

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Mother bringing them on Trips, Youghal, Swimming

Describes parents as salt of the earth. Had to be home at a certain time. Could play on the street as there was very little traffic.

They were taken to Fitzgerald’s Park or Lee Fields for an outing

One Sunday in August would be trip to Youghal.

Train to Youghal. Thousands of people like cattle there. Train stopped near the beach. And came home at 6pm in the evening. People wouldn’t believe you had been to the beach unless you got sunburned.

Swam in Youghal. No bathing togs! Sandwiches on the beach. Learned to swim in Youghal.

Her children went to the lifesaving clubs. It was essential that time

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Mother and Making Ends Meet: Pawns, Meals, Food Shopping

Mother pawned father’s suit to make ends meet. And not ashamed of it. It was the thing to do to feed the children.

Remembers her mother cooking stews and potatoes.

Big bowl of potatoes in the centre of the table and everyone for themselves with butter on them!

Tripe and Drisheen- good for the stomach. Beautiful dish. The dug of the lamb. Milk, onions, mushrooms, thicken with white sauce, and add potatoes. Mary still makes it as a winter dish. Her sons like it but not her daughters or daughter in laws. It’s still sold in O’Reilly’s in the English Market which was only around the corner from Grattan Street.

Kidneys- skirts and kidneys. Kidneys referred to as “sheep’s pooley bags” [pooley: urine cf Sean Beecher Cork Slang: https://corkslang.com/pooley]

Offal and offal bones, liver. The main dishes for the working classes. They were not able to afford steak.

Today people are too squeamish about offal.

English Market: The Chicken Inn. O’Reilly’s Tripe and Drisheen. Everyone had their own butcher. English Market was very basic when Mary was younger.

Coal Quay was brilliant on a Saturday. Cornmarket Street used to be full of stalls, clothes,  people, tinned food. Annie Punch half way down Cornmarket Street a big woman and a Cork character- “The Mother of the Coal Quay” blond, happy-go-lucky and funny person.

Selling second-hand clothes at the time, although now they sell new clothes. It was very popular at Christmas.

There’s snobbery about going into the Coal Quay today.

Shop on corner Twomeys was popular. People would buy their Christmas Trees and decorations- Annie Punch was the main dealer for these.

Saturday morning farmers would come to the city to sell their vegetables.

There were also local shops that they supported.

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Christmas

Might not have had a Christmas Tree but Santa Claus always came.

They had chicken for Christmas dinner couldn’t afford a turkey

Christmas Eve night her own children were frightened by her husband dresses as Santa Clause outside the window.

They made their own fun back then.

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Singsongs and Music

Singsongs after the pub which they could hear in bed a night.

O’Callaghan’s Pub for the sing song. And opposite the protestant graveyard was the parting place at the end of the night.

“Bill Bill” played the trumpet in The Workingman’s Band used to play it at 1am after the pub.

The Workingman’s Band

The Workingman’s Band played various wind instruments. They would meet in the club and march up Grattan Street and they were meant to turn left up to Patrick Street but one man turned right and people discovered he wasn’t playing his instrument!

“They were very happy days”

Songs at the singsong: “Mother mo Chroí”, “Kathleen Mavourneen”, “I’ll take you Home Again Kathleen”, “South of the Border- Down Mexico Way”

Saturday night was the singsong and they would all make mass on Sunday morning in the Confraternity in St Peter and Paul’s Church for 8am mass or in St Francis church.

Mary admired that they all stuck together.

The men used take their pint but they never abused or neglected their families.

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Dancehalls and Father’s Strict Timekeeping

Dances were held from 8pm-11pm in St. Francis Hall on Sheares Street. If they arrived home late her father would say: “I said 11 not five past” wouldn’t be allowed go the following week.

Feels lucky that they were disciplined in this way. Her father was very strict but that all parents were like that at the time.

Gresham Rooms on Maylor Street off Patrick Street was another place for dances, which their father was reluctant to let them attend as it was further away than St. Francis Hall.

The Arcadia was an enjoyable place for dances.

At dances the men were on one side of the room and women on the other.

Women would run to the ladies toilet if an undesirable man came across the dancehall to ask them for a dance. “What a scatter!”

Ladies choice: halfway through the night the women would have to ask the men for a dance.

You could be reported and removed from the hall for refusing a dance.

Lists some bands and singers: Victor Silvester, Clipper Carltons, Joe Mac and the Dixielanders. Terry McCarthy had died the week of this interview was a great singer.

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Funeral and Memories of Terry McCarthy and Music in Churches

Beautiful funeral mass even better than that for a bishop!

Large crowd at the funeral. Well organised and felt like being in heaven.

When Mary was 80 her family invited Terry McCarthy to sing for her and he sang great old songs not pop music.

Thinks that pop music is unsuitable to play at funerals and masses.

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Dancehalls: Rules, Learning, Locations and no Dances at Lent

You couldn’t refuse a dance at a dancehall. And you couldn’t dance unless you were asked. A “legger” was a bad dancer.

Types of dances: tango, quick step, foxtrot, and waltz. Learned how to dance at the dancehalls from each other and from a dancing partner at the dance.

They would practice dancing at home with the sweeping brush!

People would help and teach you when dancing.

Some of the men were very proud of their dancing and would be showing off.

Could get a glass of milk and buy tea and cake later on.

Dance Halls: The Arcadia was the main ballroom in Cork was open 9pm until 2am, near Kent Station. Gresham Rooms. Dance near [Collins] Barracks and near Tivoli.

Cork Boat Club on the Marina dancing finished at 2am and then they had to walk home.

Once a friend Pauline from the Marsh who was an opera singer sang on the way home from the Marina but a Garda arrived and asked them to leave.

Mary describes herself as a “chorus girl” rather than a solo singer!

No dancing or dancehalls during Lent. So they met at the same time and went for a walk out the Lee Road. No vandalism at the time. “We made our own enjoyment”

They would talk about fellas or sing while on their walk. They all went and came back as group from the Marsh/Middle Parish.

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Illnesses

Measles, whooping cough, scabies, diphtheria- which 3 in her family had, Mary was the carrier. Puts it down to lack of hygiene.

Diphtheria was the killer disease aside from TB. Her 3 family members were isolated in St Finbarr’s Hospital.

Doctor told her mother to put her uninfected daughter into the hospital with the others to catch diphtheria and recover from it.

Mary spent much of her time crying while in isolation and having to look out the window at her parents. It was sad. There were many medical tests.

Recalls a neighbour who had polio.

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Dispensary Grattan Street: Doctors and Medicines

There were 6 doctors in the local Dispensary on Grattan Street. each area had its own doctor. People from the Marsh/ Middle Parish had Dr Cagney.

Dr Cagney was very strict, very cross, “what else can I give you now beside a car?!” he said to Mary’s mother. Dr Cagney was a big man and elderly at the time and his son became a doctor too. [Dr Michael Cagney was his son, see: CFP_SR00762_OConnell_2019]

Parishes Food it was like a tonic. Everyone liked the taste of it. You didn’t need a prescription for it.

You brought an empty bottle to the dispensary after having visited the doctor who gave you a note with details of your required medicine and your bottle would be filled up accordingly in the dispensing unit.

Cod liver oil was also recommended and was got in the Dispensary.

Recalls giving her children cod liver oil with an orange to improve the taste.

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Queuing in Dispensary for Doctor. Pharmacist and Caretaker

Had to queue up on benches for up to 2 hours. There were 6 doctors, Dr Cagney was theirs. You’d get a prescription and then hand that to the dispensing unit on the way out.

Thinks she recalls there being a Dr Fennell there as well.

No appointments you just queued up.

Beautiful atmosphere in there. She would know people there. Mentions 2 caretakers who lived on site.

She knew is as “The Quakers” although she never met them but was aware that they had once lived there.

Beautiful courtyard. Two families lived there either side of the front entrance: Morrissy’s (the dispenser) and Lucey’s or Healey’s were there caretakers.

The daughters of the Morrissy’s would have been friends with Mary. [see also CFP_SR00760_Morrissy_2019;]

Would see their neighbours in the waiting room. Couldn’t afford a private doctor.

Different doctors there for different parts of the city.

The Cagney’s were very popular, Dr Cagney’s son Michael took over.

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The Waiting Room could be very full with people. if the 6 doctors were present.

Convenient living in Grattan Street as they were across the road.

Very few chemists at the time.

Everyone hoped they would get Parishes Food

illnesses Polio and diphtheria. They weren’t afraid  of the diseases, would be sometimes delighted to get sick to avoid school. Whooping cough and chickenpox were normal diseases.

Treatment for whooping cough was mostly rest.

There was an old saying “we got over the measles”

Her brother Paddy was seriously affected by diphtheria.

Symptoms of diphtheria You felt like your throat was coming up through your mouth.

Thinks about how her parents coped with having children in St Finbarr’s isolation ward when they had no transport.

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Christmas Party and ‘Simple Living’ of the Past

There was a Christmas party for all the children with a bottle of watered down rasa/raza (raspberry cordial) and sweets. Everybody was on the same level except for a few who were slightly better off but they

All going to the same school St Mary’s of the Isle. Great neighbourliness. Thinks they were very lucky and that their parents kept them “on the straight and narrow”. Says there was a lot of problems alcohol and drink but not in her family- suggests some people may not have had enough money to pay for food due to alcoholism.

John O’Shea [likely the same O’Shea interviewed CFP00774] wrote a book about the “Red City” the Northside of Cork. Much of the book Mary agreed with and identifies with eg. box cars, collecting wood and making bundles out of it to sell it. “What we had to do to make a couple of bob” eg the Pawn shops. People were happy to live that way she thinks. Simple living.

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Quakers and Grattan Street

The Quakers did live in Grattan Street, it was their religion. Mary says her daughter-in-law is working in Grattan Street. It was a lovely building.

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School behind Dispensary

St. Francis Boys School was at the back of the dispensary. “Rowdy Boys College” was what it was called at the time. Thinks that there is a private school in there at the moment.

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Happiness and Gratitude

Reiterates that they were the happiest days of her life games as children, made their own enjoyment and is grateful for her good parents. And feels sorry for people today who aren’t as lucky.

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LDF Local Defence Force

Recalls the LDF (Local Defence Force) marching and as being part of the army and they wore berets.

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Attitude towards the dispensary

Dr Cagney lived on Summerhill North. His son took over. Mark Cagney the radio presenter is related to that family.

Dr Cagney looked after Mary’s mother Mary. Says Dr Cagney senior was abrupt but had respect for the elderly which is not always the case today, thinks that sometimes elderly people can be treated as just a number.

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The Franciscans

They were friendly, spiritual and gave people time. People knew the Franciscans personally they weren’t snobs and you could invite them into your house for tea. The Franciscans were out more. Many people in Grattan Street were in the choir in St Francis. They also hosted a Christmas party for the children. Recalls them being funnier and more down to earth than regular priests. Went to mass in St Francis. St Peter and Paul’s was their parish church to which they went once a month for the confraternity meeting for rosary and prayers on Monday night and the following Sunday there was a confraternity mass at 8am on Sunday.

Had to be fasting from the night before to receive holy communion. They had breakfast then after mass. On some Sundays they might have a rasher and egg- their father would get priority for a good breakfast.

On Sunday would do their homework, go to Fitzgerald’s Park, Lee Fields to the outdoor baths.

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Religion: Fasting Rules and Rejecting Man-made Religious Rules Today

Fasted  before Holy Communion and for Good Friday, they didn’t eat meat which was easy as they didn’t have much meat, but it is harder now for her to abstain from meat.

Doesn’t fast on Good Friday anymore, she would eat meat.

She has “no scruples” anymore about eating meat on Friday. “It don’t bother me”

She feels she has “did my bit” and “we did more than our bit”, they didn’t have to do what they did.

She considers these rules and restrictions to be manmade laws. She decides for herself now whether to eat before communion or on Fridays.

Would prefer to go back to a basic, simple religion which would include going to mass and a few prayers at night, but without all the dogmatic things and novenas.

Thinks that some people in the past probably didn’t bother following all those rules.

People felt they were guilty of sin and felt it and went to confession.

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Confession: Unfair on Children and Story of a Lenient Priest

Mary used to teach young “itinerant” or traveller children for their First Holy Communion. Brought them for their first confession to the North Cathedral. The children were speaking so loudly that she could hear their sins and recalls one of them saying “I stucked out me tongue at me nanny” and thinks it was wrong that children were made to feel guilt and sin about something so small.

People would say “you’d go to hell”. She thinks this was very wrong. She thinks that she took these rules to heart and Jesus never expected people to behave as they were required to. “Everything we did was a sin” “We went to confession shaking” “We came up the hard way, we were guilty of stupid things.” And says that their parents were the same way. They were chastised at home.

Kissing a boy was considered to be a sin, but she doesn’t believe it was a sin in retrospect.

Priest in North Cathedral  who was reputed to say “God bless you my child” in response to any confessed sin no matter how grave.

There used to be queues for this Fr Hart.

Says that she would know herself whether something was wrong or right.

Some people took sins too far, and some people would stay away from confession for years because they were so afraid of what their sin was even though it was not that serious.

People went to Fr Hart in the North Chapel/ North Cathedral because of his easier approach.

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No Sex before Marriage

There was “very clean living before we got married”. There was never sex involved before her marriage. And she believes this was the right way.

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First Holy Communion and Children Understanding Religion

Was teaching the Northside traveller children in St Mary’s Cathedral (North Cathedral) as she was in the Legion of Mary on Brown Street.

Doesn’t think that children really understand their religion when they are so young so they should wait until they are older, maybe 12 years old before they make their first holy communion.

Recalls her own First Holy Communion as being very serious.

Got dressed and had a veil and went to a photographer on Windmill Road. Everything was so respectful and disciplined.

Mary returns to discussing the funeral mass for Terry McCarthy to compare the beauty and respect of that mass.

Her own communion dress was made for her, as most people did at the time.

Visited all her cousins for her First Holy Communion and “got the few bob” received money from family members and went home to count it on the table. She gave her parents some of the money. Thinks today that children make about 1,000 euro on their First Holy Communion and that this has become its real purpose and meaning.

The church is full for Holy Communion day but the next Sunday they are not present.

Mary made her own communion in South Chapel because she was going to St Mary’s of the Isle School.

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Grateful for her Happy Memories and Good Friends

Recalls her happiness and friends from school. Friendship, respect for parents, teachers and friends were her memories of the past. Still in contact with those old friends. Sincere friendships and bonds. “Always keep your friends” is what Mary recommends. She meets her friends to reminisce and recall things that she might have forgotten. She would never dismiss anything that happened years ago.

[02.04.10 ] “I’ll tell you something now like” when she can’t sleep things from the past come back to her and she thinks about them for hours. Feels lucky she has these lovely memories to fall back on.

Very simple living and they shopped locally.

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Shops, Sweets, Candy Apples on Gerald Griffin Street

The milk emporium the daily lived second-next-door to them and they sold milk and eggs, butter. Tuckshop was underneath for sweets. There were shops on every corner, you could go into

“Candy apples was a big thing at the time”

There was a place near the North Cathedral on Gerald Griffin Street where a woman would stick a lollipop stick into an eating apple, cover it in sugar and put it into a holder to sell it.
Bullseyes, clove rocks, bonbons were the sweets “we were reared on” and they are all coming back. They never had chocolate.

Mary says that she didn’t expect to have been speaking for so long.

Mary asks the interviewer what time it is, he responds that it’s after 1pm.

One son calls to her for dinner but he will “help himself”.

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Outro

2.07.55

Interview Ends