Pat Speight: Northside, Childhood Games, Schooldays,
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Pat briefly recalls childhood games, bonfire night. He explains how steering carts [‘steernas’] were made. He describes the local shops and their role in the community, and how his mother bought food in different shops and put it on account on a daily basis.
Pat also recalls his schooldays. Poorer children got a glass of milk, a bun, and thruppence. He describes his childhood playgrounds, including Bell’s Field (‘Bellsa’). He describes the Coopa (cooperage), where locals threw their rubbish over a wall and down a sheer drop. He tells a funny story about having to climb into the rubbish to look for a lost ring.
He remembers that many local women kept their maiden names after marriage. He recalls Christmas dinner and the different food they had to eat, and a tradition of not eating meat on St Stephen’s Day. He remembers comic shops where children could buy and swap comics. He recalls his grandfather catching wild birds.
The family used to visit relatives in Kerry, where he saw many aspects of modernisation.
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Other Interviews in the Collection:
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_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_SR00438_jones_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
Published Material:
O’Carroll, Clíona (2011) ‘The Cork Memory Map’, Béascna 7: 184-188.
O’Carroll, Clíona (2012) ‘Cork Memory Map: an update on CFP’s Online Project’, The Archive 16: 14. https://www.ucc.ie/en/media/research/corkfolkloreproject/archivepdfs/archive16.PDF
Dee, Stephen and O’Carroll, Clíona (2012) ‘Sound Excerpts: Interviews from Heritage Week’, The Archive 16: 15-17. https://www.ucc.ie/en/media/research/corkfolkloreproject/archivepdfs/archive16.PDF
O'Carrol, Clíona (2014) 'The children's perspectives: Place-centred interviewing and multiple diversified livelihood strategies in Cork city, 1935-1960'. Béaloideas - The Journal of Folklore of Ireland Society, 82: 45-65.
The Curious Ear/Documentary on One (Cork City Memory Map) http://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/2011/0816/646858-curious-ear-doconone-cork-city-memory-map/
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PS: So I can remember the Coopa. And then, the other side, if you came down the bottom of Chapel Hill, you went left you had the Coopa, but if you went right, down towards - - again I’m calling it Church Avenue - - but heading down towards Eason’s Hill, there were two or three houses, knocked down. What did we call - - we had a name for those houses now that were hauled down - - we’d the Coopa on one side - - I can’t - - it’ll come to me now in a minute. We used to play in there anyway, they were kind of half knocked down houses, and they’re gone since, they have an old, bit of a park laid out there now. But the name will come back to me after Geraldine, honest. But that’s another place we used to play in.
GH: Yes, and where there any people, characters that you remember from around the neighbourhood?
PS: Oh Geraldine, the place was full of characters. As a child, I can remember ‘the Rancher’. The Rancher, the rancher. I remember the day the Rancher got married, I was only a young fella. The Rancher got married. The Rancher used to chopsticks now, over by Shandon now, right? But what I remember about it - - ‘twas grand now they got married in the North Chapel, and what I heard afterwards, and it didn’t make sense to me as a child, but it made sense afterwards - - when they got married, they came out and he said em, ‘we’ll go to the Small Steeple now, for our celebration.’ ‘Oh no,’ she said, ‘I’m going to Jack Ford’s or I’m going to Jack Rum’s.’ ‘No’ he said, ‘we’ll go to the - - we’ll go to the Small Steeple.’ ‘No, we’ll go to Jack - -‘ ‘You go to Jack Fords and I’m going to the Small Steeple.’ And he went one way, and she went the other, and they had their wedding party there. Happy out like that. Em, I remember em, who do I remember? The fella with the snotty nose, who was that again? Always wiped his nose, was that Holy Joe was it or was it - -
GH: I don’t know now - -
PS: Could be Holy Joe, always wiped his nose, but very good, you know, very kind to children and everything. Who else was there now? Do you know who was there then - - and he’s dead since, so I have to be careful - - would be em, eh - - he used to play cards, he used to kick the coin up in the air, kick it up into his top pocket. Em, what was his name again? Ah for God’s sake, Pat O’Brien would know him now, well. Not Tony, Tony Hennessy was kind of a character growing up, but he was Mr Soccer, and his mother was a great person. Who was the fella who used to kick the coin? O’Leary, Dony Leary. Dony, I’d say Dony O’Leary. Mad Dony we knew him as. Mad Dony, he used to be there. Who else? And birds. Everybody had a bird. My father used to keep birds. [It’s] a bit awful now, he used to trap birds, we’ll say canaries - - not canaries - - goldfinches and linnets and then he’d breed them and he’d get a mule. So a lot of houses would have a birdcage outside their window as well. That just came to me there now. And they used to have birds.
GH: Would many people go drag hunting in the area?
PS: Now I never went. I wouldn’t be ashamed to say I never went drag hunting, but right behind our house was a place called Barrack View and there, there was a man - - a character - - called O’Callaghan. Now his sons still do it, but they were actually related - - his wife was Bridie Lordan. Funny thing about that area when it comes to me - - and I know I was only talking to someone about it the other night about it - - all the women that got married, retained their maiden names. Cause my mother would be known as Hannah Clifford, right? Mrs Welsh, Bridie Lordan em, Annie - - Annie, Annie, she was - - all the women were known by their maiden names. Funny they held on to it. Esther Lordan. They never took their married names, which is kind of something good in a way as well. But coming back to that again. Bridie, Mrs Doyle married - - right? - - O’Callaghan. Now this Mrs Doyle would be a daughter or a grand-daughter of Connie Doyle of the famous armoured car, right? So - - and then, this fella O’Callaghan used to keep hounds there. There’s still hounds there today, his son still has the hounds for the drags now. And these were small houses now, tiny houses like. And they used to keep big families and big dogs.
GH: It’s fascinating Pat, and I think that our own Cork City, like, and on the Northside especially, people loved the opera too, the singing was there, would you know - -
PS: Well the other thing, the Opera - - I saw the Opera House catch fire, I was only a child. I saw the Opera House go up in flames, I was only allowed go down to as far as Mulgrave Road and look across to it. But the sky was just red, I remember that. I wasn’t conscious - - I’d be conscious of the Opera House myself for the pantomimes, but I don’t remember it much, the pictures were our big thing, we had so many picture houses - - or cinemas - - around Cork. We used to go to the cinema a lot. And I remember my father bringing me to the cinema, but there was one particular shop - - I should’ve thought of it there - - it had a huge influence on me later on in my life. At the very bottom of Shandon Street just before where it joined with Blarney Street, there was a shop at the corner there, and ‘twas ‘Pilo’s’[?], I think ‘twas Pilo’s. ‘Twas a comic shop now people didn’t know what a comic shop was, they’d think it was a sense of humour shop and it wasn’t. ‘Twas where you swap comics like The Beano, The Dandy, The Hotspur, all these things, and you could - - on Friday night, my father would come up. He’d pass up another shop called ‘Nosey Keefes’ [?], Nosy Keefe's was at the bottom, and they used to have the most beautiful broken chocolate, every kind of thing. We’d get a bag of that, and he’d get a few comics for us, and we’d be as happy as Larry. So you’d read the comics, and the next day you’d go down and you’d swap them for some other comics.
GH: You got to read everything so.
PS: You got to read everything, and there was one type of comic called The Illustrated Book of - - The Illustrated Book of Classics, right? ‘Twas a comic, right? A dear comic, but it dealt with everything from Robin Hood to El Cid to Huckleberry Finn. All the world tales were in it, and I’d say that probably influenced me later on into - - you know, in the story-telling world, that at that age we used to read so much.
GH: Yes - -
PS: And then they’d comics called - - eh, forty-five pages or forty-six pages was it - - that, they were war pictures, where the Germans couldn’t shoot an elephant if ‘twas ten feet away, and the Brits could shoot at two hundred miles away and still knock the eye out of a fly. You know what I mean?
GH: [laughs]. I do. And what was Christmas like, up around your neighbourhood Pat?
PS: Christmas was great. Ah, Christmas. I - - to this very day, I celebrate Christmas. I love Christmas with a passion, because - - for nostalgia. For the cooking, the cooking in our house - - ‘cause my mother was a great cook. Like, for our Christmas dinner now, you’d have - - you’d have the turkey stuffed, right? You’d have a couple of stuffings on it, you’d have bread stuffing and you’d have potato stuffing. They did chestnut stuffing now, but we just did potato stuffing and bread stuffing. And I’d help with that, we’d all help with it, right? Then we’d have spiced beef, right? And the ham, the ham used to cause all the confusion, because midnight mass you weren’t allowed to - - you weren’t allowed to eat before going to midnight mass, because if you were going for communion, you couldn’t. So my mam would have the ham boiling, right? And we’d go to midnight mass, and we’d come back and we’d attack it. The other thing - - Christmas, to me would start, right, with sending the letters away to Santy, all that. Now, I dunno how my father and mother did it. There was five of us, and we always got something. We always got something, so I’ve only happy memories of it. Not looking at it through rose-tinted glasses, I honestly think we had lovely Christmases. We had - - my father and mother then, would disappear into town on Christmas Eve to do the shopping, and they’d come back half cut. They’d be kinda nicely - - right? And you’d get a half-crown - - you didn’t know what you’d get, ‘cause if the father - - he didn’t drink that often, but - - I won’t say it didn’t suit him, he was a lovely happy man when he’d drink in him. So they’d be there, we’d head off to midnight mass, they might have a couple more drinks at home, ‘cause they’d be going to mass on Christmas Day, and then we’d tackle the ham. The ham at that stage. So you had ham, spiced beef was a big thing and then you had - - then you’d have - - ‘twas like a banquet. Now, you’d have roast potatoes, croquets - - now when I say croquets, we’d make our own croquets, kinda thing. Then you’d have everything - - and d’you know what we had? We used to have curried rice, this is way back when now. You know, people ignore it, but long ago, my mother’d make a small pot of curried rice. Absolutely gorgeous. Then you’d have - - now, of course, the dinner wouldn‘t start ‘til about three or four, and the smells coming out from the kitchen. You’d be weak with the hunger because you’d be smelling it and ‘twould be - - and there was never a panic, ‘twas three or four, that kinda way. I can’t even talk because my mouth is watering, now. Me tongue is swimming here in me mouth now.
GH: [laughs].
PS: But ‘twas always good. Now, but what we had then St Stephens’s Day. We never ate meat? Our family didn’t. ‘Twas - - I think ‘twas a Kerry tradition that my mother brought back with her. That nobody ate meat on St Stephens’s Day, because - - the house was full of meat - - but by abstaining from meat, ‘twas felt that you’d kept bad luck and ill health away from the house for twelve months. Now, whether ‘twas a Pagan thing or a Christian thing, I dunno, but there’s maybe - - I still don’t eat meat on St Stephens’s day. Now I’m not sure about the rest of the family, but I just do it because, you know, the old Irish saying, ‘Na de an nos agus na bris nos’, ‘Don’t make, or don’t break a tradition.’ So, I still wouldn’t eat meat on St Stephens’s Day, but five past twelve on St Stephens’s night, by Jesus you couldn’t get between me and the meat. You’d lose your life if you got between me and the meat.
GH: The stuffing and the turkey and ham - -
PS: Stuffing and everything, yep - -