Sad news on MacCurtain Street
Dublin Core
Title
Sad news on MacCurtain Street
Subject
The Echo seller Johnny Kelleher gives Jack Lynch the sad news of Christy Ring's Death.
Description
Excerpt from the Memory Map where the Echo man Johnny Kelleher finds out from a friend who works at the mortuary that Christy Ring has died and passes the sad news onto Jack Lynch.
"There was a chap called Sean O'Mahony. He's still alive, I think he's nearly a hundred now, he's living in Little Island. Sean worked over in the mortuary. He was in charge of the grounds in the mortuary in the South Infirmary and Sean used to come over to me for his Echo every night. He came over this Friday night and he said, 'Johnny, guess who's on the slab over?' I'd have said everybody but the man that was there. He said, 'Christy Ring.' I couldn't believe it. He was after dying suddenly over in Morrison's Island. Now, the traffic, there was two lines of traffic and they were closed in with one another. I turned around after Sean went away and I went to walk down the traffic. I was a bit caught in the chest because to us, Ring appeared to be indestructible and in walking down, the second car on my left was a state car and sitting on the back seat was Jack Lynch. He was lying back on the seat, like that, and he had a load of papers on his lap. He done that to me, he called me and he leant forward with his left hand and he wound down the window. He had it half down and I was standing outside the door and I said, 'Mr Lynch, very sad news.' At the time there was terrible bombing going on in the North and he must have thought it was something like that, and I said to him, 'Mr Lynch, Christy Ring is dead.' He fell back on the seat. Two white streaks came down the side of his nose with the shock. The very words he said to me was 'But that can't be.' The lights changed, and he drove off."
"There was a chap called Sean O'Mahony. He's still alive, I think he's nearly a hundred now, he's living in Little Island. Sean worked over in the mortuary. He was in charge of the grounds in the mortuary in the South Infirmary and Sean used to come over to me for his Echo every night. He came over this Friday night and he said, 'Johnny, guess who's on the slab over?' I'd have said everybody but the man that was there. He said, 'Christy Ring.' I couldn't believe it. He was after dying suddenly over in Morrison's Island. Now, the traffic, there was two lines of traffic and they were closed in with one another. I turned around after Sean went away and I went to walk down the traffic. I was a bit caught in the chest because to us, Ring appeared to be indestructible and in walking down, the second car on my left was a state car and sitting on the back seat was Jack Lynch. He was lying back on the seat, like that, and he had a load of papers on his lap. He done that to me, he called me and he leant forward with his left hand and he wound down the window. He had it half down and I was standing outside the door and I said, 'Mr Lynch, very sad news.' At the time there was terrible bombing going on in the North and he must have thought it was something like that, and I said to him, 'Mr Lynch, Christy Ring is dead.' He fell back on the seat. Two white streaks came down the side of his nose with the shock. The very words he said to me was 'But that can't be.' The lights changed, and he drove off."
Creator
Cork Folklore Project
Source
CFP_SR00390_kelleher_2010
Publisher
Cork Folklore Project
Date
6th of April 2016
Contributor
Johnny Kelleher (narrator) Cork Folklore Project (interviewer) Penny Johnston (editor)
Rights
Copyright Cork Folklore Project
Format
Mp3
Language
English
Type
Audio
Identifier
CFP_SR00390_kelleher_2010
Citation
Cork Folklore Project, “Sad news on MacCurtain Street,” Cork Memory Map, accessed June 26, 2024, https://corkfolklore.org/cmm/items/show/25.