Now is the hour
Dublin Core
Title
Now is the hour
Subject
Reflections on emigrating to London at three years old, leaving on The Inisfallen
Description
Excerpt from oral history interview where narrator reflects on his memories of leaving Cork on the Inisfallon, with a vivid description of the journey to and from England.
transcript
"Michael O' Callaghan, I'm from Togher. My mother, my father and myself left Cork in 1960. I was only three. To go to London. Big adventure. I have strong memories of sailing on the old black and white Innisfallen from the quays below because it seemed a very, very sad thing. Not like today, travelling. As the ship was leaving all the people would start singing, and the song still haunts me. They sing the song 'Now is the hour' when we must say goodbye. So, you could have a couple of hundred people because a lot of people getting on that boat weren't going away for a weekend. They might never come back. And there used to be people wailing and crying on the ship. And my mother and me father, me mother especially, would be crying a lot. But the ship would go slowly down, and you could drive down Low Road in both directions, and there'd be cars following it down all the way. And then you had a long sea journey to Fishguard. You'd leave. 'Id memories of leaving Cork about six o' clock in the evening, arriving in Fishguard in the middle of the night. A long wait then in the cold, and the smell of fish in Fishguard and someone told me its dead mullet, I know now, and also Bovril. If you mention to a lot of people Bovril, it seemed it was all you could get there. And I still to this day can't, if I smell Bovril I can't take it. Then you'd have a five or six hour journey by train from Fishguard to Paddington. But that black Inisfallen, I bought a photograph of it from The Examiner. It was a memory I'll never forget that song and the smell of Bovril. You can get it on the internet if you Google it. Now is the hour when we must say goodbye, soon you will be sailing far across the sea. But if you play that song I guarantee to anyone in their fifties and older, they'll think of that. But then I can also remember we'd come home in the summer, the long train journey from Paddington to Fishguard, then you'd get on the ship. But in the morning she'd pass Roches Point about seven o' clock in the morning, and I can remember coming up the river. I can remember passing the marina, in the morning, and people waving at the boat. That was a happy time. My mother would be up doing her make up, I can remember all that. And the boat would come up to where the river splits there by, I don't know the name of the quay there. The Port of Cork building. Just before that the boat would actually do a turn to be facing out to sea again. If I can remember rightly we used to arrive on a Sunday morning, if I can remember rightly, but then she'd sail Sunday evening again. And also arriving, when you'd arrive the Customs would go through your case, and a big lump of chalk would be plastered on the case. That was to get you through the security, if the chalk was on your case you were OK."
transcript
"Michael O' Callaghan, I'm from Togher. My mother, my father and myself left Cork in 1960. I was only three. To go to London. Big adventure. I have strong memories of sailing on the old black and white Innisfallen from the quays below because it seemed a very, very sad thing. Not like today, travelling. As the ship was leaving all the people would start singing, and the song still haunts me. They sing the song 'Now is the hour' when we must say goodbye. So, you could have a couple of hundred people because a lot of people getting on that boat weren't going away for a weekend. They might never come back. And there used to be people wailing and crying on the ship. And my mother and me father, me mother especially, would be crying a lot. But the ship would go slowly down, and you could drive down Low Road in both directions, and there'd be cars following it down all the way. And then you had a long sea journey to Fishguard. You'd leave. 'Id memories of leaving Cork about six o' clock in the evening, arriving in Fishguard in the middle of the night. A long wait then in the cold, and the smell of fish in Fishguard and someone told me its dead mullet, I know now, and also Bovril. If you mention to a lot of people Bovril, it seemed it was all you could get there. And I still to this day can't, if I smell Bovril I can't take it. Then you'd have a five or six hour journey by train from Fishguard to Paddington. But that black Inisfallen, I bought a photograph of it from The Examiner. It was a memory I'll never forget that song and the smell of Bovril. You can get it on the internet if you Google it. Now is the hour when we must say goodbye, soon you will be sailing far across the sea. But if you play that song I guarantee to anyone in their fifties and older, they'll think of that. But then I can also remember we'd come home in the summer, the long train journey from Paddington to Fishguard, then you'd get on the ship. But in the morning she'd pass Roches Point about seven o' clock in the morning, and I can remember coming up the river. I can remember passing the marina, in the morning, and people waving at the boat. That was a happy time. My mother would be up doing her make up, I can remember all that. And the boat would come up to where the river splits there by, I don't know the name of the quay there. The Port of Cork building. Just before that the boat would actually do a turn to be facing out to sea again. If I can remember rightly we used to arrive on a Sunday morning, if I can remember rightly, but then she'd sail Sunday evening again. And also arriving, when you'd arrive the Customs would go through your case, and a big lump of chalk would be plastered on the case. That was to get you through the security, if the chalk was on your case you were OK."
Creator
Cork folklore Project
Source
CFP_SR00436_o'callaghan_2011
Publisher
Cork folklore Project
Date
06 April 2016
Contributor
(Interviewee) Michael O'Callaghan, (Interviewer) Clíona O'Carroll
Rights
Copyright Cork Folklore Project
Format
.mp3
Language
English
Type
Audio
Identifier
CFP_SR00436_o'callaghan_2011
Citation
Cork folklore Project, “Now is the hour,” Cork Memory Map, accessed June 26, 2024, https://corkfolklore.org/cmm/items/show/26.