V9 Voices of the Valley - Closed Captioning 1

'Before cars,

before tractors,

before electricity made its way
to the Irish countryside

life was very different

This time

is still in living memory

for the people who grew up here

and who life here now.

In the Mealagh Valley,

hidden in the hills of County Cork

in the West of Ireland

We find the extordinary

in their ordinary

Their memories paint a picture

of real, lived experience

and prevent their
widsom & knowledge

from becoming lost

in the ever quickening currents
of change.'

- Trying to hand it down to

the next generation or the
second next generation.

As I said to you before

my father drilled it into me

but we didn't listen.

We listened alright but
we didnt write it down.

In places like the Mealagh Valley

- You could say really from

the 1930s until the EU money
started coming in

that life didn't really change

in hidden valleys like
the Mealagh Valley

- Born on the 21st of the 3rd, 1947.

I understand that was here in this house.

This is the house that I've always lived in.

- I was born in the Mealagh Valley

not everybody can say that.

My mother told me I think

I was born on the way up the stairs
in Ards

- I was reared up where Pat is now like

reared there and...

My father was buried in 1974.

I was only just turning 18.

- You were young

- Yeah, yeah,

My mother had poor health

she had very bad eyesight

poor eyesight

like it was definitely different times

to now a days

- A lot of responsibility?

- A lot of responsibility,
a lot of responsibility.

- Now, that was survival

we were never hungry but

I always say we were reared

in a cashless society.

Very well self-sufficient

and in those days

one of the things that is very important

for me to point out

that the women worked

probably harder

than the men.

- There was a lot, it was a lot

of hard work.

My God, compared to today now like

Everything was done by hand

- The way life has changed
so much

My father used to always say to me like

No matter now long you live

you'd never see as much change as he did

in his lifetime

but by God,

I have a lot of them seen.

Definitely a lot of them seen. [laughter]

- Oh God, the farming long ago

Everybody helped eachother

there was nobody looking for money

you go to anybody to help them for a day

and they come to you like

and that's the way it was.

- It was good times

but we know nothing else like.

We had no radio, papers,

or anything ever

- There was very little distraction?

- Very little, very little.

- Blueberries used to grow
in a ditch

We had one ditch

and all the blueberries used to grow on it

in the summer time

Well anytime our mother would want us

she'd have to go out the side of the house

and call us

We'd be about as from here now

to the bushes outside the house

and she'd call us

and we'd come home

for dinner or for tea,
back out to the berries...

- Blackberries were the main thing

But there was one

crab tree

in the summertime we'd have great fun
with that

picking them

they were wild, obviously

you'd have wild strawberries

and furze

that was about it like

- Oh any blackberries and things like that

of course, they'd be...

We know the season of them alright

and sometimes they were eaten when they

were rather green I'd say

yeah [laughter]

We... if they were anywhere near
ripe at all

- You had jam when you had
blackberries

People didn't

just go out willy nilly
and buy jam

Most of the jam was made

and like

I have to keep repeating saying that

my parents carbon footprint
was very light

When I think about what rubbish

we take to the recycling centre now...

There was no rubbish!

Everything was reused.

There was no food waste,

because you had animals to eat it.

Zero food waste.

There was no plastic.

We're back to the year of paper.

Ok, and when you were finished with paper

it went in the fire

to light the fire.

You know?

- There was no bin collection? There was no...

- Bin my HAT!!

- When we started going to school

then it got a bit tougher alright.

You'd have to walk to school
two miles

and walk home again
in the evening

- They're better times now

They're much better times
than when I grew up

We had to walk to school

We had a mile, well, a little over a mile

to walk to Coomleigh School

So um,
Rain, hail, or snow,

we'd have to still go to school

- Walk it with our two legs! [laughing]

- We had to walk from here everyday

so we didn't enjoy that

- How many miles is it from here?

- I think tis over three anyway

- Tell me, was the road tarred
at the time?

- No, no

- And you had runners, I suppose?

You had shoes?

- The road wasn't tarred
til the 1960s

We had no shoes

and fine stones on the road

broken stones

- A lot of them from the end of the road, .

they would go barefoot

even in the middle of the winter

Barefoot to school in the WINTER

cold, fresh from the road

They must have had soles

in their feet like steel