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

We had three schools

in the valley at one time

We had the one at Inchiclough

the one in Gortnacowley

and the one at Dromclough

- I think there might be a fella

in the back row there that you

- That's me isn't it?

- That's you

- English and Irish

and arithmetic

they were really the main ones

I suppose for a long time

And then I suppose...

history and geography then as well

-The writing was done,
-with a quill?

the ink quill, with the ink

-The Irish i liked irish

-There would be fire

The neighbors would bring turf
for the winter time

and it would be still cold like

You know in a big room like
a little fire there

what good would be down here?

-They had for the play ground, they
had the girls on one side playing

and the boys on the other side

but inside in the classrooms there was

-together?
-yeah

-And he was good that way,
teaching gardening and things like that

and you know, vegetables
-lovely idea really, to be honest

-Twas, yeah!
But i know that it used to be on a Friday,

from twelve till three, was all gardening

-There was no lunch boxes or anything,
you know

no no yeah, been a long time now

-So what did you wrap it in?
-I wrap it in a bit of paper,

Get a bit of news paper and
a bottle of milk and away you go

-In 1968 the school was closed and
we were given

free transport and we were taken
to Dromclough

-I went to Dromclough school, obviously

and there was a small little black board
on the wall, just inside of the door

coming into the big room as I used to
call it

and the attendance was marked on that
little black board, every day

how many were in 1st class

up to 6th class

and I can remember 112

total in Dromclough School

112, yeah

And whether they were all there that day

or not, I'm not too sure

but I can remember distinctly 112

being on that little black board

Where we all fitted....

I do know

that there were 3 sitting

at desks that were just built for 2

- When we'd come home then

in the evening

We'd have our dinner

when we'd come home

We'd have to go out and

do the jobs outside then

to help my father and my mother

Here in the evening

when you'd come home like

if it was summer time

you'd be out in the fields

with your pikes turning hay

If it was the bog,

you'd be at the turf.

And you know, if it was

in the winter time you'd have

like bedding to put in under the cattle

in the stalls

clean out the stalls

You wouldn't be idle at all like!

Well I had to cut...

it was called rathanóg

between furze and grass

- But by God, there would be

plenty of work

when you come home in the evening

You'd go out and bring in

the cows for milking

in the evening

and so on and so forth

help feed the calves

and of course,

before the creamery was built

we used to separate the milk

at home

and make the

homemade butter

and so forth before the creamery came

- You'd watch your father doing it

and see him doing it

and that was it.

Milking cows,

milk a couple of cows maybe

a cow or two before

you go to school in the morning

- You'd hand milk?

- Oh, hand milk, yeah.

- The separator at that time was...

to separate the milk, the cream

You'd make the butter

sell the butter

and a lorry, a truck,

a little green truck would come

once a week,

I think once a week

every Thursday they used to come from

Lyons's in Bantry, it's where

Keefe's took it over where

Supervalu is now

Lyons's

His name was Denis O'Reegan

and he used to come around

the valley once a week

They'd sell the butter to him,

he'd take the butter,

butter and eggs were the big thing like

- And would you sell the milk as well?

- No, that was later then

when we started going

to the Creamery like,

but before in my very young days

there was the separator

for separating the milk and the cream

for making the butter

- So the butter was the value?

- Butter was the value

yeah, butter was the value

- They'd be talking about

hygiene and the rest of it...

in the scorching summer heat

he'd come around

I don't know how they'd take the butter... barrells...

- They must have had

some bit of ice in the barrel?

- There was no ice at that time

A lot of salt like

- It was just the salt?

No refrigeration...

- You'd seperate the milk

then you'd make cream off it

then you'd make butter

and sell that to the man

up above at the cross

If you had a good few cows like,

you could have maybe

20 pounds of butter...

it was only a half crown at that time

half crown you'd get

for a pound of butter at that time

Half a crown, was like like

12 and half pence at that time, Eleanor

But that's the way it was girl

The Mealagh Creamery

was a godsend, you know

- It was very important?

- And of course the shop then

you see

made all the difference

Because you were able

to get what you needed in the shop

and then, you see

you bought the stuff on tick

and it was taken off with a cheque

you got the cheque after
everything was paid for

that's how it worked

- A couple of nights a week anyway

you'd have scoraíochters.

The neighbours, they'd have no where

no where to entertain themselves

so they'd go to each others houses.

They'd have the

news of the day like

- The scoraíochting was

very, very important

because that was the

social get together for people

in the evening.

And basically, whoever could

tell the best story

got the audience.

And I'd sometimes say,

whoever could tell the best lies.

- Men used to go around

scoraíochting, as we used to call it

and that word came natural

we always heard it like.

The man I remember mostly

coming here, he was

Jack O'Shea from Goulanes

Mikey Cronin

he used to come down

one night a week

There was a labouring man above

he'd maybe call twice a week.

Yeah 2-3 nights a week

you'd have someone in like

- And at that time

if some neighbour came

scoraíochting

and you were in the middle

of the rosary

They'd always kneel down then

They'd kneel down

until the rosary would be finished

there would be no words

spoken til the rosary was finished then

we'd have do go to bed then

and the neighbours would have

their own chat then

- Twas more male orientated

- There used to be piseógs like,

piseógs

they'd be telling stories...

People used to say that

like they'd be trying to frighten people

they'd say they'd see something

somebody that was dead

they'd see them walking the road,

crossing the road...

We were always told

they're only piseógs

don't listen to that

- There would be

the odd fairy story alright,

there would.

Whether the fairies were there

or not

I don't know [laughter]

- There was a fella coming home

one night anyway.

He thought there were fairies

after him and

it was a goat.

[laughter]

And when stories were told

in the scoraíochting house

they were like the snowball

going down the hill,

they never got smaller.

There used to be a light showing off

at the top of the road.

They would see lights and things

here and there.

But when we were widening the road

putting in a piece of the bridge or something

I cut the tree

and sure there was a nice flat piece

up on top of it

to set a candle or a lamp or something

that was the light

You know, it was put there like

- That was the fairy.

- That was the fairy!

- I noticed that if children were around

they wouldn't talk about the troubled times

and the Black & Tans

and what they did

and the civil war

and the rest of it...

Television started to

get rid of the scoraíochting

because you went in

to somebody's house

and there was something on...

"Shhhhh"

- And he'd come early in the evening

and we'd be playing cards all night

and when it would be time

to go home

we'd light the lantern for him

and give it to him

and away he go

- There was always a lot of singing

in the Mealagh Valley

There was always a lot of music.

- The shop,

there were three rooms downstairs

they used to be playing cards in one room

they'd be dancing then in the kitchen

and they'd be selling millers

and things there in the shop side of it

There'd be plenty of music

and dancing

There'd be around 3 hours

every Sunday evening

or Sunday night

- You had the threshing

the threshing ball.

You had the wren balls

and then

we used to have

the stations.

And you know,

there was always, usually,

a bit of a sing song, dance

after the stations

So you know,

there were plenty of reasons

to sing

and opportunities to sing

- I remember one night,

I was going to a dance

I don't know where

to be honest with you

but my father was inside

and he wouldn't let me go

so what I done

I went upstairs

there was a little window

and a ditch on the other side

so I caught my shoes

and my clothes

and threw them out the window

and reach over the hedge

So then I went around

and said I was only going out

a small bit

so I went around

picked them up

and off I went

[laughter]

Vincie Crowley he was the most popular

a lovely singer as well

And there was a lot of the

young people now

like the Briens

at the end of the road

Pat Brien and Timothy Brien

they learned the accordion

they were lovely players

and Denis

Denis Brien was a lovely player as well

There was a crowd that

would go out on the wren

they'd collect so much money

and they'd buy so much drink then

[laughter]

Light was an oil lamp

single wick

a candle

and for outside it would have been

the storm lamp or storm lantern

which again was single burner

but had a special globe around it

that the wind would stop it a quenching

And those lanterns

they burned a lot of places

because people were careless with them

And later on down

the tilley lamp came in

that was a godsend

and the tilley lamp, of course, then

it burned the tractor vapourising oil

and when it was reasonably hot

you pumped it up

and turned it on

and the mantle lit up

and that was marvelous!

After so much time,

it would gradually go down then like

after say maybe an hour or two

you'd have to give it

another couple of pumps

and it would brighten it up again

- Twas Molly & Mikey's shop

as we used to call it

I'd say it would be down

a good half mile from here

down at the bottom of the slope of the road

down at the corner

they used to always have the oil and the mantles

and they had a lot of groceries in there too

which was so important

for the locality like

- We didn't buy much in the shop

to be quite honest with you.

The few things you bought

like sugar

salt

bread soda

flour

tea

you know

and you wouldn't be seen

buying veg, oh no.

You wouldn't be seen buying veg

and if you were seen buying potatoes... [scoff]

- Like the only thing you'd need would be

paraffin oil for the oil lamp

There was no such thing as

that fella [motion up at light]

paraffin oil

and that was your light

and you'd get salt and sugar

and nothing else

nothing in the line of food like

because you had it all at home

self... from the farm like

- In the north side

in Dromsullivan

you had Willian Carney's

little shop

and then

the next shop over then

was over by the school

which was known as Mrs. Patty's

her husband was a shoemaker

- They were sufficient, almost

with their own animals and fowl

and eggs of course

there were always hens

- I learned how to cycle

when I suppose I was about

10 years of age

and do you know what it is

I remember I had the frame

of a bicycle

and a wheel

and I had a piece of a stick

put through the wheel

and the frame fitted down on the wheel

it was only two wheels

and an old frame that I found in the shed

And I made my bicycle out of it

We had run from the house to the road

we had a bit of a slope out from the house

and I'd go to the top of the slope

don't say this, they'll say were were mad

and I'd slide down the hill with the bicycle

- No brakes?

- No there was no brake in it.

If I fell I fell

and if I didn't

I stayed up on it.

- That's how you learned?

- That's how I learned to cycle, yeah

- We hadn't much to play with

you'd get toys at Christmas.

I can never remember

getting toys

just for getting them...

You kind of played

with anything you found

you know?

No, very simple.

Very simple.

I suppose the summer time

you'd remember more than the winter

because the days would be longer

but the summer holidays

or summer weekends of evenings

we'd kick ball a bit around in the fields a bit

You could spend half a day

down in the river like

just making your own game

or whatever

- We hardly ever see a frog now like

because in Ards

we lived by the river

you'd have otters

badgers

rabbits were just 10 a penny

- I was below one day crossing

the next thing there was a splash

in the river

a wild pig!

- Oh my god!

- Wild pig.

- Eels were there

you'd have very small trout

the biggest I ever saw

was about 3 inches

You'd go down then

to the main river

and it was packed with them at that time

fish

packed

and none now

And I had a relation from Waterford

he was down in Lismore

that's a big country for fishing

and he taught me how to fish.

I came out one evening

started fishing

and I caught 64 trout

and they were trout about [this big]

in one evening

I was around the valley

giving every household fish

But then, silage came in...

Things change

for the worse.

We had no trout.

I don't think we ever bought

much fertiliser.

It was always the

dung from the cattle

you'd store that over the winter

but then as we

'progressed' as we say

everything was flowing

into the river.

That's my opinion.

When I was going to school like,

and I had two brothers

and we used to go to school together

and we used to stop in this

little old lady's house

on the way home from school

and she had a garden

in front of the house.

She had gooseberries

blackberries, black currants, and all

and she used to say to us

go outside and play away for awhile

and sure we had a little shop

outside in the garden

and do you know,

come 4 o'clock or half past 4

we'd decide to go home

and we'd go home

and sure my mother would be home
and give us the dinner.

Do you know, I often think

if that was today,

the mothers and fathers

would be gone mad

they'd think something had happend

to their children.

But do you know,

they never worried about us

good or bad

when we were small growing up like

thanks be to god

it was great!

- ah...

freedom

I was above in the girls ....

working in the ESB at the time

in the National School

you come out from the school

but I couldn't get over

6 year olds

with mobile phones

I was dumbfounded

We had nothing

but we were happy.

aw look...

- Electricity came...

I was the last up

this side of the valley

My father was buried in 1974

we had no ESB

we got it in 1975

'75 I'd say...

We thought

we were

in the bees knees

we'd never see a poor day

when that came in 1975

- Born in 1957,

I was 13 when we got electricity

- I'd say I must be

well into my teens a bit

maybe, 15 or I don't know

what year it came in

but I remember it coming in anyway

- 10 to 12

- And it made a huge difference?

- Oh stop,

it changed everything

- I suppose the biggest difference

was the fridge.

That was the most

important thing

to keep the food

from going off

- To have an electric kettle

was [amazed sound]

- Light, light

- There were a lot of

people at that time

that were afraid of the light

yeah like

you'd hear the stories

they'd put on the switch

and they'd be afraid of turning it off

but we took it anyway

when it came around first

Aw sure,

it changed everything.

You got a radio then

that followed

Now the electricity came

to the Mealagh Valley

prior to when we got it

but quite a lot of people

didn't take it the first time

because they were afraid

they couldn't pay the bill.

- And I remember men...

twould be 6 feet deep

I remember the holes

that they'd dig for the poles

they had to go down 6 feet

and then they'd have to dig a good size

because they'd have to stand into it

to work and use the shovels to draw it out

but I remember that very well

a lot of local men got work

at that time in the ESB

because there was a lot

of man work needed for it, like

- I had applied for a job

in the ESB because

the GAA lads told me

there was one coming up.

I think the most exciting one was

Dursey Island.

We did Cape Clear.

Sherkin Island,

we did them all, like.

- Oh there were phone boxes

there was a phone box

at the end of the road then

there by Connie O'Briens

at Goulanes Bridge

there was a phone box there

there was another one of them

just beyond Dromclough School

there was another one of them there

Up to I moving in here

I had no phone, ok

But people could contact ya

- They'd find a way

- You know what I mean, like?

That people found a way.

They were used for

people used to go and make phone calls

in it there

yeah

they didn't have phones like

but then, it wen't all automatic then like so

I went to the post office

as a telephonist

Oh, that was way different

than today

Twas a switchboard at that time

Twas a switchboard with a load of cords

two rows of them

and a light, a bulb,

that would shine up like

and that was somebody ringing in

looking for...

and you'd pick up the call

and you'd go in and say

"Number please?' to them

and you'd take down their details

At that time then the phones

were in the houses

Around here, they'd pick up the phone

and twould call down in Kealkill post office

Kealkill post office would

on the switchboard

plug in

and that would call inside

in Bantry.

They were only just coming in like

very few had them

You'd pick up the handle

you'd pick up the phone

you'd wind the handle on top of it

pick up the phone then

and they'd answer in the post office

- Twas a big change for the country

you had a lot of electrical implements

that would help

apart from the dwelling house

the farm as well then

for milking the cows and everything

it was an engine

we had an engine before

electricity came for milking the cows

twas a petrol engine

that you'd turn the handle

it'd start to light

that was used earlier

but then it was the

electric motor of course

for the milking machine

- I think it was either 1969 or 1970

we got electricity in Ards

and one of my neighbours up the road

Connie Sullivan

we'd know him better as

Connie Killarney

and he had a milking machine

at the time and it was powered

by a petrol Lister engine

and I always remember the hum

of that engine

Because, bear in mind

in those days

when you lived out in the country

if you'd see a car passing

you stopped and had a good look

because it was a pretty rarity.

People were lucky

to have a bicycle.

- There was one car in the valley

maybe there was two

but when we lived down there

there was an old lady living beside us

She was Katie Hurley, Katie Champion

and she'd come always visiting into our house

you see

and I'd be listening to their stories

herself and my mother

and we'd have news about...

some fella dying

and they'd say...

'Aw sure, he was 40.'

So 40 and 50

at that time

seemed like old

[laughter]

'Aw sure he was 50'

you know that kind of way like?

[laughter]

I suppose the other joke I make

is that in my childhood we had a car

but it was pulled by a horse

[laughter]

People find it hard to get their

head around it at this stage

My father bought his first car

a Morris Minor in 1974

- A Morris Minor

actually twas my brother's car.

He went away to England working

and he left the car

I picked it up driving

- It was a Morris Minor Z RAF 762

- There was just the two cars

on the road at that time...

They got him anyway to take us

into Bantry

my mother, that woman, like, and myself

But like, til the day I die

I'll never forget

twas my first day in Bantry

and I just couldn't for the life of me

understand why
going down Glengarriff Road

the houses were tied to each other

I could not get that out of my head

even since

that the houses were glued
onto each other

that'll live in my memory
as long as while I'm alive

- And another thing

it was the same day they

bought me a ball

a small little