Interview of Peter Jennings

By Gerry Burke

!st August 2017

—————————————————— 

Gerry: Peter I would like to start if you could tell me about your family history in Coldwood.

Peter: Well, my family history, they were all born in Coldwood and Lavally, they were the two places. My mother came from Lavally and my father came from Coldwood so they were around here all their lives. They made a living, they were farmers, cattle and sheep and things like that. That was it.

Gerry: And tell me, were your grandparents born here?

Peter: No, my grandparents came from the other side of Athenry, a place called Gloves.

Gerry: Ok.

Peter: They married in here, they were a Forde family. That was a good while ago.

Gerry: Indeed and your mother was from Lavally and your father was local here. How many brothers and sisters did you have?

Peter: I had one brother and six sisters. 

Gerry: Did they all live locally here or did they live away?

Peter: Four of them went to England and three of them stayed here.

Gerry: As regards your years in school, you went to Coldwood primary school here, did you enjoy your time in primary school?

Peter: No, they were different days, they were a different type of teaching, they were teaching with the stick which I think I was responsible, I was one of the people responsible for taking the stick out of it anyway and I did too as an adult I did create about that.

Gerry: Ok.

Peter:  The school manager was against it but we got it out anyway so that’s that.

Gerry: What size was the school then, how many students, how many pupils?

Peter: It was a one-roomed school and it had about in all about sixty pupils.

Gerry: And how many teachers taught in that one room?

Peter: Two teachers.

Gerry: Can you remember the names of your teachers?

Peter: Oh, I can. Treacy was the first one I went to anyway. She was a Miss Treacy, she was from Castleturvin. Then we had different ones a Miss Hynes, up to the master.

Gerry: Who were your friends from national school, who do you remember from your class?

Peter: Well, a fellow he’s gone now, a fellow by the name of Matt Conroy, he lived in Moyvella, he was a great old friend and Tom ………. was another fellow. 

Gerry: And what games did you play, what were your favourite games?

Peter: It was mostly hurling and football sometimes.

Gerry: Very good, did you go to secondary school after national?

Peter: No.

Gerry: And can you remember ever hearing was there a hedge school locally here?

Peter: Yes, there was.

Gerry: Do you know where it was?

Peter: Less than a quarter of a mile from here up the road. There was a hedge school and a mass rock close together. You know where the mass rock is?

Gerry: Yes, where mass is held every year.

Peter: It had to be up on a height way they could see, where they could have someone on the lookout to see would the enemy be coming because they had to.

Gerry: Of course, during Penal Times. And when you say the mass rock, not the mass rock but the hedge school was it near where, where Anthony Keane’s is?

Peter: Yes, it was, the hedge school was on his premises.

Gerry: Can you remember what toys you had growing up?

Peter: Well I had a good deal, I used to get a lot from America, guns and cars and they used to send us a lot of footballs. 

Gerry: Very good, I suppose something young people would not be familiar with now, would you have worn shoes during the summer?

Peter: Maybe, yes, if the weather was good and you had holidays from school, it was a great novelty to take the boots off and go in your bare feet. Then again you had very dry weather them times.

Gerry: What clothes were in fashion? Would they have been bought or would some clothes have been hand made when you were young?

Peter: Some were hand-made and a lot of clothes came from America in parcels. We were the lucky ones.

Gerry: Indeed, indeed and I am sure you enjoyed the different fashions as well. If I could just go through a number of families that would be mentioned from Coldwood in the Athenry Church Registers. and if you would have any memories of where they lived or anything about them. Corley family?

Peter: No.

Donal: Carley.

Gerry: Is it Carley?

Peter: Just very close, as a matter of fact, Donal has his house on some of it.

Gerry: Commins, still here.

Peter: Commins, still here.

Gerry: Kellys, still here. Banes?

Peter: Banes, Moyvella.

Gerry: They moved from here to Moyvella, Cahills?

Peter: Still here.

Gerry: Keanes?

Peter: They are gone.

Gerry: O’Tooles?

Peter: Still here.

Gerry: Rooneys?

Peter: They are gone too.

Gerry? I just had a look at the Clarenbridge registers and families that may have lived in Lisduff if you have any memories of them. Flemings?

Peter: Flemings, oh yes, I have heard of them.

Gerry? You have heard of them but would you have known roughly where they lived?

Peter: I know that George Fleming where he lived close enough to where the chapel is now, on that row one of them houses. (Clarenbridge).

Gerry: Hynes, they are still in the area?

Peter: Yes.

Gerry: Melvilles?

Peter: I didn’t know them.

Gerry: Cahills, of course, still in the village?

Peter: Yes.

Gerry: Spellmans?

Peter: Yes. 

Gerry: You don’t know where they lived, you just know of them?

Peter: Yes.

Gerry: Ryders?

Peter: Yes, they were there.

Gerry: Commins as well, there would be Commins in Brockagh?

Peter: Yes.

Gerry: If I could just talk to you a bit about entertainment and dances and music. You know when you were young what entertainment had you as a teenager?

Peter: Well it was mostly dances, people had fairly good gramophones and there were some lovely records and some played the melodeon and some played the violin and that was it.

Gerry: Would there be any musicians you would remember?

Peter: Well, Anthony Keane was a very good player.

Gerry: What did he play?

Peter: He played the melodeon and his sister Molly, she played it as well and Bill Toole, they were the three here in the village.

Gerry: Would you ever have attended kitchen dances? 

Peter: Oh, I did.

Gerry: Would they have been local here in the village or nearby?

Peter: They’d be local here in the village.

Gerry: Can you remember which houses they would have been in?

Peter: Rooneys and Keanes.

Gerry: Of course the Keanes as well when they were musicians. Who were your favourite singers when you were growing up or would there be any local good singers as well as beyond the locality?

Peter: There were a lot of locals but then again there were some great singers you would have them yourself on records the likes of John McCormack.

Gerry: Right.

Peter: His type of songs you would get very used to them, there were lots of other singers as well I cannot remember their names.

Gerry: John Mc Cormack would stand out in your mind. How did people spend the long winter nights before television?

Peter: There was a lot of visiting done, people went to visiting houses, they would just go and smoke their pipes by the fire and tell stories, play cards and that sort of stuff. More people would be dancing and singing and something like that.

Gerry: I suppose something I left out there as well would be crossroad dances, were there any held locally?

Peter: There was a bit of that in Derrydonnell.

Gerry: Right, is that where the junction is now?

Peter: It is.

Gerry: Yeah, have you any memories of them, any particular memories?

Peter: They were all right you know as long as people came there sober.

Gerry: As in everything. Would it be in the thirties and forties that the tradition of the crossroad dances would have continued into or when would they have died out?

Peter: Around that time that you mention it and then the marquees every so often.

Gerry: I was just going to mention that, where was the nearest dance hall?

Peter: Well, the nearest dance hall was Craughwell and there was a dance hall as well in Athenry.

Gerry: You mentioned to me at some stage as well, was there a dance hall in Killeeneen?

Peter: Oh, there was.

Gerry: So there was a good choice around. You mentioned as well marquees there and carnivals, what are your memories of those? 

Peter:  Well, they used to come. There used to be a marquee in Craughwell nearly every year and there used to be one in Clarenbridge as well and all that. A little bit further afield as             well but there was a distance to cycle after if you wanted to go that far.

Gerry: And to go on to the subject of marriage and that, where did you meet your wife Maureen.

Peter: At a dance in Tuam.

Gerry: Very good, and how soon after meeting would you  have gotten married as I know nowadays there is often a long courtship would it have been the same at that time?

Peter: A couple of years, about two, I suppose.

Gerry: Can you remember any local marriage customs, you know what would have been the practice say of marriage in the church and what would happen afterwards and that?

Peter: Well, I heard of a few alright but I never witnessed them. It was all horse work that time sidecars and traps and everybody that was invited they would all follow one another and drive as fast as they possibly could. There were great horses that time, they would do a ring around somewhere and into the house then and the meal would be ready for them.

Gerry: So the meal would be at home, would it be in the bride’s home or in the groom’s home?

Peter: In the bride’s home as far as I can remember.

Gerry: Where would the entertainment be, would it be in the kitchen, a dance or whatever after?

Peter: All over the house.

Gerry: Were all your family born at home?

Peter: They were.

Gerry: Can you remember who would have been the local midwife?

Peter: She was a Mrs. Meehan, she happened to be our aunt.

Gerry: What were the hardships involved in rearing children back then? I know you mentioned that families would have been quite big and as a result of that money would have been a difficulty.

Peter: That would have been it, I suppose, large families and depending on the crops and depending on the people themselves too.

Gerry: I suppose it depended, number one, on how much land you had, it depended on the harvest and weather and everything as well.

Peter: It did.

Gerry: If I move on to the subject of religion, what are your memories of going to mass on Sundays. Where would you have gone to mass when you were young?

Peter: Well, I went to mass to Athenry and I went to mass to Roveagh. If the roads were slippery we would walk to Roveagh as it would be slippery for the horses. Even though they used to use frost nails and everything, they would not like a horse to fall. People in a side car or a trap could get badly hurt.

Gerry: I suppose it is something people would not appreciate today how important horses were and I know you said in order to rest the horses you would walk to mass on a Sunday.

Peter: That happened as well when the horses were really working the six days of the week and long days and on Sunday they let the horse rest.

Gerry: It was their day of rest. What was the nearest holy well to here that there would have been a pilgrimage to?

Peter: Athenry.

Gerry: Lady’s Well, yeah. What would be the local graveyard that people would be buried in from this area?

Peter: Well, there was two of them very near us, there was one in Wilmount and the other Teampall Geal.

Gerry: So both Wilmount and Teampall Geal would have been used? How often would you go to communion and I suppose it is something today young people would not realise that there was quite a long fast before communion. How long had you to fast?

Peter: Sometimes we used to go once a month or we would change to every couple of months.

Gerry: So would you be fasting from midnight the night before?

Peter: Yeah.

Gerry: So it wasn’t easy to fast and walk, what was the journey roughly, would it be an hour’s walk to Roveagh? 

Peter: It would be.

Gerry: And that would have been across fields more than roads?

Peter: Yes, there were paths and styles but you had to walk them.

Gerry: It was a big occasion when you would meet up with a lot of people along the way?

Peter: It was there was always chat like you know.

Gerry: Have you any memories of church missions?

Peter: I have. They were terrible, I think, some of the missioners, they really overdid things. They were sort of cracked, you know they were the way they used to shout at people as if they were dogs. You wouldn’t shout at the poor old dog.

Gerry: So it would have been a different scene today and what order mainly used to, was it the Redemptorist order would I be right?

Peter: I think it is mostly Redemptorists.

Gerry: Isn’t it a big change when you think of today and the popularity of a novena in Esker and that was the scene back then.

Peter: It is a big calm down, they had to.

Gerry: How long Peter would the mission last for?

Peter: I think two weeks, there used to be a week for the women and a week for the men.

Gerry: So, there was no question of both going to the one.

Peter: No, you would hear too much.

Gerry: When somebody died what were the customs from death to burial?

Peter: What they used to do one time was lay the person out and they had what they called a habit, it was a sort of brown thing. 

Gerry: Am I right were there different colours for men and women? 

Peter: I think so there was, laid them out on the bed at one time you know the grave was blessed for years, donkeys years, they’d just make the grave have the holy water themselves and do all that, no priest at all. 

Gerry: Oh right, so you had a wake in the house overnight and then you went to the graveyard and as you say when the first family member had been buried in the grave it would have been blessed so there have been prayers as well or was it just the blessing with the holy water?

Peter: Somebody said the rosary while they were closing down the grave. They used to close the grave that time before people would leave.

Gerry: Can you remember any customs that would have been around May Day, St. John’s, St.Martin’s, can you remember any of those? Would you have heard of any maybe not in your own time?

Peter: I heard of a few, well May Day, there were people, especially old women, they thought they could take the milk from your cows, they firmly believed that.

Gerry: Was it like a pisreog/piseog?

Peter: Some type of pisreog. it used to be always old women who would do it, they used to go very early in the morning and milk your cow a few milks down on their boot.

Gerry: They wouldn’t bring it with them, they just milked the cow and go away again. Any other customs you can remember, maybe May Day, St. John’s?

Gerry: They wouldn’t bring it with them, they just milked the cow and go away again. Any other customs you can remember, maybe May Day, St. John’s or around Christmas, Easter, St. Martin’s as well, would there be any customs around St. Martin’s as well was it November? 

Peter: I am sure there was, there was a bonfire, a huge bonfire a lot of people used to gather round that was very nice.

Gerry: Where would the local bonfire be here now?

Peter: Just out from us here?

Gerry: At the junction there is it?

Peter: Before the junction, there would be a lot of old stuff gathered turf and everything. There would be bonfires all over the place.

Gerry: Would a lot of the locals gather at the bonfire then?

Peter: They would, everyone.

Gerry: Would there be singing and dancing? 

Peter: A bit of both.

Gerry: Can you remember celebrating Halloween, how would it be celebrated or would there have been any particular memory?

Peter: I haven’t any particular memory of that.

Gerry: Christmas, Lent and Easter anything in particular?

Peter: Nothing in particular.

Gerry: What would a typical present be for Christmas going back then when you were young?

Peter: Something new that you could wear.

Gerry: If you think of, say, whenever you were sick, or a family member was sick, would you always go to a doctor or say would your parents have any home remedies for different complaints and that?

Peter: A lot of times the parents would have the home remedy and you took that.

Gerry: Can you remember any particular home remedies?

Peter: I can remember some type of powder I forget the name of it now. It was very good.

Gerry: It would be very seldom you would go for a doctor unless it was very serious?

Peter: Very seldom.

Gerry: Who would have been the local doctor here when you were growing up?

Peter: An Athenry man, I think Dr. Foley was his name.

Gerry: Would you have remembered Dr. Blyth, as well, he was a local doctor?

Peter: Yes.

Gerry: If we talk a little of farming, were you very busy on the farm? What would be your earliest memories of farm work?

Peter: When I was very young I brought the tea out to my father in the field, or no, he came in though and I went out to mind the horses. When I got him gone I told them to go on and I started ploughing.

Gerry: What age would you have been when you did that?

Peter: About ten.

Gerry: You were able to manage two horses and a plough, that was some achievement, well done. Any memories you would have around Spring, the sowing, haymaking and all that and potato picking?

Peter: Well, it meant an awful lot to be ahead of the work, if you could be ahead of the work take for instance sowing corn if you could sow that good and early you cut it again good and early while you had the long days.

Gerry: Oh right so you would have it in early August, mid-August before the evenings would start getting short and all that and the weather as well getting bad.

Peter: You sort of worked out stuff you had in the ground that you had to thin out with your hands and try and get that done before the hay saving. If you could get ahead with all that and the weather came right things came very easy to you.

Gerry: And hay making, was that difficult at the time, would you have remembered now the horse-drawn machinery being used say for cutting hay and for turning it?

Peter: I used it myself.

Gerry: How many horses were used with the mowing machine, one or two?

Peter: Two.

Gerry: And that would be the old finger bar mowers?

Peter: Yes.

Gerry: Would you have turned the hay by hand with a hayfork?

Peter: There was another machine for turning the hay, one horse would do that.

Gerry: Would you have made sheep cocks in the fields or brought the hay into the haggard as we used to call it?

Peter: Some was brought in and some was made outside.

Gerry: Around the time of the potato gathering, potato picking, that was a big occasion?

Peter: It was, well, if you started on time again, if you wanted the potatoes dug, completely gone out of the clay in October.

Gerry: Before the heavy frost?

Peter: If you had that done then you could relax.

Gerry: Where would you put the potatoes, would you make a pit out in the field or would you bring them in near the house?

Peter: We used to make a pit out in the field.

Gerry: That involved a fair bit of work, would I be right?

Peter: It did.

Gerry: Could you tell me roughly what you used to do?

Peter: We used to cover them well first with straw, with clean straw and you sort of mark it out and you come along with your plough, you turn in the scrape and then you turn in the next one beside it. On your own, it’s amazing,  the pit of spuds you would do in a short time that way. You hadn’t to do any digging, the plough did the digging.

Gerry: Oh, right because if you had to do the digging it took a fair bit of time. 

Would you have ever winnowed corn?

Peter: Oh, yes.

Gerry: Tell me what did it involve again, how would you have done it? I am sure people who will be watching this would not have heard of it.

Peter: Of course there were two ways, the handy way was the winnowing machine, if you had one, but the other way was if you had corn for winnowing. You got a nice breezy day and at that time they had a lot of sheets they used to call it calico. You hold up the corn, very high like that.  

Gerry: In a basin?

Peter: In a basin and let it down very slowly and the breeze blew the chaff off.

Gerry: Very good, was threshing a big occasion?

Peter: It was.

Gerry: Who would have owned a thresher locally?

Peter: My uncle owned one and the Cahills in Lavally and there were other ones as well in different parts of the country.

Gerry: Could you describe the scene for me on a day of threshing, what was involved?

Peter: It was a tough old day and there was a very bad accident here one time at a threshing. It was down in Derrydonnell, this young lad he was working with this farmer and he was three or four days threshing. One day he decided he would go up on the top and feed the machine, they called it feeding it, didn’t he slip where he made a mistake and let his hand in and it took the hand off him.

Gerry: So, it was very easy have an accident, there was so much going on at the one time. Would I be right, the sheaves were being cut, somebody was cutting the sheaves, somebody was feeding it in, is that right Peter? The straw was coming out and somebody had to take care of that and you also had the grain going into bags.

Peter: That’s true.

Gerry: How long would it take to thresh a stack of corn?

Peter: Well, it depended on the size of the stack. Say, one stack, you would thresh it in about an hour and a half or so.

Gerry: But then of course there was a fair lot of work afterwards of putting the grain away and making it safe etc.. Where was the nearest mill then?

Peter: There was one in Moyvella.

Gerry: Where in Moyvella, now as a matter of interest?

Peter: Burkes, you know where Johnny Burke lives?

Gerry: Yes.

Peter: They had a mill and a carpentry business.

Gerry: Was it water powered?

Peter: No, it was an engine.

Gerry Ok, so that would have been the nearest.

Peter: Taylor’s Mills was the most popular one.

Gerry: In Athenry just beside the castle. 

Again we talked about when a person was sick in the family, when farm animals were sick would you get a vet or would there have been home remedies for cattle?

Peter: Sometimes yes and sometimes no, sometimes you could lose out by not getting a vet. More times a smart Alec would do it themselves and you could be lucky.

Gerry: Who was the local vet around here?

Peter: His name was Kelly, he was from Athenry.

Gerry: Would you have attended fairs and what are your memories of them?

Peter: It was a tough place you had to watch yourself, like you know there was no right way for penning cattle. You had to watch them and keep them.

Gerry: The nearest fair would have been Athenry, am I right?

Peter: There used to be fairs in Clarenbridge once a year, Athenry would be the big fair.

Gerry: And how often were the fairs held in Athenry?

Peter: Once a month.

Gerry: Once a month and would there have been any advantage of going to Athenry as opposed to Clarenbrige? Would there have been more buyers in Athenry?

Peter: That’s the exact thing there would be a lot more buyers in Athenry. There wouldn’t be much in Clarenbridge and hard to hold them.

Gerry: Would it be to the Square in Athenry you came with your cattle?

Peter: Well you went wherever you could like as the whole place would be filled the cattle.

Gerry:  And you would have to have enough people with you to pen your own cattle in to keep them together?

Peter: If you had four or five cattle you would want to have at least three lads.

Gerry: How about then if you had sheep?

Peter: You could pen sheep.

Gerry: They were easier than cattle, yeah. There would be a lot of buyers in Athenry due to the railway and that?

Peter: That’s right.

Gerry: Where was the nearest forge to here because I know horses were so important and shoeing horses?

Peter:  Clarenbridge again.

Gerry: Where in Clarenbridge?

Peter: Just as you approached Clarenbridge, there on your right hand side. I forget what’s in it now it’s not a forge any more,this side of Jordan’s pub, well this side of Jordan’s pub.

Gerry: Sherry’s direction or down towards the water tower?

Peter: Yes.

Donal: Joyces.

Gerry: Joyce’s, would Madden’s have been a forge at that time? In Roveagh or Dunkellin?

Peter: No, they would have been in Athenry.

Gerry: Yeah.

Peter: They had a forge in Athenry.

Gerry: Oh, yes of course Maddens. Where was the nearest carpenter here now?

Peter:  Moyvella again, the Burkes were carpenters. They made horse carts and all that sort of stuff.

Gerry: Were there any local crafts in the area would you know of and would you know people who, talking about carpenters, did you tell me before of somebody who was able to make a violin?

Peter:  That’s right, that was the Burkes in Lisduff, they are gone out of it now. They made a violin and another thing they both made was a horse’s cart. You might think the horse’s cart is very easy to make but it’s not. There are so many different parts to a horse’s cart, they made the wheels and all, and all they had to buy was the rim for it.               

Gerry: It must be quite hard to make a wooden wheel and then be depending on the rim and what used farmers do, say, when during the summer the rims used to become loose, the rims of the cart wheels would become loose?

Peter: That’s right.

Gerry: What remedy had they for that?

Peter:  Well that’s when they would be getting old and they’d get loose if they needed a bit of attention, put water on them and it would swell the timber.

Gerry: Very good, if we talk about work. I know you worked outside of the farm as well, am I right, that you worked in what we all knew as the Farm Yard or what we now know as the Agricultural College or Mellow’s College?

Peter: I did.

Gerry: Did you work there for many years?

Peter: I did but the way they used to work there, they had the students the whole year but when it came to a certain time of the year the students had to stay in and try and learn what they could and there were exams, Then they had to go for their exams and they were gone back and we were there until the new students came again,

Gerry: Oh right, so ye would have filled the gap in the year. Would the farm practices there have been much different to at home. Would it have been horse-drawn machinery?

Peter: It was all horse-drawn.

Gerry: All horse-drawn machinery again. I understand as well you were in England for a number of years?

Peter: I was, yeah.

Gerry: When did you go to England?

Peter: God, I can’t even remember the year.

Donal: The1950s.

Gerry: What work did you do there when you went there?

Peter: Well, I went painting a while and then I left it and I went on the buses.

Gerry: So you were a bus driver. Where? What part of England?

Peter: Outside London, a place called Maidenhead, not far from Windsor.

Gerry: It must have been a big change from Coldwood to driving buses in London?

Peter: It was, you would get used to it.

Gerry: And you remained there for five years. 

If I could just bring you back, would you have a good variety of food when you were growing up?

Peter: Fairly good, I suppose, I had as good as anyone, We would kill a pig if we could and all that sort of stuff.

Gerry: Would you have any memories of killing a pig?

Peter: A local man that used to kill them, my uncle a Lavally man, Pat Fahy. He was very handy at the job, The pig that would be picked out, the day before, he wouldn’t get any food just a drop of water. They used to use the horses cart with the shafts down on the ground and then have a nice bit of straw. You put a rope on the pig’s leg and you brought him out to the cart.  There had to be one or two lads there. You threw the pig on the cart though he was heavy and you kept he pig on his back. Once you kept the pig on his back he was powerless, he couldn’t come down, he could do nothing. The legs would be tied, the four legs, slit the throat to the heart, saved the blood, There would be a huge big pot of water boiling you would take the animal down out of the cart and he would be left on straw and then he would be covered with the sack and the hot water would be spilt on the sack all over the pig and when they took off the cover the hairs were loose and you scraped it off.

 

Gerry: Would there be somebody else to cut up the pig for the different joints, or the person who killed it, your uncle Pat Fahy?

Peter: The same person, the next thing then that would be done, when he would be properly cleaned, he’d be tied up in the barn, the hind legs up with a bucket under it and it would drain and he was left that way until next day, the next day he was taken down and take out all the bones and all that and the fetches just drained each side, three each side and put him in the barrel and salt him.

Gerry: So he wouldn’t have been cut up at all, put the full pig into the barrel is it?

Peter: Oh, no. Put it on a table they had made for the job, a good big table, take all the bones out and then the fetches were left and they would be put into a barrel with water and an awful lot of salt.

Gerry: So would it be the old wooden barrels and fill it with salt and how long would it be left in the barrel?

Peter: I think about six weeks and then they would take it out and hang it up over the arch.

Gerry: The chimney breast?

Peter: Yes, cover it with papers to keep the flies away from it.

Gerry: And how long would it be left there then on the chimney breast?

Peter: Well, another six weeks and then they took it down and store it somewhere in a press.

Gerry: So you were talking about twelve weeks before people eat any of it?

Peter: Except the fresh stuff, they called it the greeshkeens.

Gerry: Thanks very much it is great to have such an account and a memory of it. 

Would your mother have churned, would she have made her own butter?

Peter: Yes, I can remember when we used to have to buy butter I used not like it at all, you would get awful fond of the country butter.

Gerry: You can’t beat the taste, a completely different taste, would you have helped with the churning? What type of churn used she use? There were two types of churn the one you could twist and there was a plunger. Which one used she use?

Peter: The one you could twist.

Gerry: So you enjoyed making the butter and eating it in particular. Was all the washing done by hand? Any memories of how it was done?

Peter: There was always the wash tub, sometimes in the summertime that was left outside on a nice fine day. I often gave a hand with the washboard.

Gerry: Was it a wooden washboard or the later ones were made of glass. Would your memory be of a wooden one?

Peter: A wooden one.

Gerry: It wasn’t the easiest of jobs using the washboard?

Peter: No.

Gerry: And all your cooking was it done on an open fire at home?

Peter: It was.

Gerry: Any memories again of what you would like off the open fire?

Peter: It was a grand thing if you were hungry and to smell the dinner.

Gerry: And you would have different pots for cooking different things and particular ovens for baking bread and that?

Peter: That’s correct.

Gerry: What were round bottomed pots used for mainly because I have often seen round bottomed pots and flat bottomed ovens, what would the round bottomed pots be used for?

Peter: It was nearly all the same work.

Gerry: What were your favourite dishes any particular food you liked, say bacon and cabbage or anything else?

Peter: Well, I liked the bacon and cabbage.

Gerry: Peter, what sports would you have played when you were growing up?

Peter: Hurling and football, they were the two main ones.

Gerry: Did you play on a local team?

Peter: We used to make up a team ourselves, Coldwood around here and Killeeneen. There was a bit of tearing around but never anything serious.

Gerry: What would have been the nearest hurling club here at the time?

Peter: Craughwell.

Gerry: Would there have been a football club?

Peter: There would have been, I think that was Athenry.

Gerry: Have you any memories of attending hurling or football matches?

Peter: When I was a young lad, I was at Roveagh mass and a few boys, we had a conversation, I won’t say when. We went home and we had the dinner and myself, my brother and PJ Cahill and some other one, four of us. We went off again and we came this side of the river, that’s where we would get out. There was real silence. There was ten or twelve of them in it lads down from Roveagh and they kept very quiet and anyway we watched as the fellas were going around by the walls.

Gerry: Oh, making sure that nobody would get in free.

Peter: Yeah, one fella was a great runner and he made a jump up and he started shouting and off he went and the lad started following him with a stick. There was a wall between them and as soon as that happened.

Gerry: The other guy distracted them and ye got in free. Very good any other memories Peter or would that be your main memory?

Peter:  We used to really enjoy the matches, some of them were great, they were really tough. There weren’t any proper laws anyway, a lot of pulling.

Gerry: Not many rules. Were there any particular parishes that there would have been great rivalry between?

Peter: Castlegar, they were always pretty tough.

Gerry: If I just move on to historical events that happened, historical events of the past. Were you ever told any stories of the Penal Times in your area say the Mass Rock and the Turlough and that?

Peter: The reason for the Mass Rock is that they had to have it in the quiet and they couldn’t get caught saying mass. That’s why it was on such a height and that’s the reason why they kept it that way. There were always people put up on the height watching because the quickest way they could come that time was by horseback and they watched the roads and everywhere.

Gerry: I suppose just as we are talking about the mass rock and the Turlough, anything again you would have heard about the Turlough, any traditions in relation to the Turlough, how it came about?

Peter: The Turlough was supposed to be a flooded area, I would say actually it was the river, people broke pieces to get into it and the water spread. It is one of the best rivers around the place. Here, now we are nearly one hundred feet over sea level as you move up towards the school house it is nearly one hundred and eighty.

Gerry: One hundred and eighty and say how important was the Turlough to this area for water for cattle and would it be good then for grazing during the summer?

Peter: It was but it was always over-grazed, too much stock on it and stock from other places as well. It was never rightly controlled.

Gerry: So there would be very little grazing when there were too many on it, am I right that the Turlough was commonage?

Peter: It was.

Gerry: So all the people of the village had a right to graze cattle horses or whatever and I know in preparation for this interview you mentioned Poll na Circe, can you tell me about that?

Peter: They say that what started it is that hens that used to be scraping in it and it started holding water and made a pond out of it.

Gerry: And does the water gush out of the ground in a particular area of it?

Peter: It does, very close to it. The water comes down from another Turlough called the Rahasane Turlough and it pumps out there.

Gerry: They are probably at different levels as well.

Peter: Oh, yes.

Gerry: Were there any stories you would have remembered about the Famine in the area, were you ever told any stories about it from your grandfather or grandmother?

Peter: There was a story told about a woman, she was going to have a baby, she was due to have a baby and she was hungry. It seems she must be a traveller woman but anyway she kept going up the road as long as she could and she just fell dead, the baby was dead of course. That’s still called the Crann Mór, she’s buried beside a tree. Now it’s not such a very big tree but you would notice it, even off the road.

Gerry: That tree is still there today?

Peter: It is, yes, and then as well, in that same village, there were dúns.

Gerry: You mentioned a lios and a druid’s table as well, am I right?

Peter: Yes.

Gerry: And are they in the one area?

Peter: They are, sort of around there.

Gerry: What townland is that, is that Coldwood or Lisduff?

Peter: Lisduff.

Gerry: I believe as well your father was the local Land League Organiser here in Coldwood and that a cousin of yours would have done the same job in Gloves, any particular stories or anything you would have heard of in relation to that?

Peter: Well, I haven’t, mind you, no.

Gerry: You would just be aware that they were the local organisers. There was an RIC barracks close by here in Moyvella, how big a barracks was it, was it a big building?

Peter: No, it was more like a two- storey house now, that’s what it was like.

Gerry: Ok.

Peter: The half of it was burnt down during the Tans anyway, they burned it, half of it and the other half was standing for years after that.

Gerry: Oh, so half was burned down the time of the Tans and the other half, how long would it have survived?

Peter: I suppose it was there for twenty years anyway.

Gerry: Twenty years, yeah. Now, how well did the locals get on with the RIC?

Peter: They knew sort of that they were police and that they had to play their cards the right way.

Gerry: Ok, behave? Have you any particular stories, I know you mentioned one to me, involving some bags of wheat?

Peter: That was somebody who died here, a Jennings man and they wanted to give him a decent burial so they carried two sacks of wheat, it seems they were going to bring it in to Galway on their back and they were caught anyway at Moyvella crossroads. There happened to be an RIC lad out, he couldn’t sleep or something, he went for a walk and he heard them trudging down the road.

Gerry: And you were saying as well that they were heard because of the fact that they were wearing wooden clogs?

Peter: It was supposed to be clogs that they used that time and they made a lot of noise because of the wooden soles.

Gerry: And what happened to the wheat when the RIC man saw them?

Peter: It was put into a store, some lad used to have a store here in Moyvella.

Gerry: The wheat was confiscated, what did they do then about the coffin?

Peter: They made a coffin themselves.

Gerry: They made a coffin themselves. I understand you had two uncles Pat and Tom Fahy, they fought in the 1916 Rising and they were later imprisoned in Frongach as well. Did they tell you anything of their experiences, involvement in the Rising or prison afterwards or anything like that?

Peter: I think things weren’t too bad as far as they were concerned, they were doing well enough because they often spoke about whoever was over them he used to say. They used to have old caps and hats on them and they used to line up and the first thing he would say to them was ”Hats Off” and the fellas with the hats would take the hats off and the fellas with the caps would leave them on, so then he said ”Caps Off”. The lads would take off the caps and the other lads would put on the hats so he was awful mad like you know. Anyway, he used to have to say ”Hats and Caps Off”.  There was a lot more to it but I forget them now.

Gerry: I know, they wouldn’t have told you about their involvement here locally and what they did or anything?

Peter: No.

Gerry: You would have no memories of that. Did you know any other locals who fought in 1916 other than your uncles?

Peter: There was a man up there Willie Cummins, he fought.

Gerry: Were there any locals who fought in the War of Independence, would you know of anybody?

Peter: I didn’t know of anybody around here.

Gerry: Any stories you have heard about the Black and Tans activities in the area?

Peter: They were around here a lot. They came into our house there below, they searched every room and put people up in the lofts as they called them and searched them.

Gerry: And what would they have been looking for, arms?

Peter: Arms.

Gerry: Arms, yeah. Would you know of any locals who fought in the Civil War, I know it was a difficult time in every area where people ended up fighting each other, would you have heard of any stories?

Peter: I suppose I heard them but I have forgotten them.

Gerry: Of course. I understand as well you were a member of the LDF during World War II. Could you tell me about that, where did you train, what did you do?

Peter: In Killeeneen I was trained.

Gerry: Where in Killeeneen?

Peter: There was a hall there at the time.

Gerry: Oh yes, the hall that you mentioned, that was used as a dance hall as well. What did ye do in the training?

Peter: Well, all sorts of rifle work and then there were drills, to stand right and be able to give up according to the orders you would get when you would be on parade or something like that.

Gerry: Would ye have been on parade in Killeeneen or Clarenbridge as well?

Peter: Killeeneen and we used to go to Gort once in a while.

Gerry: How would you get to Gort, would it be to walk or to cycle?

Peter: No, they used to have a lorry.

Gerry: Of course I am forgetting we are in World War 11 times, yes that things would have changed. Have you any memory of any particular local events. I understand you took part in a guard of honour for De Valera, did you at one stage?

Peter: Yeah, that’s right.

Gerry: In Clarenbridge?

Peter: No, it was Gort.

Gerry: Oh, sorry, what are your memories of that?

Peter: Well we thought it was a great day, there was a mighty crowd    in it as you know, now, anywhere De Valera was he drew the crowd. We had to march up, eyes the right way around, eyes met the ground and there was a salute at the same time. You had to do it right you know or else stay at home.

Gerry: And when would that have been Peter, what year roughly or what decade?

Peter: During the war.

Gerry: During World War 11 so you would have been trained in the LDF and all prior to that. 

As regards landlords in this area who are the local landlords you would have known of? 

Peter: There weren’t a great lot of landlords in this area just a guy that had a lot of land, his name was Thomas Shaughnessy.

Gerry: Was that in Moyvella Lodge?

Peter: Yeah, and whatever was in Lavally, the Heaneys. 

Gerry: The Lynch’s in Lavally as well and the local big houses just the ones we mentioned Moyvella Lodge and Lavally House.

Peter: That’s right.

Gerry: Any memories or stories about those big houses or the local landlords, I know you mentioned to me again in preparation for this interview where was there a village here in Coldwood, not exactly where the village is now but that that disappeared? 

Peter: That’s right, the landlords it seems that were down in Moyvella, he discovered that Coldwood, as that time, they were down near the Green Briar, they had very good land so he ran them out of it and that’s where they came up here and built their houses. 

Gerry: Would there have been many houses, can you remember the ruins, would you have remembered the ruins, roughly how many houses would there have been?

Peter: I suppose there would have been thirty houses in it anyway.

Gerry: Would there and do you know roughly when that happened?

Peter: I don’t.

Gerry: You don’t, so it was a very big village, Coldwood was probably bigger then than it is even now.

Peter: It probably was.

Gerry: Any memories of local famous people in sport or politics or do you know any locals who would have been famous? 

Peter: We thought a lot of Jack Lynch and sport one of the Cahills up there Miko Cahill’s brother he was a great hurler.

Gerry: Any memories of severe weather, hurricanes, Debbie any of those, severe winters or I suppose on the other hand as well any good summers and that?

Peter: We had very severe winters alright, very very severe but the people used to be sort of prepared for them. There were open fires and they kept big fires in the house and you wouldn’t even notice it.

Gerry: Anything you can remember about Debbie or any of those hurricanes, anything you can remember?

Peter: That was later.

Gerry: That would be later, I know it would be in the sixties.

Peter: There were some great storms alright like.

Gerry: What are your memories of travellers or as they were known then or as they were generally called tinkers visiting your area in the summer?

Peter: Some of them were great like you could depend on them, there might be an odd one alright. Some of them were very good they used to work for the local farmers and they would be paid for it.

Gerry: And they were good tinsmiths as well, that’s where they got their name at the time?

Peter: That’s right, you had the good and the bad.

Gerry: And what kind of work did they do?  You said they worked on farms for the locals, did they and would they have fixed pots and pans and buckets?

Peter: Well, yes, and a lot of farmers used to have them digging the potatoes, pulling the beet or pulling the turnips or mangolds or something like that like you know.

Gerry: I suppose when we are talking about that as well would you have memories of spailpíns in the area?

Peter: Yeah.

Gerry: Where would they be hired from? Say if you needed a spailpín to do work for you, where would you go to get one?

Peter: Athenry, you had to go to last mass and there would be a row of them there. 

Gerry: There would be a row outside last mass in Athenry every Sunday. Very good. 

Local monuments, you mentioned before, that there is a dún in Lisduff and a druid’s altar, are there any other monuments around the area?

Peter: No, except the hedge school.

Gerry: Would you or maybe your parents or grandparents remember people speaking Irish in the area?

Peter: There was a lot of Irish spoken one time, women, one of them visiting the other, they would talk in Irish or nearly every single one was addressed in Irish like if I was coming in now into the house you’d say ”Dia Dhuit”. 

Gerry: Rather than greeting people in English they would greet in Irish?

Peter: And the same way if there was somebody was working they would say ”Bail o dhia ar an obair”, that sort of stuff.

Gerry: Any other sayings you can remember, but it would be mainly greetings, would it and then they would break back into English?

Peter: They might have a few words of Irish.

Gerry: You wouldn’t have any memories of fluent speakers or say your parents have memories of fluent speakers?

Peter: There was one man in this village and he was a great Irish speaker, his name was John Flaherty and he died there about twenty or thirty years ago.

Donal: Did he teach sometimes in the school?

Gerry: He taught in Coldwood at times did he?

Peter: He did if the teacher was sick.

Gerry: Very good.

Peter: He was able to stand in for him.

Gerry: Would you know the Irish version of any local place names here?

Peter: Well Poll na Circe is one.

Gerry: Poll na Circe, yeah.

Peter: What’s the English for that, Gerry?

Gerry: It would be the hen’s hole, amn’t I  right? That’s the literal translation. Apart from that one can you remember any other ones?

Peter: Fields, Gort Bán, Gort Buí.

Donal: Na haltógs.

Gerry: Na haltógs?

Peter: Where’s Na haltógs? 

Gerry: Who is the oldest relative you can remember and any particular stories you could remember from that person?

Peter: I think it was a Kelly man that lived up the road there. He must have lived to be a hundred, I had an aunt myself and she lived to be 104 or 105.

Gerry: Did you, did she live locally here?

Peter: No, she lived in Gloves, she came from here.

Gerry: And would she have told you any stories of her memories?

Peter: A lot of the stories I have forgotten.

Gerry: I know of course, of course. What in your opinion would be the single biggest change that has happened during your lifetime. If you could single out one thing and that you would say that was the biggest change and that had the greatest impact on people or maybe on yourself?

Peter: Well, one thing I am very proud of anyway is taking the stick out of school.

Gerry: Ok.

Peter: Definitely, I am very proud of that.

Gerry: Yeah and I suppose my last question to you would be, what is your secret to living close to 95 years of age?

Peter: Hard work.

Gerry: Hard work, very good. Well, Peter thank you for sharing your memories with us. 

Peter: I am sure it was not too good.