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MEMORIES OF CHURCHTOWN Looking Back Through The
Years St Annes well is situated across from O'Sullivans house in High Rath. There are some stories relating to it. It was dedicated to St Anne. I can remember as a child my father tak-ing me up there. There were bits of ribbon of that time, although it had been closed in. I never remember a feast day being held, but I would imagine a lot of people used to go there in the old days, going back a hundred years or so. Games-I can remember a green at Kennedy's gate. It was in the shape of a triangle. All the local men used to put a ring in the middle and they used to play skittles. They con-sisted of five blocks of timber and one in the middle. The stakers were one penny each. Those who played were Con Howard,Con Callaghan, Paddy Hickey, my late father, Jack Duane, Paddy Howard and Jim Carroll who worked at Hedigans. Drawing the water - we sometimes went to the top of the ''Windmill'' and also the top of the village. There was a well down in the black screen in the lands of Churchtown House. This was a lovely well and Con Callaghan our neighbour used to clean it out every year. It was necessary to carry another container to fill the bucket because it was small but the water was beautiful. It was about 200 yards from this house. There were a lot of trees growing there then. They were later felled and sold to the O'Keeffes. My late uncle Tim carved his name on one of those trees. I remember going down there in the old days to gather the furze for baking with the Bastible. I also remember the ''boran'', that was the cattle dropping. Before going to school in the morning, we used to turn it to dry. We would collect it in the evening and fill the scullery with it. It was used as fuel for baking. These little jobs kept us going. We also had a crook to pull the dead wood from the trees. Mrs. O'Sullivan from the Windmill always wanted a crab block at Christmas for behind the fire. She used to get my father to cut one for herself because he was a great man to climb and we would get one for ourself. Then my mother used to gather the cones from the evergreen trees, I can remember the smell of them around the house on Christmas Day. Teachers - Mrs.Noonan taught me when I was in infants and first class. She left and went to Liscarroll when her husband died. Mrs. Wall taught me from then on. I remember those in my class-Noreen Noonan (Mrs. Noonan's daughter), Kathleen Duane, Nellie Browne, and Mary Brown. My late mother was a sister of the late Tom Flaherty,Granard. My father was born here. My grandmother bought this house from Lady Egmount. I remember cookery classes in the village. I did a lot of knitting and sewing, and the darn-ing of socks was ongoing. We usually had two pigs, we killed one and then the other. We also had the old bronze turkeys. We used to get three goose eggs and these would hatch. It was also the custom then, where you worked you would be given a goose for Christ-mas. I worked at Bill Roches (Michael Drinan's now) and I worked at Flannerys also. I enjoyed working at Roches, they were very good to me. I was only fifteen years of age then. I also worked for a while with Mrs. Drinan (R.I.P.) before my late mother got very sick and I had to look after her and my sister. I am delighted with the 'goings-on'
at the moment in Churchtown. It reminds me of the old days. The
other day as I went down the village, I heard all the hammering.
It reminded me of Paddy Noonan's carpentry shop near Dorneys.
He would always be working there. Then Paddy O'Keeffe would be
further down. He made my kitchen table here. ''Oh to have a little house, At Confirmation time we had to go to school for an hour or two on Saturday. Father Foley was then the parish priest. When he would visit the school he often kept us there until 5'oclock singing Annie Laurie. It was often dark when we came home from school and we would have been fasting from midday. He was terrible for elocution. If it were not pronounced right, he would go back over it again and again. One time the religious exam-iner called he asked a pupil ''Who is always in the church'' and the answer he was given was ''Katie Carthy , Father''. The fit up pictures always came to our plot long ago. My father would get 30 shillings for the two weeks. I can remember Duffy's circus each year. The Bradleys also came. I saw two plates given to my father and mother by the Bradleys. Walshs also came. There was a big tent set up. Mrs. O'Sullivan used to give them the broken gap for their caravans for nothing. These are many memories of my childhood. I saw Uncle Dan's cabin there and several well-known pieces. Jim Cash and Lyons were another two men that came. The place was packed to capacity for the two weeks. There would be a raffle held during the shows. I remember one grand old lady calling before the show started. She would come into this house. She was Denny O'Leary's mother and she would get a cup of tea. I miss the sound of the corncrake. Long ago he would be non-stop calling at Cowheys. Although, I did hear the Cuckoo last year. I don't hear the Sky Lark anymore. Also, the Thrushes have got very scarce. My cousin Pad would kill me if I used Slugtox, he said it would kill the Thrushes. He loved the birds. I used to love to see the Yellow Hammer and the Herons. I did not see a water hen for years. |
