MEMORIES OF CHURCHTOWN
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Paddy McMahon
Around Mount Corbett area, the townland
I live in is Ballinamuck, people often think that it should be
Mount Corbett. But the boundary between the two townlands is to
the west of my house. It is a stream running down through the
field. This stream turns eastwards half way down. But there is
a dry dyke that continues down to Buffer's Cross. This line is
the dividing line between the two townlands.
My grandfather came from the Brosna
area. My father was a dairyman years back. He used to take farms
and milk a herd of cows on these. He was thirteen years in Altamira,
Liscarroll. He was nine years in Imogane. He was also in Lochleigh
and Glanmore. He was four years in Ahaburn and seven years in
Coolcaum. That was a system of farming which was common in years
back. As well as cows he was also very involved in pig farming.
He would buy pigs in Kanturk and Drumculloher and sell in Charleville
and Buttevant. He was a good judge of the pig trade. I remember
when he was coming from Kanturk with a rail of pigs and he met
some man in Mossie Fitzgibbon's and he sold them to him. He came
home that evening with the rail empty and he left in the morning.
Across the road from my house is
the late paddy Fitzgerald's farm. There are two unoc-cupied dwellings
on the land. Years back there was a third. There was a very big
family of the Fitzgeralds long ago. I got the water years back
from a well in Fitz's Glen. It was an open well. There is a field
in that farm called 'the stone field'. There was a stone to mark
the height in the middle of that field. Paddy Fitzgerald got Jack
Manning to pull away the stone with Jim Sampson's tractor years
back. If his father Con knew this he would not approve of its
removal. It was a pity to knock these things.
In Miss O' Brien's farm there were
some huge trees years ago. They were mainly Oak and Beech. These
were sold and they were taken up to Donegal. They had special
ma-chinery for loading the long logs. There were some grand clean
oaks. It would take eight hours to take the load up to Donegal.
The late Eileen expressed the wish to be buried among these trees.
In years back there was a lovely orchard in the farm. There were
lovely flowerbeds and a pond in the middle. It was a beautiful
spot to look at in the sum-mertime. There were several stone ornaments
to decorate the gardens. These are all gone now. There was another
stone well at the end of the orchard. There was a line of Elm
trees on the side of the main road on the Buttevant side of Buffer's
Cross.
MEMORIES OF CHURCHTOWN
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