the boundary of the parish. This might bi two miles or three miles. Here they bade him a last farewell. From there he went with the buttermen who were going to the the famine years, but ten or fifteen years Cork butter market. They knew the road later when a terrible plague struck the well, the places to stay and where to stay area. Also people were leaving because of when they reached Cork. He booked his the poverty in the general area, of the hills passage the next day in Cobh and then especially, and the absence of any went to America. that were being built. The blacksmith was worthwhile future for them. This whole The carters would not make the return 'just out of his time' and wanted more part of the country was very backward. journey in one day. They often broke the experience of the trade. He would hear There were no roads between Newcastle, journey with an overnight in the Halfway that a particular smith was very good at north Kerry and Cork city until Griffith House at a place called Nad. This building shoeing horses and he would spend some opened the Cork line. The roads that is still to be seen. It subsequently was time with him. He would hear that a man Richard Griffith built were used to civilise turned into a public house. It had a special was a great implement maker of 'deans' and bring law and order to the hill country rate for the carters who stayed there at and spades, and he would spend some and to make it easier to transport night. They made an overnight stop there time learning from him. When John was agricultural produce to the Cork Butter going and coming back. young, the era of the journeymen was Market. John McAuliffe was an expert with the coming to an end. The length of time that In the 1880s and the 1890s emigration scythe. It had to be set properly and the smith stayed in a district was depen- in the Newcastle area increased and properly edged by the expert mower. The dant on the work that he had, especially in continued to be high, up until 1916 and two handles, called the 'duirnins', had to harvest time. The smith would hold onto 1917. This was the time of the American be the length from the elbow to the tip of him, even if he did not like him, so that he wakes. The American wake was well the finger. They had to balance with the would repair broken machinery. In some established in west Limerick and north lower handle, the one nearest the blade. cases the journeyman smith would remain Kerry. All the people of the district came The handles were held with wedges so on in the district and open his own forge. to the house, two nights or the last night that they could be moved up and down. A There was a smith who, if he did not strike before the person emigrating set off. The nail was driven into the end of the handle the anvil before 8am, would not work on night, or nights, were given up to music, of the scythe. This was called a grass nail. that day. He would consider it too late to singing, dancing and yarns. The musicians When the scythe was being edged, it was work. played and the people danced polkas, still driven into the ground so that the blade On the question of emigration, John the favourite dance in the hill country, would not slip and cut the man edging. To McAuliffe said that from the end of the 'round the house and mind the dresser'. see an expert scythesman working was to nineteenth century to the world war, the After a while dancing the polkas, they see a 'work of art'. But to see a man mow- greater part of emigration was to America. called on the step dancer. Most houses in ing with a scythe who did not know how to But the emigration from the immediate those times had a half-door: its principal use it was 'a crucifixion'. area around Newcastle would not be as purpose was to let in sun and air and also high as from the surrounding hills. to keep the hens from rambling into the Presents would be given to the people house. The half door hung on two large going away. In Newcastle, when they got hinges, called 'buckawns'. On the night, to the train platform, the people who this door was lifted off the 'buckawns' and When the hay was in wynds and brought accompanied them would bid them adieu. brought into the kitchen. The step-dancer in to make the reek or the stack, the Their friends would accompany them to tapped out his steps in a lively fashion on mower was usually called on that day to the Railway Bridge. They would wave to the half door. The house always provided participate in the making of the stack. In each other, and that would often be the plenty of food and drink, even though they the hill country, and indeed elsewhere, last sight that they would have of each often had very little of the goods of this at that time, there were professional other. There was a bridge near the town world. But the neighbours frequently scythesmen who went around the country, known as 'Briseadh Croi', broken-hearted, came to their assistance with currant mowing for the farmers. that told its own sad tale. It was later cakes and other food. But it had a sad vein When the mowing machines were first known as the Cork Bridge, because it was running deep through it, for the young introduced, they were not popular with the there that the carters would gather to take person leaving was most likely never to scythesmen. They sometimes drove iron butter to the Cork butter market. Later return to his native parish again. At some pegs into the meadows of the big farmers still it was called the Creamery Bridge, as later time, if he had sisters or brothers, he to damage the machines. But some of the it was the bridge nearest the creamery. might send home the passage fare so they scythesmen became expert subsequently The people were very innocent in those could join him in America. The morning mowing with the horses. times, and fearful and unaccustomed when after the wake, the emigrant's humble With a Massey Harris machine, which setting out on any strange journey. possessions were placed in a wooden had wide blades, a number 18 or number Consequently, when going to Cork to sell trunk made by the local carpenter. (There 24, on a fair day with two good horses, you butter or take a ship to America, they were no travelling bags or valises in those would knock an acre an hour. You would stayed close to the carters so that they times). All his belongings were placed in start at 4.a.m. and finish at twelve, midday. would not be robbed by any strangers that the wooden box, as well as food and drink You would then rest the horses. You they might encounter. for the journey to Cork. They then put the would start again at 4p.m. and work until Contrary to what many might think, trunk into the horse and car and all the the dew began to fall. There was one big the real increase in emigration was not in people of the district walked with him to blade that had to be changed every few Fair day at Newcastlewest, c.1900. Lawrence postcard. (Limerick Museum) hours. It was said that a man who could had only one wing. The 'sleansman' threw tinker. He was a famous character who tell lies was the best man to edge a blade. the turf out in front of him. The 'brancher' used to come to the fairs at Abbeyfeale The blade was taken out, a new blade was had a three prong pike. He stuck this in and shout for all to hear: "I have ware from put in. The man edging the blade worked the gleaming, soggy peat and threw this Derbyshire where they bull the cows with at this on the headland, and the mower up on the bank. On the bank was a third machinery and every cow has two calves mowed. man known as the spreader. In many every year". The man who was a good scythesman ways, the brancher was the key man as his There were also the tinsmiths, or the was often a good man with the 'slean' too, work was the heaviest. Turf cutting went tinkers, as they were correctly known, the strong and sure, cutting the turf. The on from April through May into early workers in tin. The best remembered of 'taobhfod', for setting the potatoes would June. If there was an enmity between the these in the Mountcollins district was often be turned in November. A good 'sleansman' and the brancher, this could Paddy O'Brien who died about thirty years spadesman, using a spade made by Bill easily surface in different ways. The ago. I think he was a native of the Duagh Phi1 O'Connell, a Mountcollins black- sleansman 'could make each sod fall area in county Kerry and he may also have smith, would cut and turn a quarter acre of differently making thus the 'brancher's' fought in the Great War. He was very ground in a day. That is if it was free of work more difficult and breaking the popular with the people of the area and he scutch grass or gabhal - luachair (forked rhythmn of his work. But if the brancher would have been well received at most rushes) and if he did not encounter under wanted to put a stop to this or to slow doors. I remember him living and sleeping the ground, the 'reanga dubha', a growth down the 'sleansman', he could do so by in a bow-shaped canvas tent at the end of found especially in boggy ground that striking the 'slean' with the pike and so the Bog Road, close to Mosie Bawn's impeded the work of the spadesman. He knocking the edge off the blade. In this shop. There was a then derelict house could be turning the 'taobhfhods' up until way, he got a respite. If the cutter was near where he camped which, I suppose, the end of February. If he had no work in cutting the turf too fast for the brancher, gave him some shelter. (In subsequent between these times, he could make he could ram the pike over the treadle and years this house was restored and drains, stone drains or earth drains. To say something like: 'You'll pull it up now inhabited). I can well remember seeing shelter himself from the rain while when I'll let you". him at work near his open air fire, making working the spadesman would sometimes There were many travellers and sellers tin ponneys which were used in every have a stick stuck in the ground and a of goods going about the hill country in farmer's house, indeed in every house in sheet of galvanized with a hole in the top the nineteenth century. One of these was the whole parish at that time. There was a of it leaning against the stick and a piece the 'chaney' seller, 'Chaney' was a type of special use for them in the springtime of of wire tying the sheet to the top of the earthenware which the people of the the year. At that time he would be kept stick. As the rain moved from one point of countryside used as drinking vessels, jugs, very busy as the ponneys would be in use the compass to the other, he moved the bowls and mugs. The chaney man sold at in the bogs, when they were cutting or sheet of galvanized to protect himself. fairs in Mountcollins, Abbeyfeale and footing the turf. Similarly later in the There was a particular system of Brosna. The chaney men sold from stalls. summer when they were making up the cutting turf in the hill country. The 'slean' There was one known as Hourigan, the cocks or drawing in the hay, ponneys and tin gallons of tea would be passed around. and Abbeyfeale discovering where the would need a strong stomach to eat this As well as making ponneys, he also made great trunks of the bogdeal lay. This was yellow, smokey bacon as it was tough and the tin gallons. These were used for full-time work for the man engaged in it, strong. carrying milk and water from the well and travelling the whole of the surrounding The youngsters of the house were sent they also had other uses. Paddy had no country. This lasted for as long as there around to the neighbours the day after the wife insofar as we knew. But travellers' was a shortage of building timber in the killing with the pork steak and the wives went around the country selling the countryside. This came to an end when puddings. Special friends of the family tin ware, or one could come to the camp- country houses began to be built with were given extra pieces of meat and site and buy them. Paddy O'Brien also concrete blocks or what was known as maybe two puddings. The children would went around to the houses and made them 'stone-to-the-board'. At that time deal be sent because they would usually get F in the houses. Amongst themselves, some roofing timber became available. threepence or a sixpence for bringing thd of the travellers spoke their secret Another man who travelled around the fresh meat and the pudding. Sometimes, language, Shelta. No one knew whether countryside in the course of his work was they might even get the full shilling. Paddy O'Brien knew it or not. the pig killer. There was a famous pig The pig's bladder would be blown up Travelling musicians moved around killer in Mountcollins named Con 'Mockey' and used as a football. Sometimes it was the hill country of Sliabh Luachra. There Lyons. He was also a shoemaker and seasoned and covered in leather. There was a famous piper, from around Killarney, shoemender and he lived in a small house are stories of inter-parish and inter-district it was said. He was called 'Geansai' with an iron roof at the foot of a small hill football matches, with the pig's bladder as probably because he wore a 'geansai' or which was close to the Caher river at the football. There is a story from olden times jumper. He moved around the borders of western entry to the village. His house of a football match between the young the three counties, north Cork, east Kerry was small on a little piece of ground by the men of Tournafulla and Mountcollins. The and west Limerick. There was in the roadside, but people were always dropping 'caid' or football was thrown in at Naugh- twentieth century a musician named Wall in to see him and for a chat as he sat ton's Cross. There the match began. who sometimes stayed from six to twelve hammering or cutting leather behind his There were no rules, no holds barred in months in a particular parish. He taught bench. Often the schoolchildren on their this long ago match. After a great struggle, music to the young people of the border way home from school stopped in for a the Mountcollins men succeeded in districts and then moved on after getting few words with Con, who was always bringing the ball to the Cross of Mount- them to form bands. And there was an- happy to see them come in. Over the small collins. Up to that time, we are told, other travelling musician Scully, a native back window of the little house hung a Mountcollins was a hurling district and of Cork, who taught the young people how print of Daniel O'Connell, the Liberator. Tournafulla was a football area. Mount- to play brass instruments. But Con's other occupation, that of collins had a hurling team called the In many parts of the upland country, travelling pig killer, took him away from Mountcollins Shamrocks and Tournafulla there was very little timber. There were his cobbler's bench into the surrounding had a football team. But after this moment- whitethorn bushes and blackthorn bushes, hills and country. He once boasted that he ous game, the traditions changed, with hazel trees and alder, plenty of furze had killed 483 pigs in one year. His only Tournafulla taking up hurling, the game bushes, pine trees, always called 'palms' instrument was a knife and he brought in still played there, and Mountcollins going by the people, planted for shelter close to his pocket a stone out of the river for over to football, which they continue to some of the houses, willows, always sharpening the knife. He used a flat stone play. known as sallies on ditches and along for this. He also carried a small timber The lowland rich farmers of the Golden streams, some sycamores. But very little handle with a ring of leather at the end of Vale never had, with honourable excep- trees suitable for roofing houses or laying it for holding the pig's snout. When the tions here and there, but a poor opinion of floors or making window frames. Up until pig was being killed and the blood was their servants who frequently came from the 1920s and 1930s, most of the houses in flowing, it was taken up in pans, dishes the barren mountains and the rushy fields the high country would have been roofed and other containers. After the pig was of the hill country. It was not unknown for with thatch. Because of the shortage of killed, the pig was opened up with the big the farmer to kill one pig, a young pig, for hard timber in the general area, bog deal, knife and the entrails were taken out. The himself and his family and an old pig for seasoned and hardened from centuries in guts and the large intestines were then the servants. The meat of the old pig the peat, was widely used as a roof timber. taken out and they were washed and would, of course, have been very tough Many parishes in the hill country had a cleaned. Preceding the killing, the women and unappetising. bogdeal diviner, and when they were of the house would have prepared fillings Paddy Drury, the versemaker from roofing houses, sheds or cabins, he was for these puddings. The filling would be Listowel, was known for his biting coup- usually called in to find the bogdeal in the made up of bread, pinhead oaten meal, lets. Once he was working for a farmer bogs. He would go out early in the blood, onions and probably some herbs, with three other servant boys. The food in morning when the dew was still on the like sage or thyme, if these were available this particular house was anything but ground. It was possible to discover where at the particular time. The oaten meal, good. So when the dinner was placed on the 'crockel' of bog deal lay on a dewy blood and onions would all be boiled in a the table one day, Paddy got down on his morning because the ground under which pot before they were used for the stuffing. knees and with his eyes raised to heaven it lay was free of the dew ... The bogdeal A gang of the neighbours would usually spoke the following lines: finder carried with him an iron spit and he turn up to salt the pig. There was an ulter- probed the bog with this to discover the ior motive for this, too, as all who came "Oh God on high look down upon us four size and the general outline of the piece of would be given some of the fresh meat Please give us mate that we can ate bogdeal that lay underneath. In this way, and some puddings. After it was salted, it And take away the boar". he discovered where the best deal sticks was put into a barrel to be cured and were for the roofing of the house. He pickled for about a month. Then it was At another time the same Paddy Drury showed the builders of the house where taken out and hung on the meat stick over passed through the small village of the long-buried trunks and branches lay the fire in the kitchen. The meat stick ran Knockanure and unsuccessfully begged and they then set about digging these out. from one side of the kitchen to the other. alms from the inhabitants of the village. When they dug these up and out, they cut There were iron crooks on the stick and Standing empty-handed at the end of the them to the size and shape required for there were usually eight to ten pieces of village, he vented his spleen: the roofing of the house. In this way, they meat hanging from the stick. A sheet of were able to procure timber for the roof brown paper or a newspaper page was "Knockanure both mane and poor, a that was seasoned and hardened and usually put around the meat to keep the church without a steeple would last for as long as the thatched dust and the flies off it. If the householder With sons of hoors looking over half- house stood. There was a man who went wanted smoked, yellow bacon, a piece or doors, insulting decent people". about the parishes of Tournafulla, Brosna two was hung in the open hearth. You