Memoir

The Village

1920---1940

The narrator was born in 1923 in Wexford and lived his early life in a very small village near the sea. There were four public houses, three shops, a post office, a creamery, a village school and two Churches, a Catholic church, which was well attended, and a Protestant, which was invariably almost empty. The public houses had an area for groceries and a separate area for the consumption of alcohol and there was always a “snug” for anyone who needed more privacy, or for a lady who didn’t want to be seen.
The Protestant church had been Catholic before the Reformation and there were several old graves there, including some with vaults. However there was an even older cemetery just over a mile away, where there was a well, which was supposed to be a holy one, the waters from which were reputed to effect cures. This cemetery had been closed for years as it was full, but in 1930 a very old person, who had a right to be buried there in a family grave, died, and when he was buried in the area near the well it was found that the bodies in the grave, which had been there for over thirty years, hadn’t decayed. Some very old people in the area were able to relate that their parents had mentioned years before that decomposition didn’t occur in a part of that cemetery.
The pace of life was slow in the village and surroundings. Very few people got up early, except for the farmers who needed to attend to their animals or to work in the fields. There was almost no motor traffic and horse drawn vehicles tended to amble as there was no rush to go anywhere in a hurry, so the general atmosphere was one of tranquillity, as if everyone was completely laid back. Incomes were low but the cost of living was also very low, but the quality of food was excellent, as most people grew their own vegetables and kept hens and made their own bread, and meat was easily obtainable from farmers who killed their own animals.
The civil war wasn’t over until 1922 and while it lasted there were skirmishes all over the county and it wasn’t long since the rebellion of 1916. Petrol was still scarce, but the headmaster managed to continue his weekly trip to Wexford town, starting the car with a little petrol in the carburettor and then running it on paraffin oil. Almost every week he would be stopped by small groups of men asking to be driven to some location. He never asked what side they were on, remaining strictly neutral, and he would just drive them to their destination and continue his journey.
There were visible scars of the war for independence, like the ruins of the coastguard station and the ruins of a few of the beautiful Anglo Irish homes, which had been destroyed during the ‘Trouble Times.” In spite of the fact that some of the local population must have been on different sides in the civil war there was no animosity apparent and everyone lived in complete harmony, apart from the natural rivalry between the owners of the main centres of business.
The nearby beach was really magnificent, with miles of soft white sand and wonderful sand dunes. It had been the site of a big battle during the great rebellion of 1798 and again a smaller battle during the fight for independence. In the latter the forces of the crown were the Black and Tans, who were the lowest scum, who had been released from jails in England and given two weeks training as soldiers and given free rein to use any tactics to suppress the rebellion. Some of the crimes they committed in the county were indescribable in their atrocity, but fortunately not in the immediate village. However on one occasion they were on their way to do some damage in the village when they were intercepted and decisively beaten. By 1924 the civil war was forgotten and apart from the fact that the northern six counties remained part of Britain, it might as well never have taken place.
Near the beach was a ruined castle, which had been one of many similar ones owned by The Mc Murrough, king of Leinster. Legend had it that there was an underground tunnel between it and a similar castle in Ferns, nine miles away, but it had never been found. The small river or stream in the centre of the village had at one time, centuries ago, been a much bigger river and at that time the village was called The Ford, which name still exists on old maps. It was named thus because the stage - coaches found difficulty crossing it, necessitating a stop for a drink in the local inn. The coast road was used for stage - coach traffic, and the village as the last unyoke before Wexford town, until a better road was made between Gorey and Wexford. This was a big setback for the village, the travel facilities disappearing and a loss of business by the shops and pubs. Folklore tells us that there were two wrecks of Spanish ships, which had been driven on shore by the gales and high seas during the great Armada, but there are no records of survivors.

The most important person in the village, at least in his own opinion, was the Parish Priest, ably assisted by his Curate. To the majority of people his word was law and he lived in absolute luxury compared with most of the other residents. The second most important person, in the eyes of the Parish Priest at least, was the local schoolmaster. In everybody else’s eyes he was really the most important. Apart from teaching and giving extra tuition to aspiring youngsters he gave legal advice, made wills, settled disputes and gave first aid and medical attention to all except the most serious cases. The nearest doctor was six miles away and the nearest solicitor twelve. He was also head of the local coastguard service and later, during the war, the local defence force.
He also found time to modernise his home, putting in running water, flush toilet and electric light, which was produced from a wind-mill on top of a large pole, using several car batteries joined together to act as a generator. He had the seventh motor - car in Ireland, top speed ten miles per hour, in the early1900s, and toured Ireland, being followed in every town by the local youths trying to keep pace with the car. He wrote and produced plays, painted oil and water-colour paintings and could play
many different musical instruments, including the violin, guitar, mandolin, piano and even the musical saw and the harp.
In the mid 20s however he had a model T Ford, which was one of the very few in the district.
In the early1920s Sir Alan Cobham brought his “Flying Circus” to an area near Wexford town. He and another pilot had bought a few aeroplanes after the war and toured with them showing their skills in the air. They did stunts, looping the loops, flying upside down, figure of eight, etc and after some time they asked for a volunteer. The headmistress of our village volunteered and went through the full routine with them in a tiny biplane and enjoyed every minute of it. She was regarded as quite a hero afterwards as she was the only volunteer! The headmaster was known by everybody as “The Master”, and his wife as “The Mistress”. Children attended school from 9am until 3pm,with thirty minutes break for the children to eat lunch, which was usually a sandwich. The master was very strict, but very fair, and managed discipline without having to use his cane. The children thought he had an eye in the back of his head as he managed to see behind himself by using his bifocal spectacles. They were both held in high regard by the whole local population as well as by the children.

The village was situated in a shallow valley with four roads radiating from the centre, with a small stream running through, and a village pump at one side from which everybody had to draw water, as there was no other water supply. Local farmers sank wells for their homes and livestock. The only telephone was in the post-office. There was no electric light, so that the streets and roads were dark at night. The houses used oil or petrol lamps, while the poorer people used candles for lighting.
There was no television and very few radios and only the more well off people had gramophones, Pianos were to be found in some homes and at weekends groups gathered to sing and play, often with violin accompaniment. Occasionally concerts were held in the village hall, organised by the headmaster who was usually the person to organise activities of any kind.
Transport was by pony and trap by the more affluent, and by donkey and cart by the less affluent, while the younger generation sported bicycles. Many of the men rode their horses into town and the farmers used horses for almost everything, ploughing, harrowing etc, as the tractor was only just becoming popular. Hay was taken in on special hay carts and all farms had a hay barn for storage. Corn was cut on the field by mowing machines, tied into sheaves by hand and left to dry and when taken home was threshed by old fashioned threshing machines, with a mill into which the sheaves of corn were fed by hand to separate the grain from the stalk. The thrashing machine had a large engine, which operated a moving belt to feed the mill with the sheaves, so it was quite dangerous and occasionally there were accidents. Thrashings lasted anything from three days to half a day according to how wealthy the farmer was, but there would always be a party or dance on the final evening attended by all the neighbours, with music and plenty of alcohol, mostly Guinness. The dancing would often go on until the early hours of the next morning.
Cows were milked by hand as milking machines had not been invented and most farmers brought their milk in large churns into the creamery by horse and cart every day, often taking home butter and buttermilk, which was used for bread making by the housewives. The creamery was a great place for friends to meet and usually they would go afterwards to one or other pub to have a pint of Guinness.
There were two blacksmiths in opposition, both kept busy putting on new horseshoes and making or repairing tackle and there was always a small queue waiting for service, much as there is today at the petrol pump.
Once each month a fair day was held, with farmers selling their livestock, with bullocks, heifers, horses, donkeys and mules etc lined up by the side of the road for inspection. Cattle dealers and horse dealers from all over the province would attend and deals were done after long negotiation, with much spitting on, and eventually shaking of hands. Money would be passed over immediately and usually both parties would adjourn to the pub for the inevitable pint. It was many years before cattle marts were built with proper auctions, necessitating long transportation of their beasts by the farmers. The traditional fair day disappeared, the local pubs and shops lost business, but the roads were less dirty.
Villages in the county are roughly five miles apart and delivery of the post was done on foot or on a bicycle covering quite a mileage, when you take into account all the side roads and laneways to be traversed. One of these postmen also acted as a hairdresser, the main style for boys at that time being very short back and sides and for girls, ringlets or fringes.
The nearest railway station was in Wexford town and there was also a bus service. The snag about the latter was that it stopped at every village along the way and the drivers tended to have a few drinks, so the journey took much longer than it might have done. Wexford was often called the model county, as the land was rich and good for both corn and livestock, so farmers were mostly pretty well off, with farms being from 100 to 200 acres. Wheat and barley were the main crops but a lot of vegetables were grown, and some farmers, who didn’t mind very hard work, grew sugar beet. Cattle were kept for fattening and for sale, and a few cows for providing milk. Hens, ducks and turkeys were kept for providing eggs and for providing meat for the table. Some kept pigs, which were killed and cured to produce bacon and ham. One enterprising man killed his sheep, lambs and cattle and set himself up as a travelling butcher, the only snag was that he didn’t allow his beef to hang long enough.
Most houses had a large metal bath, which was brought out for use on Saturday evenings so that everyone could use it. Some of the farms had a special out - house to use as a bathroom, but it meant bringing large containers of hot water from the kitchen fireplace. These fireplaces were on an open hearth which took quite large blocks of wood to burn, encouraged by an underground air system acting as a fan operated by a large wheel beside the fireplace. It was quite ingenious and as a result these large fires heated the whole house. There was a system of swinging iron bars supporting pots of various sizes to swing into position for cooking. Village houses, and all houses other than farm-houses, had ranges which took coal, when it was available, or timber for cooking. It was many years before Aga cookers became available. Fields were comparatively small and were surrounded by ditches well covered by timber, which was very much in demand and trees were replanted regularly.

There were three large estates of approximately 1000 to 1500 acres, all owned by Anglo Irish families. One of these still had the manor house intact and the farm was in full production, giving employment and producing well. The family were held in high respect though they didn’t mix with the locals. The only person to be invited to the house was the headmaster occasionally to give legal advice or to make a will. On the second estate the manor house had been only partially burnt down and the owner lived there alone, allowing the land to be neglected and eventually over run by rabbits. He encouraged young men to come to try to shoot them, an offer the sons of the headmaster snapped up. The house on the third estate had been destroyed, but the gate-lodge had survived.
This estate had been owned by a Colonel Bryan, who had died during the war from an illness connected with aging. His son had inherited the estate and was called Major Bryan, as the son of a Colonel !!! but he was usually simply called “The Major” He was probably the third most important person in the area and he was certainly the most colourful. He renovated and extended the gate-lodge and fitted massage tables, large baths, billiard and table tennis rooms and started a Spa. He advised cold baths as good for the health, but the real reason was that he had no way of heating the water. He bought and renovated four nearby cottages and started to bring visitors from England during the summer, much to the delight of the local lads, who vied with one another to entertain any young ladies who arrived. The Major was a handsome man in his fifties but he certainly had a way with the ladies and all his visitors seemed to be female. He then bought the old coastguard station and surrounding land, which verged on the seashore, and he renovated the old officer’s quarters. Having fenced off a large part of the sand dunes, probably without having any right to do so, he started a nudist area for his visitors, all of whom seemed to welcome the idea.
The beech stretched for ten miles and the sand dunes were wide, but apart from the Headmaster’s family it was deserted except by a few people on Sundays, so very few local people knew what was happening. In all probability the parish priest knew, but didn’t want to risk a confrontation with someone over whom he had no authority. In later years it was rumoured that The Major had connections with the famous Happy Valley in Kenya. He also had a sister who flew her own plane regularly from London to the village during the mid1930s, sometimes in tandem with her friend, Amelia Eirhart, the famous aviatrix. It was amazing to see two small bi-planes land in a flat field near the Spa, and the landing usually attracted several of the local youths as spectators. After World War 2 The Major was seldom seen in the area and after a few years his Spa and farm were auctioned, but didn’t sell because bids didn’t reach the reserve. He was then advised to auction it without reserve. Very few people turned up on this occasion and the place was sold for a very small sum to a local farmer who turned it into a restaurant very successfully.

The county library arranged for a library van to call to the local school and the headmaster selected approximately 150 books, which were changed at monthly intervals. The Master produced plays, some of which he wrote himself, and these were performed in the village hall during the winter. In the same hall ceidhle dances took place, again regularly during the winter. In summer each year a travelling cinema would spend two weeks, packed out each evening, attendance guaranteed by the fact that a serial picture was shown at every performance for the two weeks.
There was a men’s club attached to one of the village pubs, where men gathered to play cards and listen to the news. Radios were scarce in the late 20s. The headmaster had been experimenting with sound and finally had a break through and got the first sound radio in the country, having made all component parts, including the valves, by hand. Thousands of people gathered around his house, by previous arrangement with him, to hear this. He agreed that a fellow experimenter in Dublin, called Digby, would start a factory to manufacture radio, while he would become the agent for the south of Ireland. This factory became “ Pye, Ireland ltd.” He made money for a few years until radio became popular, but missed out on the big time.
There was a dreadful storm during the winter of 1931, with very high seas.
The headmaster’s eldest son thought he would play a trick on those gathered in the club by breaking in on the 9 o’clock news immediately after the announcer said “this is the 9 o’clock news and this is Bruce Veltbridge reading it.” This was easy to do as the actual radio was in the pub, with only an extension to the club itself. He cut in on the transmission, saying, ”before the news tonight I must announce that there is a ship wrecked off the coast of Wexford, and we advise the local coastguard to start rescue operations.” He had intended to tell them that it was a hoax, but before he could do so the club was emptied, as all hands had started hurrying to the beach to launch the lifeboat. The only thing he could do at that stage was to go to his father and tell him what he had done. His father got the car out and drove as fast as he could, arriving just in time to halt the actual launching. Everybody got a good soaking in the heavy rain and the son wasn’t too popular for a few weeks!
The son of one of the shopkeepers was a priest attached to St Peter’s college. He kept a small yacht and did a little sailing, though quite inexperienced. By chance he met the narrator and a friend on the beach one morning and thinking they might make a good crew he invited them to join him and his sister and mother to sail to a race meeting, which was being held at the other side of Wexford bay. They duly set off at noon and all went well until they were opposite the harbour about two miles out to sea. He mustn’t have known of the existence of the submerged sandbank as suddenly the boat went aground and turned onto it’s side and started to fill with water. The priest made no attempt to do anything and started to pray, saying Hail Mary etc and the ladies started to scream. The two young men got into the water and found they could stand with the water about chest high. They tried to push the boat upright and they encouraged the ladies to start bailing out the water, and it wasn’t until then that the priest started to help. After about half an hour they were ready to resume the journey. They would all have drowned if it hadn’t been for the narrator as it transpired that none of them could swim, including his friend. As far as is known the priest didn’t resume his sailing as the boat was to be seen beached and housed for years. The friend in later years became a trawler fisherman, owning two boats and in his middle years he was drowned when he went overboard in a storm, still being unable to swim.
In August every year Duffy’s circus called to Blackwater village for two weeks and people from all the neighbouring villages attended. During their last visit to the area a couple of young lads were satisfying their curiosity watching the Big Top being erected. At a crucial moment one of the lads fell over a guide rope upsetting the work. One of the circus hands caught the boy and gave him a couple of hard smacks, thinking that would be the end of it. However the boy told his father, who then came to the tent and had a fight with the circus man and only succeeded in getting beaten up. He then got a few of his friends to help and during the opening performance, when everyone was busy watching a spectacular act, they cut guide ropes allowing the canvas to come down on the audience. They then opened cages and let animals escape, causing panic and many injuries. It took four weeks for the animals to be caught and during those weeks a tiger killed several sheep, before he was finally shot. Police were called, but the culprits were never found. However Duffy’s Circus never visited the area again.
Wexford town boasted two cinemas and during the late 20s introduced talkie films for the first time, much to the delight and astonishment of the town’s people. The first film shown was “The Street Singer” with Al Jolson. On Saturday afternoons there was a matinee attended by all the youths in town, all of whom could be heard shouting “come on the chap.” At around that time also electric street lighting replaced the old gas lamps, and over the following few years all homes and shops followed suit. Flush toilets replaced the old privy-middens, which had been sited at the bottom of every garden, and bathrooms were introduced into all houses. Motorcars gradually replaced the horse drawn vehicles and the town became much busier. At that time also the harbour was full of foreign ships, as many as twenty-five could be seen along the quay at one time, bringing timber and foreign goods and exporting machinery and corn etc. There was a lot of trade to Newfoundland where many Wexford people had settled in previous generations. Sadly in the 1930s the harbour began to silt up and form a sand bar, which gradually got worse in spite of very expensive dredging. Most of the shipping transferred to Waterford harbour.
It took a long time to get macadamised roads, so the minor roads continued to be made of rough stone and hardcore and punctures were commonplace, which meant that several spare tyres had to be taken along with every journey. Young ponies and spirited horses didn’t like motorcars very much and proved very difficult to control when meeting on the road and as a result there were frequent accidents and the headmaster had to give medical attention and often had to settle disputes.

Wexford was settled originally by Celts who started to trade from the harbour, a race called the Firbolgs. They were small in stature but with square shoulders, the modern description would be small mesomorphs. The next people to arrive were the Milesians, probably also Celts, arriving about one thousand years later. They were much bigger in stature, being well over six feet in height. They tended to settle in the countryside, but they became the overlords. They lived in tents and didn’t build towns. Land was not individually owned but was owned by the whole clan, so there were no disputes. The Danes or Norsemen raided Ireland over centuries from the eight to the twelfth, especially raiding Wexford because of the wonderful harbour. Over time some of them settled there and intermarried with the locals and their descendants became known as the Ostmen. The Normans were invited over to settle a dispute in 1172, landing in Wexford, and quickly subduing their opposition because of superior arms and the wearing of coats of mail. They had recently taken England as part of the Angevin empire. By the end of the following century they were recognised as English and it was the beginning of centuries of struggle and warfare to try to subdue Ireland. Those who settled in Wexford were Catholics, speaking a mixture of old English and French as the Normans had originally come from Normandy in France. They intermarried with the Irish, who spoke Gaelic, so a strange language emerged in south Wexford as a mixture of all three languages, English, French and Gaelic, and it was spoken there until the beginning of the twentieth century.
Wexford was the scene of a famous battle against Cromwell, who won after a tough fight, and who afterwards dispossessed many of the large landowners and razed their castles to the ground and hanged the leaders of the opposition on Wexford bridge, and slaughtered hundreds of their families, men, women and children in the famous Bullring in the centre of the town.
Wexford was again the scene of two big battles in 1798 in the struggle for independence.
The people of the town were very nationalistic but still many of them joined the British navy. Practically every family in the town had a member in either the British Navy or the merchant navy and some of them distinguished themselves in the World Wars. The most famous naval man from the town was John Barry, the founder of the American Navy. Another was Evans Furlong, who was one of fifty-one survivors from “The Glorious” in the North Sea in the early days of the last war. He also survived having been torpedoed in the Atlantic and having been adrift for two weeks in a small boat. He served on The Illustrious” through the Mediterranean campaign and assault on Malta. Being a brilliant photographer he was attached the fleet air arm to take photographs of enemy ships and ground installations. He took part in the attack on Iyo Jima and other islands and was seconded to the American Navy to photograph Hiroshima and Nagasaky before and after the atomic bombing, and of the Japanese surrender.

In the early 1920s the parish priest in the village was very gentlemanly and was almost a saintly individual, respected by all, but when he died his successor was the complete opposite. He was very small, fat, and to say the least of it, eccentric. The clergy in Ireland wielded great power in these years and priests felt they could get away with anything. The Curate was an ex All-Ireland footballer, well over six feet in height. He tended not to interfere with the parish priest at all, but on occasions he really threw his weight around. He was a most boring man who visited one or other of the better off people every evening without an invitation, always arriving around meal time expecting supper and then proceeded to bore them, regaling them with the most uninteresting stories about people in his previous parishes. People would actually hide, pretending they weren’t in, to avoid having to spend an evening in his company.
Mass on Sundays was at 7am and 10am. Most people came with ponies and traps, tying them by the side of the road on the hillside approaching the church. One Sunday during the Mass some youngsters unyoked several ponies and mixed up the tackling and put the wrong traps with the wrong ponies, causing absolute chaos, which took several hours to sort out. The Parish Priest was furious on the next Sunday, threatening dire punishment on the perpetrators if caught, while literally dancing around the altar in garments much too big for him, almost tripping up several times.
There was a collection during every Mass, but also special collections were held for Christmas, Easter, Spring or Hay collection, Peters Pence, and at least four other times a year. People gave according to their means, but the Parish Priest decided he could shame some to contribute more by reading out on the following Sunday the names of those who contributed and how much they gave. That was bad enough, but he also stressed the names and amounts given by anyone whom he thought should have given more. It was really most annoying to many people and he became unpopular very quickly.
He cut the supply of coal to the school so that the children and teachers were very cold during the winter and he refused to supply more until the “Mistress” threatened to report him to the Bishop. When the chimneys in the school needed to be swept he got into old clothes and tried to do the job by himself, causing quite a mess, which then had to be cleaned up by expert chimney sweeps. He merely succeeded in getting himself covered in soot, much to the amusement of the few people who saw him.
At the confessional he called out the sins which were confessed loudly so that others waiting for confession could hear everything that was being said. He could be heard saying things like “how many times” or “you did what” or “ was there more than one girl involved” after which the person would emerge very shamefaced. One story told, which is very difficult to believe, is that a young man confessed that he had intercourse with a girl, at which the priest said, “This is a serious sin boy, was it Mary Murphy?” The boy said, “I wouldn’t like to tell you father.” The priest went on “was it Joan Burke or Bridget Daly” The boy said, “ It wouldn’t be fair to tell you father.” The priest gave him absolution and a short penance. The young man’s friend was waiting outside and asked how he had got on, to which he replied “it wasn’t too bad, I only got three our fathers as penance, but I got a few very useful names.”
During one autumn the parish priest decided that all people over 70 should receive the Last Sacraments, so he spent a couple of weeks visiting every household where there was someone of that age, even sometimes calling them in from the fields for the Sacrament. Nobody thought of refusing him but when the “Mistress” heard of it she took it upon herself to report it to the Bishop. The visiting stopped forthwith.
The Curate was a very big man of 6 feet 4 ins. and was broad in proportion, an ex. All-Ireland footballer, and looked as strong as an ox. There were several of the local men who were as big or bigger, and one of them was one of the local blacksmiths, called Joe. The Curate caused quite a stir one Sunday by commenting after his sermon that there was a certain young girl in the parish who was pregnant and that everybody knew which man in the parish was responsible. He continued, saying that if the banns for the wedding weren’t announced within three weeks he would personally beat that man out of the parish. Everyone knew of course that it was Joe the blacksmith, and the church was packed each Sunday for the following three weeks to see if the banns would be read. After Mass on the second Sunday the Curate said that a certain man had only one more week to do the right thing and that he must remember that if not he would have to face the consequences. The church was thronged the following Sunday and no banns were read, so everybody waited to see what would happen. Fifteen minutes later the Curate walked to the village with a hurling stick in his hand, followed by practically everybody in the area. He went straight to the smithy where the blacksmith was waiting and without delay set about him with the hurling stick, striking him around the chest and shoulders. Joe said, “I will not fight with you Father as you are a priest, but if you take off your collar we could then have a fair fight”. The Curate didn’t even listen but continued to strike Joe, forcing him to retreat up the hill for about one hundred yards. Eventually someone gave him a bicycle on which he rode away to the next village. He didn’t attempt to strike the priest even once, and had to be treated by the doctor for several stitches in wounds around his arms, shoulders and back. The banns were never read and the girl had her baby five months later. Joe started a smithy in the next village and a year later proposed marriage to the young lady.
The priests never mentioned any of the activities of The Major, but constantly spoke in their sermons of the dangers of dancing, company keeping, card-playing, gambling etc. To give them their due they carried out their priestly duties without any scandals of sex, involvement with children, homosexuality or alcoholism, at a time when these practices were rampant through the country, as we have learned in recent years. Once each year a missionary priest would visit for a week or sometimes two weeks and hold evening service, with a long sermon each time, usually threatening hell and damnation on anyone who transgressed or strayed from the straight and narrow. Every one in the parish was expected to attend and the church was usually packed.
One story told, but not necessarily true, was that on one occasion Paddy and Mick were sitting in the side aisle while there was a particularly tough but interesting sermon being given by the priest. Two young girls were sitting in the front row on the centre gallery listening very intently, so much so that one of them toppled over. Fortunately she managed to catch and hold on to a light fitment as she fell. It became apparent immediately that she had no knickers on and the priest was the first to notice. Without hesitation he said “ if anyone in this congregation as much as casts one glance at that poor unfortunate girl up there may he be stricken blind.” There was dead silence in the church for a couple of minutes and then Paddy turned to Mick, covering one eye and said “Jesus I think I will chance one eye.”
On one Sunday each year all the cemeteries in the area held what was called a Pattern day and all the relatives of those buried there visited, accompanied by the priest, to say prayers at the graveside and to leave flowers. On the 1st Sunday of September the locals celebrated what they called “The Big Sunday” at the local beach by spending the day there and possibly having a dip in the sea, probably the only trip to the beach for the whole year.

In the early1900s a tug of war team from the village had won the world championship two years in succession and in the 1920s and 30s these men were mostly still alive, ranging from 40 to 50 years of age and all roughly six feet six in height and around twenty stones in weight. One of them was a man called Big Red Paddy, because of sporting a mop of red hair and a red pointed beard. He was six feet seven inches in height with a massive pair of shoulders and was regarded as the strongest man in the area.
On Sundays after Mass he sat on a chair outside his house waiting for anyone who had a toothache to consult him. There was no such thing as filling a tooth at that time so it meant having the offending tooth extracted. There were usually one or two people needing this and Paddy obliged, using a small pliers without anesthetic! His daughter, who had a similar red mop of hair, was called Red Biddy. She was a seamstress who spent all day seated at her machine, which was placed strategically so that she could view the two main roads, one going into the village and the other towards the church. She never missed a beat and lost no time reporting to all and sundry anything of note which happened, who was meeting whom and how long they spent together, and sometimes putting two and two together, not always correctly, sometimes making five.
His son was Red John who was comparatively small at six feet three inches. His grandson was Little John as he was only six feet in height. He was absolutely brilliant in school and could have gone on to university to study almost anything, but he refused in spite of the headmaster’s advice. He said, and maintained all his life, that he was one of nature’s millionaires, being able to have horse riding, shooting and fishing any time he liked, as he could take time off when he liked, being his own boss, working his market garden. In common with many of the men in the area who courted their girlfriends for many years, he courted his girl for ten years before asking for her hand in marriage. The parish Priest held forth on the altar frequently condemning this practice to no avail. The reason for this practice was the reluctance to bring another woman into a house where there were probably a mother and two or three daughters, who would have to get married off first.
It was different in the towns, where the custom was to marry at eighteen to twenty years of age, and then of course they tended to have large families.
In Wexford town all traffic avoided the main street after 6 pm, striving to be the nearest to the ring as all the young unmarried people from twelve years upwards paraded in small groups, completely taking over the street, which was over a mile long, from 6pm until midnight. This was how they made contact with the opposite sex and arranged dates etc, after a lot of conversation, some singing and much fun, and fortunately very little consumption of alcohol. The clergy encouraged this practice knowing that it led to early marriage.
In the village card playing was very popular, games like Twenty-Five, Nap and Whist were played in most houses two or three days a week. In the early evening the men gathered to play Horseshoes, having a small gamble, until it got dark, when they gravitated to the pubs or the club. The game was played by men trying to throw horseshoes over a metal ring sunken into the ground and trying to be the nearest to the ring. Each player threw three horseshoes and it was even allowed to try to knock the opponent’s horseshoe away.
Drinking was mostly very moderate, but there were several who habitually drank to excess. One of the pubs was owned by an elderly lady of eighty-five, who employed a pretty young lady to help her in the bar. The pubs officially closed at 10pm and the old lady closed hers exactly on time and then went home. The young lady waited until she was out of sight and then went around to the back door and allowed her customers to come back in, where they continued to drink until after midnight. The Guarda Civil made the pretence of raiding every few weeks, but accepted several drinks from all present to help them to forget the breach of the law. One of the customers every night regularly was a widower who got very inebriated by around midnight when he was helped into his pony’s trap by his friends, who put the reins around the saddle horn so that the pony could take him home. The journey was uphill for the first half mile so the pony walked slowly, but at the top of the hill he trotted the rest of the way. At the brow of the hill was the house of the headmaster. Night after night for about a year his young six year old son listened with mounting fear to the slow grinding of the trap wheels on the road, thinking that it was the sound of the Headless Horseman, whom he was told passed by at that time every night. Eventually the young man plucked up courage enough one moonlight night to pull the curtains aside and have a look, and he must have been greatly relieved to see an innocent explanation. He never experienced fear again.
Sport in the village was mostly football and hurling, played only by men. The ladies never got involved in sport at all and almost none of either sex went to the beach or knew how to swim. In Wexford town however as well as football and hurling there were tennis and rugby clubs and also camougie for the ladies. In spite of the fact that almost every family had a member in either the Royal Navy or the Merchant Navy very few people knew how to swim. There was one family from which nine men went to sea, most of them becoming Captains in one of other of the navies. The eldest brother joined when the youngest was very young and because of the war he didn’t meet him again for twenty years and that was on 5th Avenue, New York where they recognised one another from themselves!
One of the farmers whose farm bordered on the coast took his horse and cart one day to collect gravel and found a strange object, a very large round metal ball with spikes sticking out of it. He got his two brothers to help and succeeded in getting it into the cart and headed for the village to display it. Luckily one of the headmaster’s sons happened to cycle by and recognised it as a mine. The men ignored his warnings so he rode fast to his father, who hurried in his car to the village to where they had arrived by that time. He took charge of the situation, isolated the cart, and kept all villagers well away, and using the telephone in the post office, he contacted the army in The Curragh. It took over four hours to get the proper people who could take care of transporting the mine and render it harmless.
During the war pieces of wreckage were sometimes found and also plenty of thick glass floats used for sea mines and on one occasion a full case of Scotch Whiskey completely intact was found. When word of this spread it caused a rush of sea prizing enthusiasts to the beach for a few months. The enthusiasm quickly wore off when nothing further of interest was found.
The rivers in the area at this time were full of fish, trout, salmon and salmon - trout, as the latter were to be found near the mouths of the rivers. Fishing was preserved by ”The Major” or by business consortiums from Wexford town, but that didn’t deter some lads, including The Master’s sons, from poaching. They were so successful at this that they were never caught. After some years The Major contacted The Master and said he knew that his sons were the main culprits and offered to give them the shooting rights of the last two miles of the main river, provided they would only use a point 22 rifle and promise not to use any other method. He thought of course they would never manage to conquer the difficulty of judging the angle of deflection of the bullet as it struck the water. The Master put it to his sons who agreed to do as suggested. “The Major” however didn’t appreciate that two of these boys were crack shots and it was only a matter of a little practice until they became very proficient and were able to provide a liberal supply of fish for the table and for some of their friends.
However, with a regular supply of fish assured, they started to poach on the shooting areas, which were preserved by the same groups as the fishing. These areas were three large ponds, not quite big enough to be called lakes, surrounded by high reeds, and they were a real Mecca for the twilight flight of wild ducks. The brothers constructed a raft, which they polled into position to hide in the reeds and wait for the flight of the birds to start as they came back in to land on the ponds. Being crack shots they invariably shot several birds, which were then retrieved by their dogs. Nobody ever suspected that they would retreat through the water on the raft so they were never caught. Shooting of pheasants was encouraged by all the farmers so they were given a free rein over the countryside, and similarly rabbits were fair game, so the brothers were even able to sell some of their catch to supplement their pocket money.
There were five men of the area who had served in the first would war and two of them had been shell shocked and gassed, and as a consequence had a permanent tremor and suffered from shortness of breath. One of the others was still only in his late thirties in 1030. He was a tall handsome man sought after by all the ladies, though he resisted all advances, not that he didn’t like the fairer sex. In fact he was renowned for being the man who deflowered most of the young girls almost as soon as they reached puberty. In spite of the fact that there was no contraception in those days there were very few pregnancies outside marriage. When any young girl did become pregnant she was quietly sent to one of the town’s convents to be looked after until the child was born. The child was then adopted and the girl returned to her parents. All the neighbours of course thought she was away for a prolonged holiday with relatives. It was firmly believed throughout the country that the youth of Ireland were almost celibate and that pregnancy outside marriage was rare.
Living close to the village there were three prostitutes, a very pretty young looking lady in her mid forties and her two equally pretty daughters of about twenty, who had been on the game since puberty. They lived a mile outside the village, down a laneway near an s-bend commonly called The Devil’s Corner. Anyone passing by at night tended to hurry by, just in case. It was very likely that the girls got plenty of custom as men didn’t tend to marry until their mid thirties.
There was a lovely orchard beside a remote farmhouse and the aging spinster who lived there tended to bring tasty apples to friends whom she met at Mass. One day a youth of fourteen decided he would go to the house and ask for apples. He knocked on the half door several times and getting no reply he went into the kitchen and looked around. He heard a noise coming from a room with an iron grill inset at head height and to satisfy his curiosity he looked in and obviously frightened the inmate, who screamed loudly. It was a man with wild staring eyes, an unkempt beard and long hair. He sprang at the door hammering and shouting and frightened the young man who ran as fast as he could and almost knocked down the spinster who was running to see the cause of the screaming. She stopped the boy and explained that the man was her brother who was insane and had to be locked up. It emerged that he had been insane since his youth and had spent thirty years locked up in that room, cared for by his sister and another brother, both of whom had never married so that they would never have to face what they perceived as the disgrace of having a lunatic as a relative. As a boy he had never gone to school and nobody in the parish knew he even existed. Cases like this were not uncommon in Ireland at that time, a reluctance to admit that a member of the family could be mentally ill, or that it was possible for a family to have a baby outside marriage.
There was another orchard where there wee particularly sweet apples, which attracted many young men to rob them. One moonlight night two of the teacher’s boys were filling a basket from the sweet tree when they heard others talking softly as they neared the orchard. The boys quickly climbed the tree and hid until the others had nearly filled their container and then with a frightening roar they jumped down from the tree. The others fled as quickly as their legs would carry them, very frightened until they had covered several hundred yards. It then dawned on them that their apparitions were human rather than spirits. They returned to the scene but by the time they arrived the boys had disappeared with all the apples. The boys brought some home and hid the remainder in a large container deeply in the hay in a barn, intending to retrieve them at Christmas. When they did so however the rats and mice had got them and almost no trace remained. So much for robbing orchards!
On the other hand crime was practically non-existent, there were no burglaries, doors were not even locked at night, no muggings or assaults, no rapes or sex attacks. At the same time in the institutions like the Christian Brothers and certain convents the most dreadful crimes against children that were in their care were rampant. Sex abuses of every imaginable kind took place by the Christian Brothers and Nuns on children from the age of two or three until the children were old enough to leave their care, these were accompanied by cruelty, beatings and semi-starvation. These children didn’t know to whom to complain, and if they did tell anybody they weren’t believed.
In this way the general public were completely unaware of what was going on and it didn’t come to light until recent years when those who had been abused plucked up courage to speak, and until the fear of speaking out against anyone in holy orders had disappeared. A wealthy family who lived four miles from the village had several thrashing machines and as there were six men in the family they travelled all over the county to thrash corn in the autumn. They had an aging spinster aunt who was rather eccentric, so much so that she refused to live with her relatives and refused help from them. Somehow she managed to procure a very large wine barrel, which she placed on its side on a paved area opposite the church She brought a mattress and all the essentials which she put in the barrel and, then rigged up a pole and canopy as an extension and went to live in the barrel, where she continued to live until she died several years later, apart from one week when she moved into a new house which her relatives built for her, but which she then refused to continue to use even for cooking etc. She had a primus stove for cooking until she got quite old. The house remained empty until after she died. When she got older and infirm the headmistress sent a tray of food for her for dinner every day without fail.

With a small local population marriages were uncommon, but when one took place it was an occasion to remember. The celebrations went on for two full days, with dancing in the house or barn, and barrels of Guinness on tap and lots of whiskey available and food put on at regular intervals. Wakes were to honour the dead and took place for the two days while relatives waited for the funeral. Everyone visited the house where the corpse was laid out, food and alcohol were available all day and there was a general party atmosphere, which seemed to help the relatives.
Hunting was available for the wealthy, the famous Island Hunt met locally for years until the meeting was moved to another village nearer Wexford town, The younger local people could follow the beagles. The hunt got its name from a large Anglo-Irish house in the area. Badger baiting was common with many dogs getting killed or injured and setting of snares for rabbits was also commonplace. Ferreting was also popular and the rabbit population was in that way contained.
Many families kept and trained greyhounds and frequently took them to Enniscorthy town to race them. One of the local dogs held the course record for years.A few farmers bred and broke horses for hunting and one local farmer bred racehorses, which he sold as yearlings and which later often went on to win races. In other parts of the county there were several stud farms and one or two of these became very famous in later years.

Tuberculosis was widespread all over Ireland in the 1920s and 30s and the method of spread wasn’t really known at that time. The disease is spread from droplet infection, but the bacillus can then live in the house in furniture, curtains etc for years. In the village practically every family had lost at least one member from the disease, and at times whole families were wiped out. Sometimes unfortunate sufferers would linger for years and on the other hand others would die within weeks, depending whether they had previous exposure to the disease or not. It became apparent eventually that those who lived in the countryside tended to escape. Many years later all these village houses were demolished and replaced by modern houses and of course inoculation against tuberculosis was introduced and many lives were saved.
Diphtheria was another disease which was fairly widespread and which caused many deaths until immunisation became popular. Pain relief for cancer etc was very inadequate so people died most unpleasant painful deaths, and many doctors were loath to use too much morphine in case patients became addicted to it, as if that mattered at that stage.

The sea wasn’t polluted and fish were plentiful, particularly herring and cod, and consequently there were four fishing fleets between Wexford and Dublin. The river water was pure and salmon and trout were available for many fishermen who came from all over the country to indulge in the sport in the smaller rivers where fishing was not reserved. All these fishing fleets have now disappeared and the river fishing is practically non existent, because of pollution, mostly from Sellafield.

Golf clubs were convenient to all the towns and the game was not confined to the more wealthy people and the most unlikely men were often found to have handicaps of scratch or even plus two. On one occasion two local men, both playing off handicaps of plus two, were playing the final of a major knockout competition over thirty six holes. They attracted a crowd of about two thousand people and the match had to go on to the sixth extra hole before the match was won. The winner was asked afterwards what was the most poignant moment in the match. He thought for a moment and replied “ it had to be on the short fifth extra hole where the audience were all on top of the surrounding hills and the silence was so intense that you could hear the bees fart.”
The summer of 1939 was beautiful and there was a nice group of young people in their late teens and early twenties in and around the village, including the seven children of the headmaster and their friends and a few visitors from England. They played tennis together and spent time on the beach swimming etc and in the evenings went to Courtown to the dancehall and sometimes to parties held in some of the summer houses, getting home at around 2am One of the group was a fine young man of twenty called Pat Dempsey, who was the liveliest of them all, full of life and fun.
World War 2 started on September 3rd 1939 and coal and tea became scarce early on and eventually just not obtainable. Wexford had no turf, so all householders had to cut timber, transport it home and make pieces small enough to fit into the cooking ranges which were mostly still in use. It was very hard work using crosscut saws, wedges and sledgehammers, axes and bushman’s saws. Farmers usually sowed young trees to replace those cut down.
Two hundred and fifty thousand men from the south of Ireland joined the British forces to serve in the war, many of them dying in the battle of the Somme.
A couple of young men from the village, including Pat Dempsey, went to England as soon as war broke out to volunteer for service, and just before the following Christmas the sad news of his death reached his relatives. He was one of the first people to die in the war. It was a sad blow to everybody and brought home the stark reality of war.
During the battle of Britain on a cloudless day the dog fights between the British and German planes could be seen clearly as they looped, scrambled and dodged in the air until one or other of them was shot down. Most of the unfortunate pilots drowned in the early days until a pilot called Mindy Blake was shot down into the Irish sea twice, and survived and managed to persuade the Admiralty that he had worked out mathematically the angle at which the plane should be ditched into the water. Having instructed all pilots on the method many survived from then on.
Many of these pilots were able to get their rubber boats floated and land along the coast. On apprehension they were taken to the headmaster who was in charge of the local defence force. He sent them all to The Curragh army camp where the British were quietly returned to their homeland while the Germans were interred for the duration of the war.
Many Wexford men were already in the Royal Navy and many more joined one or other of the British forces, some of them distinguishing themselves. The most decorated and distinguished of these was a young man called Evans Furlong who was aboard the Glorious when it was torpedoed in the North Sea, early in the war. Forty men survived out of around two thousand, mostly from exposure to cold. He managed to get onto a raft with over forty others from which only he and one other survived.
He was torpedoed again in the Atlantic and was one of around three hundred from a crew of fifteen hundred to survive, after exposure in a small boat for three weeks.
Afterwards he joined the famous aircraft-carrier ‘Illustrious” as chief petty officer and was with it until the end of the war. As a great photographer he was attached to the fleet air arm to take the photographs on flights, spotting enemy ships and land installations. He served through the battle of the Mediterranean where his ship sank so many enemy vessels and again on its escape to Malta after being attacked and damaged and again during the bombing there, when nearly two thousand of the crew were killed. After many more exploits his ship joined the American attack on Iyo Jima and other islands. Eventually he was invited to be the person to take the photos of Hiroshima and Nagasaki before and after the atomic bombing, and also the photos of the Japanese surrender. After the war he joined the Admiralty.



Secondary Education

The majority of children left school at fourteen, but were pretty well educated, with a good knowledge of geography, world history, mathematics and English. There was no illiteracy and these young people could hold their own in any society. Some of them were farmer’s sons and the eldest usually settled down to help run the farm, while the younger ones either went to Dublin to work in a factory or shop, or emigrated to England. The girls who didn’t marry with farmer’s sons went to work in hotels etc in Dublin or England.
Those who went on to secondary education usually went to St Peter’s college in Wexford town but the standard of education there wasn’t great and there were many rumours of cruelty, and later it was known that there had been cases of sex abuse.
Knockbeg Collage in Carlow was the next choice and there the narrator spent his formative years. It was a very tough college with very strict discipline, but fortunately no sex abuse. The narrator was fortunate, or unfortunate, according to how you look at it, to win a scholarship on his entrance examination, which entitled him to free education. He was also very intelligent, so didn’t have any problems with teachers or lessons.
There were approximately 120 pupils with classes of around 20 in each, three preparing for Intermediate exams and three for leaving certificate. Teaching for all subjects was through Gaelic, which made it very difficult for all. From the 6th year boys six were picked as prefects, with the onus of giving notes to anyone making a breach of discipline. These notes had to be signed by the dean of discipline and brought back to the prefect. Each note carried a punishment of three flogs. The teachers were called professors, and they also had the power of giving notes for both discipline and study. The notes had to be signed in the same way. Punishment was carried out after dinner on Sunday by both deans using flexible canes. The dean of studies obviously hated having to slap the boys but did what he thought was his duty, slapping across the hands. The dean of discipline on the other hand took a pleasure inflicting the maximum amount of pain and made sure that he struck the cane over the whole forearm. It was bad enough having three flogs but some unfortunate boys had nine or even twelve. If this dean couldn’t make a boy cry he put his full effort into the remaining strikes and was furious if he failed to get the result he wanted. There were a few boys who were not applying themselves in study and consequently getting plenty of notes, while at the same time they were in frequent breach of discipline. The punishment was so frequent and so severe that they ran away one night by climbing down from the dormitory window with the aid of a large ivy climber. Two of them who hadn’t too far to go got home easily and fortunately their parents didn’t send them back. The parents of the third, a boy called Eddie, sent him back with a letter of apology. The president of the college greeted him by lifting him in the air by his side-locks, and holding him erect for several minutes with the full weight of his body hanging from these pieces of hair. He then handed him over to the dean for even more punishment and the poor boy couldn’t use his arms for days. During the next four months he ran away three more times receiving more punishment each time.
Eventually his parents took him away from the school. On Sunday morning each week all the pupils had to gather in the study hall for what was described as judgments, with the president holding the chair. Each pupil’s name was called out and the boy had to stand up while the president announced his results in class and performance in sport and discipline, and how many notes he had received, and how much punishment he was to receive. Sport was mainly Gaelic football as the president didn’t have any interest in anything else and games were played during Sunday afternoon, with everyone aware of the punishment awaiting him that evening.
There were minor, junior and senior football matches every Saturday and Sunday and no hurling matches. Soccer and rugby were forbidden completely and tennis was only played in May and June. However junior and senior hurling teams were still entered in the provincial and country competitions and they had to take part without any practice. This didn’t give them much chances of winning. When the football teams won any match they got a free day and if they got to the later stages of a competition the whole school got a free day. On the other hand if the hurling teams won anything there was no mention of it, and if they got through a couple of rounds and then lost they would get extra study.
Similarly there was no practice for athletics, and competitors who took part on sport’s day who won races etc never knew whether they were good or even average. One case to bring to attention was that of a young boy of almost seventeen who jumped 21ft 9 ins. in the long jump, winning very easily. He was never told that this was really good and only found out sixteen years later when the university record was broken with a jump of 21ft 10 ins.
Handball was popular and played throughout the year, but tennis was only allowed in late May and June. All fights between the boys had to be settled in the gym with the sports master in charge and he insisted that boxing gloves were worn. He gave lessons to any boy who wanted to learn and in this way some of them became quite useful boxers, which was often useful to them in later life.
Academically the college excelled and results were exceptional. A large proportion of the pupils became priests, but many went on to university in Dublin to become doctors, dentists, accountants etc, and some went into politics.
Food in the college was poor, there was plenty of bread and potatoes, but very little meat and almost no fish, Eggs were served occasionally and vegetables served sparingly, and butter was just enough to cover one piece of bread only. The boys on one occasion went on strike for more butter, showing their displeasure by throwing their scarce butter on to the ceiling or on the clothes of the master controlling the dining room when his back was turned. After three days and a lot of extra study their demands were met with butter supplies being increased threefold. The only dessert served was on Sunday when a good helping of apple pie or similar was served.

Children born out of wedlock, orphans, and sometimes children of large families, whose parents wanted them to get a good education were sent to be educated by The Christian Brothers, a secular order of men who felt they were attracted to a religious life for one reason or other, but at the same time not feeling good enough to become priests. They gave a reasonably good standard of education and some of their graduates went on to university and a good standard of living. However they quickly got the reputation of violence, and tales of most severe punishments became common knowledge. People in authority in government and in the church did nothing to stop this. During these years there was no suspicion of sexual abuse and those who were abused didn’t speak out fearing they wouldn’t be believed, and frightened to say anything against the Catholic Church. These abuses went on for many years all over the country and very much so in Wexford and didn’t come to light until the early 2000s. The suffering sustained by thousands of these boys was almost unbelievable. All kinds of sexual depravity were practiced and most severe punishments inflicted, and even starvation was employed. Similar suffering by girls took place in some institutions with nuns and priests involved.
The State and Church must share the responsibility for non-interference and for their silence, as there is no doubting the fact that they knew what was going on.



University Life in Dublin in the 1930s and 1940s

There were two main universities in the city, Trinity College and University College Dublin, part of the University of Ireland, with Galway and Cork colleges. There was also The College of Surgeons, which dealt only with the study of medicine.
During these years Trinity educated only English students and children of Anglo- Irish parentage, all of whom were Protestant, as Catholics were not allowed to attend.
Protestants were allowed in U.C.D. but of course very few did so. This caused great rivalry between the students with no fraternisation at all, as they frequented different areas, different dancehalls, different hospitals, and different lodgings or digs, as they were known. In this way students from one univ. never met those from the other. Trinity had a campus with facilities for accommodation and most magnificent buildings and was situated in the centre of the city.
UCD on the other hand had very limited accommodation, mostly limited to one large building in Earlsford Terrace, no campus, and their sports ground was in Belfield, on the Wexford road, four miles from the city. There were a couple of hostels for UCD students but the vast majority of them had to find digs. Belfield has now of course seen the growth of a most wonderful campus encompassing all faculties.
First year students reading medicine and dentistry attended classes in the college of science in Dawson St. On the first day of term they assembled in the great hall where the professor gave his introductory lecture. He started with “ladies and gentlemen, you must understand there are around three hundred of you starting this year, fifty percent of you will get through to next year. I suggest that the other fifty percent should start a novena to the Blessed Virgin immediately, perhaps one or two will get through”
As there were only two hostels, students had to stay in digs. A list of suitable accommodation was available but mostly students looked for their own digs. As there were no grants, fees had to be paid and pocket money, laundry money and the cost of digs, all had to be met by the parents, who often had three or four children attending at the same time. This frequently meant that the student didn’t get much pocket money. It wasn’t the custom for them to get part time work, mostly because nobody would employ them. Dublin was a very different city in the 1940s.There was a lot of poverty and very little wealth. Most people struggled to make ends meet, incomes were small and there was very little industry and very few chances of advancement. Education was regarded as being vital for making a success in life and the professions were regarded as being the best way to do it. Every middleclass family strived to get their sons and daughters into university or into holy orders as priests or nuns. Emigration was rampant, and over fifty percent of graduates had to go overseas, simply because they couldn’t become absorbed in Ireland. Farming wasn’t very profitable either and for some time there was an economic war between Ireland and England, with cattle selling for as little as £5--£10 because they couldn’t export to England, and European markets hadn’t yet opened up. In reprisal Ireland wouldn’t buy anything British, including their coal. Laborers and younger sons had to emigrate, mostly to England and America, where they worked in the building business or on the roads or railways.
There were very few cars in the city or for that matter in the country, so traffic in Dublin was light, which meant that parking was easy. One could park directly outside hotels or restaurants, though no students owned cars. They either walked or cycled, as did the majority of employees in the city. There were trams running all over the city, even around St Stephen’s Green and up and down Grafton St, where there was still two-way traffic. This was a wonderful method of transport and it should never have been dismantled. The trams radiated from the middle of O’Connell St where Nelson’s Pillar still stood. The latter was situated opposite the GPO and was blown up and completely dismantled many years later. Dublin Port was reasonably busy, mostly used by vessels exporting Guinness or importing coal. The canals were still used, mostly for the delivery of turf or peat to the city and the typical barges could be seen daily. During the war years and for a few years after, when coal wasn’t available, the turf was soaked in water for days to make it weigh heavier, adding to the problems of all residents who were already finding it difficult to keep warm in the winter. During one particularly cold winter people tore down wooden fences, and broke up wooden furniture to burn in their fires. Gas and electric heating were almost unknown. Students used to go to the cinema every time they could afford it simply to keep warm.
There were slums in several parts of Dublin, the Coombe area probably being the worst. Whole families lived in one room, doing all their cooking, eating and sleeping and even lovemaking. There were several cases reported of women having twenty- four children while still living in one room. When eventually these people were given nice council houses in Crumlin some of them kept their coal in the bathtub, as they had never had a bath in their lives. Slums were also in York St, beside St Stephen’s Green and in Ringsend and in the Liberties, and also in Gardener St near O’Connell St
There were no nightclubs, no gambling clubs or strip clubs, no television, no DVDs, no portable telephones and very little radio. There were no house telephones, so telephoning could only be done by using public telephones, placed conveniently on every street. The main amusement to be had was the cinema or the dancehall. Cinemas were mostly in and around the centre of town and were packed out every evening. Dancehalls were scattered throughout the city, but there were a few very popular ones, the Adelaide in Adelaide Rd, and the Olympic in St George’s St, both packed most nights, particularly on Saturdays. Dancing started at 7.30 and finished at 12.0, midnight, so most young people got to bed reasonably early.
The public houses did a great trade every evening and closed at 11.0. Most young people would have a few drinks before going to the dance. The Pill hadn’t been discovered and sex before marriage was rare, with the vast majority remaining virgin. This meant that youngsters learned restraint and respect for one another and marriages tended to successful, with separation seldom taking place. Divorce was illegal and families tended to be large.
Medical students at the College of Surgeons did their clinics and interns in Mercer’s hospital and in the Meath hospital. Students in Trinity College went to St Patrick Dunn’s hospital. Those in UCD went to St Vincent’s hospital, which was situated at that time at the corner of St Stephen’s Green, or to the Mater hospital in the north side of the city. These latter two were the best and better equipped and they served the majority of the population. The Coombe hospital was regarded as the best maternity hospital, even though it was situated in a bad part of town. The Rotunda and Holles St hospitals were two others.
O’Connell St was a much more upmarket area than it is today, with it’s shops, business clubs and cinemas and the Gresham hotel, which was regarded as one of the best in the British Isles. The Russell hotel in St Stephen’s Green was excellent and quite expensive, but it has been gone for years The Shelbourne was the other expensive hotel, housing the very popular horseshoe bar and two restaurants, which attracted all the businessmen of the city at lunchtime. Other cheaper hotels were the Wicklow and Juries in Wicklow St, and Power’s Royal in Dawson St.
Tourism hadn’t really started to take off, apart from a few American visitors, and the only people using the airport were those Irish people travelling to and from England and America. Consequently the airport was small and underused.
To supplement their income students played cards, mostly poker or auction solo and for the better players this proved very successful. They bargained with those in charge of admissions to the dancehalls. They also succeeded in crashing entry in many different ways, not too worried if they were caught, as they would only be thrown out.
However the vast majority of students were almost penniless.
The army provided one way for students to have a free holiday, in this way. There was a medical corp called the regiment of Pearce and another called the second line medical defence force. If a student joined he had to attend a military barracks once a month for exercises and could go to an army camp for two or three weeks in the summer. There was a special uniform and they had to join in all the routine exercises and assault courses etc. The good thing was that from 4pm they were free to go out until midnight and as the camps were situated in Bettystown and Bundoran there were a lot of activities, dances, pubs etc, which they could frequent.