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Come In: We're Closed

11/4/2024

Lost in Translation

It was taken last week during riposo – the Italian version of siesta, Riposo was a word discovered for the purposes of this blog post.

Back to the sign. The shop was indeed closed. It was not possible to ‘Come In’. Returning a while later, the reverse of the sign was equality contradictory. They were open and seemed pleased, not sorry, to see me.

The Inquisitive Me would like to know how this happened. If deliberate so as to be the subject of discussion, to be an example of ‘there is no such thing as bad publicity’, it worked.

POULTERER

10/4/2024

I was this day old when I learnt of the word, POULTERER.

It may exist on signage that I have passed. But today, in Bangor, was the very first time that the word registered with me.

Outside of the English Market, there are no stand alone butchers remaining in the island of Cork City. Meat can be bought in supermarkets but O’Flynn’s was the last of the independent own-door city centre butchers.

I remember doing work with a builder who was reroofing a building on White St / Sawmill St., possibly the City Veterinarian’s Office. It had a layout drawing of the English Market that showed very many fishmongers where now only two exist.

There have been a few butchers who have closed in recent years in the English Market. None have been replaced with meat stalls.

I cannot see any POULTERER starting a business any time in the near future. This shop in Co. Down may be the only place that I will see this word.

poulterer noun a dealer in poultry and game.
ETYMOLOGY: 17c: from French pouletier, from poulet pullet.

Chambers Dictionary

High Street, Bangor, Co. Down

Please Return What You Stole

18/3/2024

Last August, I was on a road not-before travelled, the best type of road to feed the O.C.D. of sign-spotting, memorial-spotting, and finding things new. I turned off the N70 Ring of Kerry. I had passed Dooks Golf Club and was on my way towards Cromane when I spotted this sign.

My initial thoughts were as to the odds of the person returning the troughs having read the sign; and, whether spending money on the printing of the corriboard sign was a good investment.

These photos remained foldered away on my drive for thoughts and rambles that may turn into a blog at some stage.

On Saturday, I was chatting with Colm whose fishing routine has been interrupted in recent years by the theft overnight of outboard engines – such engines seemingly departing the country. This has had the consequence of less boatmen in the market to cater for the needs of fishermen.

Then later that day, I spotted the tweet from @CorkCoast with the hand written sign requesting return of stolen garden roller. These were enough relocate those photos from last August into the blogged folder.

The spelling issue was not necessary to justify inclusion in this blog – but it definitely helped….

As I drove off, another thought was whether ‘Cattle Nut Troughs’ or ‘Cattle Nuts Trough’ was the more appropriate.

Google did not think either appropriate: Cattle Feed Trough being their preferred description.

#A_Sticker_A_Day

1/1/2024

It appears that the sticker has replaced marker graffiti.

Marker graffiti was definitely much more prevalent when I was younger – a time when a smile would be brought by the message that Bill Posters Is Innocent.

The sticker as a message form is a more recent phenomenon. It is so prevalent now that a pole or utility box without a sticker is a rarity.

Most people probably ignore these stickers – me, I photograph many.

Sharing them on twitter is a good a plan as any for 2024.

#LostCatsOfThePast

#A_Door_A_Day

1/1/2024

There can be beauty in ironmongery; a carving in wood; or, even flaking of paint.

It was many years ago when we visited Casa Battló in Barcelona. As part of the tour, we were told that Gaudi had spent a significant amount of time in the design of the door handle, to best be accommodated in the profile of the hand.

It was so tactile.

Last Summer, we were in the photograph gallery in Castlegregory village. There was a lovely image of the handle and lock. The post office green was a bit of a giveaway. The image – I think by Bernard Fitzpatrick – has been the prompt to catalogue the very many door details among the building features that I have photographed.

I am not sure if I will be able to maintain for 365 days but today, the hashtag #A_Door_A_Day has been born

The type of thing that is to follow

What Connects This Wall with Queen Victoria, Charlie Kerins and Michael Collins?

4/12/2023

Charlie Kerins remains the last I.R.A. member to be condemned to death by the state and executed. That was on 1st December, 1944. A plaque to commemorate Charlie Kerins was erected at Easter 1947 and removed in May 1947 and was subsequently replaced.

Memorials that have been damaged, removed or vandalised have been an interest of mine for some years. When doing the Local History course, I cited page 105 of Clodagh Tait’s book in more than two or three essays – ‘Tait suggests that the propaganda effect of some memorials and statues could not be overcome, except by their removal.’

Queen Victoria’s statue at the Aula Maxima in U.C.C. was removed and replaced with one of St. Finbarr. It was buried for over 60 years before going back on display. Streetsigns bearing the name Victoria were painted over in recent years. The statue of Victoria that stood at Dáil Éireann was removed and spent a long time in storage before being sent to Australia.

Victoria’s was not the only memorial to be removed from the lawn of Leinster House. A cenotaph was erected in 1923 and had two panels, one commemorating Arthur Griffith: the other commemorating Michael Collins. This temporary structure deteriorated for many years before being replaced at a different location at Leinster House.

My own list of memorials damaged or removed has reached 65 and the categories of those commemorated varies widely.

‘The commemorative function of monuments was paramount. However, the expression of loss and regret for the dead was inextricably entwined with and, to an extent, secondary to attempts to continue the memory of their owners’ personal and social identities……..
….the endlessly manipulable nature of funeral monuments could become invaluable. By choosing an identity from the most socially acceptable elements of one’s past, present and future, and rendering this in stone, a medium which by its very nature could convey added veracity, solidity and permanency, reality could be created and controlled by the patron. Moreover, once reality is constructed in this manner, monuments allow for no doubt or argument. Their owners may be denounced or discredited, but monuments will continue to proclaim their own brand of truth. This is why contemporaries occasionally found it necessary to destroy monuments. The propaganda element inherent in them could not be countered in any other way.’
Clodagh Tait, Death, Burial and Commemoration in Ireland, 1550-1650, p.105.

Back to the wall of St Iberius’s Church at Broadway in Co. Wexford. A plaque to Fiona Sinnott was removed the night before its planned unveiling in 2008. A replacement plaque was subsequently also removed. The adhesive/render is all that remains.

A plaque was erected at Kilmore Quay in 2018.

Keeping – but Adapting – Customs

3/12/2023

It was an article from 1921 that educated me as to the custom of placing crosses at a hawthorn bush as a funeral party made its way to the cemetery. The article suggested that it had died out in Cong, Co. Mayo and was lessening in the only other part of Ireland where it was known to exist, at Brandy Cross in the parish of Kilmore in Co. Wexford.

The Schools Collection from the 1930’s does have a number of mentions recorded by children of the district – James Newport; from Thomas Doyle – of placing a cross at the hawthorn or ash tree on the way to the cemetery.

A few years back, Aoife directed me towards an article on Irish Archaeology and also a piece by A. M. Cousins on Sunday Miscellany.

Last week, on the last Tuesday in November, the sun was very low in the sky so on my trip to Kilmore Quay, I did well to stay on the road such was the glare from the sun. I saw very little to the side of the road. On the return journey, I was indeed ‘struck by the unusual sight of a heap of wooden crosses’.

Crosses used to be made of the left over pieces from the assembly of the coffin. Now the timber crosses, used by funeral directors to stand at the head of a grave until a headstone may be cut, are placed on the pile.

The crosses used to be placed at a tree on an old mass path. When a new cemetery was opened, a new tree was planted at a new location. The custom was relocated but continued.

“When the coffin is supplied, the pieces of wood which remain over are cut into small crosses measuring two feet eight inches in height by eleven inches wide across the arms. These crosses are painted in various colours - green, blue, red and yellow. They have pointed shafts and one, which is meant to be planted in the soil at the head of the grave, is laid on the coffin, while the others are carried by the chief mourners behind. At the cross-roads nearest the cemetery there is always a tree, either hawthorn or ash, at the foot of which the procession pauses, and the cross-bearers lift their crosses to its branches, where they fix them and leave them. In some places the tree has fallen from age or other causes, but its root remains, or at all events the memory of the place where it grew ; and so the practice is continued, and the crosses are thrust in a heap, lying upon one another, till a mound often eight or ten feet high may be seen.”
“Ancient Funeral Custom in Kilmore Parish”: The Past: The Organ of the Uí Cinsealaigh Historical Society, No. 2 (Dec., 1921), pp. 146-148: Uí Cinsealaigh Historical Society

“Visitors to Kilmore are always struck by the unusual sight of a heap of wooden crosses under a thorn tree on the roadside near Brandy Cross. The crosses are placed there by the mourners attending passing funerals, and I have often been asked for an explanation of the origin and meaning of the custom”

“Ancient Funeral Custom in Kilmore Parish”: The Past: The Organ of the Uí Cinsealaigh Historical Society, No. 2 (Dec., 1921), pp. 146-148: Uí Cinsealaigh Historical Society

“When Grange closed in the 1950s, a communal decision was taken to maintain the ancient ritual and a new sceach between Kilmore village and the new cemetery was blessed and commissioned to carry the crosses for funeral generations. Since then hundreds of funerals have stopped at the crossroads and paused for a moment so that grieving families and friends can leave a wooden cross there to honour the memory of their loved ones and to continue our of most scared customs.”
A. M. Cousins - Funeral Crosses in the Sceach – Sunday Miscellany 03 November, 2019

“We may ask what connection is there between the crosses which Miss Stokes found near Cong, those she saw near the mouth of the Somme, and those to be still seen in the parish of Kilmore ?

Did St. Fursa establish the custom near his early hermitage in Mayo in the seventh century ? Did he bring it with him to France and establish it on the spot where he first landed there ? And did our Norman ancestors bring it back to Ireland and establish it where they landed ? It is greatly to be regretted that their descendants, after over seven hundred \ ears, should allow it to disappear.

Miss Stokes writes (see appendix VII)?" This Irish custom seems to belong to the worship of the Instruments of the Passion, and to be connected with the Passion of Christ. The hawthorn, the whitethorn, and the blackthorn, all claim to have been used for the Sacred Crown of Thorns. . . . The form of procession, carrying in our hands ivy, sprigs of laurel, rosemary, and other evergreens, is said to be emblematic of the soul's immortality. So the bearing of the cross to a point, where at the meeting of four roads, that road is chosen which leads directly to the grave, is emblematic of the soul's submission ; while the laying down the cross upon the thorny branch that made the Saviour's Crown is an instance of Christian symbolism still lingering among our peasantry that ought not to pass unrecorded."”

“Ancient Funeral Custom in Kilmore Parish”: The Past: The Organ of the Uí Cinsealaigh Historical Society, No. 2 (Dec., 1921), pp. 146-148: Uí Cinsealaigh Historical Society

Baltimore Industrial School

2/12/2023

I don’t think I’ve seen that before

I have seen qualifications and trades noted on headstones. I have seen names of companies where the deceased worked. I have seen record of involvement with sports and community organisations. These all were important enough in the life of the deceased to be cut into stone.

Baltimore Industrial School left its mark on John Griffin – so deep that it stays with him even in the grave. The ‘sea of barbarism’ was how John Griffin described the institution. The Irish Times quotes him in response to the Laffoy Commission report, "It's now there on the record for generations to take heed and realise what happened to us." The engraving on the headstone is a prompt towards that record.

The Southern Star article after his dead has the headline ‘Storyteller John could put a smile on anyone's face’ – on a cold November afternoon at St Patrick’s Cemetery in Skibbereen, he did to me.

And if you come, when all the flowers are dying
And I am dead, as dead I well may be
You’ll come and find the place where I am lying
And kneel and say an “Ave” there for me.
And I shall hear, tho’ soft you tread above me
And all my dreams will warm and sweeter be

SKITE? What Is A Skite?

8/10/2023

This particular rabbit hole was inspired by Michael Harding’s book, Chest Pain. I spotted it on my first visit to the library post cardiac incident and it just had to come home. Towards the end, page 363 to be precise, there is a story about damage to a statue to the Blessed Virgin Mary that was not spotted by any of the parishioners, even after the bishop had thrown a ‘skite’ of water on it as a blessing.

‘When the people gathered around the crib that Christmas night I was terrified that someone might notice the damage.

The bishop, an old man with tremendous white eyebrows, gave the crib a skite of holy water. Drops landed on Mary’s face and I feared the congregation would see the scratches on her fingers due to our wanton sexual desires for Mary Brady.’

Michael Harding, Chest Pain

This immediately had me thinking that that is not what I thought ‘skite’ was.

I would have used ‘skite’ as a trip, adventure, or even a session that was an escape from normality. One could go on a ‘bit of a skite’ – some me time to recharge the batteries.

I definitely would not have used it as a volumetric measurement – a dollop of water but not a skite.

The Dictionary of Cork Slang suggests that my use may not be that common in Cork – they equate a ‘skite’ to a drinking session.

Chambers’ Dictionary has it as a ‘boast’. Merriam-Webster has options including blow or impact; trick or prank; a disagreeable offensive person; or a boaster. Collins Dictionary supports the argument for boast; blow; and drinking session - it adds ‘a person held in mild contempt’.

The use of the word by both Michael Harding and yours truly is not supported by the dictionaries – yet.

“Words are in dictionaries because they exist – they do not exist because they are in dictionaries”

Máire Nic Mhaoláin

The Craft Of The Mason

8/8/2023

It has been a while since I blogged on the subject of the spelling of those involved in the construction trade, but there have been quite a few in the past.

Masonary was definitely a new variety for me when I spotted over the weekend.

As ever, one does not retain the services of a craftsman based upon their spelling or proof-reading…..

Not A Ghost Of A Chance

7/8/2023

There I was, a month ago, walking down Patrick’s Street. The builder’s hoarding was still up at the former Eason’s premises. I got to wondering if the clock might become a ghostsign; and, might survive the occupation of the building by the new traders.

A tweet from CorkBeo confirmed that the reference to Eason had been removed – gone before it could become a ghostsign.

Birds Got To Fly

6/8/2023

Was introduced to a new message on a gravestone last week while taking some pleasant time out at Loch Salach Cemetery in Clonee.

Fish Got To Swim…..
Birds Got To Fly……..

A variation on ‘A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do…..’

I was intrigued as to Loch Salach which did look like it derived from Dirty Lake but logainm.ie does not appear to mention dirty about the Clonee Lough Salach. The Donegal Loughsallagh does have reference to dirty: as does Loughsallaghclogher in Co Galway – dirty lake of the stoney place.

Clonee and the Kerry variety appear to have been cleaned up in the logainm records.

The Thin (Tidal) Line Between Waste and Industrial Archaeology

5/8/2023

With apologies to Ballyheigue which I called Blennerville

It was a very low spring tide that revealed the remnants of scallop or mussel farming in the past. No longer functional, they are submerged and hidden for the majority of the time.

They were fully in view yesterday and did get me wondering as to when they may be reclassified from waste to Industrial Archaeology – if ever.

Reminded me of Jeff Wayne’s musical version of War of the Worlds – from way back when…..

Commemorative Stones

4/8/2023

It was only recently that I discovered the difference between a headstone and a gravestone – a headstone being at foot of grave and gravestone being at head of grave.

Walking Kilshannig Cemetery, I got to wondering as to what commemorative stones for those who have been cremated are called, or will be called.

Ten years ago, in Derrynane, was when I first realised that stone memorials were erected to those who have been cremated. Somewhat reminiscent of cillín burials, the memorials were just outside the cemetery with a lovely view over the bay.

A few years back, I noted, with a smile, the memorial to Josephine Deane built into the boundary wall of the cemetery. This week, a return visit brought me to a new stone inserted into the wall remembering Pat Crowley / Pádraig Ó Crualaoch.

I have mentally filed these as commemorative stones, until told otherwise……..

Another stone in wall - not of the type of the wall construction

Be Buddies Not Bullies

12/7/2023

I noticed this sticker on a pole on the Dingle peninsula while the younger generation were pier-jumping.

I had not seen this sticker before. I cannot recall having seen that message. I had not a recollection of hearing of the life, death or inquest of Eden Heaslip, who took his own life in September 2021, two weeks after his 18th birthday.

When I spotted a similar sticker on a car in a church car park a few weeks back, that was enough reason for this blog post.