Category: Kildare - Reading the Signs

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If The Hat Fits …………. Stick It On A Picture Frame

28/11/2022

It is a long time since I even thought of the headwear of the Catholic clergy.

I do recall the Canon in the local parish church regularly wearing a hat that the other priests did not wear – a black Biretta if memory has not faded too much. The Eucharistic Procession would also show that the bishop wore a mitre.

What I did not realise until a couple of weeks ago is that there were/are quite a number of different types – and I did not see real hats, paintings or photographs to realise this, just picture frames.

I was deliberately early for a meeting which allowed me to stop in Maynooth and look for the Seamus Murphy statue of St Patrick. The directions I received were spot on and there he was inside the main door of the enclosed quad – once again a piece calling out to be touched.

It was only when I had touched and photographed St Patrick did I realise the paintings along the corridor. Then I spotted the hats incorporated into the top of the frame. And then, that not all of the hats were the same.

The corridor gallery brought me back to the Capuchin Cemetery in Rochestown, Co. Cork where I went looking for the Celtic Cross headstones made by Seamus Murphy for Fr. Albert and Fr. Dominic whose bodies were repatriated in 1958 – 23 years after the death of Fr Dominic who was chaplain to both Cork Lord Mayors who died in 1920, Tomás MacCurtin and Terence MacSwiney. But there was no sign of a Celtic Cross.

The graves of Fr Dominic and Fr Albert were marked with a cross – a simple cross just like all of the others in the cemetery. A friend did ask a member of the Capuchin community in Rochestown who recalled that some years ago, a Provincial decided that all priests and brothers were equal and should be recognised as equal. The location of the Celtic Crosses removed to make way for the uniform simple cross memorials remains unknown.

The principle of all being equal in death did not extend to the African Missions Cemetery in Wilton in Cork. It appears to have been introduced in Maynooth but not retrospectively – the newer paintings appearing to have no adornment on the picture frame.

I foresee that I will be in a rabbit hole in the future trying to understand the different hat syles and meanings……

‘Sitting on the Dashboard Of My Car’

27/7/2022

‘I don't care if the night is scary
As long as I got the Virgin Mary
Sittin' on the dashboard of my car.
She don't slip and she don't slide
Cuz her butt is magnetized
Sittin' on the dashboard of my car.’
Plastic Jesus

‘I don't care if it bumps or jostles
Long as I got the Twelve Apostles
Bolted to the dashboard of my car
Don't I have a pious mess
Such a crowd of holiness
Strung across the dashboard of my car’
Plastic Jesus

Winner Alright!

Not quite the twelve apostles – one short

Not often you see Elvis hanging out with Jesus, Buddha and Mr. Bean.

This is definitely the most I have seen on any dashboard

A celebration that almost warrants a song

No Virgin Mary – maybe Hell is calling

Kildare County Council more powerful than King Canute

2/7/2022

In the twelfth century, King Canute ordered the tide, or his tide if you prefer, to stop rising. If failed to comply with his order.

Kildare County Council do appear to be more successful as their order for there to be strong currents in the river appeared to be complied with on the evening of our visit.

I have seen signs banning swimming due to strong currents but this is the first where strong currents have been ordered by a Local Authority.

Where Ball Playing Is Not A Game

1/7/2022

As I waited for my takeaway in Leixlip a few months back, this sign had me thinking as to when might Ball Playing not be a Game

Where the Covid-world met the Folklore-world

20/12/2020

On Tuesday, I observed how the modern Covid-world met the folklore-world. Initially, I was surprised, but really I ought not to have been, and should have expected it.

At many of the Holy Wells that I have visited, there has been a Rag Tree, upon which visitors would tie a piece of cloth. As I understand the practice, the visitor rubs the cloth on that part of the body with an affliction prior to fixing the cloth to the Rag Tree hoping to transfer the affliction to the cloth/rag and to leave the affliction behind at the Rag Tree when the visitor departs for home.

Today I listened to the RTE Archive clip on Fr. Moore’s Well which is located just outside Kildare town, on the road to Milltown. On Tuesday, the well had very many items which would have been encountered at other Holy Wells that I have visited – a sign describing how to perform the stations/rounds; a donation box; a memorial card, and, a Rag Tree. Fr.Moore’s Well provided all of these and more. It had a crutch – whether cast aside in hope, in recovery, or, for effect is unknown. But it was the Rag Tree, or more particularly, the rags, that brought the tradition upto the year 2020.

Among the items tied to the tree were, not just one, but two face masks – one was disposal-type of the medical sky-blue colour; the other was a reuseable-type of a bright purple colour with what appeared to be the initials ‘S.Q.’.

A used face-mask is a perfect example of ‘only of value as homage’ and proof of the continuation of tradition.

‘Yet, a large part of the business of visiting a holy well is to come for a cure. Many wells are named specifically for the particular body part or illness they reputedly cured, such as eye wells or wart wells, though many were relatively panaceal (Logan 1980). Linked to this a range of healing rituals emerged, the most prominent of which was the leaving of offerings on rag bushes or trees. This ritual was (and is) a mix of the embodied, symbolic and performative wherein an object that should have touched the body (such as a strip of cloth from a petticoat), was dipped in the well water, rubbed on the affected part and left on the tree to let nature take the now disembodied illness away.’
Ronan Foley - Small health pilgrimages: Place and practice at the holy well

‘At a number of wells the tree (or occasionally a bush) is used to secure a cloth placed there by a pilgrim. The range of trees varies greatly. A.T. Lucas took a closer look at holy well trees. He visited 210 holy wells in Cork in the 1960’s and found whitethorns (103) predominated, with ash (75), oak (7) and a mixture of other species making up the remaining 25.’
Michael Houlihan – The Holy Wells of County Clare.

‘Early in the nineteenth century, a hostile witness wrote a description of a pilgrimage to Devenish Island, Co. Fermanagh. In it he mentioned the holy well dedicated to St. Molaisse
In it people with sore eyes, and back going children wash for a cure making what is called a station (a thing that I know nothing about) and tye a rag on the thorn according to custom.’

The Holy Wells of Ireland – Patrick Logan

‘It is right, on visiting a well, to make offerings of small objects, only as value as homage. Rag offerings are naturally most frequent where there is a ‘blessed bush’ at the well, but they are frequently hung on a bramble, or even, on the Atlantic coast, kept in place by stones. Rags abounded, with other offerings, at Gleninagh, at least till 1899, being tied to the twigs of an elder bush. They were hung in quantities on the stunted old hawthorn at Oughtmama well, and were found at Tobersraheen, at Aglish graveyard at Ogonello, and on the fallen hawthorn near the basin at Kiltinanlea. They were often accompanied by rosaries, religious medals, necklaces and ribbons, broken or whole plaster and china figures and vessels, and glass, buttons, pins, and nails.’
T. J. Westropp – Folklore of Clare

John Flanagan Was Killed

19/12/2020

Grey Abbey, Kildare

An rud is annamh is iontach is an Irish saying which translates as ‘that what is rare, is wonderful’.

The word ‘killed’ is a rarity found on headstones, from my experience of visits to cemeteries. It does cause this writer to step back, consider, and, in the case of John Flanagen, do some further investigartion.

‘Kill - to make a person or other living thing die (transitive/intransitive verb)’ – Macmillan Dictionary

‘Kill - to cause the death of (an animal or person); to put someone to death; to murder; to slaughter; to destroy someone or something (transitive/intransitive verb)’ – Chambers Dictionary

Kill – ‘If a person, animal, or other living thing is killed, something or someone causes them to die’ – Collins Dictionary

‘Murder - to commit the crime of killing someone deliberately (transitive verb)’ – Macmillan Dictionary

‘Murder - to kill someone unlawfully and intentionally’ – Chambers Dictionary

‘Murder - To murder someone means to commit the crime of killing them deliberately.’ Collins Dictionary

Register of Death

I was unable to find any press report as to the traffic incident or the inquest. The death cert and the headstone differ slightly – Jackie derives from Jack which in turn derives from John – so that is understandable.

I have previously written as to the use of the word ‘kill’. I had difficulty in its use in a non-intentional setting. It is interesting that among the options available as to outcome of an inquest, the only ‘kill’ is ‘unlawful killing’ – that is one way of avoiding any confusion as to the interpretation of the word ‘kill’.

Some enjoy a visit to Kildare Village. My preference, by far, would be the adjoining cemetery.

The adjacent headstone is to Evelyn Flanagan, who died aged 7 weeks, in August 1934. If Evelyn was Jackie’s sister, one family would have lost two children in less than three years which may be enough to use ‘kill’ rather than ‘died’.

Not Wishing For Love Or Money

15/3/2018

A few weeks back, I declined the option of a few hours at the Kildare Village outlet centre. Instead, I enjoyed chill out time around the town of Kildare, ending in a trip around St Brigid’s Cathedral and the adjoining cemetery.

On the corner of the building that I approached, I noted that one of the corner stones had a hole from one side to the other. I was intrigued.

As I was leaving, I spotted someone looking at this closely. When I asked, I learned that this was a wishing stone – one had to pass one’s hand through the stone and make a wish.
I was warned that one could not wish for love or money, as both were to come to you unbidden.

The topic of wealth and money on Folklore Thursday on twitter brought the wishing stone back to mind – reason enough for a blog post.

Killed by Heart Attack

5/7/2014

“A friend of Arthur Griffith, he worked with the Sinn Féin newspaper Nationality in 1916. He died prematurely of a heart attack following a raid at the paper’s headquarters at Harcourt St”
Wikipedia

I recently stopped to photograph this plaque in Loughrea. This did prompt me to stop in Naas on a subsequent visit to Dublin and record the plaque on the offices of the Leinster Leader.

It also caused me to do some internet searching as to Seumas O’Kelly – which in turn raised an old debate.

Sarah Medalie was the only person to die during the Burning of Cork. She suffered a heart attack as their home was forcibly broken into by the Black & Tans.

I commented elsewhere that, admittedly on the face of the limited reading that I had done, I had difficulty in categorising death by heart attack as a killing.

Seumas O’Kelly died of a heart attack following a police raid at the offices of the newspaper where he was working.

I did not see any reference to Seumas O'Kelly having been killed. He died. Was he killed?

Maybe the use of Irish, ‘Fuair sí bás’ or 'She got/found death', might avoid such debate or deliberation.

Loughrea

Naas