Blog Posts - Reading the Signs

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Cork – Remembering the R.I.C. and the British Army

22/5/2021

There is an exhibition running at the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork in which the artist, Dara McGrath, has returned to the locations where people died in the Republican War, or Revolutionary Period, one hundred years ago. The exhibition concerns itself with the period 1919 to 1921 – the War of Independence.

The artist returns to the scene of death a century later and records the current aspect – regularly with people in the photograph who are quite likely oblivious to the past events, such events not being commemorated by a plaque or other memorial.

To promote the exhibition, billboards around Cork city were used with details of the person deceased, how they died, as well as photograph of the location.

Mind the Gap

5/1/2021

Cork - August 2020

There can be benefits of proof-reading.

It helps avoid confusion with a swell as well.

Roastery

4/1/2021

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

I have used the above quotation in more than a few previous blog posts when I have come across a word and wondered as to its use and origin.

‘Roastery’ is the latest word that appears to have a campaign for inclusion in a dictionary because it is in use.

Macmillan Dictionary, Chambers Dictionary and Merriam Webster Dictionary all do not have an entry for the word ‘Roastery’. Cambridge Dictionary and Collins Dictionary appears ahead of its rivals and advises that a ‘Roastery’ is a place where coffee beans are roasted.

Her Name Was Mary

3/1/2021

I have been recording roadside memorials for many years – hopefully I will get the map up-to-date at some point.

Some memorials do impact greater than others.

Maybe two days before Christmas Day had an effect on this agnostic.

Maybe it was the clear photograph and simple message.

Maybe it brought to mind the memorial to Jonathan Corrie.

Maybe it was because I recognised Mary from the streets of the city centre for more than a few years and never knew her name.

Powerful Memorial.

A Hare On A Night Out

2/1/2021

A few years back, I wrote a blog about a peacock that I spotted at 6:40 one morning walking home, crossing the main Tralee to Dingle road as if he owned it.

DK texted me shortly afterwards to say that it is a sad case that a bird cannot go out for a night without photographs appearing on social media.

Yesterday, on Pine Street, I spotted a hare complete with cigarette and bottle of (what I took to be) vodka, after what looked like a similar long night, but a possibly different outcome.

If the objective of street art is to raise a smile, this was a complete success.

You Are Not Alone

1/1/2021

I have seen signs for The Samaritans at very many locations where I have thought the message could be interpreted as suggestive in a counter-intended direction – railway platforms; quays; waterways.

To me these signs put a thought in my mind that had not been there prior to reading the sign.

Maybe that is just the way I am wired…

Yesterday, while walking around the Tank Field, I observed a different approach from Pieta House.

I have often gifted a tree, most often a cherry blossom, as a remembrance of a bereaved relative; the arrival of a new birth; and, the occupation of a new house. So I was pleasantly surprised to see the new addition on my walk.

The use of the R.E.M. lyrics made the smile wider.

Reed's Square, Cork

'Cause everybody hurts
Take comfort in your friends
Everybody hurts
Don't throw your hand
Oh, no
Don't throw your hand
If you feel like you're alone
No, no, no, you're not alone

R.E.M.

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’.

Remembering The Cillíní & Those Buried There

30/7/2020

Shanrahan Cemetery – Part 5

According to P.J. and his lady wife, whose evening stroll I interrupted, when in Shanrahan Cemetery last week, this small section was a Cillín, where unbaptised babies were buried.

I remember first learning of a Killeen or Cillín or Ceallúrach over 30 years ago in a book by Mary Leland, which I have just borrowed from the library to relive that moment of amazement.

Cromane, Co. Kerry

Cromane, Co. Kerry

“Substantial numbers of cillíní exist in Ireland, some 1,444 across both jurisdictions; this distribution, however, is an uneven one, with 66% (954/1,444) of sites located in the west in counties Kerry, Galway and Mayo. Dating evidence derived from excavated cillíní would tend to suggest that in the majority of cases they were early modern date (87%; 20/23), and it can be suggested that the proliferation of cillíní appears to be directly associated with the reinvigorated Catholicism of the Counter-Reformation in Ireland,”

Donnelly, C. J. and Murphy, E. M., ‘Children’s burial grounds (cillíní) in Ireland’, in Ryan, S. (ed.), Death and the Irish: a miscellany (Dublin, 2016).

Killorglin, Co. Kerry

Kilklorglin, Co. Kerry

The amazement at the existence of such burial grounds was heightened by the fact that, to my knowledge, I had never seen a Cillín. This continued for many years, until 2014 when I spotted the above plaques in Cromane and Killorglin in Co. Kerry. Subsequently, I noted a plaque at Ballygarvan in Co. Cork and have spotted mention to some Cillín’s that have gone on my To Visit map

Ballygarvan, Co. Cork

Ballygarvan, Co. Cork

It appears that it has taken many years for Ireland to be no longer ashamed of Cillín, possibly facilitated and assisted by the passing of time since 1994 when the Catholic Church lifted the prohibition on unbaptised being buried in consecrated ground – only 26 years ago.

The Schools Collection of the National Folklore Collection has many references to ‘Cillín’ and ‘Killeen’ which hopefully I will study in the coming weeks. The Irish Examiner noted in 2014 of some Cillíní being brought back and recognised by the community. It is reported that there are 1,444 Cillíní on the island of Ireland – my expectation would have been a significantly greater number.

If you are aware of any plaque or memorial erected at a Cillín, I would be delighted to receive any details as to where, when, by whom – please use the Contact page

“As the lane curves around towards the graveyard there is a small patch of ground on which lumps of rough-hewn stone are scattered. They are small, each less than the size of a football. There is a sign that reads: ‘Don’t pray for us/ no sins we knew / But for our parents/ they’ll pray for you.
This is the Ceallurach, the burial ground of the unbaptised children of the Famine. In Hannah Purtill’s time there was no sign here to mark the land. They didn’t need one. Everybody knew. My grandmother went to school when they were still living survivors of the disaster. Even then, when people sought every patch of ground to work, the little field was left to become overgrown: outside the burial rites of the church but sacred in its own forbidding, heartbreaking way. Nobody would ever use the land.”
Fergal Keane – Wounds: A memoir of War & Love

‘A lady was found drowned, it seems, on the Island Strand at the time when Santa Maria de la Rosa floundered. According to old stories about her she was a wealthy woman; she wore many rings and bracelets of gold and was buried at Castle Point where the graveyard is today. She was not buried, strange to say, in the graveyard proper but outside it. Years ago an old man showed me the spot.’
O’Crohan, S., A Day In Our Life, (Oxford,1992).

‘The weeping and the wailing grew loud again as the coffin was lifted on to the shoulders of four men, carried out of the house and down the steep and slippery path that led to the island harbour. On the way they passed the tiny graveyard at Castle Point, which was used for children who had died before they were baptized. The adults buried there were unidentified shipwreck victims, soldiers, suicides, and a few souls whose funerals had been confined to the island by storm.’
Moreton, C., Hungry For Home – A Journey From The Edge Of Ireland, (London, 2000).

The Fairy Tree

29/7/2020

Shanrahan Cemetery – Part 4

Trinity Well, Newmarket, Co. Cork

Holy Well of St. Colman MacDuagh, Oughtmama, Co. Clare

I have read of and encountered Rag Trees at Holy Wells.

Most people would have heard of the planned motorway in Co. Clare being rerouted so as to avoid knocking a Fairy Tree.

Until last week, I had not heard of the song, The Fairy Tree sung by John McCormack among others – or heard of Kate Ryan who features in the song’s lyrics.

As we were making to leave the cemetery for the first time, local residents, P.J. and his good wife, out for their evening stroll, educated me as to The Fairy Tree and brought me to the grave of Katie Ryan where the headstone records the name of the deceased and the song.

It is a bad day when one does not learn something new.

“They’ll tell you dead men hung there
Its black and bitter fruit
To guard the buried treasure
Round which it twines its root
They’ll tell you Cromwell hung them
But that could never be
He’d be in dread like others
To touch the Fairy Tree “

“From moonrise round the thorn tree
The little people play
And men and women passing
Will turn their heads away
But if your heart’s a child’s heart
And if your eyes are clean
You’ll never fear the thorn tree
That grows beyond Clogheen”
Temple Lane

Speaking Of Andrew Abraham – While We Still Can

28/7/2020

Shanrahan Cemetery – Part 3

There are three deaths. The first is when the body ceases to function. The second is when the body is consigned to the grave. The third is that moment, sometime in the future, when your name is spoken for the last time.

David Eagleman – Sum: Forty Tales From The Afterlives

I first spotted this quote online in a tweet by Louvain Rees – it immediately resonated.

Subsequently, I borrowed the book from the library and have had it for a Covid-extended loan period.

On my adventure through Shanrahan Cemetery, with P.J. and his good wife who were out for their evening stroll, I shared the quote when we were near the gate and the headstone to Andrew Abraham which, like the Browne headstone in Ballyhooley, is slowly but surely being absorbed into a tree.

Within a decade or so, it may be that the name Andrew Abraham may be spoken for the last time at Shanrahan Cemetery – the hunger of the tree shows no respect for the dead.

Finding A Lost Séamus Murphy

27/7/2020

Maybe Not Lost Lost – Just Lost In Plain Sight

Shanrahan Cemetery – Part 2

Those of you who drop by here regularly will be well aware of my appreciation of and interest in the work of the Cork Sculptor, Séamus Murphy.

The book published by the Crawford Art Gallery continues to be a source for some detours on my various journeys to visit his headstones, statues or plaques that I have not yet photpgraphed and touched – touching of stonework, especially headstones, is very important.

The book does not list any headstone in Clogheen or Shanrahan. It makes no reference to Edward Sackville-West.

When in Shanrahan last week, I decided to look out for headstones, the subject of Photo Requests on the Find-A-Grave website. Three requests proved elusive. William Wade was spotted close to the O’Callaghan mausoleum.

The date of death of 1965 suggested that the headstone of Edward Sackville-West would be easily found in the new part of the cemetery and it was. His Find-A-Grave biography does read of an interesting life.

That evening I met P.J. and his lady wife who were out for a stroll and advised that they understood that Edward was descended from the family that gave its name to Sackville Street – now O’Connell St. in Dublin. The referred me to a book by local historian Ed O’Riordan – Lonely Little God’s Acre on Shanrahan cemetery which has now been requested through the Inter-Library Loan.

On a Tuesday evening, outside Clogheen in County Tipperary, I was smiling broadly once the carver’s name was spotted. The headstone was admired, and touched.

The Timing Of Commemoration

26/7/2020

Earlier this week, a long day’s work after an early start finished in Cahir just after five and I decided to treat myself to a Supertramp evening – I took the Long Way Home , the road not previously travelled.

I have recently started putting my ‘To Visit’ locations on a Google Map so that it is easier to cross-check diversions and distractions when time may permit on a journey.

I recently learned of Fr. Nicholas Sheehy via Tipperary Studies on Twitter. He was hung drawn and quartered in Clonmel in 1766 and buried in Shanrahan Cemetery, outside Clogheen in Co. Tipperary where he is also remembered with a monument outside the church and in the name of the local GAA Club – An t-Athair Sithigh.

Fr. Sheehy’s grave is in a reasonably prominent position in the graveyard – a double grave adjacent to the old church, shared with Rev. Dr. James Glison.

It is interesting to note that the plaque was erected in 1898, the centenary year of the 1798 rebellion and 132 years after his death. The tomb conservation was in 2013. The final project of my Local History course is on remembrance and commemoration – the To Do list not contains questions:

why the delay in commemoration
were there no 1798 local heroes to commemorate at the centenary in 1898
why 2013 for the conservation works?
When was GAA Club formed?

As ever, some knowledge leads to more questions.

Statue Protection – Irish-Style

13/6/2020

During the past day, I have seen images of the statue of Winston Churchill in London’s Parliament Square boarded up to protect it ahead of a planned protest.

It reminded me of a different statue in Co. Limerick.

A few weeks back, I spotted similar protection was offered to the statue of the Sacred Heart at Croom Hospital to avoid damage….

….. from building activities.

Can You Show Me A Metre?

13/6/2020

Can You Show Me 2 Metres? Cork Metres?

Tuckey St - 2020.06.11

As part of the marketing campaign for the change from Imperial to Metric measurement systems, there was television advert with a message that went down in memory – Can You Show Me A Metre.

Among those of a certain vintage, it is still dropped into conversation on occasion.

Cork City Council have re-invented the slogan, but with a twist, availing of some shrinkflation.

This yellow sign is on a traffic barrier at junction of Tuckey Street and Grand Parade. The two metres is actually just over 1.2m

Is there such a thing as a Cork metre?