This writer was giving a talk in Nenagh, Co Tipperary, last week (on fairy forts, in case you were wondering).
I met a perfectly lovely lady, born and bred in Cork but now living up there, who avowed that she simply loves Throwback Thursday and reads it online every single week, “as I can’t get The Echo up here!”
That was really nice to hear, and I hope said lady gets in touch with us on this page right away, to share her own memories of growing up by the Lee.
Isn’t it great to know this column is enjoyed everywhere?
Meanwhile, Throwback Thursday reader Cyril McIntyre has written to add to Mícheál Kenefick’s memories of the ‘all-in’ special trains from Cork to rugby matches in Dublin, and the great days of dining cars.
“His recollections reminded me of the late John Connolly, the doyen of the team of railway catering services attendants, who sadly passed away in November of last year,” recalled Cyril.
“John was an institution on the Cork to Dublin trains, and became a legend in his own lifetime.
“He had a warm, welcoming demeanour, greeting every passenger in the dining car. He served business people, families on shopping trips, and ‘emigrants’ from Cork like myself commuting home at weekends, with care and courtesy.”
Cyril adds: “I always felt that I was already at home when I heard John’s distinctive voice taking orders for ‘high tea’ or the ‘mixed grill’ as the 18.45 from Heuston sped across the Curragh plains.
“After he retired from Irish Rail, John joined the staff of the Kingsley Hotel as concierge. His daughter Fiona continues the transport tradition; she works in Bus Éireann at Capwell, where I started my own transport career in the summer of 1959.”
Cyril remembers the names of some of John’s colleagues on the trains – Connie O’Leary, Paddy Russell, Mick Brehony, and Christy Maher.
“The buffet in Kent Station was managed by Mary Cahill,” he said, “who later moved to Dublin to manage the mezzanine restaurant in Busáras.”
Cyril then moves on to memories of another mode of transport – ferries.
“You mentioned the extra ticket which had to be bought at busy times when travelling on the Innisfallen to Fishguard and also on the Liverpool boat.
“This was officially termed a ‘Sailing Ticket’, priced in the 1950s at one shilling. Only the number of tickets equal to the seating accommodation were printed for each sailing.
“I remember that in the Steam Packet office in Patrick Street, these tickets were punched on issue by a Williamson registering bell punch, mounted on the wall behind the counter, of the same type as used on the country buses; this was an easy way of accounting for the cash collected.”
A Williamson registering bell punch, the type once used in the Steam Packet office in Patrick Street, Cork city, as an easy way of accounting for the cash collected
Bless you, Cyril! Great detail.
Gosh, Kent Station was such a familiar part of my growing up on Summerhill, right above, looking down on the big yard where in those days you actually could park quite easily.
The big gates labelled Isteach and Amach. The sounds of the trains arriving, departing, shunting, whistling (later hooting), were an integral part of our everyday life, like the sounds of the city itself spread out below. (We always used to say that we could hear the city ‘breathing’ from our eyrie on Summerhill.)
Many’s the time I nipped down to the station at teatime to buy the Echo. And as children, often we would go down there later in the evening, just to wander around, admire the splendid vintage locomotive still on display, and maybe expend a penny on the machine that printed out metal names and addresses, presumably for parcels being posted.
And the late evening train to Dublin had a special letter box on the side where, if you added an extra halfpenny stamp, it would be sorted en route, and delivered in the metropolis next morning.
You could also use a halfpenny stamp on a letter for local delivery dropped in the box at the sorting office in Brian Boru Street in the morning, and it would arrive with the afternoon post.
Oh, can you remember the glory days of two postal deliveries?
And thank-you so much, Cyril, for identifying those all-important sailing tickets for the Innisfallen! Now if you could just remember the fare…
Cyril was quick to reply.
“Ah yes… I remember that machine in the station, and also a weighing machine which printed your weight on a card the same size as a railway ticket!
“Going through some old guide books passed down from my father, I found a Ward Lock Guide To South West Ireland dated 1947. It quotes the following return fares from London Paddington to Cork, via Fishguard and the Innisfallen to Cork.
“I suspect that the single fares would have been about two-thirds of the return fares, as return fares were often calculated at single fares plus 50%.”
First Class throughout £5
Third Class throughout £2/19/10
Third Class Rail & First Class Boat £3/15/7
“Incidentally,” points out Cyril, “the same guide book quotes 9/6 for bed & breakfast in the Metropole.
“Over the years, unfortunately, compilers of guide books ceased to include details of fares, hotel rates, etc, as they were subject to increases and could not be kept up to date.”
Meanwhile, Pauline Pithon (nee Buckley) who lives in Wales, but came to visit relatives here every year in her childhood, wrote to us too.
“I shall be interested to see if anyone can come up with those Innisfallen fares,” said Pauline.
“We sailed annually from summer, 1948, to 1966 (I received my A level results at my grandmother’s house in Monkstown), but I have no idea of the cost. I know my mother used to book early as she needed those extra tickets you mentioned – they were called sailing tickets.”
Pauline has other memories too, related to recent topics in Throwback Thursday.
“All the stuff about the dances strikes a chord too. I had much the same experience with my cousins in Askeaton.
“There were local dances every weekend but we also used to go all the way to Ballybunion when we could get a lift.
“Our driver was a neighbour’s daughter – around the same age as us, i.e, late teens. She used to borrow her father’s enormous Mercedes and cram several of us into it before setting off along the winding country roads.
“It must have taken about a hour or so to get there. That’s where we would see the showbands. In Askeaton, it was often the ceilidh which we all loved too.
“A big contrast for me, coming over from the discos in London where the boys were much more interested in their image and did you a big favour dancing with you!
“When my cousin and her college friends came over to London to earn money in the summer holidays, they used to take me to the famous Galtymore.”
Love the images you create with your memories, Pauline. Especially the London boys who were more interested in their own image than in the girls!
Cyril McIntyre has also been doing some thinking about our traditional Irish dances and where they came from.
“Your reference to the origins of the Walls of Limerick, etc, reminded me that The Gaelic League banned the traditional set dances, which had always been a feature of house dances, from their céilís.
“I remember my mother, who grew up in the West Waterford Breach-Ghaeltacht in the 1920s, telling me that they were not allowed to dance the set dances at Gaelic League functions.
“Old time waltzes were also banned. It was the same in An Réalt… when we had the Réalt week in Brú na Gráige we learned and danced the Kerry Sets, but on returning home we were not allowed to dance them at the Réalt céilís!!
“Looking back, it seems to me that some people’s definitions of Irish culture were somewhat restrictive and indeed divisive. Thankfully, the set dances have enjoyed a revival in popularity in more recent years.
“I really have no idea what motivated these ‘bans’! It seems something similar to the old GAA ban on ‘foreign games’ which again was divisive. The set dances were part and parcel of the traditional culture of rural Ireland going back for generations, but it seems that some of the people involved in the Gaelic League had a very narrow view of what constituted Irish culture.
“Possibly the influence of the clergy had something to do with it as well… remember the ‘no dances during Lent’ rule?”
And we have heard again from that great local historian Pat Kelly in Blackrock.
“The Throwback Thursday feature on our trains, and especially that picture of Clontarf Bridge, where the West Cork trains crossed to Albert Quay, brought back so many memories – especially when the ship The City of Cork rammed it, and caused so much damage that traffic chaos ensued for many years. Was that in 1965?
“Those train tracks across the bridge caused me to be a regular customer of Jack Healy in MacCurtain Street! Many’s the wet morning I remember where the back wheel of my bike would slip on the iron rail and get buckled. Jack Healy would replace the wheel in his bike shop.”
Who remembers the advertising jingle used by Healy’s back when McCurtain Street was a wonderful Mecca of different shops?
When I was a lad
I went with my dad
To buy a bike
From Jack Healy’s.
Now I’m a dad,
And I take my little lad
To buy a bike
From Jack Healy’s!
“You also mentioned our Taoiseach’s father, Paddy Martin, a heavyweight boxer,” adds Pat. “Paddy was in the army boxing team of heavyweights, middleweights and welterweights. My dad, Jack Kelly, also boxed on the sane team as a welterweight and amassed many trophies.”
Thank-you for those recollections Pat, more power to your memories!
You will recall that a week or so ago we were talking about the Cavern club on Leitrim Street, and all the groups who played there, especially Rory Gallagher and The Taste. Kieran Madden found that this reminded him of a visit to the rather more famous place across the water in Liverpool:
“In 1963, my insurance company employer in Cork sent me on an eight-week course to Hoylake near Liverpool, six weeks till around end of July, and two weeks in September. The Cavern is the stand-out memory of that time.
The Beatles in Liverpool’s Cavern Club around 1961, with Pete Best then on drums. A Cork man recalls visiting the city in1963, and narrowly missing seeing the band play the venue for the last time
“The impact of the location itself on that first visit with the beautiful wham of hot sweaty air and deafening sound coming up the steps leading down on reaching the entrance, was just mighty. Great groups – The Mersey Beats, the Nomads, etc.
“The Beatles last played there on August 3, 1963. I was there on July 27, but had to return to Cork, getting back on August 3, their last Cavern date. It still kills me that I missed them by just a week. I was back for the couple of weeks in September and the Cavern was still rocking. What a venue!”
Well, at least you experienced the place, Kieran, and you are to be envied for that. Almost compares with Johnny Campbell sharing living quarters underneath the stage of a club in Hamburg with Rory Gallagher a year or two later! What was it like, we onlookers ask breathlessly. What were those places really like? Hot and sweaty, according to Kieran Madden. Fairly dark and crowded, as Johnny recalls. But when you’re young and life is all there before you, who cares!
Share your own memories with us! Email jokerrigan1@gmail.com, or leave a message on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/echolivecork.