Dia is Mhuire díobh go léir a chairde, and welcome to my weekly report.
I hope the end of another month finds you safe and well, ready to take on the lovely month of July. Our new lifestyle doesn’t make it easy for us to be aware nor fully awake to the passage of time. In the past we had a calendar of events to keep us in touch with the passing weeks and months. Each month had it’s own attractions, it’s own list of things which that month was special for. But with mass cancellations the milestones disappeared and we are left mid-air and waiting for the next month in the hope that there will be ample easing of restrictions to allow some form of our previous life to return. Promises were never made so often and broken. The powers that be do all they can to give people hope especially those in the hospitality sector who make changes and they stock up and prepare for their big break, only to be told, not yet, you must hold on a little longer. All of those blockades have left us all in a sort of false world. For example, only last week on June 24th, St. John’s Day, the day when we all crowded on to the slopes of Mushera for the annual Mass. Beforehand we’d have a dot on the calendar in case we’d forget, look for a lift or maybe offer a lift to someone. Following the lovely Mass coupled with the parish choir and music, there was a great meeting of people, some who only meet at St. John’s Well every year. Because it was widely presumed that it wouldn’t be held this year, there was no need to watch for the date, no need to seek or give a lift and sadly no meeting of friends. Multiply that by all the other events which had to be cancelled since early 2020 including funerals and weddings. I met a lady recently and she told me that talking makes her tired now. Whatever muscles she was using to communicate have gone lax and she has to cut her conversations short as a result. We are on the brink of the Month of July and every year around this time the name Milltown Malbay in County Clare was on everybody’s lips. Lovers of traditional music and dance from all over the world prepared to go on their annual pilgrimage of friendship good company and the love of our native entertainment. Like everything else the axe has fallen on this great International event again, it was cancelled last year also. We went there for over thirty years and saw that small village grow to a mighty town complete with every service to meet the needs of the vast crowds. All thanks to one man, Willie Clancy, box player. The Cork Agricultural Show was another event which brought everything to a stop on the land when it was held in the Cork Show Grounds for a week every year on June. Other things were pinpointed by it. Something would be either before the show or after it. The new spuds were judged by it, if they were fit for eating by the 21st of June then it was a good year and everybody was happy. How we loved to see them coming up out the ground before the fork, or spade, the rich earth falling away but leaving a fine coat which was washed away in a bucket of cool water from the stream. Side by side with them the drills of cabbage and turnips, enough for both man and beast and other lesser crops such as peas, carrots, which gave a wide range of choice for the family table. With all these crops in a healthy state, it was a sort of a celebration to take a few hours off and go the Cork Summer Show. It always drew great crowds and people met a talked about farming things. The cattle, the price of milk. The remedies for certain ailments in the cattle or fowl. Of course it was the Show case for the best livestock in the land, also pigs, sheep, all kinds of fowl. It was exciting to be there and when time came to come home to milk the cows etc. We felt enlightened and full of new ideas and information about things that we could adapt to our way of life at home.
[read more …] “Eily’s Report – 29th June”
