Tape twenty six..

Mikeen McCarthy.

Contents.

Bonny Boy is Young  (frag)

Travelling boy and the Lord's daughter (Gypsy Laddie as a story)

The Herring

The Blind Beggar

Flowery Nolan  (frag)

One fine day in the middle of the night

Man with no eyes  (riddle)

Wedding presents (sheets) argument

Murder riddle (story)

Talk on ceiliding from house to house

“We were always Travelling people, always will be”.

On looking out for songs from other places

On storytellers

Postboy interpreter on Gaelic donkey deals

Dingle Puck Goat  (broken frag)

Old Grey Mare  (Enniscorthy Fair story)

Travelling girl leaves husband for father and mother; “they’re like a fox or a hare”

Green Grows The Laurel  (3v)

De Valera visits mental home.  (joke)

M  Mc

Oh then, daughter oh daughter, I'll tell you what we'll do,

We'll send him off to college for another year or two,

And at the age of' sixteen years he was a married man,

And at the age of seventeen he was the father of a son,

And my bonny boy is young but he's growing.

At the age of seventeen he was the father of a son,

At the age of eighteen oh, his green, green grass grew high,

Oh then, that put an end to his growing.

That's it Jim, I don’t know........

J C        O.k. Mikey.

M Mc  …….travel miles like, back in Ireland years ago, so they travel on to this remote part of Ireland, they were two brothers.    So they had a little tent anyway, and bejay, the tent was built by the side of this, what will I call him, a lord's house in what they call a molly (te) in Ireland like, it was an old camping ground of the Travelling people. So he puts down his tent anyway, and he was very fond of fishing, but he was a very good looking boy and his young brother was with him like, he used be doing a bit of tinsmithing.   

So he goes down by the lake anyway, where they always fished.   He never knew it was private because there was private signs up and he wasn't able to read nor write.   So bejay, when he fishing away for himself and he was pulling out lovely brown trout and this girl came on behind him, she was the lord's daughter anyway.   She said she wanted to prosecute him for fishing in a private lake anyway, and he told her that his father and grandfather before him fished in it and why not, he knew it down.

Well, she said, “there’s new owners for it now”, she said, “and you should have seen the sign”, she said, “private”.

He told her he wasn't able to read nor write anyway and bejay, he was a very good looking bloke altogether.   Bejay, she falls in love with him.   So they elopes anyway, the two of them runs away and he leaves the brother at home anyway, and they took up digs in Dublin, the two of them.   So she seemed to have plenty of money, because he'd none anyway.

So the lord, he couldn't report around the country with his daughter like, so he got a private detective anyway, and they found them out in Dublin.  In fact Moorhouse was the chap's name.

       So when the private detective found them anyway,  he was going to have your man for eloping with the lord's daughter, of course, and she said 'twas her fault, she backed him up the whole way.   

The lord got him in court, the lord couldn’t get no satisfaction because he offered to marry her and she wanted to marry him.  

So the lord tells him anyway, “if you leave my daughter”, he said, “I'll forget everything”, he said, “and I'll give you a pension for life”.  

       He said, “I don't want any pension for life”, he said, “and in fact”, he said, “I won't marry your daughter either, I'll leave tomorrow morning, nobody will even know I came or went”, he said.

 So he went away to Dublin, back again, he was from Dublin, and bejay, he was no sooner in Dublin when she was after him again, the lord's daughter.   Bejay, the lord was hot on his tail again with his car and everything, found him again in Dublin.   But she came home, but he did put the lord on her like, he told her to go home like, he wouldn't marry her. She was up in court anyway, again and the judge said to her, “which would you sooner lie”, he said, “in that lovely semi ­detached house", he said, “or in a bed of rushes”, he said, “under a bit of canvas”, he said.   

“Well”, she said, “I'd sooner lie”, she said, “with the man I want”, she said, “under the canvas”, she said, “on that bed of rushes your talking about”, she said, “than with the man”, she said, “that'll be a millionaire and I wouldn't like him”.   

So he emigrated to Canada, whether it was the lord paid his way or not I don't know, but he emigrated out to America, I never heard tell of him after, well I only heard the old people talking about it like, but it actually happened all right.

D T     You don't know a song like that do you, where the lord comes home and finds his wife gone, or his  daughter gone, and she's gone with the gypsies and he goes and finds her  and she says,  “I'm staying here with the gypsies. I'd rather stay with the gypsy one night than.......”

 M Mc  No.

D T      Never heard it.

M Mc  No

DT       A song called Seven Yellow Gypsies or The Raggle Taggle Gypsies or The Gypsy Laddie.

M Mc  Maybe that'd be the song about it, like.

D T      D'you know the song?

J C       When you're ready.

.

M Mc  

Oh there was an old man that lived in Kenmare,

He used have some herrings and herrings for sale.

Sing avaro lin, sing avaro lin,

So what do you think we made of his back?

Sing avaro lin, sing avaro lin,

A fine old man and his name it is Jack,

Sing avaro lin, sing avaro lin,

Sing herring, sing man, sing  Jack, sing man,

Sing avaro lin, sing avaro lin,

And yet I have more of my song to be sung,

Sing avaro lin, sing avaro lin.

So what do you think we made of his bones?

Sing avaro lin, sing avaro lin,

The finest chisels that ever cut stones,

Sing avaro lin, sing avaro lin,

Sing herring, sing bones, sing chisels, sing stones,

Sing avaro lin sing avaro lin,

And yet I have more of my song to be sung,

Sing avaro lin, sing avaro lin.

So what do you think we made of his belly?

Sing avaro lin, sing avaro lin,

A fine old girl and her name it is Nelly,

Sing avaro lin, sing avaro lin

Sing herring, sing belly sing girl, sing Nelly,

Sing avaro lin, sing avaro lin,

And yet I have more of my song to be sung,

Sing avaro lin, sing avaro lin.

So what do you think we made of his mouth?

Sing avaro lin, sing avaro lin,

The finest kettle that ever did spout,

Sing avaro lin, sing avaro lin,

Sing herring, sing mouth, sing kettle, sing spout,

Sing avaro lin, sing avaro lin,

And yet I have more of my song to be sung1

Sing avaro lin, sing avaro lin.

So what do you think we made of his nose?

Sing avaro lin, sing avaro lin,

The finest hammer that ever broke stones,

Sing avaro lin, sing avaro lin,

Sing herring, sing nose, sing hammer, sing stones,

Sing avaro lin, sing avaro lin,

And yet I have more of my song to be sung,

Sing avaro lin, sing avaro lin,

So what do you think we made of his tail?

Sing avaro lin, sing avaro lin,

The finest ship that ever sought sail,

Sing avaro lin sing avaro lin.

Sing herring, sing tail, sing ship, sing sail,

Sing avaro lin, sing avaro lin,

And now I have no more of my song to be sung,

Sing avaro lin, sing avaro lin.

M Mc

Oh there was a blind beggar for a long time was blind,

He had one only daughter who was handsome and kind,

And the name that she went by was bonny Bessie.

Oh the first came to court her was a rich squire so grand,

He courted lovely Bessie oh then, all the night long,

Saying, my rich gold and silver I will give to thee,

If you'll tell me that you love me my bonny Bessie.

Oh the next came to court her was a captain from sea,

He courted lovely Bessie, oh then, every degree,

Saying, my ship, gold and silver I will give to thee,

If you'll tell me that you love me my bonny Bessie.

Oh the next came to court her was a merchant from sea,

He courted lovely Bessie, oh then, all the night long

Saying, I'll dress you in sweet satins right down to your toes

If you'll tell me that you'll marry me my bonny Bessie.

M Mc.  Oh...... have to cut it from that

A man called Flowery Nolan, a terror to all men,

He reached the age of seventy one and he thought himself it was time

For to go and get him a missus and his wedding 'twould be no crime.

Oh he reached the age......could you cut it off a minute Denis please.

When Flowery Nolan heard those words she thought herself it was time,

To pack up all her belongings and to him she'll go away.

M Mc    Jay, I can't think of it Jim, no.

M Mc             

One fine day in the middle of the night,

Two dead men got up to fight,

Two dead men fighting, two blind men looking on,

Two cripples running for the guard

And two dummys telling them, hurry on.

Bundle of lies is the answer anyway.

M Mc.              A man with no eyes went out to view the skies,

                        He saw a tree with apples on it,

                          He took no apples off or he left no apples on it

Well, eye, e-y-e is eye like, e-y-e- says eye, so he'd one eye and he saw a tree with two apples on it, see.    Apple isn't apples, so he took one apple off and he left one apple on.   So that's just………

M Mc    There was a wedding like, and there was a crowd of Travelling people and they were thinning beet, you know.  So they always used thin beet for this farmer at this particular time of the year, around September, that time.

So bejay, when he heard the wedding going on anyway, he came to the wedding.   

And begod, the two of them were… they were the boy’s mother and the girl’s mother.   

So the farmer came down with a pair of blankets and a pair of sheets, you know.   

So he handed them out to the mother anyway, for a wedding present for the new married couple. And bejay, one of the mothers got them anyway.    So she give the pair of blankets but she kept the pair of sheets. And they never spoke to one another for thirty years over it, over the pair of sheets; a pair of sheets that time would be five or six bob.    But they never spoke to one another for thirty years over it.

M Mc    Well, there was a boy and a girl back in Kerry, a place called Castlemaine.  

So that time in Kerry like, when there be a girl and a boy, when they be courting, well their meeting place that time, not like today with the pubs and the dance halls and all this.

They'd say, “we’ll meet you up at Sullivan's corner, or the crossroads out at the Black Market Shop”, or some place like that, you know.

So bejay, he was to meet his girl friend anyway, Mary was the name of the girl friend anyway.    So he came along to a grove of trees anyway, so in order to give her a bit of a shock he climbed up the tree and he sat out on a branch that was leading out over the road.  

So he said, “I’ll give her a bit of a shock when she come along now”.  So she was coming anyway, ‘twas a grand moonlight night and he saw the shadow of two men coming behind her.   So he got a bit   frightened himself.    So he saw them killing her.   So, if he had to get out of the tree like, the same thing'd have happened to him as it happened to her.    So he saw 'em killing her anyway, he saw them digging a hole in the ditch, inside the ditch and burying her, and off they goes.

So bejay, poor John was at home the following morning and be was arrested anyway by the guards and brought in and charged with the murder of Mary.   

So the morning of the court anyway, he'd plenty of time anyway, to make up a poem or a riddle, whatever you'd like to call it.   The judge asked him had he anything to say for himself.   

“So all I have to say for myself”, he say, “is:                                               

                             One moonlight night as I sat so high’

                             I was waiting for one as two passed by.

                             And the tree did shake and my heart did break

                             To see the holes that the rogues did make”.

So weren’t the two buckoes, weren’t they sitting in the back of the court and they had away with them out the door.   So begod, they were handled by the guard and they were brought and tried for the murder of Mary anyway, so he got off anyway.

M Mc    Wirelesses now, televisions, things like that, we used have what they call cielidhing (te).   They might be two or three caravans of us together, well they'd know us that well.   

Several of the lads would come down tonight and they'd say, we're ceilidhing up in Fitzgerald’s house tonight, there's Sullivans house, wherever it1d be like.

Well, all the crowd then from that parish would be in that house, d’you know.   Well all the great storytellers then, they'd tell a story, sing a song, might be a tin whistle, play a tin whistle or mouth organ, step dancing, riddles, it often went on there to four or five o-clock in the morning.    Then we'd all be cutting off our own way then, we might spend another hour in the farm yard talking then and chatting and having our own discussions, where we are going to hold the ceilidhing tomorrow night.  

So we'd come to a conclusion that we'd hold it in another house maybe a mile from that.    We'd be there the following night.  

But where we used keep, now like, we were always Travelling people, always will be.  

But the people, when they saw us coming around:  “so, we'll go round to Michael McCarthy, or Tom McCarthy, whoever they'd be, see would they have anything strange.   

Well, they'd be always looking for the news of the day like, for the news, “where were you since”, and all that or any strange stories or strange songs or strange lies, whatever.

J C     They'd ask for strange.... they'd ask for the stories?

M Mc    Oh yeah.

J C        Would they ask for new songs as well?

M Mc    Oh yeah.    And the same with the stories. Well we’d be looking forward then, we were in different counties maybe like, we’d be maybe Clare, maybe Limerick, maybe Galway.   The ceilihing'd happen down there too.    So then we'd have the stories' coming up out of there.   So bejay, we'd have the floor anyway, that night, because everybody wanted to hear the strange thing like, and different thing.

So, yerra, you'd see none of that today, with the visitors coming home now, the new bungalows, they'd be afraid in case you'd dirty their carpet and all this. (laughter).   And the television.

J C        Was it the same singers and storytellers all the time or would everybody have songs?

M Mc   Oh everybody, well, 'tis like this, 'twas, we'd like if the house was full, but the feller that wouldn't be able to sing or tell a story like, or play an instrument, or tell a bundle of lies or something, well he wouldn't come, because he know himself if he came everybody'd be picking and prodding him all night because he wouldn't tell a story or do something, you know, and they'd be all slagging him like. (laughter).    Jay, I often saw a feller catching his cap in his hand and flying out through the door home.

J C    Who were the big story tellers, can you think of any of the names of.... your father was?

M Mc   My father was a great storyteller.

J C        He had a lot of stories?

M Mc    Oh yeah, oh yeah, and very good to tell a story, very good altogether, they were saying he was the best of all Travelling people.    Well he was a great storyteller although there was older men.    You'd love listening to the old men about the stories, cause 'tis the way they’d time the story and the way they'd put kind of a half broken Irish into it like, you know, and they'd put an odd spot of Irish into where there might be a dirty word or something, they'd put in a bit of Gaelic there, where maybe the young girls wouldn't understand a thing like that, you know, and the young boys. Oh, 'twould be a kind of a mixture.

J C         Can you think of... d'you have some of the Gaelic yourself?

M Mc    Oh, very broken pieces, here and there.

J C         Can you think of a story that has the Gaelic in it?

M Mc    Well, back in Kerry like, in the west of Kerry now, 'tis all Gaelic, all Gaelic.   

Inside in the fair days now.  Well, I used be trading them donkeys that time now, d'you know.

It's like the songs, I knew a lot of Gaelic that time that I don't know now.   

And you'd go off trading off to houses like, and bejakers, there was a postboy going around that time and he was very good altogether, he was a half a dealer man himself.    So any house you were having a swap donkeys like, a changeover donkeys, you'd be asking him what time the post van'd come along.    You'd ask somebody around because they didn't know a word of English; they all knew no English at all.   So you'd have to wait there till the post boy come along and 'twas he'd fix the deal then, he'd be translating the Irish back into English for us like.    He'd be dividing the last pound and all this going on.   

So we'd travel on with him all day1 so that's how we used be doing out bit of trading.    But then we got into the hang of it like, If we wanted three pound you'd say three punt, if you wanted two pound, exchange donkeys you'd say doh punt, you know. They'd say ain punt then, or something like that, we'd say ain punt der schilling, that'd be one pound fifty, one pound ten that time.    Yerra, they were poor days but they were happier days than we have now anyway, I think so anyway.    'Tis all diesel today, petrol (laughter).

J C        Are there any songs you know or stories about trading, about somebody playing a trick, you know, somebody was singing to us Enniscorthy Fair.

M Mc   Did you ever hear the Dingle Puck Goat.?

J C        No

M Mc   Didn't you?

Oh there was a bold rambler who was foolish and airy,

To the green Hills of Kerry he wanted to stray,

So I rambled to Dingle, oh, to buy up some cattle,

And the first man I met he'd a long legged goat.

Oh bedod then, says I, for to commence the dealing,

How much for this hero, he's worth a pound note,

And through Brandon and......

Oh through Brandon and Clahan and then out through Ventry,

It was there he made his escape without any delay

So I landed in Brandon, I thought it was London,

All the fish of the sea ate the nails of my toes,

And this mighty big mackerel caught a hold of my nostril,

And he thought to run away with the half of my nose.

When I landed in Brandon I thought it was London.

I forget it all now but I'll think of it again.

J C        I’d like that, that's nice, that is very nice.  That's called the Dingle Puck Goat?

M Mc   The Dingle Puck Goat, as I say I forget it all again.   

I jumped on his back and caught a hold of his hair,

Ah, when he landed in London he thought it was Brandon,

That was it  (laughter).

D T       That's like the one Oliver sung, Beautiful Glenlee.

J C        Oh yeah, Glenlea, did you ever hear Glenlea?

M Mc   I did, I heard it all right Jim.

J C        It's a very long song.

M Mc   Well them songs, that's how they're gone out now,  If you asked to sing a song one time in Kerry, you started  singing The Dingle Puck Goat, they'd all,  “ah, shut up out of that”,  they'd say, shut up out of that, too well used to, it, you see.    So no one sings it then like.

J C      I’d like to hear that if you do remember it Michael, that's smashing.

M Mc  Bandy Legged Mule, well there was another one about the.... Travellers made up theirself about the Old Grey Mare.   Well, 'twas actually a story like but some of the Travellers put it into a song then.  Twas a farmer, where this Travelling man goes along and buys an old mare off of him anyway end bejay, the Travelling people have a terrible skill about horses, d’you know.   

How you know a horses age, if he’s very old, his teeth now like, his dimples above'd be gone in, you know. So they could pierce them and put a sop of hay in into the little hole where the horse wouldn't feel it like, in there. Then they could blow it out with their breath then and 'twould make it come out like. Then they'd cut their tail, they'd hob their mane and they'd get potash and knock off all the grey hairs off of his head.   Then they'd drop Saint Peter with him and they'd shine up his teeth and all, whatever Brylcreem they'd use that time I dont know.    But bejay, they'd have him on the next fair and he all shod up and he'd be looking like a five year old, sure he might be thirty five.   So bejay, 'twas a different man of course have him in the fair now. And they talk about the rogues today, there was white rogues going that time (laughter), saintly ones.   

So the same man that sold the old mare anyway, he came along, and 'twas your man's brother that had him.  

So he said, “is your brother Paddy around”?

“No”, he said, “he's not in the fair at all today”.  

“Bejay”, he said, “he told me he'd get me a cob today”.  

“Why, I don't know, he told me to sell this one”, and he sold him back the same one, you see.   

So bejay, he was coming back anyway, and he up on top of the horse, he was up on the back, and he'd a few mediums taken behind anyway, and bejay, the wife was outside, and the wife knew the old pony's walk,. 

So that's how they brought it into the songs, “I know her old walk well”. But after a few days he found out it was the same horse he had  (laughter).

J C       That's the same story as the song?

M Mc  The same story.

J C        That was a story originally?

M Mc   Yeah, the boys made a song out of it.

-

J C         And what do they do, they blow out......

M Mc    Yeah, they blows…. The eyebrow do be sunk in like.

J C         They sink in when they get old?

M Mc      They claim a horses teeth, when they’re past seven year old like, 'tis very hard to identify their age then. So bejay, the eyebrow above are sinking in like, so a lot of fellows that didn't know about the horses' teeth then, he'd go for the eyebrows.   So they could get at them then and blow them out1 you know (laughter ), like a ball  

M Mc  This was years ago, she was one of the Coffey’s in fact, and Cahersiveen Town was the name of the town,  But 'tis... 'twould be back before my mother's time again.  

So bejay, he'd a big farm anyway, and she was a lovely red haired girl like, foxy hair we used call it.    So they used be stopped in a place called Carne Bridge anyway, they used always stop there, and this farmer, he kept watching this girl growing up and growing up.  And bejay, he used be very chatty with the father anyway, and the girl.   

But eventually they came to terms anyway, he said, “if she'll marry me”, he said, “I've a farm and all, and everything I have”, he said, “She’d own part of it”.  So bejay, she married him anyway.   

So the father and mother was hanging around for, we'll say a month, whatever it was, a couple of months, and bejay, they started to hit to Puck Fair.    So Puck Fair was only twenty five miles from this spot anyway.   

Bejay, she was grand and happy while the father and mother was around.    And bejay, he tackled his horse and car anyway, and his tent, and whatever couple of kids he'd left, and off to go for Puck Fair. So he promised her he'd be back after Puck Fair like, for a while again, and bejay, 'twas all right anyway till she saw the pony and car going on.  

Anyway, bejay, when she saw it turning the last bend above, Kells, bejay, he couldn't get no more good of her.   She left farm and all behind and off after the father and mother, never came back, no. I imagine things like a fox or a hare, the wild is in people like that and they can’t ever settle down,

Oh the green grows the laurel and soft falls the dew,

Oh then, sad was the night love, I parted with you,

Oh then, let them all keep talking, let them say what they will,

If your love is not for you, oh then sorry you'll be

Oh 'tis at out next meeting we'll prove to be true,

Oh 'tis at our next meeting we'll prove to be true,

And we'll change th’ould green laurel to the red, white and blue.

Oh then, green grows the laurel and soft falls the dew,

And then sad was the night love I parted with you,

Oh then, let them all keep talking, let 'em say what they will,

If your love is not for you then sorry is you.

There's more to it Jim but I can't think of it.

J C       That's nice1 I've not heard it like that at all.

M Mc   ... is going to visit…..

J C       I’m sorry, about President de Valera?   

M Mc  So he said, I'll visit all the mental homes down Ireland, no matter, see how they're treating the people, d'you know. 

. So he came on to this one anyway, in Killarney, there was a warder, of course both sides of him1 d'you know

And he met a patient anyway and the patient was  sweeping the avenue as he go up along like, jay, when the patient saw him coming  with a warder both sides of him like, he didn't know who he was.   

“So, I'll see this patient here”, says DeValera, he said.   

So he walked over to him anyway1 and he said to him, “I'm the President of Ireland”, says he, “and I'm visiting all the asylums”, he said,  “to know how they're treating the patients”, he said. “what do you think”, he said?

Your man looked at him anyway.   

“Ah sure, you'll forget that after a while”, he said, “I thought I was The Pope of Rome when I came in here first”.