Mná na Éireann

“When We Were Young”

“I don’t think we were ever teenagers but, when we were young girls, life was very different than it is now. There was no drink, girls could not go into a pub. The older women would maybe get a glass of port wine at Christmas or a bottle of stout to build them up after having a baby. It was unheard of for a woman to get drunk.”

“We were afraid of everything. We were afraid of what the priests might say. We were afraid of what our parents might say. We were afraid of what our neighbours might tell our parents, and we were afraid of God and how we would be punished.”

“If we had a boyfriend we kept quiet about it. I used to love dancing. It was mostly house dances with local musicians. There was always somebody who could play a fiddle or a melodeon. In the summertime there was always the ‘Middlepiece’ (platform dancing in the open air). Tommy Matt (Whelan) called out the steps – I suppose you would call him the MC now. There was a Middlepiece at Clancy’s cross. That was the best one. All the young people from the Westown side of the parish and from Ballyscanlon and Carrickbarahan and Kilfarrissey would be at it. We danced waltzes and sets, lancers and polkas, and quicksets. There would be thirty or forty people at the Middlepiece. I never remember a wet summer. Sometimes there was no one to play so we would be jigging ourselves. Mrs. Whelan (Tommy’s mother) was great for jigging. We used to dance in her kitchen, too. She had a great big kitchen. We often had to sneak out the window to the dances.”

[ Here is a video of the wicked and sinful pastime of house-dancing (narrated by a well-known personality). Just turn on the sound and click the arrow in the centre of the picture. – Comms Team. ]