Padjo Mahoney
Interview by Dixie Collins on February 7, 2010
Gender: Male
Birth date: 1926
Area: West Clare - Kilkee Lower
Report date: December 8, 2015
| Time | Description |
|---|---|
| File 1 0:00:00 - 0:04:07 | TURF BOATS - Padjo was born in 1926 in Kilkee. He went to school in Moyasta and to Doonbeg at the age of seven. His grandfather took turf boats to Limerick. He describes how the turf was loaded. It would take him three weeks to go to Limerick, sell the load and return. He would take two cakes of bread and three bottles of milk for his journey. Glins owned the boat. He would carry meal on the way back. His name was Tom Halloran. His father was a herdsman on Kit's land. |
| 0:04:08 - 0:13:16 | BOATS/FISHING- He recalls making a boat with Jon Joe McGrath, the blacksmith. He describes how it was made. They built it I the hall in Doonbeg. He recalls Tommo Mullins helping them. He speaks of the nets they used. It would be £7 for a length, (50 yards), of net. He explains how they would use the net. They would fish for salmon, out from the Castle. He worked three years with John Joe McGrath and three years with Talty's. He speaks of the times they would fish and the tides. He explains how Marty O'Keefe, from Querrin, tricked the fish. He fished for trout with a rod. He recalls how the heads of salmon he had caught had been eaten by a seal. |
| 0:13:17 - 0:19:29 | RURAL ELECTRIFICATION - After his years fishing he went into building work in Cork. He was there for five or six years. He then went into the ESB rural electrification scheme. He says he was involved in putting the first poles up. He says a lot of people wouldn't take the electricity. They thought it was too expensive or too dangerous. On Saturdays he would get extra pay to go around to the houses trying the coax people to take it. They had no machinery to put the poles in. He describes how they would do it. He recalls putting a pole up in boggy land. |
| 0:19:30 - 0:20:30 | FAMILY BACKGROUND - He lived in Doonbeg-across the road from the barrack. In Moyasta was born across the road from Jack Tubridy's. He went to school with Mossie Doherty, who was on the television. He talks about the Irish in school. |
| 0:20:31 - 0:26:25 | BOAT-MAKING - Padjo speaks about 'Cully' Marrinan and boat-making. He recalls carrying a canoe. He describes the blessing the old fisherman would give to their boat. The priest would come once a year to bless the nets and boats. He speaks of 'blue stuff' coming in the water. He speaks again of 'Cully' Marrinan. |
| 0:26:26 - 0:30:48 | TURF - He remembers having to send fish by car to sell in Dublin when there was a strike on the railway. He recalls filling a wagon, on the West Clare Railway, with turf. It would take 11 horse-loads to fill it. His father had a turf plot in Moyasta and one in Doonbeg. He says it was lovely to go to the bog-it was like you would be going on holiday. |