Sheila Cullinan
Interview by Geraldine Greene on August 6, 2010
Gender: Female
Report date: September 19, 2015
| Time | Description |
|---|---|
| File 1 0:00:00 - 0:04:41 | FAMILY BACKGROUND - Sheila speaks about her family's background in Kilgorey, O'Callaghan's Mills. She states that her grandfather was the steward for a landlord called Sampson. She speaks about her grandfather and father and the work on Kilgorey House. When the Land Commission divided up the estate, her father got Kilgorey House and the land surrounding the house. In 1932, Sheila's father decided to sell the house. Her mother met a man who was drowned in Kilgorey lake after being in to see her and she could never settle at Kilgorey after that. The family then moved to Loughborough. |
| 0:04:42 - 0:06:14 | KILGOREY HOUSE - Sheila speaks about Kilgorey House. She states that they were tree miles away from school. There were always visitors on a Sunday |
| 0:06:15 - 0:13:36 | SCHOOLDAYS - Sheila describes going to school from Kilgorey. The girls were upstairs and the boys were downstairs in the school in O'Callaghan's Mills. Mrs. Lynch and Mrs. Hurley were the teachers. Sheila describes lunch at school which was bread and butter and apples in the apple time. She describes brining the waste to the priest's house and getting a treat from the lady who was the maid there. Sheila went to school until she was eighteen. She states that Irish was just coming in at that time and she didn't find it too hard to learn. Sheila describes a time when she was doing geography and that Katy or Annie O Halloran who was going before her pretended to get a weakness. Instead of saying Annie's piece she said what she had prepared herself and got a clatter from Mrs. Hurley as a result. Sheila states that she had problems with decimals. Molly Hyde (from the Blacksticks) who was going to Laurel Hill would help her. |
| 0:13:37- 0:15:34 | THE BLACKSTICKS - Sheila speaks about the Blacksticks bar. She outlines the people who were living there at the time including Jack Murphy who mended shoes at the back. She describes the different activity at the Blacksticks. She describes Ned Hyde, the oldest man at the Blacksticks at that time. |
| 0:15:35 - 0:17:32 | WORK & MARRIAGE - Sheila speaks about her work after finishing school and getting married to Tom Cullinan from Quin. She speaks about moving from home to get married and says it was hard. Her husband worked at Shannon Airport laying the roads. |
| File 2 0:00:00 - 0:05:30 | SHANNON - Sheila speaks about her husband's work as the airport was starting. Tom was working for a firm who were making a concrete road at the time. They were living in Carrigery in Newmarket at that time. She says that Shannon Airport took everyone out of poverty. Sheila describes moving to the house in Rathluby. When they arrived, there was nothing in the house. Tom used to cycle back to Shannon every day. There was an old man living in the house with them called Tom Conlon. His nickname was Torpey. She remembers cycling to Ennis and when she came back the old man was dead. |
| 0:05:31 - 0:09:14 | OLDER GENERATION & CUAIRD - Sheila describes the old people she remembered from her youth. She speaks about old Ger Liddy and Master Corbett. She would see them crossing Kilgorey going to the Blacksticks. They would always call to Kilgorey house and smoke a pipe together on 'cuaird'. On a Sunday if you were a certain distance from the Blacksticks, you were a traveller. Sheila remembers a man who would travel to the Blacksticks because he'd be regarded as a traveller. Sheila explains that when old people were talking children would not be allowed to be listening. They were not allowed to listen to their conversation. Sheila states that the only people who came on 'cuaird' would be on the way to the Blacksticks as a shortcut. |
| 0:09:15 - 0:09:49 | MARRIAGE - Sheila speaks briefly about the fairs in Tulla and O'Callaghan's Mills |
| File 3 0:00:00 - 0:01:30 | THE FAIRS - Sheila speaks again about the fairs in O'Callaghan's Mills and Tulla. She says that the men only went to O'Callaghan's Mills. She would go a bit of the road to stop the cattle but would not go to the fair. She speaks about 'Larkin' a great cattle dog they had. |
| File 4 0:00:00 - 0:01:36 | LARKIN THE DOG - Sheila describes how her father would go to first mass on Sunday. Their dog 'Larkin' (their cattle dog) would always wait at an ash tree at the bottom of the house until Sheila's father came home from mass. |
| 0:01:37 - 0:05:13 | THE LAND COMMISSION AND DR. SAMPSON - She speaks about her father and the division of the Sampson estate by the land commission briefly. Miss Mary, Dr. Sampson's daughter would come to Kilgorey to administer her father's affairs. She only met Dr. Sampson a couple of times but doesn't remember him at all. She recalled men coming to work making hay. The men would sometimes stay for a few weeks while they would be working. |
| 0:05:14 - 0:10:15 | PISEOGS AND TRADITIONS - Sheila speaks about 'piseogs' and traditions. She speaks about a woman in Killmurry that people did not want to come into your house when you would be churning butter. She would have to take a turn of the churn if she came in. She speaks about a Mrs. Rice in Mooghaun who would go out on May Eve. She apparently was fired at and shot in the bottom. Sheila recalls games at Halloween. She recalled the November fair in O'Callaghan's Mills, when a man would come with different types of nuts. On Hallowe'en eve, they would play a game with the nuts to see who would get married. |
| 0:10:16 - 0:13:09 | THE SUMMERTIME AND FOOTWEAR - She describes the summers as being 'ever so long'. Her father wore a straw hat from the end of April until the end of October. At this time they would go to school in their bare feet from April through the summer. She describes the boots that she would have worn. Her father would get their boots at Littleton's in Tulla. She would get a pair for St. Patrick's Day. They could last two winters. If there was a problem with them, they would be taken to Jack Murphy's at the Blacksticks. |
| 0:13:10 - 0:22:02 | CHRISTMAS AT KILGOREY HOUSE - Sheila describes Christmas at Kilgorey House. Her mother would get lots of decorations. She recalls the different stages of preparation for Christmas including the baking and shopping. She describes a bearth of holly coming into the house. Sheila speaks briefly about midnight mass. The family would walk down to mass in O'Callaghan's Mills. She describes how she found out about Santa Claus. She was cleaning upstairs and found the toys and presents. |
| 0:22:03 - 0:24:25 | ELECTRIFICATION - Sheila recalls the impact of electricity arriving into the house. She explains who her father and mother always ate out of the one plate when they were eating their dinner, despite there being loads of plates in the house. |