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jj.carroll
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"A While With Your Own Ones" by Patricia McSorley
« on: Thursday 23 August 07 22:24 UTC (UK) »

A WHILE WITH YOUR OWN ONES, by Patricia McSorley, was published in 1989.  It was an attempt to gather together many of the historical and geographical facts that formed the thesis for some of the oral stories and anecdotes that emanated from one community in County Tyrone, Eskra – both the district and the parish.  Mrs. McSorley has graciously provided me a copy of that work.  Because it's long out of print I would like to share with the reader, from time to time, snippets from this valuable work.

"…It is necessary to differentiate between Eskra the district and Eskra the [Roman Catholic] parish.  The district of Eskra is the old plantation manor of Cecil and Killyfaddy comprising about fifty townlands of which the parish of Eskra takes in twenty-five. …”Eskra” – a small rural district is situated approximately sixteen kilometers south-east of Omagh, in the northern end of the Clogher Valley.

"If we look at a regional map of the area we see place names as: Eskermore, Eskernabrogue, and Eskerhool – linked by the term “Esker”.  It is from this term that the parish derives its name.  There are two eskers on each side of the pleasant Eskra Water, which were known to the old Irish ancestors of today’s parishioners as, Dubh-Eiscir (Black Esker) and Fionn-Eiscir (Fair Esker).

"It is known that the Eskragh area was farmed extensively by the celts and there are a good number of their forts and lisses to prove it.  From the early ordnance survey maps of the area it can be seen that there was a fort in Eskragh, one in Corkhill, tow in Lisnarable and three in Tychanny.  There is also a large fort near Newtownsaville, through which the road runs.  There is good evidence of early settlement here in the Ulster Museum.  They have superbly decorated god lunula, a sort of crescent shaped gold collar, dating from about 1600 B.C.  The collar was found in a bog in Tulnafoile."
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Carroll, McCarroll, McCusker and McCosker from County Tyrone. Then there are Dillen for Derry, Gaffigan, McGaffigan, Crennan, and Amos.  Now adding: Leonard, Berry, and Gahagan from Strokestown, County Roscommon, also Gahigan, Hounihan, and Whonohan and another branch of Carrolls from County Cork.
jj.carroll
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Flax Facts
« Reply #1 on: Friday 24 August 07 15:00 UTC (UK) »

A WHILE WITH YOUR OWN ONES, by Patricia McSorley, was published in 1989.  It was an attempt to gather together many of the historical and geographical facts that formed the thesis for some of the oral stories and anecdotes that emanated from one community in County Tyrone, Eskra.  Mrs. McSorley has graciously provided me a copy of that work and because it's long out of print I’d like to share some snippets from this valuable work.

“Flax was a time consuming crop, especially before the era of the flax mills, when all the processing was done on the farm.  Sown in late April or May, it was ready for harvesting a hundred days after it was sown.  Rushes were cut and made into bands for tying the flax which was hand pulled.  The tied bundles were never called sheaves as with grain crops: they were known as ‘beets’ and the tyings as ‘beeting bands.’

“The beets were put into the dam of preferably soft water and ready for removal in ten to fourteen days, depending on temperature and water quality.  Then a scantily clad man went in to the dam and threw out the beets, sometimes having to rinse the top row to remove clay which had come from sods used to keep the beets submerged.  The smell was vile, but eventually became unnoticeable to the workers. Spread thinly on a clean grass field until dry, it was re=tied and built into a ‘reek’.  The valuable thread, which grew on the outside of the now rotten stalks, was removed by the ’scutchers’. A scutching handle was a piece of good quality wood shaped like a very large butcher’s knife.  The knife blade was blunt.  A small quantity of flax, called a ‘streak’, was held by the end and beaten with a downward motion until the husk was removed from the fibre.  Before scotching, it was spread on a frame over a slow fire, then beaten on a flat surface.

“This was known as ‘melling’ or ‘beetling’ flax.  The final process was ‘heckling’ and there was tradesman known as a ‘heckler’.  The common phrases: I’m as sore as if I was beetled’, and ‘as thin as a scotching handle’, originated in flax labour.

“The scotch mill had several revolving handles against which the scutcher held the flax.  Missing fingers and damaged hands were the trademarks of the scutchers, who also owing to the dusty conditions, often over-indulged in drink.

“There was a by-product called ‘tow’, valuable during World War One, since it could be mad into cord, twine, coarse yarn and upholstery padding.  ‘Shows’ or ‘wakes’ – the useless husk, provided an evil smelling fire in the scutchers’ homes.  Women worked at the processing of the tow and were called ‘Tow Tagers’ and it was no mark of respect to term any woman a ‘Tager’.
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Carroll, McCarroll, McCusker and McCosker from County Tyrone. Then there are Dillen for Derry, Gaffigan, McGaffigan, Crennan, and Amos.  Now adding: Leonard, Berry, and Gahagan from Strokestown, County Roscommon, also Gahigan, Hounihan, and Whonohan and another branch of Carrolls from County Cork.
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Re: Flax Facts
« Reply #2 on: Friday 24 August 07 15:25 UTC (UK) »

some of my ancestors were flax growers in the 1700's. They were not Irish born but went from the Cotton Towns in Lancashire.  the family were mill owners, and weavers, so obviously something must have been profitable for them to go to Armagh to grow Flax.

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jj.carroll
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Re: Flax Facts
« Reply #3 on: Friday 24 August 07 21:58 UTC (UK) »

According to Mrs. McSorley's account by 1800 the main crops for the land now owned by Sir George Savile, the Manor of Cecil, were: potatoes, barley, oats and flax in that order.  "The Cecil tenantry grew a lot of flax and potatoes instead of hay because the former were titheless.  Barley was a very important crop for home distilling.  Over 1,200 (pounds) were imposed in fines for Clogher Barony at the Lent Assize of 1809.

FLAX was an important crop in the nineteenth century.  By 1866 there were 4,500 acres in the Clogher Valley resulting in eighteen scutching mills.  There was a large scutching mill with ten stocks at Kilnaheery (built by Gervais, about 1830) and other smaller ones at [the townlands of] Raveagh, Corkhill, Beltany, Carboe, Eskragh and Garvaghey...

The linen industry went into decline after the famine and by 1900 less than 100 acres of flax were grown in the clogher Valley.  The decline was due to production being too labour intensive.
Logged

Carroll, McCarroll, McCusker and McCosker from County Tyrone. Then there are Dillen for Derry, Gaffigan, McGaffigan, Crennan, and Amos.  Now adding: Leonard, Berry, and Gahagan from Strokestown, County Roscommon, also Gahigan, Hounihan, and Whonohan and another branch of Carrolls from County Cork.
jj.carroll
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Notes on Agriculture in Eskra
« Reply #4 on: Saturday 25 August 07 14:42 UTC (UK) »

According to Mrs. McSorley's account, by 1800 the main crops for the land owned by Sir George Savile, the Manor of Cecil, and worked by the tenant farmers were: potatoes, barley, oats and flax in that order. 

"The Cecil tenantry grew a lot of flax and potatoes instead of hay because the former were titheless.  [But barley] was a very important crop for home distilling.  Over 1,200 (pounds) were imposed in fines for Clogher Barony at the Lent Assize of 1809.

“Few holdings of pre-famine years, and for many years later, were capable of yielding a carefree livelihood.  Holdings were small and lack of knowledge and capital, handicapped them. “According to McSorely, “The main crops were potatoes, oats, flax and small quantities of rye, marigolds, vetches, turnips and cabbages.

“The scotch planters may have introduced the growing of potatoes in lazybeds.  We termed them ‘ridges’ – stretches of land which accommodated four plants across and were divided by a strip two spades wide.  This was covering the potatoes at planting time.  Good farmers added lime and when the plants appeared, a further light covering of clay was applied.  The next year the furrow was filled a new one created in the middle of the previous ridge.

“When yields declined the field was sown in oats for perhaps two years and then allowed to revert to grazing without being undersown.  Grass seed was unknown for many years and it took land treated in the above way years to regain fertility.

She went on to write, “FLAX was an important crop in the nineteenth century.  By 1866 there were 4,500 acres in the Clogher Valley resulting in eighteen scutching mills.  There was a large scutching mill with ten stocks at Kilnaheery (built by Gervais, about 1830) and other smaller ones at [the townlands of] Raveagh, Corkhill, Beltany, Carboe, Eskragh and Garvaghey...

“The linen industry went into decline after the famine and by 1900 less than 100 acres of flax were grown in the clogher Valley.  The decline was due to production being too labour intensive.”
Logged

Carroll, McCarroll, McCusker and McCosker from County Tyrone. Then there are Dillen for Derry, Gaffigan, McGaffigan, Crennan, and Amos.  Now adding: Leonard, Berry, and Gahagan from Strokestown, County Roscommon, also Gahigan, Hounihan, and Whonohan and another branch of Carrolls from County Cork.
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The Spud...
« Reply #5 on: Sunday 26 August 07 14:43 UTC (UK) »

More from McSorley’s book; this time “THE SPUD.”

“Potatoes were the main food supply for man and beast [and remained so well into the 1900s].  The hard work began when ‘father’ decided to have the best potatoes hand picked and put in bags.  These were called ‘seed potatoes’.  Bags containing the seed were taken into the comfort of the kitchen, where helpers at the cutting stood like nurses in the theatre.  Full ‘butts’ of cuts had to be left outside in a shed.  Butts of rejects were washed and put in a big boiler…[and] were boiled and fed to the pigs.  Little sharp knives were bandaged with a piece of cotton rag, just below the handle, to protect the forefinger from pressure when cutting.

“The attendants washed and cleaned the dust from off the floor after each cutting session.  Cutting could last up to two or three weeks.  [Attendants, bandages – what the heck?  Patricia McSorely was trained as a nurse!]

“Drills were opened with a horse plough and farmyard manure was spread evenly in each drill.  Little mounds of manure had been dropped at intervals up to the drills by the men and the family scattered these using graips.

“The back breaking job of dropping the potatoes followed.  Each ‘cut’ had to be dropped eye side up and freshly cut side facing downwards and evenly spaced.  This was important as father followed the droppers with his bucket of bone manure.  With his hand he spread a fine covering of this artificial manure on top of the cuts. Should he find a cut turned the wrong way up, the culprit was reprimanded because the bone manure could burn the upturned spud.

“Drills were closed and you anxiously awaited the growth of the new potatoes, which brought a flourishing crop of unwanted weeds.  The children had to weed these, up one drill and down the next, acre after acre.  The top of each drill had to be lowered, thus aiding the young shoot.  This was done using a hoe and was called ‘Topping the Drills’.

“Before spraying time, a crop of turnips, carrots, mangols and cabbage had to be thinned and kept free of weeds.  At spaying time a big wooden ‘Porter Barrel” was filled with water and mixed with correct proportions of blue stone and washing soda; 7 lbs. blue stone and 9 lbs. washing soda for the 40 gallon barrel.  This mixture was carried to the farmer by the children.  He carried a sprayer on his back and it held about four gallons…

“Potato gathering ‘holidays’ came in October, as children were needed to do the hard work of gathering the crop.  [The drills} were ploughed open and the lovely new potatoes would roll out and were gathered…  They were stored in big clay pits scattered throughout the field and well covered with rushes and soil to protect them from frost.

“During the winter months, big boilers were filled with potatoes, hand picked from the pit, washed and boiled.  The fire under the boiler had to be replenished all the time and those who weren’t helping at the pits were off in the fields finding brosnaigh, or cutting branches with a cross cut saw.  Brosnaigh was the dead sticks lying around the hedges.”
Logged

Carroll, McCarroll, McCusker and McCosker from County Tyrone. Then there are Dillen for Derry, Gaffigan, McGaffigan, Crennan, and Amos.  Now adding: Leonard, Berry, and Gahagan from Strokestown, County Roscommon, also Gahigan, Hounihan, and Whonohan and another branch of Carrolls from County Cork.
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Common Superstitions from "A While With Your Own Ones" by Patricia McSorley
« Reply #6 on: Monday 27 August 07 15:06 UTC (UK) »

Common Irish Superstitions or Customs

One must see the new moon for the first time over the left shoulder, then turn the silver in one’s pocket to have good luck.
Never open an umbrella indoors, it brings bad luck, and we all know how unlucky it is to walk under a ladder.
The mere mention of misfortune or evil could bring misfortune but it is customary ‘to touch wood’ having made the statement. It is thought this is a substitute for the Sign of the Cross.
You could ward off evil spirits by throwing a pinch of salt over the left shoulder. If the salt is spilled, however, there will be a quarrel. Some charms keep evil spirits away.
A horseshoe over the door is supposed to do this.  It is a ‘good luck’ symbol.  If you find a horseshoe you must return home at once, without speaking to anyone, and hang it over the door, prongs up.  If the prongs hand down the luck will fall out.  It must be fastened with three nails each driven in by three blows of the hammer, all done in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
If you have a blister on your tongue, then you have told a lie.
If your ears are burning someone is talking about you.
Cold shivers your spine, someone is walking over the spot that will be your grave.
If you have either a whistlin’ woman or a crowin’ hen, get rid of them, they are two worst things a man could have about the place!
The gift of a knife cuts friendship.
Don’t postpone your wedding or turn back when going on a journey.
It is not lucky for a red-haired woman to go into anyone’s house on New Year’s Day. And don’t throw out you ashes, sweepings of the floor or dish water. Remember the fairies are on the move January 1st.
Some housewives will not sweep the dust out of the front door in case they sweep the fortune of the house.
Up to the first quarter of the twentieth century it was considered very unlucky to buy clothes for a baby before it was born.
The first cradle should not be new.  Temporary and sometimes permanent accommodation was generally a horse’s color or a drawer of a wardrobe.
A baby born with a caul, or umbilical cord around the neck, was superstitiously regarded as a lucky omen preservative against drowning. Sailors who are superstitious believe that a ship carrying one of these cauls will never be lost.
It is lucky to start planting potatoes for a new season on Good Friday, should it only be a few for the dinner.
It was unlucky to lend anything on May 1st or to give away milk or even a live coal to light a neighbour’s fire in the bog.  These customs had no great significance other than “it was custom.”
If the wind is coming from Ballyhushy, there’ll be rain.  Ballyhushy – another name for Kilnahushogue.
Put a fresh blade of grass across the newly born baby’s mouth and you’ll have a good singer in the family.
Logged

Carroll, McCarroll, McCusker and McCosker from County Tyrone. Then there are Dillen for Derry, Gaffigan, McGaffigan, Crennan, and Amos.  Now adding: Leonard, Berry, and Gahagan from Strokestown, County Roscommon, also Gahigan, Hounihan, and Whonohan and another branch of Carrolls from County Cork.
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Food on our tables...
« Reply #7 on: Tuesday 28 August 07 01:30 UTC (UK) »

Patricia McSorley called this segment, "A Gourmet Restaurant!"  It is a bunch of snippets from her 1989 out of print book about the food that could be expected for my father and mother's meals in County Tyrone, Mike and Julia.  It wasn't different for my grandparents Mickey and Agnes, or for my great-grand-mother Catherine McCusker and great-grandfather Owen McCarroll.  Maybe some got to a restaurant, but not very often, if ever.

    "Someone cycled to the town on Saturday to get meat and a few 'extras' for Sunday's dinner.  Every other day dinner consisted of boiled potatoes, cabbage, eggs and bacon.  When the bacon was friend on the big black pan, the fat was kept to fry the mashed cabbage.  Mixed with sliced onion it was delicious.
            "A knife, fork and mug were set out for each adult and plates were laid on the table.  The potatoes were placed in a colander or emptied into a big white flour bag in the centre of the table.  Each person held up a piping hot, starchy potato one by one on the end of a fork. Was peeled in the air and the peel fell on the table.
            "The potatoes together with cabbage and bacon and washed down with a big mug of buttermilk was a sumptuous meal.
            "Frequently the bacon and egg were replaced by a dollop of homemade butter.  Left-overs were always kept for the dog, chickens and pigs - in that order.
            "Two or three miles was a common distance to walk to and from school and children who had porridge for breakfast and a piece of bread for lunch were ready for a good meal when they reached home.
            "I'll tell you there were no free meals like nowadays. I had a couple of bits of bread in my bag and I had them eaten before I was the length of the bloody school.
            "Owen Rodgers from Fintona used to come here with a "tay cart", Monaghan's had a grocery van and so had Arthur McCarroll.  Mother used to make oaten bread at the hearth and John Doyle would be on McCarroll's cart and he'd get his tea here and a good feed of oatcake.
            "Owen Hackett's lorry came as far as Maggie Tighe's.  I remember Owen Brennan and Frank Nugent in Newtowncival before Dan McSorley and Owen Hackett took over. .Oh, such changes!!  Maggie, Johnny and Packie "Toy" lived up there, where Sheridan has the place now.  It was a great house for dancing, and the girls got tea but the lads got none. Sure, we took the scones of bread out of Marlowes with a pitchfork
            "A flat over, normally used for baking, was placed in the middle of the kitchen floor and the 'dinner' was portioned off.  With a spoon or fork in hand, each child squatted on the floor and enjoyed a tasty meal  Potatoes, cabbage, onion, bacon and egg, salt and pepper are all mashed together with a little butter.  This meal is now called "Colcannon". The wash up is minimal and the taste still lingers with all of us who sampled it.
            "I remember coming home from Mass on the first Sunday of the month and loving the smell of toast.  We got loaf bread and toast that day because we were fasting from the previous midnight.  It had been toasted on a fork in front of the fire.
            "'At ceiling houses,' says Jim McGinley, "tea was never made when I was a young lad, instead a pot of porridge was put in the middle of the floor.  The women of the house would distribute bowls of milk to respective callers.  If there were a few girls and fellas there, you could tell which fella the girl fancied, for he would receive more milk in his bowl and maybe a spoonful of sugar would be slipped in for luck."

Logged

Carroll, McCarroll, McCusker and McCosker from County Tyrone. Then there are Dillen for Derry, Gaffigan, McGaffigan, Crennan, and Amos.  Now adding: Leonard, Berry, and Gahagan from Strokestown, County Roscommon, also Gahigan, Hounihan, and Whonohan and another branch of Carrolls from County Cork.
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Re: "A While With Your Own Ones" by Patricia McSorley
« Reply #8 on: Wednesday 29 August 07 17:43 UTC (UK) »

 Irish Proverbs.
Na caith do shaol diomhaoin  { Dont be Idle}

An rud na baineann leat,na bac leis { dont touch what doesn't belong to you}

Briseann an duches tri shuile an chait {Breeding always breaks through }

Cios do thiarna na bia do leanbh.{ Rent for the landlord or food for the child }

Ni thagann ciall roimh aois { Sense doesn't come before age }

Is goire cabhair De na an doras { Gods help is as close to you as the door }
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Patrica McSorley's account of dances...
« Reply #9 on: Wednesday 29 August 07 18:49 UTC (UK) »

We now turn to some of the stories that Patricia McSorley and Patricia Hackett heard from others in the Eskra community when they were collecting the accounts and as Mrs. McSorley stated in her book, these stories form a part of the great oral tradition and folklore of Ireland. 
Eskra is a small rural district of about twenty-five townlands in the old plantation manors of Cecil and Kllyfaddy, about sixteen kilometers south-east of Omagh, Co. Tyrone, and is situated in the northern end of the Clogher Valley.  And dances in the 20s and 30s were an important thing to the people of Eskra. 
“There were some quare [sic] dances in the hall beside Marlows.  I heard my mother talking about Maggie Tighe, Mrs. Monaghan (Fintona), Rose Doyle, the Corrigans and B. Hagan.  They’d have the flour bags bleached white and ready for the dance for maybe three weeks before it.  These bags were to be used as tea towels, dishcloths and to cover the sandwiches and cake.  Ah, dear! There’s not one of them left now.  The people, nor the flour bags!
   “They’d come on bikes and they’d be lined round Marlow’s house in heaps.  The ladies would go into Marlow’s to do themselves up.
“Packie Brannigan supplied the music most of the time and is recalled that Maggie ‘Toy’ and Joe Gormley were two exceptionally good step dancers.  If it happened that there was no one at the dance who could supply instrumental music, it was all right, since there were plenty of great lilters and they’d all lilt together.
   “When the ladies were taking their tea ‘in the room’, the men danced ‘The Clap Dance” to the music of The Soldier’s Joy.  The women made the tea and you’d be invited down to the room, or parlour, but the men got no tea.  You see, they wouldn’t have enough to go round. I heard about dances where the men went outside and took out the cake out through the window on a pitchfork or sally rod! They would make scallops, then they’d reach in and take out the buns or cake.
   “There was a great wee dance called ‘The Royal Charlie’.  It was much the same as ‘The Waves of Tory’ which we still see occasionally.
   “Tommy Mullin remembers house dances in Lurganglare. ‘Well, the neighbours would just gather in and I’d play the fiddle.  There would be a dozen or more. They’d come to your house a]the night and you’d go to their house the next night. Of course, the boys would follow the houses where they knew the good looking girls were!  It was all the sport you had.’
   “There’d be an odd big Social Event in Newtownsaville School.  It was usually organized by Joe Hackett.  Joe would be round on the grocery cart you see, and he would sell the tickets.  If he knew any good dancing girls he’d give them preferential treatment. I don’t think he even charged them for the tickets.
   “For us boys, it was two bob.  Times you’d have it and times you wouldn’t.  Then there were the sixpenny dances. They were in the local schools – Arogan, Glencull, Altamuskin and Fintona.  These dances were good but it was hard to get the money to go to them.”
   NOTE:  When I met Maggie ‘Toy’ in 1982, she was 92 years young.  She and I conversed for over an hour.  To this day I can remember that gracious lady and can believe that she was a great Step Dancer.  If I had asked her at that time, she probably could have done the steps as well as any person - half her age.
Logged

Carroll, McCarroll, McCusker and McCosker from County Tyrone. Then there are Dillen for Derry, Gaffigan, McGaffigan, Crennan, and Amos.  Now adding: Leonard, Berry, and Gahagan from Strokestown, County Roscommon, also Gahigan, Hounihan, and Whonohan and another branch of Carrolls from County Cork.
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Problems with the Drink...
« Reply #10 on: Thursday 30 August 07 14:26 UTC (UK) »

This will be the last snippet taken from the out-of-print McSorley book, posted at this website.  While it has been fun to bring them to you, I just don't think that each topic should be included in the same thread - as if it was a Saturday afternoon serial, like the Adventures of Rocket Rider.

While many of these snippets are of a general nature so that they may flow together, I really don't feel that this book should be cut up into 500 word essays, posted one day at a time.  There are some subjects that an individual reader may appreciate, but to most the serialization of this book can become rather boring in this format. And I don't think that is fair to Mrs. McSorley or to the interested reader.

On behalf of Patricia McSorley, and the people of Eskragh, it has been my pleasure to share with you these important  thoughts on the subject matter at hand.  Thank you, and thank RootsChat.com for allowing the discourse to continue as it has.  Now on to...   

And then there was Jimmy White, who “…used to go to Clogher wants [sic] a week with his donkey and cart. He’d always go to the Post Office first and collect his pension, then he’d get his business done around the town.  He had a habit of going into this particular store near closing time. I think it was Johnston’s. 
“You see they had a good yard attached to the shop and he could throw the donkey a handful of hay and he’d leave him and the cart there, knowing they were safe.  He’d head up the town to the nearest pub where he’d spend an hour – or maybe more, depending on the crack.
   “The shop boys were fed up with this carry on because they weren’t allowed to leave the store without closing the big railed gates on the yard.  One day they decided they would sicken him.
“As usual, Jimmy was in the pub and the donkey and cart were in the yard.  So, they unharnessed the donkey and led him out of the yard, then closed the gates. They ran the shafts of the cart out through the bars or iron rails and harnessed the donkey again.  Off they went.
   “Yer man, Jimmy, came back eventually with a few in him and was very surprised to see the donkey out on the pavement. He caught her by the whiskers. ‘Come on Nelly,’ says he.  Nelly couldn’t budge.
“He turned back to inspect and saw what was wrong.
   “‘God, damn me Nelly, I always knew you were a twister, but how the hell did you get yourself into this hank?’”
   Then there was Willie Wang, “as we called him.  [He], lived on hes own, there where Father Connolly lives now, and he was a bit scarred of the P.P.  Anyhow, he come home this night from his ceili and knowed that there was someone in the kitchen because the hairy ned was off the door.
   “Pushing the door before him he says, ‘Who are you anyway?’
   “‘I’m the devil out of hell,’ came the reply.
“‘Oh, dammits, tha’s not so bad,’ says he, ‘I though you was the Parish Priest.
Finally, “Wee Torry Tague was drawin’ turf to the priest’s house and he was right’n fond of a drop o’ drink. 
“Handling him this glass o’ whiskey the priest says, ‘You know, I shouldn’t be giving you this.  Every time you take one of these you’re putting a nail in your own coffin.’
‘Go on out o’ that,’ says Torry.  ‘Just stick another nail in it when you have the hammer in your hand.’”
Logged

Carroll, McCarroll, McCusker and McCosker from County Tyrone. Then there are Dillen for Derry, Gaffigan, McGaffigan, Crennan, and Amos.  Now adding: Leonard, Berry, and Gahagan from Strokestown, County Roscommon, also Gahigan, Hounihan, and Whonohan and another branch of Carrolls from County Cork.
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