A wonderful picture painted by Seamus...How I remember those small shops dotted around Co Cavan and Co Leitrim. In the early 1950s. I was 16 and it was my first paid job working on the delivery lorry for the Cavan Mineral Waters. The memory of carrying crates of minerals into shops like that and crates of bottles of stout into those small isolated pubs has stayed with me forever. Not forgetting the cold dirty job of sorting out and collecting the empties from a small yard at the back of the premises. How could I ever forget the smell of the paraffin heaters and the hiss of the Tilley lamp that were used in those premises for heat and light as the winter nights closed in. It would be later on in the 1950s when rural electrification finally reached places like that. I can still hear the rattle of the bell over the narrow door as I squeeze through with my delivery. ...
It was 1960 (14 yrs. old) when I went to work for my aunt in her shop in the village. She was a loveless , heartless old crone, but it was yet a great blessing for me, as I was on the shy side. The people, young and old, I got to meet them, talk and get to know them, and of course the girls stopping in, young country girls coming an going to their job at the monastery up the road, stopping in for sweets, ice cream . And also, the old pensioners who came in to the post office for the pension, then to visit me in the shop for tobacco and such. I remember well when President Kennedy was shot, an old man came in and told me, said he just heard the news at the post office,. Soon thereafter, I left that place for New York City...my God, what a transformation. I still dream of that place...and the people.
Does anyone else remember Francy Glancy's shop near Kiltyclogher. It seems like a lifetime ago, but I remember buying 10 Sweet Aftons many years ago there . I was born in 1954 , so I was about 12 years old at the time. Gosh, I guess I shouldn't have been smoking.
@@rinacarty6874 I know Rina, but we did it anyway, was it rebellion? Yes, for me anyway, but also to fit in, be one of the boys , and to experiment...after all, we were on the cusp of a new life...childhood to adulthood. Looking back now , that was a very short journey. Leaving a rural village in East Limerick and waking up in Astoria, Queens... aka NYC and vicinity. I’m 75 now. A long journey in between. Se la vi. My love, and life is still good.
Yes I regret the disappearance of the small shops and post offices too. I was lucky enough to have shopped in them in Ireland and elsewhere. I wish them to open up once again and for rural life to flourish.
Excellent recollection of rural life in my memory sadly no going back to those simple times when Sunday Mass and the football game was the center of our lives. Séamus is fast becoming our new Patrick Kavanagh...I have many memories of that area while winning a county Cavan title with Mickey Cully. It must be something that was in the bread TOM STAUNTON MAYO
Brought back so many memories I grew up in that crossroads shop.Thankfully with the great support of the local community we are still thriving one hundred years later and being run by the fourth generation.
Now here is a remarkable portrayal of rural commerce in early 1960's County Kildare. The words and narrative describe so well my childhood memories. They were many and always had a distinctive aroma of stale fruit, stale tea, and stale bodies. You cannot get this now - multiples like SPAR, Centra, et al., wouldn't permit it. I expect the scandal, backbiting and vicious character assassination is still as vibrant as ever though!
I do love this ..my husbands youth..I love leitrum..Ireland is my second Home married to a wonderful Irish guy for 18yr now..wonderful memories huh (Helen James Wife )
Great recitation..They are not all gone...Some still exist Bracknagh offaly, anascaul Kerry.....Come on add a few more here and keep them ticking over..where else?
I'm from beside McKiernans shops Seamus, between the 2 of them in fact. Them was the days, there was no " cartridge for me e-cig and this months Playboy magazine please John/Eileen" .. God no, I'd have to go to 6 masses in repentance for me sins and I'd be shunned coz I'm going to hell anyway. Ah life was so much easier and straightforward in the 80's ... if you said you had a few pound you were either a thief or a liar.
A wonderful picture painted by Seamus...How I remember those small shops dotted around Co Cavan and Co Leitrim. In the early 1950s. I was 16 and it was my first paid job working on the delivery lorry for the Cavan Mineral Waters. The memory of carrying crates of minerals into shops like that and crates of bottles of stout into those small isolated pubs has stayed with me forever. Not forgetting the cold dirty job of sorting out and collecting the empties from a small yard at the back of the premises. How could I ever forget the smell of the paraffin heaters and the hiss of the Tilley lamp that were used in those premises for heat and light as the winter nights closed in. It would be later on in the 1950s when rural electrification finally reached places like that. I can still hear the rattle of the bell over the narrow door as I squeeze through with my delivery. ...
It was 1960 (14 yrs. old) when I went to work for my aunt in her shop in the village. She was a loveless , heartless old crone, but it was yet a great blessing for me, as I was on the shy side. The people, young and old, I got to meet them, talk and get to know them, and of course the girls stopping in, young country girls coming an going to their job at the monastery up the road, stopping in for sweets, ice cream . And also, the old pensioners who came in to the post office for the pension, then to visit me in the shop for tobacco and such. I remember well when President Kennedy was shot, an old man came in and told me, said he just heard the news at the post office,. Soon thereafter, I left that place for New York City...my God, what a transformation. I still dream of that place...and the people.
Does anyone else remember Francy Glancy's shop near Kiltyclogher. It seems like a lifetime ago, but I remember buying 10 Sweet Aftons many years ago there . I was born in 1954 , so I was about 12 years old at the time. Gosh, I guess I shouldn't have been smoking.
@@rinacarty6874 I know Rina, but we did it anyway, was it rebellion? Yes, for me anyway, but also to fit in, be one of the boys , and to experiment...after all, we were on the cusp of a new life...childhood to adulthood.
Looking back now , that was a very short journey.
Leaving a rural village in East Limerick and waking up in Astoria, Queens... aka NYC and vicinity.
I’m 75 now. A long journey in between. Se la vi. My love, and life is still good.
@@joenavanodo3780 Greetings from West Limerick. Luimneach abú
Brilliant evocative walk down memory lane, esp the throng after Mass (and the handful of nails)😂 loved it thank you.❤️😂
The Poet of the Pastoral ; he is a treasure
God bless you Seamus all so sad and true
Yes I regret the disappearance of the small shops and post offices too. I was lucky enough to have shopped in them in Ireland and elsewhere. I wish them to open up once again and for rural life to flourish.
Beautiful memories
Excellent recollection of rural life in my memory sadly no going back to those simple times when Sunday Mass and the football game was the center of our lives. Séamus is fast becoming our new Patrick Kavanagh...I have many memories of that area while winning a county Cavan title with Mickey Cully. It must be something that was in the bread
TOM STAUNTON MAYO
Brought back so many memories I grew up in that crossroads shop.Thankfully with the great support of the local community we are still thriving one hundred years later and being run by the fourth generation.
Brilliant !
Now here is a remarkable portrayal of rural commerce in early 1960's County Kildare. The words and narrative describe so well my childhood memories. They were many and always had a distinctive aroma of stale fruit, stale tea, and stale bodies. You cannot get this now - multiples like SPAR, Centra, et al., wouldn't permit it. I expect the scandal, backbiting and vicious character assassination is still as vibrant as ever though!
Took me directly to the shop at the foot of the path to the chapel at Urbleshanny - thanks Seamus.
I do love this ..my husbands youth..I love leitrum..Ireland is my second Home married to a wonderful Irish guy for 18yr now..wonderful memories huh (Helen James Wife )
Great job. My wife's family had a shop on the Crossroads at Ballymoyer. This could have been written for it.
Brilliant
Brilliant evocation of life in Ireland in the middle of the 20th century.
Well done Seamus
At one time there was a shop at most crossroads but sadly just a few remain
Great recitation..They are not all gone...Some still exist Bracknagh offaly, anascaul Kerry.....Come on add a few more here and keep them ticking over..where else?
I'm from beside McKiernans shops Seamus, between the 2 of them in fact. Them was the days, there was no " cartridge for me e-cig and this months Playboy magazine please John/Eileen" .. God no, I'd have to go to 6 masses in repentance for me sins and I'd be shunned coz I'm going to hell anyway. Ah life was so much easier and straightforward in the 80's ... if you said you had a few pound you were either a thief or a liar.
All sad Seamus, but it's "progress". To what?