Kathleen FitzPatrick Life, Beliefs, Memories and Faith Part One

As promised here is the full edited interview I conducted with Kathleen FitzPatrick in St. John's Hospital in Enniscorthy on Friday last week. Kathleen was born and reared in Rathfyland, Courtnacuddy, Enniscorthy. Brilliant content crops up in the chat and nothing was prepared - instead just a loose conversation starting at Christmas and working our way through the calendar year. I got as far as Easter in this chat and doing another interview on Friday morning. I have made notes and times of different topics in the chat and will also e sharing this on my CZcams page and these times make it easier to navigate the content via the Chapter Marks. Enjoy Kathleen and the content she shares with me.
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00:00 - Born and reared and family
01:00 - Where did she get her love of history?
01:34 - Calendar custom questions. Christmas memories.
2:30 - Going to mass on Christmas Day at 7am.
3:11 - Remember toys they got off Santy.
3:52 - Putting up Christmas decorations on Christmas Eve. Also put up a crib on Christmas Eve and the baby Jesus put in that night for Christmas morning.
4:47 - Did she ever see ivy at Christmas as a decoration?
5:04 - Christmas tree wasn’t a big thing.
5:47 - Getting the straw from the crib at Christmas. It was used against thunder and lightning and also a blazing fire - the straw would quench the fire.
7:04 - Talks about her mother cooking the Christmas dinner and cooking on the open fire.
8:35 - Time for Christmas dinner.
9:38 - Visiting the grave of her brother who died at the age of 19.
10:27 - The Mummers calling on St. Stephen’s Day.
12:20 - The Mummers that called were a local group from Rathflane. Talks about the “Bottle Blowers” at weddings - these would gate crash weddings and cause divilment.
13:49 - The Bottle Blowers at weddings and an overview of weddings years ago.
15:20 - New Years Eve and Day years ago. Wasn’t an extraordinary day. Her mother would always light a Blessed Candle on New Year's morning for “Good health and Good luck for the New Year”.
16:15 - Blessed Candle also lit on Christmas Eve to guide the Wise Men.
17:23 - New Year's eve tradition of making noise. She remembers men firing shots with their guns on New Year's Eve.
18:11 - 6th of January and called it Little Christmas.
18:44 - Giving cake to elderly neighbour.
19:40 - Aunt posting cake from Dublin to them in Wexford.
20:39 - Posting turkeys to England at Christmas from Ireland.
22:10 - An elderly lady she knew who was a housekeeper and she kept to herself but didn’t know it was Christmas. Lovely story but sad too.
24:09 - She remembers her mother cooking on the open fire and the pots she used.
25:31 - Collecting dry cow dung to use as a fuel on the open fire for cooking. S
26:41 - She talks about the types of cookers her mother had.
28:03 - She talks about her elderly neighbour when the ESB came and how she worried about the house being too bright and everyone would see the corners.
28:43 - Changes in her mothers life. Note how she uses the word “anymore” at the end of her sentence.
29:42 - Drawing water from the pump. This was a 10 minute walk away from the house.
31:51 - Talks about her grandparents in Bunclody as they had mountain water coming down in a spout.
33:16 - Holy Wells. She talks about St. Anne’s Well in Killanne used for a cure for sore eyes and warts. Also talks about one in Ballybrennan.
35:33 - Corpus Christi Procession in Enniscorthy in the early 1950s.
38:37 - Walking from Courtnacuddy to Killanne Holy Well.
40:50 - Mick asks about a Holy Well that “jumped”.
41:19 - Talking about statues breaking and talking about leaving the Child of Prague.
43:10 - Mick asks about putting money or holy medals in foundations of houses. Also remembers putting the sign of the cross of the cows back. Talks about the Rogation Week when you would spread the Traan water.
45:04 - She talks about there being 4 Rogation Weeks in the year during the 4 seasons.
45:34 - The Borrowed Days of April and talks about skinning the old cow.
45:56 - Burning the holly after Little Christmas.
48:00 - Mick asks about Handsel Monday. She didn’t have it.
49:00 - Mick asks about St. Brigid’s Day. She didn’t make rush crosses in her area.
50:13 - Candlemas Day and great Candlemas Day verse. mas Day verse about throwing away candle sticks.
52:04 - Story of a man going to the fair and being late coming home.
52:43 - Story of a Bless Candle that would be lit when a cow would calf.
53:07 - Getting Blessed Salt at Easter and using it on their Easter eggs (hen/duck eggs) on Easter Sunday. Blessed salt used in colcannon.
55:16 - Marking crosses with white stones on “The Black Sand” on graves in her locality. Kathleen calls it “the mine rock” sand from Caim mines.
58:07 - St. Blaise’s Red Flannel on Candlemas Day.
1:00:50 - St. Philomena's Cord. She talks about having some that belonged to her brother.
Interview ends when it is time for her dinner.