A Westmeath Christmas (2022)

TOPIC • December 8, 2022
A Westmeath Christmas 23
Coming home
PUZZLE
SOLUTIONS
for Christmas
SUDOKU
Christmas greetings from
Joe O’Keeffe
VETERINARY
SURGEON
Opening Hours:
Mon to Sat 9.00am - 6pm
Closed Sundays
Clinic by Appointment
044 93 75434
Trim Road, Kinnegad
Co. Westmeath
Tel: 044 937 5434
Kinnegad Veterinary Clinic
Serving
Breakfast,
Lunch and
Evening
Meals
SHOWING ALL SKY SPORTS
Wishing all of our customers
and friends a very
happy Christmas
James Reddiough
takes a nostalgic
look-back at
Ireland in the 1950s
In this area here in the
west of Ireland (north
Mayo) where this scribe
was raised, there was a
tradition of the men and boys
going to work on the hay and
harvest in England. The men
from the area laboured mostly in
the shires of northern England,
namely Yorkshire, Lancashire
and Lincolnshire.
The men and boys would either
take the bus or train, or else
employ a taxi to take them to the
boat, the Princess Maude. They
left around mid-summer,
anytime between the 20 and 24
June, and this would be to arrive
in England for the hay-making
season.
When the hay crop was saved,
it would be time to start cutting
the oats and making them into
stooks for the thresher to thresh
them, and this would require a
good deal of labour to complete
successfully. After the oats, it
would be time to pick the beet in
Lincolnshire and this would take
a few weeks to complete. After
this, they would start the
scratting or picking of the
potatoes. This would be the final
job of the season and would be
over in October, and then they
would go into the towns looking
for a little work before it was
time to head back home via the
train from Leeds or Manchester
to Holyhead or Liverpool, where
they would take the boat for the
North Wall at Dublin Port, or to
Dún Laoghaire, where they
would make their way west by
train, bus or hackney car, to rest
and attend to matters in the
west.
The people at home would
await their arrival with eager
anticipation. There would be the
wait for the lights of the
hackney car around the hills and
villages, and then the people of
the humble home would know
they were not far away. They
would have a nice fire down for
them and a meal to welcome
them. The men would be well
dressed with new suits and
shoes, finished off with overcoat
and hat or cap.
BLAZING FIRE
They would have the money
they had earned on the farms
and they would have presents for
the women and children. There
was an air of festivity about
their return, and the candle and
the oil lamp would glisten
brightly to welcome them, and
with a blazing fire in the hearth,
the scene was set for a joyous
greeting.
During the winter, they would
attend to their farm tasks and
when the spring came, they
would sow the seed and cut the
turf for the year. They were a
robust and hardworking people,
and there was a time and tide for
everything. They were glad to be
home for Christmas and to be
able to celebrate the festive
season with their families, and
there would be parties to
welcome them back to the area.
The farm labourers who went
to England were called the
spalpeens, from the Gaelic word
for labourer or travelling
labourer, of the nineteenth
century, and they began to die
out in the 1950s as things began
to improve in Ireland in the
1960s and 1970s. There is little
spoken of them now among the
people from where they came in
the 1930s and 1940s, when times
were extremely tough and there
was very little to live on, but
through their hard work and
sweat, they managed to rear
their families and make a
valuable contribution to their
local areas. Ní bheidh a leithéidí
ann arís.
New Year’s Eve has become in modern times a
night for celebration and revelry. It is a time to
shed the disappointments of the Old Year and to
welcome the bright and promising New Year, a
fresh start where everything is possible. Here we
take a look at some fabulous facts from around the
world.
■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
On January 9, 1814, Ulster suffered an extremely
heavy snowfall. Stagecoaches were unable to travel
because of the snow, which began falling on
Christmas Day.
■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
In Ireland one of the names for New Year is Oiche
na Coda Moire, (the night of the big portion).
Eating a big meal on New Year’s Eve was believed
to ensure that there would be plenty of food in the
house throughout the coming year.
■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
On New Year’s Eve 1929, Michael Kavanagh shot
three geese on the South Wexford Sloblands with
one shot.
■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
In Scotland, New Year’s Eve, which they call
Hogmanay, is the biggest festival of the year with
lots of eating and drinking. During these
celebrations, the practice of ‘First footing’ was
common, when good luck for the coming year
depended on the appearance of the first person to
enter the house after midnight. It was believed
that the best first footer was a tall, dark-haired
man. If there wasn’t a dark haired man, then a
dark haired boy would do, or even a black cat, but
the worse possible luck was associated with a redhaired
woman.
■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
The most traditional of all Scottish dishes is
haggis, which is eaten at Hogmanay and on Burns
Night (January 25, birthday of the much loved
poet). It is a dish made of the heart, lungs and
liver of a sheep, chopped up with suet, onions and
oatmeal, and traditionally boiled in a sheep’s
stomach bag). Once cooked it was served with
tatties and neeps (potatoes and mashed swede).
■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
Before the Haggis is served, the ‘Selkirk Grace’, a
short rhyme, is recited; ‘Some hae meat and canna
eat/And some wad eat that want it/But we hae
meat and we can eat/And sae the Lord be
thankful’. Those sitting around the table then
stand ‘to receive the Haggis’ as it is ceremoniously
piped into the room. In Scotland it is considered a
discourtesy to send a New Year card to someone
who has suffered a bereavement during the old
year.
CHRISTMASWORD
Across: 1. Turkey and
ham 7. Arc 9. Star 10.
Nation 11. Era 12.Tsar
14. Eels 15. Roll 17.
Tame 18. Bari 19. Ibis
21. Agog 22. Hose 26.
Jar 28. Stable 29. Orbs
31. Sad 32. Advent
wreath.
Down: 1. Tot 2. Rare 3.
Etna 4. Ante 5. Door 6.
Mass 8. Carol singers 9.
Street lights 12. Tar 13.
Alumni 16. Orange 20.
Sue 23. Soda 24. Stye
25. Abet 26. Jeer 27.
Rota 30. Bah. Word:
BETHLEHEM.
WORD BUILDER
Answer, Beaten, Candid,
Detour, Eras-ed
Factor,Golden, Hoards,
Iguana, Jester. SANTA
CLAUS.
WORD ON THE TOWN
Across: 1. Competitor 6.
Scum 10. Siren Slumbered
12. Conifer 15.
Otter 17. Earl 18. Raft
19. Valet 21. Mediate
23. Extra 24. Undo 25.
Lean 26. Hovel 28.
Started 33. Uncertain
34. Maids 35. Easy 36.
Caravaggio.
Down: 1. Cash 2. Marrowfat
3. Ennui 4. Issue
5. Onus 7. Carat 8. Moderation
9. Absolve 13.
Fare 14. Regions 16.
Greenhouse 20. Lingering
21. Mallard 22. Tuba
27. Vices 29. Tonga 30.
Rumba 31. Gala 32.
Oslo. Town: CASTLE-
BAR
FIVE-A-SIDE
1. Babel 2. Slide 3.
Cured 4. Jetty 5. Ashes.
E, S, U, J, S = JESUS.
CHRISTMAS TREE