Throwback Thursday: Every Northside girl in Cork adored ‘the scraps’!

READER Jerry Holt has written to say that last week’s Throwback Thursday about the various Innisfallen ships that plied their trade to and from Cork triggered several memories for him.

“I met and married my wife in London; after a while we decided to go to live in Ireland as being the best place to raise our daughter (the first of five children),” he said.

“My wife went on a week before me while I sorted things out in England. I packed all our belongings in an old dome-lidded trunk and an army surplus kit bag with the sweeping brush protruding from it, and headed off by road and rail to join the old Innisfallen (the one designated #3 in last week’s article. We moved back in 1968 so just in time for that vessel.)”

Jerry continued: “I was enchanted by the wondrous trip up the River Lee right into the heart of Cork city. Sadly, when the porters at the quay saw the large, heavy-looking trunk that had to be carried down the gangplank, not to mention the kitbag and flagpole-like sweeping brush, they disappeared !

“And no sign of my wife who was to meet me. It turned out that the man driving her in from Mallow had a puncture on the road. Anyway, it turned out OK in the end.

As I have previously told this column, we moved to Cork city and I got a most welcome job on the railway. 

"Even though the Troubles were at their height, I was treated with camaraderie by my fellow workmates and my neighbours in Ballintemple, and later in Togher, notwithstanding my pronounced English accent. (After 55-plus years in Cork, I now speak pure Corkonian, much to the bafflement of my current Mayo neighbours!).”

Jerry said: “While still in Togher, my wife Doris and I became actively involved in the community, and, at the behest of the late Gerry O’Sullivan, we joined the Rent Strike.

“Gerry later went on to become a TD and Minister for the Marine; the tender named after him is now a floating restaurant in Dublin as far as I know.

“Anyway, I changed jobs and went to work in UCC as a General Attendant where I became a union rep. The Personnel Officer was none other than Criostóir de Baróid, also mentioned in last Thursday’s paper.

“Criostóir and I crossed swords many times in our negotiations, but I struck up great relationship with him, to such an extent that I was sacked as shop steward for ‘being too close to management’!

So, Jo, you can see how many memories were triggered by just one nostalgia column in De Echo. Keep them going!

Jerry, lovely to hear from you again. Many readers will remember your great stories of working on the railway, especially the old excursion trains out of De City to Youghal and other foreign shores, which carried so many Corkonians and created so many memories. Send us more any time!

Liam O’Shea was also delighted with our stories about the Innisfallen.

“I can remember, as my grandparents were living in Albert Road, I used to go over to Penrose Quay to watch all the going-ins, especially the people who were travelling by bus to catch the boat

“There were runners there to meet them and bring their baggage to the boat. The secret of success as a runner was how fast you could run, and my God they had it down to a tee! Cattle went on first and then the passengers. And to see this boat coming in to dock and depart was just a great buzz.

I can remember too when I was in the Boy Scouts and we travelled to Haverfordwest in Wales on the Innisfallen. 

"It was 2nd class only, and there was just a tea lady on board, selling cups of tea out of one huge kettle. The tea was like tar…”

Liam also recalls vividly, from his visits to his grandparents on Albert Road, the huge number of people walking home from work between about 4pm and 5.30.

“They’d be coming from Fords, Dunlops, the Cork Metal Company, Gouldings, Mothers’ Pride Bakery. Thousands every day would fill the roads walking.

“Then you would have all the big boats docking with timber, mostly for Eustace’s timber yard. Not to mention the coal boats, and people were allowed to pick up the coal which had spilled on the road to bring home.

“Perhaps most interesting of all was the trains going over the bridges, and the flag man in front flagging down the traffic. My God, what a wonderful city this was those days.

“75 years on and I can still remember lots of things that happened, even the burning of the old Opera House, especially as the previous weekend we had been in that very place with my auntie and uncle, and going up those stairs on the outside

“We were living up by Bells Field then, and there is a place up in Audley, just on the top of Patrick’s Hill, where at that time there were beautiful huge oak trees like an avenue.

“My dad had a Baby Ford, and he used to park it between two big trees in case it would roll down the hill. In those days you never needed to lock a car.

And the sounds and smells - the bells of Shandon, the aroma of Murphy’s brewery, and the beautiful view of the city from up there. Ah, what times were like then!

Liam well remembers all the shops around the bottom of Patrick’s Hill - “An Stad café, and Mrs Moore’s veg shop, the Healy’s shoe repair man, Conny Creedon’s Inchigeela Dairies, going into Maddens for loose biscuits, and the smell of the coffee beans, and the chemist is still there today at the top of Bridge Street, Falveys. And McCurtain Street was two-way that time, and now look at it today, again two way. So many of those old shops gone though.”

Did you know, Liam asks, that there was a fever hospital on the top of Richmond Hill by Bells Field?

“And did you know that the longest road in Cork is the Old Youghal Road, from the top of the fever hospital steps all the way up past The Cotton Ball in Mayfield? Well, there is one for the record books!”

Great recollections, Liam. Readers, if they spark off memories in your own minds about the Cork of yesteryear, please do share them with us!

Willie O’Sullivan was delighted that we published some of his memories of Union Quay, Timmy the Brit, and other topics.

“Those stories struck a chord with lots of people I know. A few of them spoke of the sawdust and shavings on the ground of the Phoenix Bar, and one of them remembered buying a pint of stout for one shilling and nine pence. One and nine in old money. Can anyone beat that?”

The thing about the feedback, says Willie, is that his friends all came out with stories of their own.

So we went on forever about them. Eventually, I had to tell them what you told me, get pen to paper quick, and email them on to you!

While standing recently outside the English Market, Willie got into a discussion with a lady about traditions of that area.

“Being a butcher, and having worked there for many years, we had a great chat about our individual memories. From there, our conversation drifted to De Coal Kay. Well, she could have bought and sold me on traditions of Cork. She asked me did I ever see the three ladies dressed up as shawlies on the Echo at festival times. I said of course I did. Well, she said, that’s me and my sister and friend (or her friend’s sister, I can’t for the life of me say which it was.)

“She introducd herself as Valerie Dineen, and said you may have heard of my father, Buster Dineen, The Docker. I said who hasn’t? He’s a legend on the Northside.”

Now they were off down Memory Lane in earnest.

“We spoke of the original shawlies, who would sit at their stalls, giving the orders to their daughters and family members who would do the pulling and dragging while the boss dealt with the customers.

“We remembered people and places (some still there) like Kattie Barry’s, Peg Twomey’s on the corner, Dennehy’s pub, the Murray girls, Jackson’s Hardware (where every young man starting work got his first set of overalls and boots), Burke’s Bar around the corner from Peg’s, on Kyle Street.

“You had Clayton Love’s Cash and Carry, which took up a huge space on the Quay, and was also used as an illegal drive through between Cornmarket Street and North Main Street (it was very handy!)

There was Punch’s, where many a boy’s Communion suit was bought. 

"The Punch famiy were also known for their involvement with Wembley Football Club on the Northside. The whole family played for them. Barry, Pa, and Pat, the goalkeeper, who I played against with St Mary’s, were just a few I can remember.

“We went on to speak of the Castle Jewellers (still there) on the corner of Cornmarket Street and Castle Street, the Central Furniture Stores (still there), the McCarthy shops (cousins) on both ends of the street, where one sold sportswear and the other clothing and footwear.

“Then you had Portney’s Lane, the walkway between North Main Street and Cornmarket Street, where Josie Knowles sold the freshest mackerel ever, sitting on the footpath corner.

“We could have gone on forevIo use my trump card in the conversation.

“I asked Valerie did she ever hear of the Shilling Stores, where it was and what it was. Well, she said, I can walk you to it from where I stand!

“She said right at the middle of Daunt’s Square was McCarthy’s Bread and Bakery shop (the smell of the bread being baked wafted all the way along the Grand Parade, Patrick Street, and Cornmarket Street, you would be famished just walking through them!)

“Well, Valerie went on, in between there and McDonalds, there is a tiny little delivery entrance for Woodford Bournes pub and eatery, and there stood the smallest haberdashery in the world. It sold everything from buttons and bows, zips and ribbons, to comic books and toys.

The biggest attraction for every girl on the Northside were the famous scraps. 

"I would love for the many girls of the Northside (and beyond) to explain what the scraps were.

“In my limited memories of them in the ’60s and ’70s, my two sisters would go to town on Saturday mornings, laden with their personal ‘wages’ which they got from Dad’s pay packet on Friday night for doing errands and odd jobs (and being good!).

“They would visit the Shilling Stores to buy their weekly amount of scraps, which came in sheets, later cut up, and placed between the pages of school copybooks.

“Valerie said her sisters and herself couldn’t afford copybooks so they would borrow (ha ha) old books at home and fill the pages with the scraps.

“The entertainment didn’t stop there, as the week ahead would be spent doing swaps with friends who also had duplicates of one scrap or another.

“My idea of having a trump card in our conversation proved a myth, because as I said previously, she bought and sold me on the Shilling Stores as well!”

Willie declares he won’t say any more about the Shilling Stores, “as I know readers will contact you with more memories than I could ever have!”

He adds a PS. 

“When Valerie and I were parting, I mentioned that my grandmother was a real shawlie (Nana Buckley to everyone) who sold clothes on De Coal Kay with her six daughters, my mother being one of them.

I am now hunting for old photographs of them, and will talk about those rare oul’ times in my next letter!

And the rest of you, send us your memories! Email jokerrigan1@gmail.com. Or leave a comment on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/echolivecork.