Throwback Thursday: Happy days growing up in city’s Jewtown

Throwback Thursday reader Patrick O’Donovan wrote recently to say that although he reads and enjoys the column every single week, he does have a gripe to voice.

“I’ve come to notice that a majority of your contributors feature memories of the northside. Now, nothing wrong with that, but as a southsider, I would like to tell ‘the other side of the story’, as it were. And this is all because I met a man who had never heard of Jewtown, where I grew up.”

Patrick explains: “Jewtown is a little enclave bounded on the north by Albert Road, by the old Gasworks on the south, Shalom Park and the former ESB on the west, and stopping at Field’s corner to the east.

“It contained the two Geraldines, the Buildings, Monarea Terrace, Marina Terrace, Eastville, and of course Electric Terrace, where we lived. (As small children, we always thought it was so named because my father and grandfather both worked for the ESB.)”

We immediately demanded more details on “the two Geraldines”, and indeed “the Buildings.” Mr O’Donovan obliged.

“The Buildings were Hibernian Buildings, the little red brick houses like the ones in Albert Road. (Believe it or not, there were 99 of them altogether).

“Geraldine Place was actually two terraces side by side, known to us as Big Geraldine and small Geraldine. They were across the road from the Buildings.”

Patrick continues: “When I was growing up, the gathering place for the ‘boys’ of the area was the corner of the Buildings, across from Maureen’s shop, where you could get a single Woodbine and a match for a couple of pennies.

“Small though the area was, we had two football teams, Geraldines and Albert Rovers, who went on in later years to play in the League of Ireland.

“As regards the nickname ‘Jewtown’, it was where many Jewish families settled and lived there up to the 1960s,” adds Patrick. “I can personally recall about four families in Eastville through the 1950s.

“On Saturdays, the Jewish Sabbath, we would keep an eye out for any of them who needed something from the shop, as on their holiday they couldn’t go themselves, so any convenient small boy would be sent off for whatever they needed.

“The reward was usually a ‘thrupenny bit” (three old pence) when a message for everyone else might gain you a penny, if you were lucky.”

Patrick adds: “Another few names that I remember from those days. The McTaggarts of dancing fame, the Scarff-Codys, and Sean O’ Donovan (no relation), probably the only Jewtown boy who played rugby, and who achieved the honour of being elected President of Highfield Rugby Club.

“I remember the hill down from Rockboro which had a sharp right hand bend near the Gasworks gate. Here we raced ‘steerin-ahs’ which consisted of a plank of wood with two axles, the front one moved on a pivot as the steering mechanism, controlled by a length of rope. The wheels were steel bearings, courtesy of Pulvertafts Engineering, whether ‘donated’ or from the scrap bin I can’t remember.

“As we grew up, we became customers of the now-demolished Sextant, then a tied house of Beamish & Crawfords. While the younger folk made that their local, our father went to the Silo (later the Idle Hour) or Hassets (now Goldbergs). And then, in the natural progression of life, we all met girls, got jobs, and scattered across the city and further afield.

“But to the Quinns and Murrays, the Moores and the Ryans and all those who made growing up in Jewtown that little bit special, happy memories!”

Patrick returned with more of his precious memories!

“When I start, I can’t stop,” he laughs. “The Mahoneys lived in the Buildings. Dan was the father, he worked in Ogilvie and Moore’s. Sadly, I don’t remember the mother’s name. They had three daughters, Anna, Rose, and Maura, who was about my own age.

“A popular song at one time was a duet between Sophia Loren and Peter Sellers, called Goodness, Gracious Me. It became Maura ’s and my party piece for a time, and made us in demand at many family occasions!”

Oh, I remember that song, Patrick. And your mention of party pieces – we all had those back then, didn’t we? The popular song that you always brought out when the evening demanded it.

How many readers can remember their own well-polished party piece? And yes, it is amazing how just one pinprick of the memory bank will bring so much of the past flooding out!

Once you start, you can be amazed at how much has been retained in those filing cabinets at the back of your mind.

Never mind the depressing news of today, the memories of yesteryear shine far more brightly and bring back a surge of joy as you remember the years when we were all young and energetic, and the sun always shone.

Throwback Thursday reader Fintan Bloss has sent in some marvellous old pictures of the Innisfallen and a unique bit of memorabilia, a lighter which his brother Tony bought for his brother Don on a crossing many years ago.

“Don says the lighter doesn’t work any more, but he holds on to it as a valued keepsake,” says Fintan.

“The Innisfallen postcards are from my late dad’s maritime archives. He must have known we would need them for Throwback Thursday as some stage! Just as well he was not one for saying ‘You don’t need that, bin it,’ or everything would have been lost.”

Well, you’re right there, Fintan. There have been many occasions on these pages when we have been delighted by old images that you have unearthed.

“I must contact a cousin of mine, Mar McCullaugh,” continues Fintan. “She travelled to London with my dad on the old Innisfallen when she was quite young, for a family visit.

“I myself have memories of being down by the docks with my dad when people were waving their white handkerchiefs saying their goodbyes to their loved ones. A very sad experience, no doubt.”

Meanwhile, Ann Conlon (McGrath) has written to say that the photo of St Vincent’s girls choir winning at the Choral Festival can genuinely be called “the photo that keeps on giving”.

“I can name a few in that short, so it might get others thinking,” said Ann. “I am a good friend of Catherine Walker, she was home recently for a lovely holiday and I’ve been to Boulder a few times to visit her and her husband Marty.

“Back row, Catherine Garret, I know her, Ann McGrath (myself with glasses), Marie O’Driscoll, Clare McMahon, Catherine Walker, Mary McMahon.

“Next row, only a few here I know, there is a Grace? Then Ber O’Connor who we met with Catherine for the first time in 49 years recently. Anne Fitzpatrick, Mary Horgan, Mary Murphy.

“Next row, Patricia Mintern, Eileen Walsh, Grace O’Regan.

“Next row, I only can name Miss Quill and Sr Benedicta, what a nun!

“Front row, Betty Clifford, Rose Chambers. So now someone else needs to fill the gaps!”

Ann adds: “Also, that picture on the Rock Steps, I know Madeleine Lehane (nee Cuthbert) Catherine’s first cousin, A great friend of mine, she is an excellent baker and we ate her out of house and home when we were at school with Catherine!”

And we were delighted to hear from Alan Egan, who sent a picture from the Anthony Barry archives.

“It was taken on Saturday, July 9, 1966. How do I know this date? Because I was in town that Saturday. Also, I’d seen that advertised film earlier in the week. And Cork were due to play Limerick in the Munster Senior Hurling Championship the following day (in Killarney, of all places).

“So for all sorts of reasons, coming across this photo had a real ‘rolling back the years’ impact on me. Here are the memories it inspired:

“Ah, the Savoy… did you ever have a date in the Talk of the Town? Can you recall the long tunnel, with the black and white framed photos of film stars: Peter Finch, Sylvia Sims, John Gregson, to name just a few?

“Remember the queues on Sunday nights, tickets like gold dust? Used you ever go ‘up the mountain’, ‘up the hundred steps,’ at times when you weren’t as flush as you’d like to be?

“Can you remember the separate entrance, on William Street, for the poor and the parsimonious?

“And the commissionaires, the ushers and usherettes, resplendent in their smart uniforms. Double features, Fred Bridgeman of course, Movietone News.

“The Savoy was the only place to see Rank Organisation films, with the one-time professional wrestler striking the gong that resembled a huge golden Lincoln Cream biscuit.

“Ashtrays on every seat, watching the happenings on the big screen through a haze of blue and yellow cigarette smoke.

“Do you remember the interval, the twin searchlights from on high focusing on the two girls in front of the screen, their trays laden with goodies: they always had the posh Cadburys bars: Tiffin, Honey Crisp, Turkish Delight. And, yes, Orange Maid: ‘The drink on a stick’ for sixpence.

“Might you too have seen the film that was playing at the time of this photo? The Last Train From Gun Hill, starring Kirk Douglas (Michael’s dad) and Anthony Quinn. This was what might be called a thoughtful western, and quite violent for its time, the opening scene featuring a rape and a murder. A 1959 film, this was a summertime re-run.

“Take note of the advert on the barrow, The Miami down in the Majorca that night, followed by Kelley and The Nevada, appearing on the Sunday. Kelley (a Cork girl, real name Eileen Kelly) wasn’t long with The Nevada showband – she only joined them in 1965. Before that she was lead singer with local band The Music Makers. They used to be regulars on Sunday nights in Cork Boat Club, where Kelley and the lads did a superb rendition of The Crystals hit, Then He Kissed Me.

“And now to those Christians and Pres rugby chants, discussed on Throwback Thursday a while back. Surely these chants are part of the DNA of any boy who attended these schools back in the day? Yet when the topic came up in your columns some months ago I was surprised (nay, astonished) that nobody provided the words. Of course, the reason may have been that one of these chants would nowadays be most likely deemed not politically correct?

“Here’s the first line and a half of the Christians one –

Even, Ivan, Eeee-Zo-Zam

We are the boys ….

“This chant was around for years and years: it was instilled into our class in the 1950s, and a class mate of mine tells me that his uncles, who both played rugby for the school, remembered it going way back to the 1920s.

“And although I was a Christians boy, I also knew the other one, and here it is (maybe not 100% accurate) –

Tango, Tango, Wallah, Wallah, Whiskey

Yerrawadi, Yerrawadi, Yup, Yup, Yup

Horam, Harem, Hee. Hee. Hee

Nasper, Jasper, P.B.C.”

Well done for sorting those out for us, Alan, and more power to your memory!

Alan also raises the legend of Radio Juliet, Cork’s first pirate radio station, but that’s a theme for another Throwback Thursday…

In the meantime, have you been inspired by all the above stories and recollections? Why not send us your memories? Email jokerrigan1@ gmail.com or leave a comment on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/echolivecork.