When beer was 20p a pint! A Cork college party 50 years ago

The rugby chants sung by schoolboys around sports pitches down the decades in Cork have certainly left an imprint on many a Corkonian mind.

Throwback Thursday reader Tim Cagney got in touch after we ran some of the inventive lyrics to the chants last week.

“That spurred me to write this,” said Tim.

“Eevan, Ivan, Eez – Zos – Zum, We’re the boys who eat no ham – Ra Ra, Ra-Ra-Ra, Eye Diddle-Eye - Di, Ra Ra!”

“So went the CBC rallying-chant, oft-heard at the hallowed grounds of Musgrave Park, whenever we locked horns with the sporting representatives of other institutes of learning, such as St Munchin’s, Rockwell, Mungret, and – of course – arch-rivals, Pres.

“Who was responsible for its composition, I wonder? (I use the word ‘composition’ in the loosest sense possible.)

“Presumably, he now occupies a spot in the celestial ether, safely removed from the critical barbs of the Earthbound (I have to assume it was a male).

“If anyone knows, I’d love to hear – it represents a yawning gap in my academic/sporting life, which urgently needs to be filled!

“I have reproduced this ridiculous opus as near to phonetic accuracy as memory will allow – hope everyone will recognise it.”

Tim adds: “Regrettably, I never got to represent CBC on the playing-field, myself. As I approached puberty, my physique retained the dimensions of a knitting-needle, whilst most of my peers went on to develop into human bulldozers.

“There was one consolation, however. When I was around 12, someone at the school got the idea of forming a ‘league’, where groups of boys were formed into teams, each allocated the name of a country. I was selected to play for ‘South Africa’. We met ‘France’ in the final and defeated them by a comfortable margin.

“A month or so later, each member of the victorious team was presented with a small trophy. I still have mine.

So, no regrets, therefore, - I once had the distinction of playing for ‘South Africa’, boy!”

This writer’s brother, Tommy, also made contact about that same Throwback Thursday to share his memories of school chants.

“Like all Kerrigans, I was a complete stranger to any form of group or team sport, since we were brought up to find our own energetic adventures out in the remote wilds of West Cork,” said Tommy.

“However, at Christians you had the choice on Wednesday afternoons of either attending the match or doing extra hours in school. Well, not much of a choice there! Down to the playing field we all trooped (you didn’t dare to bunk off, because it was all too likely that a Christian Brother was checking names) and watched the game, which was usually against Pres.

“As I recall it, the simple chant was:

Two! Four! Six! Eight!

Who do we appreciate?

C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N-S

Christians!”

Thanks, Tommy. I do remember how puzzling all this sports fanaticism was to us Kerrigans growing up. Crowding and shouting around a field where two groups were tussling with each other for possession of a ball? How, we wondered, could that compare to climbing trees, fording rivers, struggling up muddy mountainsides, or clambering over rocky headlands above tossing waves? It didn’t. Still doesn’t.

And now to that great reunion of young men who entered the Woodwork Teachers Training course at the School of Commerce in 1972. That’s taking place next week, on Wednesday, September 10.

We have heard from several of Bob Roche’s colleagues, but first an unexpected email from no less a personage than singer Cathal Dunne – remember him representing Ireland in the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest with Happy Man? Now living and performing in the U.S, but a regular visitor back to Cork, he saw the group photo on Throwback Thursday and immediately wrote to us:

“Hi, Jo. A friend sent the photo in The Echo today. My Dad, Gerard Dunne, is in the front row, last person in front. He was principal of the School of Comm’ back then.”

Well, thank you indeed for getting in touch Cathal. That picture keeps on bringing in more and more stories from all over the place, doesn’t it? Here is a delightfully detailed one of life as a student in 1970s Cork, and indeed well beyond, from one of Bob Roche’s comrades, Bernard Dunne.

“I am from Kilcavan, Geashill, Offaly, a small very rural area on the Laois/Offaly border,” said Bernard.

“I attended Clonaghadoo National School, and then Mountmellick Vocational School. We were the first students to attend there, as it opened in 1966.

“After the Group Cert and Inter Cert in 1969, I attended Portlaoise Vocational School, doing the Leaving Cert in 1972. I then applied for many courses and jobs.

“An Educational Teacher training course in Cork involved an interview at Apollo House in Dublin, and to my surprise I was offered a place. So began the great adventure.

“I stayed in digs first with a Mrs McMahon on Richmond Hill on the north side of the city, and on registration day I set off to the College of Commerce on Morrison’s Island.

“I met up with fellow trainee Michael Challoner, from Kilkenny, at the front door. We registered, got the book list for the course, and bought them in a bookshop on Bridge Street.

“Beside this shop was a pub and afterwards we went in there for a pint or two.

“I’m still friends with Mick Challoner, since we both live in Dundalk.” Bernard recalls of that course: “Thirty young men from all over Ireland started in 1972. It was very daunting at first, getting to know people and attending classes from 9am till late in the evening, but we managed to get to know everyone, and the city too.

“Sport played a big part in this; our sports instructor was Tony O Neill, and this introduced us to the men in 2nd and 3rd year.

“I liked sport, particularly Gaelic football. I’d played for the Laois vocational team and County minor and U21 football. I also played basketball for Leinster at under 16 and minor level.

“The three years passed quickly and as we got to know one another, we got flats together and spent summers working in Cork. I worked on the regional hospital one summer and for a contractor in Lisgoold another year.

“At the end of first year, four of us - three lads from Galway and myself - moved into a flat in Coburg Street over McCabe’s pub, now called Sin É, owned by Benny McCabe. I remember him being born! Leo and Noelle, his mam and dad, looked after us very well .

“All too soon, we arrived at 3rd year projects and final exams, but our group was shattered on December 7, 1974, when one of our classmates, Neill McDaid from Donegal, died as a result of a road traffic accident. I still remember it vividly.

“Then we graduated and went our separate ways to find jobs. I got a job in Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, when The Troubles were in full swing.

“Our Lady’s Secondary School was co-educational and had at that time 19 teachers. I promised them I would do a year as they had only just got sanction for their first woodwork teacher . In the end, I stayed for 35 years!

“It was great - the students, teachers, and the people of Castleblayney were terrific.”

Bernard retired from ‘the stony grey soil of Monaghan’ in 2009 and said: “During my time there my interest in GAA continued, and I was involved in the Ulster College council for 25 years, being Chairman of the All Ireland colleges council from 2003 to 2006.

“During my time at Our Lady’s Secondary School, I was involved in the making of sets for the school musicals and another great interest opened up for me, drama.

“By this time, I’d married Esther and moved to Dundalk, and got invited to make sets for local musical and drama groups. Eventually I got into acting. I loved it, and then directed plays and went out on the Open Drama section. We have been reasonably successful, winning best set in Athlone twice, and my group qualified for Athlone with me as director of Brian Friel’s Faith Healer.

“Esther and I have three daughters, Triona, Eimhear, and Siún, and five grandchildren, and we still live in Dundalk. I can’t believe where 50 years have gone!”

What a marvellous follow-on from those years in Cork, Bernard! And won’t you have a great time catching up with all your former classmates next week!

Another of those classmates, Pat Sheehan, has sent us a great picture from 1975, when the whole group was celebrating the completion of some of their final year project exams, and the end of some of the formal classes.

From left to right, Bernard Dunne Pat Lahart, Pat Culleton (RIP), Martin Browne, James Fitzmaurice (RIP), Pat Sheehan.

Pat recalls that the price of a pint back then was just 20p. Oh, for the days that are gone!

Reader Leo McMahon (ex Southern Star) has written to express his joy at the mentions of the dear old Innisfallen and shared two pictures of that beloved boat. Can anybody identify the location in the second shot? It certainly wasn’t Cork.

Leo says: “As a child of the ’60s who lived in Worcester, England, with my Irish emigrant parents Edward (Ned) and May McMahon until moving back here permanently 50 years ago, the annual holiday in Cork by train and ship via a sailing on the old and gracious black and white Innisfallen from Fishguard was always eagerly awaited.

“We usually arrived on a Sunday morning every summer in late July, where we would be greeted by our uncle at the exit door of the Fishguard-Cork Steam Packet building at Penrose Quay where hundreds would be gathered.

“Crammed into his car with the luggage, we would drive to our aunt Madgie Hannon’s house in MacCurtains Villas, College Road, where we stayed. There would be a mighty fry breakfast, then it was up to the ‘Lough Chapel’ for Mass and, if the day was fine, back into the car for a fabulous afternoon at Roberts Cove.

“Like lots of other Cork people and emigrants, we also enjoyed great bungalow holidays in Crosshaven and Youghal over the years.

“Leaving Cork at the end of August was always a sad affair. As the Innisfallen sailed down the river, my uncle would be in his car driving along the Marina before the final goodbye wave near Blackrock. Many a tear was shed by departing exiles.

“I understand the old Innisfallen plied a route between Greek islands after 1969. What a pity it wasn’t preserved as a floating restaurant or museum to illustrate the rich heritage of Cork and Ireland’s steam packet and ferry ships, and the stories associated with its emigrant people. More should be done to highlight this. Thank-you for doing it in your column, Jo!”

Oh, wouldn’t it be wonderful to have the old Innisfallen berthed here permanently, Leo? Everybody would support it, visit, show it off. Maybe today it would happen, but back in the ’60s, such things weren’t dreamed of. More’s the pity!

Tell us your own memories, the rest of you! Email jokerrigan1@gmail.com, or leave a message on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/echolivecork