Throwback Thursday: May Day traditions and strange happenings at a fairy fort 

It’s May Day, the start of the Irish summer! Have you been out to wash your face in the dew yet?

This writer was taught that tradition by her mother, and has never failed in the many years since to observe the custom on May 1. It is believed to bring good luck and good looks all your life!

There is still time to do it if you forgot, so go out now. Yes, men too – why not?

And if the May blossom is out (might be later, since the Catholic church decided arbitrarily to remove 12 days from the calendar back in the 18th century, so the real May Day now falls halfway through the month), then you are allowed to pick a few twigs and branches to fasten over the door of your house, sheds, byres, and barns, to bring good luck in the year ahead.

Does anyone tying little nosegays on door knockers, and even on the harness of working horses? That used to be a tradition too. It would be a nice one to revive.

Why not bring a little bunch of daisies to an elderly neighbour to mark May Day? Little, random acts of kindness have great power.

We do seem to be forgetting our age-old customs and traditions, relying instead on the questionable accuracy of social media, but they’re still there, waiting patiently for us to rediscover them.

Isn’t it time we stopped believing what we read on Facebook or Twitter (refuse to use the unpleasant title X), and went back to seeing what the natural world around is trying to tell us?

On that topic, I had a fascinating email from Niamh Madden, in relation to my latest book with Richard Mills, Irish Fairy Forts: Portals To The Past.

“Hi Jo. I hope I have the right person! I listened with interest to your interview on Oliver Callan in relation to fairy forts.

“I have a true story to tell you. My husband is a civil engineer and works for a contractor. He was tasked to oversee the laying of a pipe for a local authority. This pipe was to be laid along the edge of a ringfort and would necessitate the removal of some of the embankment.

“My husband was always sceptical and disbelieving in all things fairy-related. However, on this very day, as the excavators approached the ringfort, one by one they broke down!

“With the work having ground to a halt, my husband phoned the head office to look for a low-loader to be sent to the site, with a new excavator.

“A few hours later, the low loader arrived at the site and as they were about to power up the replacement machine, it too broke down!

“At this stage, my husband and the workers were beginning to scratch their heads. There were mutterings about ‘the fairy folk’ amongst the men, but my husband was still putting the scenario down to coincidence.

“He instructed the low loader to drive away, as the replacement machine couldn’t be taken off it due to it not working, and - you won’t believe what happened - but the low-loader wouldn’t start either! At this point, my husband got spooked.”

That’s not surprising, Niamh!

She continues: “My husband phoned the county council, explained the situation, and asked them if he could lay the pipe away from the ringfort, so as not to disturb it.

“He got the consent and began preparation work a number of metres away. At this point, all of the machines started working again!

“They successfully laid the pipe away from the ringfort and my husband now is a firm believer of the magic of the fairy fort. He often tells this story and swears blind that it is true.

“I showed him what I was writing to you and he said the only part of the story I left out was that an old man, presumably the farmer of the field the ringfort was in, approached them during the problems they were having with the machinery. He told them that if they laid the pipe across the road and away from the fort, that they’d have no problem. It was then that my husband sought the consent of the local authority and the pipe route was changed.”

Anybody else out there with strange and inexplicable happenings to share? Please do let us know.

By the way, we can reveal that Irish Fairy Forts: Portals To The Past has leapt to No.3 in the bestsellers’ list within a week of its publication, so clearly the interest in these echoes of the past has never gone away.

And now, back to that icon of Cork commerce, Roches Stores. We have had a lovely email from Josephine Wills who has fond memories of working there back in the day.

“Hi. I’m old now, but back in the day I was the dress buyer at Roches Stores! I started in Cork, and was then promoted to be buyer for Dublin, Limerick, and, before I left, Galway.

“Then I was taken on by Cash’s, where I was Fashion Buyer for bridal wear, furs, coats, skirts, and rainwear. 

"I was certainly a very busy girl in those days, and it all with great affection.

“I was away in the UK for 49 years, but now am back in my native city again. I’m sure nobody will me, but I would love to catch up with all the others who worked for Roches.”

And we would love to hear more about your time as buyer at Roches, Josephine!

Back then, we suppose you didn’t go out on the road, visiting factories and businesses – it’s more likely that their travelling salesmen came to you with their bulging suitcases, and you got a member of staff to model the sample outfits so you could choose what was most likely to appeal to the well-dressed Cork woman in the summer or winter season ahead.

I wonder if they had different tastes in Cork, Dublin, and Limerick?

As for being fashion buyer at Cash’s, choosing furs, oh my! We have to know more about all this!

In the meantime, Josephine, why don’t you go along to that reunion in the Sky Garden at Clancy’s on Friday, May 23? We bet you will find some familiar faces there.

You can the event organiser, Finbarr Buckley, on (086) 0712638, finbarrbckl@gmail. com, or Christine on (087) 0527033. Go on!

And do you we had Brian Cronin’s memories of his grandfather, Thomas Quillinan, a week or two back in Throwback Thursday? He, you may recall, actually started that great Patrick Street store with William Roche, whom he met when travelling to London on the Innisfallen as a buyer for Queens Old Castle. (Now there’s another side to the buyers’ story – the men got to travel, while the women had to stay in the shop and wait for salesmen to arrive.)

We, of course, wanted to know more about the said Thomas Quillinan, and Brian has kindly obliged.

He has great family memories, but a few hair-raising experiences too, from back in the Cork of other days.

“Our grandfather was employed for many years as chief buyer for Roches Stores, and didn’t play any active role in the day to day management of our hotel on the Lower Road, apart from greeting guests when he encountered them,” said Brian of his old family home and business where he grew up.

“He was an old-fashioned and lovable gentleman in the truest sense of the word. A very gentle person too, with a lovely singing voice. His two favourite songs were The Eton Boating Song and Jerusalem which we heard him sing on special occasions standing in the drawing room with his back to the fire.

“In her life story - which I had the privilege of editing - my mother recalled the time at the height of the Irish Civil War, when the Free State troops landed in age West - just across the river from Carrigaloe, where the Quillinans had their summer house.

“The house of their neighbour, who worked in Rushbrooke Dock Yard, was occupied by some of the ‘Irregular’ IRA troops who had mounted a machine gun on the wall behind the house and were engaged in firing at the Free State troops across the river.

“He called in that evening to advise us of the most recent developments and my grandfather there and then decided to make a run for it for safety. (Earlier that day, the Parish Priest - Fr. O’Flynn- in age West sent a warning to my grandfather that the Free Staters planned to open fire on our house that evening.)

“As a consequence, dad rounded up the entire family and under cover of darkness made their way across the road and railway line and up the large hilly field behind.

“One of the IRA, thinking mistakenly that they were part of the enemy force, fired off a shot in their direction whereupon my grandmother fainted and had to be revived.

“My Aunt Marie (Russell) was a babe in the basket carried by Bridie the maid.

“When grandmother had recovered, the party crept all the way further up the hill to a house of a lady called Kate McCarthy, who owned a flower shop in Patrick Street and was very friendly with my grandmother. The house in reality was a small cottage but she took them in and they slept there that night - some on chairs and others on the floor of one of the rooms.”

Brian continues with his remarkable story: “Early the next morning, my grandfather observed a group of IRA men ing by the front of the house. Now, both our grandparents tended to be sympathetic to the Free State side rather than the Republicans, but my grandfather decided rather wisely to change loyalties for the day and indicated being sympathetic to the Republicans.

“He flagged down a couple of IRA cars and they agreed to transport the entire family to Cork. Their cars were the last to cross over Belvelly bridge, which was blown up immediately after the crossing to slow down the Free State troops who were in hot pursuit.

“The family by this time were terrified and very anxious to get home to Cork as speedily as possible. The IRA dropped them off on the approach to the city and they found their way to their house on the Lower Glanmire Road (later to be converted to the Park View Hotel) which had been commandeered by a troop of soldiers in their absence.

“However, they were allowed to occupy three rooms on the upper floors of the house.

“After about a week, the troops found a larger house in Empress Place on Summerhill which was on an elevated site and commanded a clear and perfect view of the whole city.”

Oh Brian, what marvellous memories. Thank the gods that you and your sisters thought to record your mother’s recollections before it was too late.

Everybody else with elderly relatives still living, get out there now and get their stories written down. Otherwise they’re lost forever.

And share them with us too, on these pages. Email [email protected], or leave a message on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/echolivecork.