Life in a Mayo village in the 1930s

One afternoon I took out my tape recorder and taped my grandmother as she recalled her memories of her childhood in the 1930s when she was a pupil in Bofield National School and lived in Ellemountain, a few miles from Bonniconlon. She took me back to those days when there were lots of children and they worked hard from age seven but also had free time to play together as children of all generations do. Gran was born in 1926 and passed in 2011.

When she and her friends were children they used to go to Pat Gilmartin’s orchard to steal some apples to make pies later the next day. They did this for fun and Pat, or Bob as he was also known, would come out with the gun and fired a shot in the air to scare them off but I’m sure he meant no harm. 

They would retreat then towards the old house where the Kilkenny family used to live. Officially, this was called Ellagh House and it had been there for over 100 years at this time and by the 1930s it was derelict and falling into ruins. They used to run around the house and up and down the stairs too even though they were told the house was haunted and that they were to stay away from it.

The people firmly believed that this area around the Kilkenny house was an enchanted spot and there were ghostly sightings there. People kept away from the area at night. There was a story that a young man named Michael Goodwin was visiting his aunt-in-law Ann and his uncle Michael and he was followed by a ghostly figure on horseback and that it had a deep and lasting impact on him. Such were the tales that were told at the fireside of the rambling houses of the day.

After they had played in the house they went into the three-cornered garden, which was another spot for ghouls, and they ran a round it in playful glee. There was a man named Jamsey Ferguson, from Ellagghmore, coming from visiting a neighbour. When he heard the commotion he thought there were fairies or spirits in the garden and he made his way home quickly to relate what he had heard and seen!

The 1930s were hard times with the emigration of so many people. People left for good and people left for seasonal employment. The latter had to work on their own farm first and then leave for England in May and work there for the big farmers. They returned in November or maybe even as late as Christmas with their hard-earned money that was needed to keep the farm and the household running. The money would be used to pay off the debt to the shopkeeper who put groceries on the slate or tick system until the man of the house returned.  At this time, the steam train or bus would be full of men and boys leaving for Westland Row and the Princess Maud cattle boat at the North Wall in Dublin docklands.

The people at this time helped each other and shared the little they had. There was one man who assisted a family in need by digging his potatoes and selling them and using the money to buy food for them. He was John Loftus from Ellemountain and he worked in England every year until he was aged seventy in 1947. He was not alone - this was the common experience of so many men and boys at the time.

Gran told me of the shop that was in the Ellaghmore townland when she was a child. The owner's name was Annie Mhaire or Annie Melvin and she had a small shop in the Sallymount area of Ellaghmore close to where David Hastings and family live today. This was not just a shop, it was a meeting place for people to chat when they went there at various times during the day and evening.