Icy escapades on Lough Carra
The late Frank McDonnell pictured with two monster pike caught while 'Piking' on the ice on Lough Carra. Picture: Kevin Coyne
It is some years now since Lough Carra became fully frozen over. There were quite a few 'Piking' (Pike fishing on ice!) days on Lough Carra in past decades but nothing of note in recent years. Global warming has ensured that this long tradition, solely unique to Lough Carra, may never happen again. This article will attempt to show that the tradition of Piking is a valid ancient one and that Lough Carra is indeed unique in terms of the strength and durability of its ice coating during freezing cold winters.
As a beginning and in order to prove that fish, mainly Pike, were hunted and consumed frequently for hundreds of years by people living around the lake, a quote from the famous book, , by William Hamilton Maxwell (1792-1850) is most appropriate.
Almost a score of years ago I interviewed the late Matt Feerick on the occasion of his 90th birthday. A renowned dancing master and tailor, Matt was born on December 14, 1914, in the village of Brownstown on the shore of Lough Carra and was one of ten children born to Martin and Margaret Feerick.
“Our farm was very small - 36 acres or so - running down to the lake, Lough Carra," he recalled. "In the winter we caught the Pike on the ice on Carra as my father did before me and his father before him. We lived off the lake and rivers! Also catching or poaching trout and salmon in local rivers was a very big thing then.”
The above statement confirms that the tradition of 'Piking' on the ice at Lough Carra during periods when the lake was frozen stretches back generations and indeed likely hundreds of years to the references referred to above by Hamilton Maxwell in his book which was published in 1829.
More recently there was an article penned for a coarse fishing pamphlet in 2015 which referred to the 'Pike Stunners' of Lough Carra. That contrived term is unknown locally and obviously fashioned by a person unfamiliar with the traditional ancient practice of pike fishing on ice as I will later outline.
This custom and tradition has been handed on from father to son down the generations. In lean years in the 1800s and 1900s, when hunger had never been far from a country man’s door, a monster pike could sustain a family for a fortnight or more.
1963 was a legendary year in the annals of hunting the pike on Carra. From mid-December, the country was held in the unrelenting grasp of a bitter cold Siberian wind. The accompanying frost set in early in the afternoons and penetrated every living thing. Cross cuts swung into action as local men felled trees on the islands on Lough Carra for precious firewood to keep their families warm. The timber was then ferried to the shore and their homes by donkey carts and drays.
The work was often dispensed with as men folk made haste to enjoy the Piking, morning and evening. Men and boys from the surrounding communities congregated on the frozen bays and inlets around the lake. This happened frequently at Moorehall, Ballintubber and Partry.
Firstly, a group traversed the deep waters far out. Parties of five or six abreast stretched across the bay, drumming the ice with sticks and fork handles in order to hunt the great pike towards the shallows by the shore. With fork or grape clutched in their fists, men and youths would run, skid, swivel and slide to gain advantage over monster pike which had been viewed beneath the ice. Frequently the big fish bolted and made a desperate dash for the deep. Men hollered with enthusiasm as they skilfully slid across the ice in order to cut them off.
On occasions, the pike hunters were successful and turned the fish inwards towards the shore. Other times, the chase was in vain as the pike broke the overhead gauntlet and vanished to the distant deep. Often the persistent ice tapping and due diligence to the task ensured a great fish was ushered into shallow waters. When he was clearly visible underneath the ice – his great gills expanding and contracting from exhaustion – a sledgehammer or a hatchet was called into play. Massive hits on the surface ensured a large hole was broken in the thick ice.
Regularly the pike moved a few feet or yards further forward and the process had to be repeated often more than once.
Then predictably after a time there came the final surrender. The pike was pinned with one fork to the marl base and whipped clear in one great skilful scoop by another. Monster pike, some in excess of 30lbs, were caught in this manner. There were jubilant cries of joy as the skilled task was accomplished. Time old tradition was honoured as the 'first spotter' always claimed and received the fish.
Rarely indeed was there any danger to the pike men. Locals have always respected the waters and knew when the ice was strong enough to sustain a party of pike men. On one occasion in 1963, a brazen fellow sank through a spring hole in the ice. Vigilant comrades had a rope at the ready and thankfully he was quickly hauled to safety. Another pike hunter also sank on weak ice one morning but was luckily rescued by a vigilant neighbour. The drenched one went home to change his wet clothing and then immediately resumed his favoured winter pursuit.
There are those who may fret that the practice was not safe. Local people have never encouraged those unfamiliar with the lake to participate in Piking as obviously it would have its dangers to those unacquainted with the waters. Children and unaccompanied young people should never embark on a Piking venture on waters unfamiliar to them.
Other than Piking, Moorehall on the shores of Lough Carra is a famous location that keeps giving remarkable stories in local history and heritage. The Schools Folklore Collection from 1938 features a real gem on the frozen Lough Carra in the 1790s by Michael Ó Gealbháin, Collector. His informant was Owen McHugh, a local man, aged 104 years. Owen was born in 1834 approximately and thereby would have had a valid folk memory on the building of Moorehall from his father and family. Designed by John Roberts, Moorehall was built by George Moore in 1792 and completed in 1796. Speaking about the construction of Moorehall in the 1790s, unbelievably Owen McHugh told the collector:
“You know that Moorehall is built of fine cut stone. Now when they wanted to build that house they saw that the stones about the place were no good for a building of the kind they wanted.
"But over the other side of the lake (Lough Carra) in Partry are some of the finest building stones of all. Isn’t it there Geoff Meala gets all the stones for his head-stones now, in the quarry near Port Royal.
"But Port Royal was a mortal great distance from Muchloon - that was the old name for Moorehall before the Moores called it Moorehall – a mortal great distance around the road – and another thing I don’t think the way up to Moorehall was very good at that time. Troth 'tis a fine road now.
"Well that year came the hardest frost was ever seen – six weeks of black frost and Lough Carra was one sheet of ice. They brought a horse to the forge and you may say they sharpened him well.
"Then they put him under a cart and tried them on the ice – and if they did the ice kept them up. Then they filled the cart with stones and, faith, the ice kept them up this time as well.
"So they gathered a meitheal of horses and carts and sharpened all the horses and they went over the ice to Partry for the stones they had quarried beforehand. But before the horses started straw was spread on the ice all the way across the lake, and a certain distance was kept between every two carts so that too much weight would not be in any one place at the same time.
And that’s how they carted the stones for Moorehall House.”
That must surely have been the most remarkable innovative daring deed ever carried out on a frozen lough in Ireland!
