Cross in a Bottle
This cross in a bottle was made a hundred years ago by Mr Fogarty from Ballyconra.
It was a present given to Thomas Maher and Mary Bowe on their wedding day.
Source: Mary Maher.
First Holy Communion
Paddy Dunne, Rathbeagh dressed up on the morning of his First Holy Communion.
Source: - Betty Dunne.
Funerals
Geoff Brennan remembers horse drawn hearses. McGraths in Freshford and John Grace had one. The hearse was pulled by two horses. The hearse had glass windows. Sometimes they had frosted glass decorations. On the top there were four wooden poles painted black at every corner with a canopy on top.
The person driving the hearse would have worn a hard hat and a special coat with shiny buttons. Richer people could hire a covered car as well for the family. They could fit eight people in the car. The person was left in the coffin for everyone to see for two days. There was Mass on the morning after the first night of the wake.
Only rich people would be brought to the church. There would be an Office and a High Mass which were sung by the priests. They had a lot of drinks at the wake. Whiskey was sometimes bought in gallons. Geoff can remember at one of his neighbour's wakes they got eight gallons of whiskey when they went to the undertakers for the coffin and habit. They still ran out of whiskey.
The whiskey was poured out from jugs and sometimes they had glasses of port wine. They had plently of tobacco. They had a few dozen clay pipes which people could buy for 1/2 d each. The pipes were filled and everyone got a few puffs. Even the boys did and often got sick at wakes. People came from miles away and ofted "stayed" up all night.
When a person died the clock was stopped at the time they died. When the day came for the person to be buried, the body was taken straight to the graveyard. For a poor person's funeral, there would be no priest and a local person would only say the "De Profundis" in Latin. Tommy Grace did it in Rathbeagh and John Donnelly did it in Coolcashin. Sometimes these men also said the Rosary at the wake.
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