Linehan's Handmade Sweets

Linehan's Handmade Sweets Traditional Cork Sweets
Linehans handmade sweet factory is on the Northside of Cork city. Four generations of the Linehan family have been involved in making sweets in the factory. Danny Linehan is now running the sweet factory with his son, Tony. Mr. Linehan makes the sweets in the same way as his grandfather did before him. Mr. Linehans grandfather used the very same ingredients: sugar, glucose and water.
Mr. Linehan pours the mixture. The sweets are cut.	When the mixture reaches 300 degrees it is poured onto a flat, iron table. The mixture begins to harden and colours and flavours are added. The peppermint flavour comes from China and costs £69 a litre. Mr. Linehan adds air by winding the mixture around a hook. The mixture then changes colour and becomes paler. Next Mr. Linehan flattens the mixture and allows it to cool a little. Mr. Linehan uses machines to shape the sweets. The same machines have been used for generations. Finally the sweets are weighed and packed into small bags.		Tony rolls the colours into the mixture. The winding of the mixture. The mixture is shaped.
Mr. Linehan makes sweets such as clove rocks, pear drops, butter nuggets, cough drops, bulls eyes and souviner rocks and chocolate cups. When my Mam was young she used to get sweets from Linehans. They would put the sweets into newspaper shaped like a cone My Nan also used to go to Linehans. And now I go there too, to get my sweets.
Weighing the Rocks. The packets of sweets. Looking at the sweets.	TREATS AND SWEETS My Mam told me that there were a lot of nice sweets around when she was young. Her favourites were fizzle sticks. Fizzle sticks were long powdery sticks that came in four different flavours; orange, lime, lemon and strawberry. My Mam's favourite was lime. Fizzle sticks cost 2p each. Other sweets that she liked were caramels. They were small, square, penny sweets. My Nan used to get Bulls eyes in a round tin with a lid and a handle. When the can was empty they used it for milk. When my Granda was young he used to get a penny worth of brown sugar for a treat. SHOPS My Mam used to buy 'Brus' when she was young for 5p. When she bought it they put it in newspaper shaped as a cone. Brus is pieces of left over sweets. She used to buy it in Linehans ,which is around the corner from Shandon church. There was another shop called O'Keeffe's on Blarney Street which also sold Brus. Powers was another shop that sold Bulls eyes, Cough sweets, Cloverocks and Brus. It was also on Blarney Street. Linehans sweet factory is still opened and now I go there for Brus and Cloverocks. Brus is 10p.It use to be 5p in the old days.		Linehan's price list. The Chocolate Mixture. Eating our sweets afterwards.

	Nicole Stanton	Sinead O'Connell