Author: Paul

John Murphy or Seán Ó Murchú is a native Irish speaker from the parish of Annaghdown. In Addergoole village where he was raised there were many people who spoke mainly Irish, including his mother and uncle, and his father also learned to speak Irish. The Irish on this recording is the version of the language spoken in this area. John’s writing is in the old Irish script, an Cló Gaelach, and his spelling is the pre-standardised form. The notes were written by John in the late 1970s or early 1980s. This video was recorded on 22 July and 8 August 2022. Included below is an account ‘Séasúir na Nodlag le Linn mo Oige-se’ (the Christmas season in my youth), written by John in the old style Cló Gaelach script.

Between 1720 and 1925, many local loan associations operated throughout Ireland, offering small loans to the ‘industrious poor’, for purposes such as buying grain, farm animals, or machinery. A scheme on the Kirwan estate at Castlehacket operated from the 1830s to the 1850s, which resulted in an excellent set of surviving records. A return of the state of the scheme in December 1853 is particularly interesting. It offers an insight into local conditions before and during the Famine, and records several inhabitants of the townlands of Bunatober, Cahermorris, Cluidrevagh, and Biggera, who died or emigrated during this period, as well as recording the progress of each person who took out a loan.