The Local Bigwigs in Joe-Pat's Townland

A cold pair of ones .....

Joe-Pat's mother had once been engaged in the service of the Hamiltons, a family of Scotch descent, resident in England. They were not lately in Ireland much, but when they did come over, it was an icy wind that cut over the townland. There was some terrible connection between this family and Mary-Anne's. But more of that later.

Joe-Pat's illustrious descendancy

Joe-Pat's illustrious and talented descendants .... Joe-Pat was not to know that the future held great things in store for him personally, the great turn his fortunes were to take which marked the end of his "wandering years". More of that later.

ILL-BRED DOGS ; ITS A DISGRACE - SOMETHING's GOT TO BE DONE

CATHO OR PROTESTANT ; SOME PROBLEMS REMAIN THE SAME

CELIBACY : TAKE YOUR PICK

CELIBACY : THE WISDOM OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

Little snowy white feet

Little Mary-Anne of the snowy white feet....

There was in the townland a young girl, a "colleen", by the name of Mary-Anne. Joe-Pat first saw her one evening at the side of the Crossroads observing with interest the dancing lessons. She was clearly too poor to pay the dancing master and as she stood in bare feet, her glossy black mane tumbling over a tattered red cloak. One day Joe-Pat offered to pay a sixpence for a lesson which she gently accepted. The next week however she came back to say that her family had told her not to accept money from men or strangers. She continued to come along every week to look on. Though the others took no notice of her, Joe-Pat was taken with her gracious manner. Never a word was uttered between them. One day, as autumn was approaching, she did not come. She was never seen or heard of again. Someone told Joe-Pat's mother that the familiy had moved away from their mud cabin and gone to Dublin. Strangely affected, he continued to carry the memory of her little face in his mind until years later, when a man, he made a most amazing discovery about her and her whereabouts. But more of that later.

Dancing at the crossraods ; Jigs and reels and cotilions

Joe-Pat : his Mother's Pride ...

Joe-Pat was known to be bright, and his mother, a widow who had worked at the Big House, had done what she could to procure an education for him. The Master of the Hedge School lamented on the fact that there was no way of further developing his education. Joe-Pat showed promise in the arts too, and his poor oul mother gathered up her pennies for the dancing master that took them for lessons at the Crossroads. She had him well turned out, and even had a pair of brogues for the dancing. Here is what Young observed on his travels concerning the love of the common Irish for dancing: "Dancing is so universal among them that there are everywhere itinerant dancing-masters, to whom the cottars pay sixpence a quarter for teaching their families. Besides the Irish jig, which they can dance with the most luxuriant expression, minuets and country dances are taught ; and I even heard some talk of cotilions coming in." (Arthur Young's Tour in Ireland (1776-1779), p. 147).

Protestants in the family; a secret source of pride

The strange likeness between Archie and Joe-Pat ...

Long ago, years back when Joe-Pat was a boy, he would occasionally come across the Oakley family. The father owned a saw mill and they were relatively well to do. However, they kept themselves to themselves as they were of the Protestant persuasion, upright and God-fearing and never cursed or got drunk and everyone looked up to them. One day Barney told Joe-Pat : "Aren't ye the spit o' thon there young un. Ye'd tek the two of yez for brothers, I'm thinkin'." The boy, called Archie, would stare across at Joe-Pat, for the same idea had obviously occurred to him too. And so it happened that whenever Joe-Pat would be in town, he'd seek out Archie, and Archie likewise. But neither spoke. It was just unthinkable. One day Joe-Pat casually mentioned the Oakleys to his mother and that was when he learned that Oakley wasn't their real name, but an assumed one, and that Archie's great-grandfather had been driven in desperation to "take the soup". And stranger still, wasn't Samuel Oakley, Archie's Da, a second cousin of Joe-Pat's poor father. Far from evoking in the breast of Joe-Pat the usual righteous indignation felt amongst his co-religionists, this revelation of his mother's seemed a consecration of sorts. To be connected with such fine people was a secret source of pride by Joe-Pat's reckoning. "Now don't be goin' tellin' anyone what I told ye, d'ye hear " warned his mother.

Souper ; Protestant or Catholic? Take your pick.

Mis-information along the Way...

The Homecoming wasn't always a happy affair, and the mood could be set according to the reception you might receive within the townland. Like the year Joe-Pat met with oul McCrudden, a tailor, moral vigilante of sorts, coming along the by-road.

"Howra Barney" "Is it Joe-Pat I'm seein' ?" "I'm back to see the mother." "And well might ye be, for it could be fer the last time, I don't know." "Ah now, don't be tellin me ...." "She's very low, very failed, now.... That's the fine coat ye have on yer back. Have ye took the soup?"

As you might imagine, this sort of exchange was not exactly calculated to make Joe-Pat feel welcome. Joe-Pat, the generous soul he was, took oul Barney in his stride. For hadn't the oul codger managed down the years to slip with consummate ease between the Papish and Protestant religions depending on the state of the praties. It had been all the style some years previous, even in the highest quarters (even with some of the great Gael Houses), to change over. It was just as easy to change back. But they that stayed on in the Protestant religion were a queer lot, becoming isolated in time from the rest of the community. "The Soupers" they were known as down the generations. Which brings us to the strange case of far out cousins of Joe-Pat's who were the "Protestant branch" of the family.