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.

The Hearth

All was cosy and warm inside ......

Joe-Pat would quietly enter the cabin and there see seated at the fireside his little mother minding the cauldron, quietly humming something Liturgical. For company she had a variety of two and four-legged beings about her, though to someone of Joe-Pat's refinement, the heat and the humidity and all the rest were quite over-powering.

Every Son has a mother...

Every son has a mother, and Joe-Pat was no exception ...

Molloy put it about that he didn't know where Joe-Pat came out of but he'd heard that maybe he was a tinker ... Which was not in fact the case, for we have it on record that although for many years after working in Arrahcashel House Joe-Pat had become what today we would call a "travelling person", that is, one who walked the length and breadth of Ireland, he had come originally from a fixed abode. He even made a great point of visiting his mother, a "widdy", living in the wilds of some county out on the Western Board, at least once every year, usually in Michaelmas. How his great generous heart swelled in his breast at the sight of the "Homestead" when he rounded the corner after coming down from the Perilous Pass ... the smoke, not exactly rising from the chimney (for there was none), puffing out in black dust balls through the front door (which was the only aperture in the whole structure).

Bardic Tradition in Ireland

The conference of the Bards ...

Joe-Pat met up with a number of bards across Ireland and we would like to think there was an interesting exchange of ideas ... Exchange there was certainly was, quite what exactly, we will never know ...

Irish speakers

But Lady Sophia, Sir Richard's sister, was the Irish scholar in that house, and was indeed able to translate to visitors many of the poems Joe-Pat recited : better than he could himself .....