Of course the house was full of people, old and young from the locality. Things got much better when the Mass was over. The cross priest was given his breakfast in the parlour on his own while the rest of us had ours in the kitchen. In those days people had to fast from food and drink from midnight in order to receive Holy Communion so all those old enough to receive would have been starving. I was starving too, of course, because Mrs. Quill did not have time to make a special breakfast for me.
Of course at that time I had not even started going to school so I was a Catholic only in the sense that I had been baptised so during this Mass which had started off very badly indeed with the public scolding of the bold altar boy I was like one of those children in 'Once in Royal David's City' who "All in white shall wait around" - only I certainly was not in white! I cannot remember now what kind of clothes Mrs Quill had put on me but I imagine they would have been fairly respectable!
When the priest came back in and saw every thing ready for him he gave the boy a very strong and angry scolding for touching the sacred vessels, something only a priest was allowed to do until the 1970s.
Another of the children was Kathleen. She may have been about 10 years old. I never saw her again but I still remember how she went out of her way to be nice and kind to me.
One of the visitors was Johnny MacCarthy. I remember the day he came in with one finger hanging off. I felt faint but he was laughing away as if it was a great joke!
I also remember a Station Mass there. The altar boy helpfully opened the priest's bag and made everything ready while the priest was putting on his vestments.
Thank you very much indeed for posting this and for all the photos of Jerry and other people from Ballinagree that I have never seen before.
My late mother, Nell Manning (1909 - 2003) was related to Thady Quill indirectly. Her mother was Mary Ring. Mary's sister was married to one of Thady Quill's brothers. During WW2 I was sent to stay with her and her family. She was a widow. The house was full of children, including Paddy Quill, one of my mother's cousins.
Of course the house was full of people, old and young from the locality. Things got much better when the Mass was over. The cross priest was given his breakfast in the parlour on his own while the rest of us had ours in the kitchen. In those days people had to fast from food and drink from midnight in order to receive Holy Communion so all those old enough to receive would have been starving. I was starving too, of course, because Mrs. Quill did not have time to make a special breakfast for me.
muisire 1 month ago
Of course at that time I had not even started going to school so I was a Catholic only in the sense that I had been baptised so during this Mass which had started off very badly indeed with the public scolding of the bold altar boy I was like one of those children in 'Once in Royal David's City' who "All in white shall wait around" - only I certainly was not in white! I cannot remember now what kind of clothes Mrs Quill had put on me but I imagine they would have been fairly respectable!
muisire 1 month ago
When the priest came back in and saw every thing ready for him he gave the boy a very strong and angry scolding for touching the sacred vessels, something only a priest was allowed to do until the 1970s.
That frightened me!
muisire 1 month ago
Another of the children was Kathleen. She may have been about 10 years old. I never saw her again but I still remember how she went out of her way to be nice and kind to me.
One of the visitors was Johnny MacCarthy. I remember the day he came in with one finger hanging off. I felt faint but he was laughing away as if it was a great joke!
I also remember a Station Mass there. The altar boy helpfully opened the priest's bag and made everything ready while the priest was putting on his vestments.
muisire 1 month ago
Thank you very much indeed for posting this and for all the photos of Jerry and other people from Ballinagree that I have never seen before.
My late mother, Nell Manning (1909 - 2003) was related to Thady Quill indirectly. Her mother was Mary Ring. Mary's sister was married to one of Thady Quill's brothers. During WW2 I was sent to stay with her and her family. She was a widow. The house was full of children, including Paddy Quill, one of my mother's cousins.
muisire 1 month ago