UK National Archives podcast: Irish Ancestors

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Paddy Casey
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UK National Archives podcast: Irish Ancestors

Post by Paddy Casey » Fri Sep 05, 2008 6:56 pm

The UK National Archives have just posted a podcast on their Irish Ancestors material at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/podc ... estors.mp3

It is an overview of their resources, i.e. not a mine of data on specific places and people, but is worth listening to. I, for one, was alerted to one of their shelves which may contain data on my Clare-born grandfather who joined HM Customs and Excise and spent his professional life visiting distilleries on horseback to levy excise dues (you may think that sounds like a government-funded pub crawl but abstemiousness and probity were key requirements for a job like that in those days and my grandfather was not allowed to touch a single drop of the product he was taxing; any such behaviour or even talk of such behaviour would have cost him his job and pension). It was a big event in his career when they raised his hay allowance (for the horse) from £5 per month to £7.

My grandfather went to school in Ruan where he was taught by the famous Master Hugh Brady, who specialised in getting children through the very tough British Civil Service entry examinations. The regime in the school was ferocious and my grandfather and his brother had to walk there and back from Tubber every day in all weathers. In those days there were no lines of mothers parked in SUVs waiting to pick up their little darlings. It was either walk or stay ignorant. My grandfather's brother passed the Civil Service examinations and went to work in the Post Office headquarters in Dublin. My grandfather passed the examinations, joined the Customs & Excise, was posted to various places in Ireland and Scotland, and died at a ripe old age in Scotland. An example of how education led to emigration.

I digress, but what the heck.

Paddy

smcarberry
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off topic regarRe: UK National Archives podcast: Irish Ances

Post by smcarberry » Fri Sep 05, 2008 11:02 pm

All right, now my curiosity is piqued - how did you learn about children being picked up by parents in SUVs. I have been thinking that that is just a USA issue. I know that realtors (those selling real estate for a living) tool about the Irish boreens in such vehicles, but are the school yards in Clare now also plagued with the gas hogs ? I know you are based elsewhere, but what is your point of reference ?

How about Smart cars and hybrids in Clare ? Are those on the scene yet ? I think I need to label this off-topic since the
Forum is about the past.

Thanks for the heads-up on the podcast,
Sharon Carberry USA

Paddy Casey
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Re: UK National Archives podcast: Irish Ancestors

Post by Paddy Casey » Sat Sep 06, 2008 9:12 am

Sharon,

Many children are picked up by parents in SUVs/4x4s, "people carriers", or similar large vehicles in many urban or semi-urban areas here in Europe. My impression when driving around Clare is that the density of those large vehicles on the county roads is the same as in any other wealthy area.

That said, in Tubber, the rural Clare place I am most familiar with, the children generally walk. The same probably applies to many other rural areas. I've seen vehicles pick up children but the vehicles were usually muddy working farm vehicles or Ford Fiestas and not the urban schoolrun type of behemoth. However, the children are not walking the distances that my grandfather walked. I walked the route from Moyrhee to Ruan myself and it took my adult-length and fit legs 1:50 to the school and 2:10 back (the return being a bit uphill). My grandfather and his brother did the full distance in bare feet and carried their shoes, which were strictly for school use, in their bags. Very romantic.

My grandfather's walks to school and back might have been regarded as a normal part of the day and possibly even an enjoyable one for a child on a fine day in that beautiful and ecologically interesting part of the country with its fields and hedgerows and rivers and streams. However, nowadays they would probably be regarded by many as a gross imposition verging on child abuse.

Of course, many children are chauffeured for security reasons nowadays in urban environments but I'm sure convenience plays a large part.

On the Clare Past/walking/fitness theme, when reading some of the old accounts of hurling matches I'm impressed by the distances that players or spectators would walk to attend a match. Starting out at 6am after milking the cows and then walking to an afternoon match and back was, it seems, quite the thing. Imagine a modern-day football crowd doing that.

Paddy

smcarberry
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Re: UK National Archives podcast: Irish Ancestors

Post by smcarberry » Sat Sep 06, 2008 10:35 am

Continuing on a generally off-topic tangent, I would expect children's obesity rates to be on the increase in Europe, following what is an established phenomenon now in the U.S. Starting the habit of walking in youth seems to yield a lifetime of health benefits. I have just winged my way through several months of intensive medical treatments, with nary an ill effect, which I chalk up to my very active childhood and continuation of a high level of physical activity ever after. Even before reaching my teens, I used my own two feet to get around to friends' houses and to get to town to spend a precious earned 25 cents on a comic book. Three miles to town must have taken about an hour or so, easily spared in a day lacking the scheduling of events now typical for middle-class youth.

I don't have an SUV but chauffeuring my children everywhere resulted in their total failure to notice anything along the route, so that they did not develop a sense of direction, which did impact development of self-responsibility. I have to wonder if it is a good trend to so shelter teens and then expect them at age 18 to conduct themselves wisely and take over the functions which we as parents have been keeping them from developing incrementally. No wonder we can hardly believe our eyes when we see ages like 12 or 13 on the ship manifests for incoming Irish youth traveling on their own.

There, having brought this back round to being on-topic, I will stop. Thanks for your comments.

Sharon C.

moc66
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Re: UK National Archives podcast: Irish Ancestors

Post by moc66 » Sat Sep 06, 2008 10:38 am

Hi
Yes Sharon the gas guzzlers are to be seen outside every school, morning and evening since the end of August as kids went back to the classroom. The days of, "To School through The Fields” by Alice Taylor are long gone. The country roads are full of these vehicles and some may only carry their kids back and forth a few hundred yards.
Stories abound of times past of people cycling to Munster hurling and football finals. Also people cycled to Croke Park from all over the country for the All Ireland Finals. To local games, the teams and supporters cycled and walked together and if it was a rural team most would have probably milked the cows that morning. The All Ireland hurling final between Waterford and Kilkenny this weekend will not see any of those marathon cycles of yesteryear, they will arrive by boat, train, plane and Suv to Dublin! But what ever way they get there the country is looking forward to a great game of hurling.
Slán Michael

smcarberry
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Re: UK National Archives podcast: Irish Ancestors

Post by smcarberry » Sat Sep 06, 2008 12:14 pm

I am now about to hop into my gas-consuming car for a worthy purpose, which is visiting the state archives for the first time.
I will keep my eyes open for Irish-related materials. One of my goals is to learn more about a Moylan who intermarried with a Carberry in Savannah in about 1847. I already found a family member who did stay in that city, while the involved Carberry family alternated between New Orleans and New York City, never leaving much in the way of written records. Whatever I
find for them should be in databases useful for those Clare-born which I posted in another message on this Forum. Being
myself from families of the North, this will be the first time that I delve into local records on a Confederate soldier.

Sharon C.

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