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Home Page > Blogs > News blogs > Periscope > A window on my past in an old just discovered video -- Rolling back the years to Tipperary, Ireland 1959

Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

A window on my past in an old just discovered video -- Rolling back the years to Tipperary, Ireland 1959

Posted on Tuesday, January 15, 2013 at 07:17 AM

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The 1959 Fleadh Cheoil festival in Thurles, County Tipperary

The past reaches out at the most unlikely times.

My brother Fergus, a Minister of State in the Irish government, was recently researching the history of the Fleadh Cheoil, (pronounced Flah Keoil) the annual massive traditional music festival held in different towns throughout Ireland with a view to attracting it to Drogheda, the town he represents.

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He came across this footage from 1959 of the Fleadh Cheoil festival in Thurles, County Tipperary, the town I grew up in. It contains fleeting footage of my father who was one of the organizers and offers an amazing glimpse into the life and times I grew up in. I was six at the time.

As the video opens it is the Whit weekend May 17, 1959 and the Fleadh Cheoil is clearly the biggest thing to hit Thurles, Tipperary in decades.

The big march is taking place through Liberty Square in the center of town. The men are still wearing caps, there is an occasional horse and cart, and the locals are done up in their best finery for the special occasion.

The parade of local dignitaries is under way, heavy on the Catholic Church monsignors and one glimpse of a purple cassock, the Archbishop perhaps.

The local and national businesses, including, a garish P. J. Carroll’s cigarette float, Dwans soft drinks, Bulmer’s Cider (still around) and Phoenix Beer are all represented. There is a blacksmith’s forge on the back of a truck, the fire belching out of it as it parades along. The kids must have loved that.

Once a glimpse and gone forever.

Later there are couples chastely dancing a reel as the musicians play (there is no sound) and then a hurling game, with a presentation to the winners.There are children marching, my family speculate we may be among them, but we will never know.

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Then there is a main stage with the priest making a speech, followed by a local dignitary. The camera pans and catches my father, 53 years old, hair slicked back with hair oil in the contemporary style, seated on the podium.

The video cuts to a medal presentation and then fades to black.

Fifty three years ago, in a small provincial town in Ireland, the air of excitement is palpable, the local pride bursting at the seams.

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I sit in a New York office thousands of miles away and ponder the imponderable past. Oh to be able to step into that video, walk up to the man on the stage and introduce myself again.

So much to say, but alas, will never be said in this life anyway.

But a peek at the past has made it possible to imagine.

Here’s the video:

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14 comments

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michaelidaho | Jan 16, 2013, 08:11 PM EST

cuculin, WoundedKnee makes a valid point. While I can not speak for Kerry, there has been a dramatic change in Connaught in the past 15 years. Indeed, this video reminded of a very recent Ireland that existed in the west of Ireland into the early 1990s. If you made a video of a football pitch or parade today in Ireland, you would have a difficult time deciphering if it was produced in New York, London, Sydney, Castlebar or Thurles.

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Towngate | Jan 16, 2013, 07:24 PM EST

... nice footage - but not a single 'Cheoil' in sight!

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donalo2001 | Jan 16, 2013, 03:12 PM EST

Great film but dont you think it is time now that you started supporting the Tipp hurling team ?

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Happyhippo | Jan 15, 2013, 04:16 PM EST

Thanks Niall for this wonderfull video,i was still in short pants in County Cork at the time and emigrated shortly after,but have been back many times and have seen some great days in Thurles in days gone by for the Cork v Tipp hurling games,Christy Ring included,i was back in Thurles a few years ago for a hurling game,they were packed in like sardines, there was a band playing in the square,the place was rockin,and the most popular drink in the bars was still the local brew,Bulmers on the rocks.

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Portia_O'Neill | Jan 15, 2013, 02:52 PM EST

Wonderful film Niall. It's grand to see it in colour too. Thanks for sharing it. It's a reminder that Ireland has lots of decent people living there who know how to parade.

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like2tweet | Jan 15, 2013, 01:57 PM EST

Love the footage, especially the blacksmiths -- not twee at all actually, a la recehrche de temps perdu red branch old friend

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cuculin | Jan 15, 2013, 01:32 PM EST

Woundedknee, here you go again! More rubbish coming out of that sad excuse of a brain. There is plenty of " Irish ethnicity " in Kerry where I come from and I see it every year when I go home. But of course if you had been in Ireland more than that one time where you must have had that bad experience that has distorted your vision of it you would know that.

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seamus60 | Jan 15, 2013, 01:17 PM EST

Sure is coming to Derry. Had to be bought in though.

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RedBranch | Jan 15, 2013, 12:30 PM EST

All very twee. How about some footage from elsewhere in your youth Niall. I'm thinking San Francisco in the late 70s. -80s. Yeah Baby! And the Fleadh Cheoil this year, its being held in Derry / Londonderry, that's in the UK

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mylesie | Jan 15, 2013, 11:45 AM EST

The Fleadh - fantastic. Pity you missed the opportunity to say the event is coming across the border for the first time to DERRY the UK City of Culture 2013. Cheers.

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WoundedKnee | Jan 15, 2013, 11:37 AM EST

Thanks for this. Reminds me of some footage I saw of the commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of the '98 Rebellion in Wexford in 1948. There are also interesting clips of the Tostal festival in Dublin, around 1953 I think. Maybe it's time to think of establishing a National Archive of the Irish People, since within a few decades Irish ethnicity will be no more.

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Oldwildrover | Jan 15, 2013, 10:37 AM EST

Too bad there is no sound. Must be one of the old silent type cameras. Anybody know ??

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torbreezy | Jan 15, 2013, 10:12 AM EST

An utterly charming "day in the life of Thurles" . . . .

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torbreezy | Jan 15, 2013, 09:28 AM EST

Niall, your story took me down memory lane too. On Whit weekend 1961, May 20 - 22, Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann, the first All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil was held in Swinford. My uncle and godfather, a local government official. was one of the organizers. Also being a publican and shopkeeper he and the town benefitted much from this spectacular event. And to a young lad it was spectacular - never saw so many people in my life, seemingly from everywhere. Up to that point the most memorable day in my life.

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