Threshing at Hollybrook, Skibbereen, West Cork with Marshall’s Gainsboro Steam Machine 1930s

Courtesy De La Salle Publication

High child mortality at Innishannon Charter School, Co. Cork early 19th century and unrelated parliamentary Report on school 1813.

Some time ago looking at burial records from Innishanon Church of Ireland I was struck at what appears an abnormal rate of child mortality at the Charter School. This is in the early decades of the 19th century. At the time it was common for children to die young and this is reflected in the local burial registers of other churches This in particular stands out and reminds one of the Besssboro mothers and babies home (formerly the house of the Pike family) in Blackrock in Cork.

Google books had the 1813 Parliamentary Report into the irish Charter Schools which includes Innishannon.

http://books.google.ie/books?id=xC9bAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA90&lpg=PA90&dq=apothecary+bandon&source=bl&ots=pJSE17aoFr&sig=-gOx2F8ebLUKPkPUtlduc5qiOqk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=28n7U9uwKufy7AbZ9oGQBQ&ved=0CCgQ6AEwBjgU#v=onepage&q=apothecary%20bandon&f=false

The charter schools, founded in the early eighteenth century, were envisaged by their supporters as the positive side to government policy towards the Roman Catholics of Ireland. The…

Abstract of will of Thomas Becher, Skerkin Island, West Cork dated 21st August 1705 listing some townlands in Schull, Caheragh, Skibbereen.

From Irish Manuscript Commission Online, originals lost in 1922.

Landed Estate Database:

http://landedestates.nuigalway.ie:8080/LandedEstates/jsp/estate-show.jsp?id=2436

A Troupe of Wren Boys in Ireland (Image Creative Commons)

When I first came to live in Limerick some 30 years ago, I was totally astonished to have dozens of musicians and dancers arriving into my house throughout  St Stephen’s Day, 26 December. From about 10 am onwards, they arrived. The earliest were  small groups of local children with their musical instruments, often as young as 5 or 6 years of age. The great cultural network of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, active across much of Ireland, ensures that there are musicians in abundance of all ages to take part in events. In parts of Ireland, St Stephen’s Day,or Lá Fhéile Stiofán in Irish, is known as ‘Lá an Dreoilín’, meaning the Day of the Wren or Wren’s Day. Announcing their arrival by loudly playing the bodhran (an Irish drum) as they make their way towards the door, and with barely enough time to shut the startled…