Mountcollins, The Spinning Wheel and Sex education on the farm.

Jonathan Fleury of Carrigaline for The Rebel Cup Photographic competition.

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Ballybunion May 11 2017

Photo: Catherine Moylan

Mario Perez did a sand art tribute and we all gathered round to say another farewell to our friend Fr. Pat Moore. I'll post more photos next week

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Artist at Work in Listowel Town Square

Monday May 8 2017

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The Church at Mountcollins

Here are a few more photos from my recent visit to this chapel on the hill.

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Do You Remember The Spinning Wheel?

Where Footprints now stands there once was a successful restaurant called The Spinning Wheel. James Scanlon, whose family owned this business shared with us some photographs from the 70s and 80s.

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Learning about the birds and the bees in the fifties

( from Jim Costelloe's Asdee)

Taking a hen turkey for service was a job for women, but, unfortunately, in our house the males had to do it. The bird was put into a canvas bag a hole was cut in the bag so that she could stick her head out in case she smothered. Dedending on the distance away to the cock, she was transported either by hand, on one’s back or on one’s arm, or taken by donkey and cart. Either way, it was a very embarrassing situation for us as boys to be seen by our school pals taking a hen turkey to the cock. We often went through the fields, which was a much harder journey, rather than meet one of the school peers. Being seen taking a hen turkey to the cock was nearly as bad as being accused of ‘trying" hens for eggs.

In general, the service did not take very long, but sometimes the cock would be slow, especially if it was a busy time and business was brisk. A cock turkey has very long claws and all breeddoing cocks have their claws trimmed, otherwise they would damage the hen turkey’s back during service. A well feathered hen would have some protection, but breeding hens are inclined to lose some of their feathers during the laying season. To protect them, a piece of a man’s jumper was often tied on their backs during mating. The male turkey, always referred to as a cock and not a cockerel often did a lot of prancing on the female during service so protection on her back during service was essential.

As a hen turkey generally laid fifteen to twenty eggs, she would have to be serviced three or four times to make sure all the eggs were fertilized. This meant more embarrassing trips for us. It happened that an odd young turkey, in her first breeding season, would not lie first but would lay without lying and consequently the egg would not be fertilized. That egg would be eaten by the man of the house. Turkey eggs are larger than duck or hen eggs, though smaller than goose eggs and they are speckled.