'Most people when they got married and when they raised a family and that, the majority of labourers in Ireland, they had no ways or means of getting a house. Their only way of getting a house was council housing. That was the custom at the time, that people applied for council housing and you went on the list.'
The Allotments Used To Be Here A History Of County Council Housing In Westmeath
Tim Durham
1850 - 2011
1-16 Parnell Terrace路 Patrick Street路 Mullingar
4
Foreward We are delighted to add this innovative documentary photographic project entitled 'The Allotments Used To Be Here: A History Of County Council Housing In Westmeath' by Tim Durham as a new edition to our public art repertoire. Westmeath County Council has a vision for public art that creates an imaginative, innovative and co-ordinated public art programme sensitive to the cultural character of the County, where original art work created speciically for the local context has always been encouraged. Public art is an imaginative and dynamic ield which is constantly evolving and opening itself up to new forms of expression. The commissioning of Public Art affords the public an opportunity to experience a vast range of contemporary art in their everyday lives and provides the artist with the challenge and opportunity to create work for public engagement and response. Local Authorities are the biggest commissioners of public art in Ireland and Westmeath County Council has developed a varied and lexible approach to commissioning across a range of artistic disciplines including visual arts, the performing arts, community arts and dance. Public art represents an extremely important part of the arts and cultural provision of Westmeath County Council and the area of socially engaged artist led initiatives like this public art project which are locally connected provides new opportunities for us to engage with the public. This project is a response to the contribution of social housing in Westmeath. It examines housing design and trends since 1850 which can be witnessed throughout the county and demonstrates how housing has changed and matured. The local authority is also the largest provider of housing and this project has afforded us a glimpse into the evolution of social housing in our county. This is not an attempt to create a deinitive record of all County Council housing. This would be very dificult because of the incomplete housing records, particularly in the early part of the 20th century. It is akin to a irst draft of a history that can be added to and edited as necessary. As an art project this publication conveys the sentiments and impressions created by these houses in our surroundings and it brings these endeavours to a wider audience. We would like to congratulate Tim Durham on this inspirational and well conceived project; through his photographs and anecdotes he has enabled us to engage with our built environment through a photographer’s eye.
Councillor Mark Cooney
Daniel McLoughlin
Cathaoirleach, Westmeath County Council.
County Manager, Westmeath County Council.
5
A Record Of Something Relatively Ordinary Vanessa Finlow
Who occupies this House? A Stranger I must judge Since No one know His Circumstance Emily Dickinson
6
At a time when housing is on our minds and ghost estates stand as stark reminders of mistakes made during the bubble, these council houses stand solid and occupied, useful if not beautiful, and after all who knows what beauty might live within. The houses in Tim Durham’s photographs are uniied by the fact that they were all designed and built for rental to meet an actual social need. However what deines these dwellings as council houses is very nebulous. Many of the houses presented in these photos are in fact owner occupied; so can they be considered ‘council houses’ in a true sense? These are the questions that Tim contends with as he brings us on a county-wide journey collecting and cataloguing these houses.
Tim’s photos are, in ways, devoid of a lived life but history has unfolded here; sighs of contentment, a child’s laugh, a welcome smell of home. For these houses are more than bricks, concrete, windows and doors but are suggestive of much more. As Joyce put it so precisely ‘The other houses of the street, conscious of decent lives within them, gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces.’(Dubliners). It is this imperturbable face that we see, not expressing much and yet it is in the tiny details that we register hints of difference and the myriad decisions made that make a house a home. So these houses are not only buildings to be collected and catalogued but places in which real lives are lived.
Though the photos are, in Tim’s own words, ‘not spectacular’ they present a visual tapestry of social housing in the county since the 1800s. In observing these ordinary houses so diligently he portrays the everyday as somewhat mysterious. The houses are mundane, not boring but simply relating to the world, we see them in our peripheral vision. Tim stands to face them and makes these meticulous photographs that reveal much that we might miss.
In creating this visual inventory of these buildings we are invited to view and to search for what uniies them and deines them as council houses. In doing this Tim invites us to stop and relect on something. Writer and critic John Berger (Keeping a Rendevous,1993) makes explicit the purpose of this art form ‘All photographs are there to remind us of what we forget’.
7
Tim is drawing our attention to this quotidian moment. But he is driven by a clear-eyed curiosity and a dwelling in the everyday, the small and the fragmented.
Just as Westmeath County Council have a vast stock of housing we too have a rich store of visual knowledge about how we recognise and deine these houses. Tim is concerned to make an organised archive of this in order to amass its diverse history for posterity. In doing so he is making these houses signiicant, important and worthy of our attention.
While very detailed, the photos are quite detached and unemotional. Perhaps Le Coubusier’s famous dictum ‘houses are machines for living in’ could apply. There is a uniformity of light and style. Most are photographed at the bleakest time of year, no lowers bloom, the trees are far from bursting into life and there are few ‘picturesque’ touches. It is as though the specimens of the various houses are just that – ‘specimens’ clinically held up to the light and examined. Recorded rather bleakly, their individuality suppressed . There is no sign of life here; no washing laps on the line, no dogs loll about, no children play, no one comes or goes. As Larkin has it ‘dwelling-Where only salesmen and relations come’ (Here,1964). There seems to be a deliberate omission of human activity and engagement in the photos. But somehow life is embedded in the images. We never get inside these houses or even round the back. There is no glimpse of a human face and yet the accompanying texts breathe life through their words. These are words of hardship, generosity, abundance and lack. All of this says that a house is much more than its exterior can ever suggest. The voices contrast with this rather plain and impersonal view giving depth and colour and suggestions of the interior richness beyond the scope of the photographic images.
8
If we need help in unravelling these images, in decoding them the titles offer no clue. The titles are neutral, in no way suggestive, just a straightforward and unremarkable line to locate the subject in a literal sense and giving nothing away, providing no value judgement. Letting the images speak, pared down, stripped back as they are.
These photographs are remarkable in their consistency and control of the images. What Tim wants to say is here, rendered in the careful and studious composition of the images. The houses are stark and quite anonymous, neat and unremarkable, even the skies are neutralized. Yet we look, searching for detail, maybe hoping for a glimpse of human life and activity. The series of images is so methodical, clear and informative it seems to be telling the viewer that there is a link here, a connection between these diverse styles of house, their shared history and the lives within.
9
Local Authority Housing in Westmeath 1850-2011 Ruth Illingworth
Introduction The role of local authorities in the provision of housing dates back to the post-famine era when Ireland was part of the United Kingdom and British governments began to take a more active interest in the welfare of their citizens.
10
1850 - 1880 Prior to the famine, central government showed little regard for the social needs of people. Welfare provision was largely left to private charity and to the Church of Ireland parish vestries, the County Grand Juries and from 1838 – the Poor Law Guardians.
The quality of housing in Westmeath at the time of the famine was of poor standard. Housing stock was divided into four categories and the majority of the population of Westmeath – estimated at 141,000 in the census of 1841, lived in ‘third’ and ‘fourth’ class houses. ‘Fourth’ class houses were mud cabins with one window without glass and often no chimneystack. Some 38% of Westmeath houses in 1841 were fourth class.
In rural Westmeath, housing conditions were particularly bad for the 41% of farmers whose holdings were less than one statute acre and the landless labourers who worked for the farmers. Visitors to the county were struck by the ‘thoroughly wretched state of the cabins in which the poorest classes lived'. Matters were as bad in the urban areas. Out of a total housing stock in Mullingar of 752 dwellings, some 257 were fourth class.
The Great Famine hit hardest those who lived in the poorest quality housing. The population of Westmeath fell by a ifth during the famine and fell by a further 50,000 in the decade 185161. The majority of those who died or emigrated during this time were 'fourth' class house occupants. In Mullingar, the number of 'fourth' class houses fell dramatically from 257 in 1841 to just 48 in 1851.
The post-famine decades saw a gradual shift in government thinking away from strict ‘laissez faire’ dogma. There was a growing acceptance that government had a responsibility to make social provision for those in need and an increased understanding of the connection between poor housing and disease.
11
From the 1850s onwards, local government authorities in Britain and Ireland were given more power and inancial support to improve the national housing stock. In 1854, the Towns Improvement (Ireland) Act was passed, allowing towns to claim a measure of self government, this led to the election of Mullingar’s irst town commissioners in May 1856.
The commissioners faced a major housing problem in many parts of the town, eight, nine or even more people were living in one or two room mud hovels, devoid of sanitation, heat or light.
The commissioners appointed an inspector whose job it was to keep the streets clean and to regulate the large number of often dubious ‘lodging houses’ in the town.
In rural areas of Westmeath matters were really no better. In as far as improved housing existed, it was largely provided by benevolent landlords. The Earls of Longford in Castlepollard; William Barlow Smyth in Collinstown; the Trustees of Wilson’s Hospital in Multyfarnham were singled out for praise for their efforts to help tenants improve their houses. In the post famine decades, Charles Brinsley Marlay built cottages for his labourers and tenants on the Belvedere estates (including the town of Kinnegad). The Wilson family of Daramona House provided good quality houses for their tenants and staff in Streete. The irst parliamentary legislation on housing standards went onto the statute book in 1851 when the Common Lodges Houses Act laid down minimum housing standards. This was the legislation which allowed the Mullingar Town Commissioners to regulate the lodging houses in the town.
In 1875, an Artisans and Labourers Dwellings Improvement Act provided low cost public loans to larger urban authorities for the clearance of slums.
12
The Land Acts of 1881, 1885 and 1893 protected the rights of tenant farmers but did not do much for the farm labourers. The farmers who had achieved security of tenure and lower rents were reluctant to provide their workers with decent homes. The British government had to step in and give local authorities the power and inancial support to help the labourers.
1881 – 1921 From the early 1880s, new national legislation allowed local authorities to begin building.
The Labourers (Ireland) Act of 1883 subsidised local authorities to provide rented housing for farm labourers. In 1886, a second Labourers Act extended housing eligibility to anyone working part time as an agricultural labourer.
In 1906, the Labourers (Ireland) Act established a Labourers Cottage Fund to provide low interest loans for rural local authority house building. Two years later, an Irish Housing Fund was created which provided the irst direct Exchequer subsidy for urban housing.
The labourers cottages became a distinctive feature of the Westmeath countryside. The cottages were usually single storey, with four or more rooms and a slate roof. Examples can still be seen in all parts of the country. The Labourers Acts meant that by 1920, many labourers were actually living in better houses than farmers. One room houses all but disappeared and the number of thatched cottages fell.
Local government reform from the 1870s onwards led to house building powers being vested in the Poor Law Unions of which there were three in Westmeath (Mullingar, Athlone and Delvin), and Town Commissioners.
13
The 1890 Housing of the Working Classes Act empowered urban authorities to construct social housing on green ield sites. In Mullingar, most of the new homes were on relatively large plots of withered open land near the edge of the built up area. Rent was around 2s a week and the houses were built by the Town Commission and the Poor Law Guardians. (The Poor Law Guardians’ houses were generally referred to as ‘Union Cottages’). The irst houses built were single storey, but later houses were two storey and had individual gardens. Parnell Terrace in Patrick Street was the irst local authority housing scheme to be completed in the town.
In 1898, elected County Councils and the Rural District Councils were created. Mullingar and other Rural District Councils such as Coole, Delvin and Kilbeggan became the main providers of public housing in Westmeath. In 1913-14 for example, Kilbeggan RDC built 40 labourers cottages.
The First World War and the War of Independence largely halted house building. An exception was the provision of homes for ex-servicemen after World War One. The Irish Land (Provision for Sailors and Soldiers) Act of 1919 aimed to provide housing for some of the 80,000 war veterans as part of a broader demobilization programme. The Local Government Board administered the scheme. The houses were built by the OPW and were of high quality, with a plot of land attached to the dwelling. Originally applying only to rural areas, the Act was extended to urban areas in August 1920.
With Independence, central government funding for the ex-servicemen’s homes ended. However, in 1924, the Irish Soldiers and Sailors Land Trust was set up to continue the programme and the house building resumed. The ex-servicemen’s houses in towns such as Mullingar and Delvin were semi-detached with 3 bedrooms, a living room and a scullery.
14
1922 - 1960 During the irst years of Independence, funds from central government for local authority housing was limited. Some amount of building did continue, however. In the late 1920s the Mullingar Town Commission was able to acquire the former married quarters at the army barracks for a commission housing scheme.
During the interwar period the right of local authority tenants to purchase their buildings came onto the political agenda. It was a logical sequel to the Land Acts which had created the idea of tenant purchase for farmers. Legislation in the 1920s allowed local authorities to apply to central government to establish sale schemes. Up until 1925, the Rural and Urban District Councils had been the main provider of local authority houses. The abolition of RDCs in 1925 meant that Westmeath County Council now became the main provider of homes, although Mullingar Town Commission also continued to be involved.
In 1936, the Labourers Act obliged County Councils to sell labourers cottages to tenants. Central Government subsidies for house building also increased and in Mullingar and other towns this led to the building of new estates. During the decade 1933-1943 public schemes built more houses than the private sector. The Second World War caused another hiatus in local authority provision. Three years after the war, the 1948 Housing Act increased central government subsidies for building.
As a result of these subsidies, Westmeath County Council was able to embark on new building programmes. In Mullingar, for example, new schemes were built in the Springield and Green Road areas. At the same time, town commission tenants began to enter into purchase agreements with local authorities. The building programme ended problems with overcrowding which had beset many council and commission tenants during the war years. Semi-state buildings also played a part in the creation of housing during this period. In 1955, for example, Bord Na Mona built the Derrygreenagh Park Estate in Rochfortbridge for their workers.
15
1961 - 2011 The landmark 1966 Housing Act formally designated county and urban councils as housing authorities, with a duty to provide housing for those unable to provide for themselves. Over the last half century Westmeath County Council has provided housing across the county. Most of the council houses of the late 20th century were 2 storey, semi-detached or terraced dwellings with gardens. Examples of such council housing can be seen in Mullingar, Kinnegad, Moate, Kilbeggan and other towns and villages.
Legislation in the 1970s and 1980s encouraged tenants to buy and councils to sell. By the end of the twentieth century many council houses had passed into private ownership. However, the boom in house prices during the ‘Celtic Tiger’ era meant that many people could not afford to get onto the property ladder. Legislation allowed councils to enter partnerships with home owners under which the council provided houses at affordable mortgages. Developers were obliged to provide up to twenty percent of housing estates or apartment blocks for affordable or social housing. In rural Westmeath, the Land Commission provided houses as part of their work of breaking up landlord estates and providing new farms for local people and for migrants from the West. By the 1980s, however, the Commission was being wound up. Most housing in rural Westmeath was owner occupied – including many farm labourers' cottages, exservicemen’s cottages and Land Commission homes. In the irst years of the 21st century there was a huge growth in housing across Westmeath in both urban and rural areas. Towns and villages such as Kinnegad, Rochfortbridge and Mullingar grew dramatically. Social and affordable local authority houses were part of this growth. In some estates, a social mix was created of social, private and affordable homes. The HSE became a part of the provision of housing as people were moved from old style hospitals such as St. Loman's into community units. The local authority houses of the early 21st century comprised mainly 2 storey semi-detached buildings. Gardens continued to be a feature and a forecourt provided parking space for cars – essential in estates which were not served by public transport and were sometimes far from amenities.
16
In Mullingar some older local authority houses such as those in St. Finian’s Terrace (pre 1900) and Ennell Court (1970s) were demolished and replaced with new houses. Red brick became a feature of some of the new estates such as Columb Park. Mullingar also saw local authority units being included in the county’s irst high rise residential development at Market Point.
Conclusion
For more than a century, local authorities have provided homes for those in Westmeath who could not afford to house themselves. In Westmeath, Poor Law Guardians, Town Commissioners, County and District Councillors, all have made a signiicant contribution ‘to social progress and social cohesion in Westmeath.’ It is a proud record and one which has also left an important architectural heritage.
17
18
'The Allotments Used To Be Here'
The following quotes are from interviews made with council house residents, current and former, and Westmeath County Council staff between July 2010 and March 2011.
19
‘I was born and reared in a council house.’ ‘We came to live here on the 6th December 1954. Now the houses would have been built in 53.You know, 53, 54, that season. Now I remember I was only a tiny little girl. I was about ive years of age, or four or ive years of age. And I lived up the road. And I remember being down here with my brothers and the council workers were here. And they marked out the site and then they put the fencing round and they pushed all the cattle away. It was being grazed. It was open farmland. And they fenced off the plots for the three houses. I remember that as a young child.’
‘There was no heating as such. It was just the range and sitting room ire. And we burnt turf. We spent months and months on the bog. My childhood was on the bog. ... We used to go maybe the irst week of April and we wouldn’t be inished on the bog till September.’
‘When I was born, in Cathedral View, there was no black range. I remember my granny got a black range. My granny was a great cook. You know. She’d bake bread. You know. She was a great one. The way they used to bake the bread was, they’d have an open ire. And remember the old skillet pots? She’d do the, whatever, currant cake or whatever and put it into it and put the lid on it and put it in and put the turf on top of it. You know. Put it into the ire, put all the ire around it. It would be sitting in the ire. Put turf on top of it and leave it there. And when she got this range, you see, my grandfather, Lord have mercy on him, he was in the British Army in the First World War, my grandfather. But she was baking the bread and he came in and he says "Well Nan," he says, "did you bake anything?" "Yeah, I did. I baked today." She opened the oven and she had the fucking skillet yoke in it and turf on top of it. Didn’t know how to use it, you see.’
20
‘We converted the fuel store downstairs into a bedroom for the two older girls so they could relocate down here so we ended up actually with a three-bedroomed house.’
‘My granny vested this house like a lot of people on the road.’
‘Very few of us was sick. I know when one of us got the mumps we were all put into the bed together so we’d all get the mumps. Or the measles. And now they’re injecting them this that and the other. But years ago you were all thrown into the one bed. So you’d all get the mumps together. At one stage there was ten of us with the measles and we getting sick all round the place.’
‘The better and more distinct you can make people’s houses, the more likely the possibility that they may take ownership of it. Now. It doesn’t always work.’ ‘When we were small, before I even did anything, he used to bring us across the ields hunting. Now not just us. Every child on the Terrace. And they’d go off for the day. Each would root up a rabbit or something and the dogs would chase it and we’d have great fun. We’d come home happy as Larry. He’d bring us looking for pinkeens or frogspawn. But he could have twenty kids with him. And the parents didn’t mind. The parents knew the kids were off down the ields and back home in time for dinner or time for tea.’
21
‘We’d go over into Loman's and make swings out of the trees.’ 'We’d be a county now that put ranges in our houses. All around this county we put in ranges. Now a lot of counties didn’t do that. Because we’re very much a turf burning county, where people traditionally over the years going way back cultivated and saved their own turf and brought it home, got it home themselves and put it into their sheds or banked it in their back garden. So as a result of that we always put ranges in our council houses because people generally had that tradition. And the Department used to frown on it particularly towards the mid-90s. I remember the Department writing to me about the ranges because they cost a bit extra money to put in the range, you know, for obvious reasons. The Department used to write to us, you know, trying to get us to stop putting ranges in but we always made the case, you know, we were a bit unique…'
‘And the rent man used to come as I said. It was rent on those houses.Tom Redmond was his name. He came on a big motor bicycle and he pulled it up out there. And all you’d get out of my mother "Oh Jesus Mary and Joseph the rent man is here, what are we going to do at all, we’ll be all put out of the house if we haven’t the rent." It’d be only ive shillings for the rent. And he’d come every month, no every two months he’d come for the rent. Five shillings every two months. But if you hadn’t the rent for him, he wouldn’t be a very happy man. He’d be going away and he’d be shaking his head and he wouldn’t be happy. She had to have the rent for him every two months. Five shillings I think it used to be every two months. But that’s the rent it was. Rent from the council. He was collecting the money for the council. That’s the way it was. And he used to come on the motorbike. And my mother usen’t to be in good form for that particular day while he’d be around or after coming. Do you know. You could see it in her. They were tough times.’
22
‘We lived off the garden. Our iring came from the bog. Farmers would give Daddy a hedge and he’d cut it down and he’d get all the timber and he’d have it all stocked up for the winter. So we were always very comfortable.’
‘Everybody wore their army uniform in and out of the barracks. But it doesn’t happen now. You wouldn’t even know. Now back then at half past four and half past twelve you could see anything up to maybe a hundred or a hundred and ifty soldiers going home in the evenings. ... During the day you could see soldiers walking up and down the town, leaving the barracks like. Some would be going to Patrick Street and some would be going down to Dalton Park. And that was nearly always the two areas that they were from. You had a couple of oficers and stuff and sergeants and stuff like that lived in other ends of the town. But ninety per cent of the soldiers would have been living in Patrick Street and in Dalton Park, where the council houses were.’
‘We were nearly all the one because you were fed, if you were in someone’s house, you were fed. If they were in your house, they were fed. There was no questions asked. I mean if I had to think about it, sure I probably ate in everyone’s house, I’d say. And the same, vice versa. It was like you were all interconnected.’
23
‘I’m a great advocate of Council being active in the housing area. ... The earlier round of social housing, let’s say the post-Second World War housing in Ireland was very successful as regards helping people to advance themselves, you know, ordinary people in inverted commas. There was no kind of stigma associated with social housing as there perhaps had been, you know, post the nineteen seventies. And that model of social housing ... was very good and that’s peppered throughout every town in Ireland.’
‘It didn’t feel poor at all, no. Because everybody was the same that time. There was no house different.’
‘If my memory serves me right they had a machine for making the cement blocks and they actually made them on the site. They actually made them. So they were mass concrete blocks as far as my memory serves me right now. They’d be a twin wall you know. ... I think now that was the way they were. But I know that it’s nearly impossible, you can’t drive a nail into the walls.’
‘It was raining the day before and we were going to school and we were cycling down by the tunnel in Ginnell. And we were cycling just down and knew that the place was going to be looded. So ... cycling through anyways and next minute a ish and everything started swimming by us. When we were cycling through. They were lying ahead of us. Coming from all angles they were. And small perch. I was trying to catch them and everything.’
24
‘My mother kept the purse. My father wore the trousers but my mother told him when to put it on. That was the way it was. She was the boss. But she held the purse. It was only pennies in it.’
‘Mammy and Maureen Carroll used to bring us all down during the summer and we’d have a picnic down by the tennis court. We’d spend the day in the tennis court. There could be ten or eleven of us and we’d spend the day down there by the tennis courts. Because it was too far for us to walk on our own like. It was too dangerous of a road. So they used to bring us down and we’d spend the days down there when we had heat in the summer.’
‘According as we grew up we had to leave home to leave food and stuff for the rest coming in behind us. Do you know what I mean? We had to leave home. I was working when I was thirteen in Mount Carmel Nursing Home in Dublin. I was working in Mount Carmel with the Blue Nuns. That’s just the way it was.’
‘I like Housing because you can do things for people and you can make an awful difference to a person’s life.’
25
‘In those times sex wasn’t discussed. Babies weren’t discussed. So Daddy would have to ride the bike over to Ballynacarrigy. The district nurse lived in Ballynacarrigy. And Daddy would come back all panting and everything. And the nurse would come and she’d come in with this big brown leather bag. And next we’d hear a baby crying. So for years we assumed the nurse brought the baby and nobody told us different.’
‘Like I was saying about going down to The Supply to swim in the summer and you’d have ... eight mothers and you’d have all their what, four, ive, six kids each. And they all went down and because the mothers were with us they brought us to the deep end of The Supply you see. Where the other kids who were up on their own had to go to the shallow end. You spent the whole afternoon from two o’clock, they arranged two o’clock out on the road. We all walked down.’
‘A Member of Parliament at that time. Oh, it goes back that far. Yeah. Ginnell was his name. … It came from him.’
26
‘If you’re going to build a house, if you’re going to build a life, if you’re going to build anything, no matter what you’re going to build, you put in a foundation.’ ‘At the time, you were interviewed by the council, to be suitable and decent enough to be housed by them, you know, that you would be of a standard, and it wasn’t just dolling it out to anyone.’
‘They got married in Bohernaquill. He carried her down on the bar of the bike. And they got married. And they had a bridesmaid and a best man. And came back to Granny’s and had a fry when they were married. And then they moved up here.’
‘The old guard walked that town with a baton by his side and a whistle. He hadn’t even got a fucking bike. And when he told you to go home, you went home. Because if you didn’t go home, he was the one that went up irst of all to your father and … your father dealt with you. Or your mother. Whichever of them was the heavy hand in the house. They dealt with you and you didn’t do it again. The social disorder at that time was nil and void. It was nothing. There was nothing.’
27
‘A lot of people that bought out their houses sort of got trapped in a house that they couldn’t afford to do anything with. ... It was just unfortunate.You know.Whereas if they were still owned by the local authority, the local authority would have that house, would probably have demolished that house 15 years ago and built a new house.’
‘It was a great collective parenting. I mean any parent in those 22 houses was entitled to give you a kick in the ass. For misdemeanours perceived or otherwise. Or for their particular delectation or enjoyment. You were fair game any day. Sure who knows, we probably deserved it.’
‘This was a genuine orphanage. The Protestant orphanage children used to live in these houses.’
28
‘Then when it would rain we’d be all given a bit of carbolic soap and we’d be sent out the back under the gutters because there’d be holes in the gutters and the hot rain – them times the rain was hot – and we’d be out there washing ourselves under the gutters. We were getting a shower. Which was perfect. That is the truth.’
‘He uses the number ive. But there’s nothing oficial about it. It’s purely a thing we thought up ourselves. When the houses were built there was no numbers.’ ‘The loo was on the outside. It was a dry loo. It was just a dry bucket that was there. That was a nasty job. … Once a week you emptied it. You dug a hole in the garden and put the contents in there and that was it. Not very hygienic I must say.’ ‘The house next door to me that was what would have been known as a ceili house, a ceili-ing house, you know, people used to ramble in there. And he would go in there and he’d stay there longer. He’d just come here and he’d collect the rent. But he’d go in and he’d sit down and have a cup of tea or whatever there.’
29
‘That used to be the circus ield up there. There used to be circuses held up there. There was no houses there at all at one stage. The circus ield. That was kept for the circuses. When I moved in, after a few months moving in, I was leveling the lawn in
‘I cut through the Camp Field most of the time. Know what
front of the house and I found a big brass
I mean. The boreen is usually a
button. Duffy’s Circus was written on it. ... Where our house is now that’s where the big tent used to be.’
drinking spot. Know what I mean. There’s always trouble up there. So I just try to keep away from it. Just don’t want to be a part of it.’
‘I don’t normally like Christmas but it was lovely this year. Deinitely. Especially in the house, the new house, because it was comfortable in that house like. And we were all in the house at the one time.’ ‘I think my dad had gone to England prior to them getting married or something. And that didn’t work out. And then he came back and was working. They were building the Carmelite at the same time, the Carmelite College complex. And he was working on that. And the estate had been built and they applied and were fortunate to get on it.’
30
‘Actually Doctor Winkworth would have always wrote Father O’Growney Terrace. And we never understood why. ‘
‘There was some great people born and reared in St. Laurence’s Terrace. Some great business people.’
‘We didn’t get electricity until 1955 here, 55 was the irst time. Before that we had nothing only an oil lamp, candles on the table and parafin lamps. That’s what we had. And you used to hang it on the walls sometimes. Then if you had one hanging on the wall, you were progressing slightly. I think every week or every two weeks you had to get a candle in the store, the local shop, for a penny or tuppence. That was your light really.’
31
‘We had enough. But you couldn’t foresee any further because there was no money to go any further really. So it’s only when you come to 18 or 19 you begin to realize "what the hell am I doing round here?" And you break into a city like Dublin. I got a job in Dublin in 1966. Welding. I used to be a welder.’
‘Mam had all of us at home. She only had one, my brother, in hospital. And Daddy took over the household duties. He sewed our white dresses, he sewed our dresses with black thread. Big buck stitches with black thread. He made porridge and I swear it had lumps in it, you couldn’t eat it.We were glad to see Mammy home.’
‘We had a community ield up the road from The Gap House and you paid so much a year to keep your donkey in it. The price was absolutely ridiculous small like. But everybody around the town used to keep their donkeys or whatever, horse. ... The Cow Park it was called. And it’s on the Lake Road up as you go out for Mount Temple. It’s actually a bird sanctuary now. And they have built a place called Dún na Sí on it.’
32
‘It would be an Irish acre with the garden and the house.’ ‘We’d go up to her house at about half past four and there could be ten to twelve kids. Everybody sitting down around on the ground and looking up at this black and white television. And we couldn’t wait for it. We used to sit looking at, they used to put on a little ... test card. We’d be amazed at this yoke. And then they’d start off, I think it was around six o’clock, it would start off with the Angelus of course and news and then there was a couple of children’s yokes. It could be in Irish or anything but sure it didn’t matter to us. We were amazed at this television. And I remember we went up one day to this woman’s house and she told us she had a big surprise for us. She had colour television. And what this consisted of was a piece of glass was screwed on to the front of the television. You could adjust it in or out for focus. And it was put in and it just kind of changed the image from black and white to a kind of an orangey colour. ... We couldn’t believe it. So that was our irst taste of colour television. So eventually when we grew up a bit and people got a few bob together television came in everywhere. ... But we always thought that woman was very good to let us all in there sit down and her daughters would be coming in from work. They’d have to get their dinner but we’d be all sitting around everywhere on the loor. But there was a respect and you went home at half seven every evening just to give them a bit of peace. She was a great woman to do that.’
‘Jimmy Ledwith. He was a neighbour actually. He lived in a council house as well. ... He left his neighbour hat behind and put on his shirt and tie and went around collecting the rent. ... And it worked because whether it was by accident or design, there was no-one not going to pay rent to a neighbour.That was a time when people still had a pride or something.’
33
'People will tell you there’d be knocks at the door … "my mammy wants to know have you a sup of milk" and my mother, God rest her, if it was a half pint of milk or a sup of milk, she’d half whatever was in it, give it to them. And vice versa. Do you understand me? Like it just didn’t happen that we gave it to them. That they gave it to us. And that’s the way things were. Cigarettes. The neighbours, Mrs Clinton and all them, the Lord rest her, they’d break a cigarette. They’d open the box of matches, take out maybe three or four matches out of it, tear a little bit of the side so she’d have something to light it off. Different times, different people, different respects. And they weren’t that well educated.'
'We even had our little kind of a pitch and putt place up in one of the gardens.There was ive or six of us used to do that. Keep the grass cut of course with a little clippers. And we’d have ive or six holes that you could go and play your little game of golf. ... Start up at the top and you’d go round. You might be only hitting the ball ive or six yards. But we had our own little, it was like a miniature golf course.'
'Largely we were building say turf-burning houses up till whatever maybe up to 15 years ago. Now we’ve switched to oil but that in itself creates a problem that people cannot afford say a thousand litres of oil at the moment is say €600.'
34
'Those cottages that we were reared in they were called labourer’s cottages. They were looked down on. Them labourer’s cottages, we were looked down on from the farmers. Supposing if there was a farmer down the road, he had maybe six or eight rooms in his house and he had land, a landlord, call him what you like. He might have a hundred acres or ifty acres. He probably squatted in or whatever way he got it anyhow. But they looked down, my father was a labouring man, they looked down on him big time. You had to sort of, you had no rights really. You had no rights in them times at all. If you wanted something, you had to work for it in them times. You had to work hard for it.'
'I think there was about twenty houses in the whole place. And we could go to anybody’s house. The doors would be left open there, you’d go in and out as you liked.' ‘Dad was paralysed from the neck down before he died but we had him at home because he always said - he always called St Mary’s the poor house - and he said "never let me die in the poor house".'
35
1891 - 1901
9-10 Valley Cottages路 Patrick Street路 Mullingar 17-18 Valley Cottages路 Patrick Street路 Mullingar
36
1891 - 1901
7 St Anthony’s Cottages· Mullingar
37
1891 - 1912
36-35 Springield Cottages路 Mullingar
38
1891 - 1912
3-1 O'Connell Terrace路 Mullingar
39
1891 - 1912
14-13 Clara Road路 Moate 37-38 Patrick Street路 Mullingar
40
1900
Rathowen
41
1900 - 1910
Kilskyre Road路 Clonmellon
42
1900 - 1910
Coole Road路 Castlepollard
43
1906 - 1908
Balrath South路 Delvin Balrath South路 Delvin
44
1906 - 1908
Billistown路 Delvin Coole Road路 Castlepollard
45
1906 - 1925
Hightown路 Coralstown路 Kinnegad Culvin路 Rathowen
46
1906 - 1925
Balreagh路 Monilea路 Mullingar Parnell Houses路 Corrydonlon路 Rathowen
47
1908
Lady Aberdeen Cottages路 Mullingar
48
1908
Lady Aberdeen Cottages路 Mullingar
49
1920 - 1930
Ha’Penny Cottage· Cloghanstown· Raharney
50
1920 - 1930
Raharney Craddenstown路 Raharney
51
1931 - 1937
19-20 Ballinderry Road路 Mullingar 7-8 Ballinderry Road路 Mullingar
52
1931 - 1937
16-15 Ballinderry Road· Mullingar Weaver’s Row· Moate
53
1935
1-8 St Laurence’s Terrace· Mullingar
54
1935
9-16 St Laurence’s Terrace· Mullingar
55
1936
6-1 Clara Road路 Moate 2-1 Clara Road路 Moate
56
1936
7-8 Clara Road路 Moate 3-5 Clara Road路 Moate
57
1936 - 1937
34-40 Cathedral View路 Mullingar 26-25 Cathedral View路 Mullingar
58
1936 - 1937
24-13 Cathedral View路 Mullingar
59
1937
17-18 Robinstown Levinge路 Mullingar
60
1938
12 Cork Hill路 Old Mullingar Road路 Kinnegad
61
1938
11 Ballysallagh路 Ballynacargy
62
1938
7 Ballysallagh路 Ballynacargy
63
1939
2-1 St James' Terrace路 Tullamore Road路 Kilbeggan (houses to left of water tower)
64
1939
14-13 St James' Terrace路 Tullamore Road路 Kilbeggan 8-7 St James' Terrace路 Tullamore Road路 Kilbeggan
65
1939
Clondone路 Delvin
66
1939
Clondone路 Delvin
67
1950
1-6 Green Road路 Mullingar
68
1950
34-31 Green Road路 Mullingar
69
1950
48-47 Green Road路 Mullingar
70
1950
52-51 Green Road路 Mullingar 54-53 Green Road路 Mullingar
71
1950
11-12 St Mary’s Avenue· Kilbeggan
72
1950
2 St Mary’s Avenue· Kilbeggan
73
1950
17-18 Green Road路 Mullingar 19-20 Green Road路 Mullingar
74
1950
30-29 Green Road路 Mullingar
75
1950 - 1951
1-2 Clara Road路 Moate
76
1950 - 1953
1 Ballysallagh路 Ballynacargy
77
1950 - 1957
7-4 St James Terrace路 Tullamore Road路 Kilbeggan 22-20 Station Road路 Moate
78
1950 - 1957
17-26 Ginnell Terrace路 Mullingar
79
1950 - 1957
67-70 Ginnell Terrace路 Mullingar
80
1950 - 1957
16-15 St Patrick's Villa路 The Green路 Moate
81
1954 - 1958
Corry路 Ballinalack Grange Beg路 Raharney
82
1954 - 1958
Riverdale路 Raharney
83
1959
Baronstown路 Ballynacargy Bracklyn路 Delvin
84
1959
Hightown路 Coralstown
85
1959
Grangemore路 Raharney
86
1959
Ballyhealy路 Delvin
87
1960
Main Street路 Rochfortbridge
88
1969
202-203 Cardinal Dalton Park路 Mullingar
89
1969
34-36 O’Growney Drive (Terrace)· Mullingar
90
1969
28-33 O’ Growney Drive (Terrace)· Mullingar
91
1972
43 Ennell Court路 Mullingar 7 Ennell Court路 Mullingar
92
1972
16 Ennell Court路 Mullingar 23 Ennell Court路 Mullingar
93
1972
25 Ennell Court路 Mullingar
94
1973
New Houses路 Glasson
95
1974
1-4 Trim Road路 Kinnegad
96
1975
74-76 St Patrick's Cresent路 The Green路 Moate
97
1975 - 1976
270-287 Cardinal Dalton Park路 Mullingar
98
1975 - 1976
7-8 Wood Road路 Ballynacargy
99
1975 - 2011
Coole Road路 Castlepollard Loughagar路 Cloghan
100
1975 - 2011
Hightown路 Coralstown
101
1978
1 Millview路 Milltownpass
102
1979
2-3 Millview路 Milltownpass 6-7 Millview路 Milltownpass
103
1984 - 2000
4 Canal Court路 Mullingar 2 Harbour Street路 Ballynacargy
104
1984 - 2000
9-10 Cuillin Bui路 Clara Road路 Moate 21-24 Brookield路 Rochfortbridge
105
1985 - 1987
7-9 Castle Park路 Rochfortbridge
106
1985 - 1987
18-1 Grange Heights路 Mullingar 2-24 Grange Cresent路 Mullingar
107
1991
13 -18 Grange Lawns路 Mullingar
108
1992
Grange Beg路 Raharney
109
1994
18-13 Carraig Mor路 Ballynacargy
110
1996
14-15 Columb Drive路 Mullingar
111
1996 - 2003
3-4 New Park路 Kinnegad 10-9 Brookield路 Rachfortbridge
112
1996 - 2003
8-9 Millview路 Milltownpass 12-11 Columb Drive路 Mullingar
113
1996
11 Brosna Court路 Kilbeggan
114
1997 - 2001
29-34 Grange Meadows路 Mullingar 6-3 Cuillin Bui 路 Clara Road路 Moate
115
1997 - 2001
13-16 Tower View路 Ballynacargy 9-12 Comagh Road路 Kilbeggan
116
2000
9 Ballysallagh路 Ballynacargy 6 Ballysallagh路 Ballynacargy
117
2001
Ballysallagh路 Ballynacargy
118
2004
21-28 Ashcroft Park路 Raharney
119
2007
1-4 Brosna Park路 Kilbeggan
120
2007 - 2008
28-30 Castle Park路 Rochfortbridge 1-4 Grange Mews路 Mullingar
121
2009
1-13 Boreen Bradagh路 Kinnegad.
122
2009
29-24 Boreen Bradagh路 Kinnegad
123
2009
31 Boreen Bradagh路 Kinnegad
124
2009
3-4 St Joseph’s Gardens· Rathwire 13-15 Cuillin Bui· Clara Road· Moate
125
2009
67-69 Farran路 Mullingar
128
2009
63-67 Farran路 Mullingar
129
2010
Balreagh路 Monilea
130
2011
3 Ballysallagh路 Ballynacargy 1 Ballysallagh路 Ballynacargy
131
132
As mentioned in the introduction, ‘this publication is akin to the irst draft of a history’. If you, the reader, can add or correct, then please don’t hesitate to contact the author through www.timdurham.ie
133
Acknowledgments Thanks to Catherine Kelly and all the staff at Westmeath County Council for their ongoing support; Ruth Illingworth, Vanessa Finlow for their insightful essays; Grace Bruton for the publication layout; Fiona Fay for transcribing interviews and proofreading. Thanks to the following for the interviews: Tracy and Mick Anderson Margaret Aughey Johnny Bastic Eamon Brennan Noel Dunne Stephen Fahy Daniel Gilmore Joe Horan Pat Kelly Ciaran Jordan George Lambden Declan Leonard Maureen Lynam Terry McCague Mary McConnell Micheal Mears Christy Molloy Joe and Bridget Neville Eithne and Gary O’Reilly William Pakenham Barry Poynton Ann Quinn Sean Tierney
134
Colophon This book was published by Tim Durham with the support of Westmeath County Council, under the Per Cent for Art Scheme. Westmeath County Council Arts Ofice www.westmeathcoco.ie Design: Grace Bruton gracebruton@gmail.com Artist: Tim Durham www.timdurham.ie ISBN 978-0-9513775-6-7 © Tim Durham/Vanessa Finlow/Ruth Illingworth/ Westmeath Co.Co. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. About the Per Cent for Art Scheme The Per Cent for Art Scheme is a Government initiative irst introduced by the Department of Environment and Local Government in 1986. It allows for 1% from public construction budgets to be spent on commissioning or purchasing works of art. Over the years the scheme has come under review and in 2004 the Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism published guidelines to provide a common national approach to implementation of the Per Cent for Art Scheme. The guidelines emphasise that Per Cent for Art can be in 'any form and can work within or across many art forms such as visual arts, dance, ilm, literature, music, opera, theatre, architecture, performance, life art, multi-media, sound, and video. Works under this scheme can be of any duration, temporary or permanent and can be centred in an urban or rural context’ (reference www.publicart.ie). Westmeath County Council’s Public Art Programme has been active since 1990 and to date over twenty commissions have been awarded and delivered in the capital construction of Roads, Housing, Water and Libraries. For more information www.westmeathcoco.ie/publicart
135