Cesare Battaglini was an Italian who was the most famous of all long distance Lambretta riders, riding all over the world on his bikes, and he was in Millstreet for the festival. His recent death reminded us of this event: “Most times he continued riding to each event, either on a model D or a series 2. His first Irish Euro to Millstreet, for instance, involved a 2,700 mile round trip.” - from Jetset Magazine

Here are a few photos from the Jamboree:

Many thanks to Nancy Singleton from San Francisco for use of the photo.

Presentation Convent National School, Millstreet. Class of 1980 with Sr Agatha and Sr Elizabeth

Back row- left to right: Marie O’ Connor, Ida O’Riordan, Helen Muphy, Breeda Burke, Annemarie Murphy, Joan O’ Leary, Margaret Dennehy, Elaine Dineen
Middle row: Sr.Agatha, Paula Browne, Helen Murphy, Eileen Cotter, Veronica Lyons, Eda O’ Sullivan, Karena O’ Sullivan,Tina Murphy, Carmel O’Leary, Fiona Wall, Louise Casey, Sheila O’ Connor.
Front Row: Noreen Barret, Margaret Browne, Anna Murphy, Margaret Healy, Sr.Elizabeth, Patricia O’Keeffe, Sinead Hickey, Maura Manley, Majella Healy, Ciara Culhane.

With thanks to Paula O’Callaghan (nee Browne) for the names.

We previously featured a photo from a 1930s Fete in Drishane in preparation for the most recent Fete. Click the image below to see it in full.

====Transcription of the Poster===

Drishane Convent, Millstreet, Co. Cork

You and your friends are cordially invited to Win a Beautiful Prize by trying our Easy Competition

Find the “Names of three animals known in Ireland each name contains the Letter “O” and each name has only three or four letters”

you are cordially invited to our Garden Fete and Distribution of Prizes to be held on Whit Sinday and Whit Monday in aid of our Chapel of the Little Flower, and our Doreign Missions in China, Malay and Japan.

Prizes to be won at your choice: Cushions, Leather Bags, Afternoon tea-cloths, Vases, Tea cosies, Fountain pens, Electric flash lamps, Books, Dolls, Framed Pictures, Cakes, Boxes of Sweets, Japanese Curiosities

Result of Competition will be published in the “Irish Independent” and “Irish Press” on 28th May 1938.

There’s a postcard from the 1940′s Lawrence Collecion that refers to it as simply “Drishane Bridge”.

Attending the first meeting (at the Wallis Arms Hotel) concerning the upcoming centenary of our Carnegie Hall in West End, Millstreet - members of Millstreet Community Council and Guests. If you have special memories regarding the Carnegie Hall we would very much appreciate it if you would share them with us here on our Comment Line or by emailing <Sean Radley> - Many thanks. (S.R.)

Egerton was in fact a woman, Mary Dunne, who had lived in a cottage named ‘Ardrath’ near Millstreet for some time (1892-1894), and the story is based on her experiences here. It is an unsparing account of the town and some people in it.

It is interesting in a number of ways. Among other things she suggests that the town had a previous Gaelic name that meant “the little town in the lap of the hills.”

It is currently available from Wordsworth in the Square and other outlets for €5.

George Egerton

As well as the story The Marriage of Mary Ascension, the booklet also has a superb analysis of Egerton, and her writing in the context of Millstreet and her view of the people in the area at the time.

The introduction of the book Keynotes & Discords  gives much broader description of her whole life, her marriages, her travelling, and how her ground breaking writings were acclaimed and revulsed at the same time. With regard to Millstreet is still short of what is contained in the new booklet by the Aubane Historical Society, but it does contains this short piece ^[1] :
“… In 1889 she married a man as irresponsible and improvident as her father, a young Canadian novelist called George Egerton Clairmonte.  In 1892 they settled in Millstreet, County Cork where they were perennially short of money. Egerton’s first foray into the writing of fiction, which would lead to the dazzling success of ‘Keynotes’, was undertaken in an attempt to write her way out of quite serious financial embarrassment.
The collection of short stories that would become Keynotes was produced in an astonishing burst of creative energy. “Inside ten days I wrote six stories and sent them to TP’s Weekly”, she later recounted. TP Gill assumed them to be the work of a man (she had signed the ‘Ardrath’, the name of the cottage where she lived in Millstreet) and though them rather ‘strong’. Commenting on the ‘Scandavian’ cast of thought in the stories, he enquired as to whether she might be able to ‘say what you want’ without these ‘appeals to the sexual sense’? He objected to a scene …
… The immediate success of Keynotes did not at first lead to Egerton’s departure from County Cork to London. O’Toole surmises that it remained cheaper for her to live in County Cork, where Clairmonte, her spend-thrift husband, was less likely to run up further debts than would be the case in the metropolis. But she did finally move to the English capital in 1894 with the publication of her second collection of short stories, Discords….”

Keynotes by George Egerton - the original cover

You can also read most of the the first short story in Keynotes called A Cross Line online at the same place as the introduction above. Here is a sample ^[2]:

One quivering, gleaming, daring bound, and she stands with out-stretched arms and passion-filled eyes, poised on one slender foot, asking a supreme note to finish her dream in motion. And the men raise to a man and answer her, and cheer, cheer, tilll the echoes shout from the surrounding hills and tumble wildly away down the crags. The clouds have sailed away, leaving long feathery streaks in their wake. Her eyes have an inseeing look, and she is tremulous with excitement

Keynotes sold over 6000 copies in its first year alone, was translated into seven languages and had run through eight printings by 1898.

————

It is well worth the small sum of €5 for this insight into the life and people in Millstreet at the end of the nineteenth century.

George Egerton in later life

With thanks to the Aubane Historical Society for informing us of their newest publication.

————

^{[1] Taken from Keynotes & Discords, pages x & xi of the introduction}

^{[2] Taken from Keynotes & Discords, pages xxiii of the introduction}

Interestingly, another Con Corcoran who was born in Millstreet is buried in the same graveyard. It is quite probable they were related but this one is Cornelius T. Corcoran (March 19th 1880 – Jan 30th 1820)  son of Tim & Mary (neé Kennealy) Corcoran of Coolekerane (see the headstone on the right). Read his baptismal information.

Here are photos of headstones of other probable realtions in the same graveyard
http://www.txgenweb3.org/txgrayson/CalvaryCem/calvary56.html
http://www.txgenweb3.org/txgrayson/CalvaryCem/calvary57.html

One of the last of an old breed of dealers
A stocky fellow with a husky voice
You ask him for ten bob for skin of fox or badger
And Bill was sure to beat you down in price.

He called to houses on the Cork and Kerry border
In Cullen and Rathmore and Knocknagree
And when the deal was done and he’d sold or purchased
He never would refuse the cake and tea.

He lived in Pound Hill in the Town of Millstreet
And at the local markets a familiar face
And there was much to like about the fellow
Well known and liked around his own homeplace.

So many believe in a life hereafter
And that the soul forever will live on
And if this be so Bill Brien the old style dealer
Up to dealers paradise has gone.

by Francis Duggan