Millstreet.ie

We were in the same classroom in Millstreet Primary school
And Donal was a clever boy he never once sat on the dunce’s stool
He still lives in the old home in Inchaleigh though I live far away
From Clara hill near Millstreet Town and the fields of Claraghatlea.

He has worked in the Cork Marts for many years three decades maybe more
And he is well into his fifties now and of years near the three score
A hunting man he knows the countryside for miles around
And he could tell you where the earth of fox or badger would be found.

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Forty years ago i met him going to Croke Park on a football train
And fond memories of him with me does remain
A gentle giant of a man without any conceit
Once a household name by the fans of Millstreet

A stalwart defender in the gaelic football game
He was built like a tank and Tank was his nickname
He was of Clondrohid and was widely known
And in Millstreet the Club that he played for they claimed him for their own

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Jean Hickey than me is a few years older I knew her long before she met and married Ted O Shea
And she went to live in Finnanefield in Kilcorney from Inchaleigh in Millstreet five or six miles away
I have not seen her for years but her I will remember until the reaper gives the call to me
Good people like her one does not wish to forget and she did not fade from my memory.

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At the Boeing new year swim he is always first in
Mick Collins the fellow with anti freeze skin
For one in his late fifties or early sixties not much younger than me
He is quite a tough nut would you not agree

Age is a relative thing the brave Mick does not feel old
Like the Arctic bear he must be immune to cold
One can say in him there is much to admire
To greater things far younger than him he inspire

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The name of Los Zarcos given to them by Brian Sullivan of Millstreet Town’s Mal Paso Pub
Back in the very early eighties they were formed as a Football Club
Some of the players who played for Zarcos then the grandfathers of today
And some deceased and some from Millstreet living far away.

Some of their sons in the colours of Los Zarcos nowadays line out to play
They win some games and lose some games that’s life as some might say
In The Mal Paso Pub they drink to celebrate a win or ease the pain of a loss as their dads did in days gone by
On looking back the decades how time does seem to fly.
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The fields decked with wildflowers on that sunny Sunday
And the hawthorns were cloaked in their white blossoms of May
The countryside lush and green Nature in her Spring bloom
On either side of the by road between Kilnamartyra and Macroom

A huge crowd had assembled for the road bowling score
For to watch Denny Penny Kelleher of Millstreet from the road to Rathmore
In a winner take all bets take on Muskerry’s best
Both men in short shirt sleeves were prepared for the test
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Her work for the Millstreet Tidy Town Committee for many years played a huge part in her life
Lena nee Kelleher to John O’ Keeffe was a good and a loving wife
Her and John often seen doing their tidy town work on the streets of Millstreet Town
On Summer evenings long ago after supper till sundown

With John out for their evening walk she will not be seen again
But a kind hearted woman of striking beauty in memory does remain
She was one of Millstreet’s finest so graceful and so tall
Mental pictures of her with those who knew her will remain to recall
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The latest publication from Aubane is ‘A Millstreet Miscellany (6)’ and contains a variety of items, including a detailed account of the notorious Millstreet Bank Robbery of 1919, an item on King Mahon’s Rock near Mushera, Genealogical maps, a report of a talk on the ‘Treaty’ and the ‘Civil war’, more accounts from visitors to the area, George Egerton on her time in Dooneen and how she was inspired to begin her writing career there and an item on the location of the cottage where she lived. An ideal Xmas gift from Millstreet for €10 Euro and available from Wordsworth’s in the Square.

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Phil Cronin is a man who is well travelled and half way around the Planet he has flown
Yet when he talks of Millstreet in Duhallow you always hear him mention the word home
And though he’s raised his children in Australia and he left Ireland many years ago
He still talks with s strong Duhallow accent an accent that he never will outgrow.

I met him at Rosemary Kelleher’s fiftieth birthday party with Kitty his endearing Irish wife
And they look well and young despite the passage of time and they don’t look ravaged by the cares of life,
Phil Cronin drank his beer and talked of Millstreet and back the roads of memory he did go
To the people he knew in the Town of Millstreet the Learys and John Sing and Mister O.
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Jimmy Cronin is a character of Millstreet
And in Duhallow his is a well known face
For years he coached the Millstreet young footballers
And he became known beyond his home place.

Jimmy Cronin had a stroke but he recovered
A young man at heart though in years getting old
In Millstreet Town his name will live forever
For he is one who has a ‘heart of gold’
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It’s a long way from Australia more than twelve thousand miles away
From County Cork and Ireland and the fields of Claraghatlea
But Mick Kelleher made that air trip he returned on holiday
And though the journey proved quite tiring he enjoyed his three months stay.

With him came his charming Aussie wife Rosemary and his lovely family
To live with him in the old place where he once lived happily
In the fields by Clara mountain where he hunted as a boy
Those were happy days for Michael and good memories never die. continue reading…

Oh I love Cloghoula countryside when wild flowers are in bloom
Just outside the Town of Millstreet on the way out towards Macroom
When the birds are singing gaily and new leaves are on the trees
And the brown bog larks are piping o’er the bogland of Gneeves.

Oh I love you sweet Kilmeedy at the back of Clara hill
I have always been in love with you and doubtless I always will
You are beautiful and peaceful and your fields are evergreen
And you wake to greet each dawning day like a rare beauty queen.
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The death has occurred on Thursday, November 24, 2011 of Pat Mullane, Priests Cross, Millstreet. Rosary tonight (Thursday) at 9pm in Tarrant’s Funeral Home. Removal tomorrow Friday night at 9pm to St. Patricks Church, Millstreet. Requiem Mass Saturday, at 12.30pm. Burial afterwards in St. Mary’s Cemetery. continue reading…

I knew him as a young man driving trucks for Paddy Den
Paddy Kelleher was always a man amongst men
A handsome looking fellow broad shouldered and tall
One of Millstreet’s finest as i do recall
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The latest from the Aubane Historical Society is unusual in that it is a love story set in Millstreet and written in 1905 by one of the best known writers of the day, George Egerton. It is called “The Marriage of Mary Ascension.”

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.
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Larry O’Loughlin is a storyteller, author and playwright. He has written thirteen books for children and teenagers. Two of his titles for teenagers, ‘Is Anybody Listening?’ and ‘Breaking The Silence’, were awarded the prestigious International White Raven citation, and he was shortlisted for the Bisto Book Of The Year Award for ‘The Goban Saor’ and ‘Is Anybody Listening?’ His collection of children’s poetry ‘Worms Can’t Fly’, co-authored with his daughter Aislinn O’Loughlin is one of the top selling collections published for children in the last two decades, and his poetry for children has been  continue reading…

I met this Father Sweeney his ancestors from Millstreet
And he said I know a person you might like to meet
His name is Jerry Moynihan a Millstreet man like you
Though he’s been in Australia since nineteen fifty two.

I had been told of Jerry though him I had not known
And the priest gave me his number to contact him by phone
I know his brother’s Mick and Larry from many years ago
And his younger sister Fanny is one I vaguely know.

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When first I saw you Kitty I was just a twelve year boy
A mile or so from Millstreet Town on an evening in July
Walking on the Millstreet to Killarney road with your sister Margaret
I still have not forgotten ‘that memory with me yet’.

I was told that’s Kitty Cronin ‘the world is at her feet’
The pride of all Duhallow and the darling of Millstreet
And you were scarcely twenty then and at the threshold of your prime
But that was thirty years ago and further down the line.

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He moved to county Waterford one hundred miles down track
To work for Radley brothers they said he would be back
They said that in County Waterford he could not settle in
That he could never live too far away from kith and kin.

He worked for years in Millstreet and to Millstreet he belong
And that he could never leave the place but Pakie proved them wrong
And though he did return to Millstreet for the brief holiday
Down in the County Waterford he seemed happy to stay.
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