1922: A season of bitterness and strife

By Danny Grace

Christmas is the season of peace and goodwill. But the Christmas of 1922 was a season of bitterness and strife. Civil war raged in Ireland, and during that December our two local newspapers – the Nenagh Guardian and the Nenagh News – carried grim reports of ambushes, burnings, shootings and executions, all associated with that bitter conflict.

In the first week of December both newspapers reported the death of Free State army captain Tom Walsh – a native of Kyle, Cloughjordan – fatally wounded in a Republican ambush on the road between Newport and Rearcross. The following week both carried the news of the executions of four Republican prisoners in Mountjoy Gaol by the Free State – Rory O’Connor, Liam Mellowes, Joseph McKelvey and Richard Barrett – as a reprisal for the assassination of pro-Treaty TD, Sean Hales. Each succeeding week brought further grim news and tragedies.

LIFE GOES ON

But amidst all the political and military turmoil life went on as normal for most people. They went about their daily work in town and countryside, and still managed to enjoy their various leisure pursuits. Spectators flocked to several sporting events that December, most notably to hurling matches in the belated North Tipp Junior championship where teams such as Ballymackey, Ballinaclough and Kilruane were still in the hunt for honours.

The Ormond Hunt held two pre-Christmas meets that month, the first at Cloughjordan on December 19, the second at Riverstown the following Friday. Devotees of coursing travelled to the annual meeting at Grenanstown, Toomevara, on Sunday December 17th, and to a second meeting at Cloughjordan a few days later.

Dancing enthusiasts had a choice of engagements, among them the Nenagh Commercial Cinderella Dance on Tuesday, December 6, with the now long-forgotten Criss Band providing the music. The dance was reported to have been “well attended”, even though the admission charges of five shillings for gents and three shillings for ladies were beyond the pockets of several. Gents could attend the “Grand Dance” (refreshments provided) at Casey’s Cross on Sunday, December 17, for a shilling less, but ladies still had to fork out three.

Cinema was a popular entertainment by 1922, particularly during the dark winter months. But the venues were far from the luxurious cinemas of today; rather they were draughty halls hired by some enterprising man or group for films on one or more nights a week. Willie Moloney’s Ormond Cinema Company had been showing films on selected nights in Nenagh Town Hall since 1913, while cinemas had recently opened in halls at Borrisokane and Borrisoleigh. A new cinema opened at Cloughjordan in early December 1922 and the Guardian reported that “large crowds attended the performances, and the pictures shown have already won general favour”.

CHRISTMAS THEN AND NOW

There were a few significant differences between Christmas then and Christmas now. During the 1920s Christmas was rarely mentioned – or even seriously thought about – before the second week of December. Now we are bombarded with it day-in day-out from the moment autumn first rolls in. Christmas was also infinitely less commercial in those days. While some of Nenagh’s leading shopkeepers – such as Corneille & Co (grocer), Thomas Ryan (draper) and Thomas M Tobin (jeweller) – placed Christmas ads in the two local newspapers, there was none of the wall-to-wall advertising of toys and every variety of Christmas fare we are familiar with nowadays.

In those days too Santa was a mythical and mysterious figure, firmly ensconced in his North Pole home until his visit on Christmas Eve when children were safely tucked asleep in bed. Nowadays you can hardly visit a shopping centre in the weeks before Christmas without tripping over a live Santa Claus or two. Indeed, there was little or no emphasis on toys in any of the Christmas ads in the 1922 local newspapers. In those days children’s expectations of what Santa would bring for their Christmas stockings were modest indeed.

CHRISTMAS PREPARATIONS

Housewives a century ago looked forward to Christmas with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation. During the week or so before the feast day the household was a great flurry of activity. The delph was taken down and washed, and all the rooms and furniture polished and scrubbed. It was customary to clean the chimney for Christmas; in country places the “brush” used was usually a furze bush tied to the end of a long pole. The walls of old farmhouses and cottages were usually whitewashed in honour of the feast. Children fetched branches of holly from some nearby tree – if possible, with red berries – and these were put up to ornament the dresser and the holy pictures. The holly remained up until January 6, “little Christmas”.

Then there was the Christmas shopping. Not always an easy task for families living in straitened circumstances, as many were at that time. Even the poorest tried to have a fowl for Christmas dinner, and a plum pudding and sweet cake for afters. A goose was the preferred choice; the turkey was beyond the price range of many, particularly in 1922 when its price at the Nenagh Christmas market had risen to 1s 8d per pound compared to 1s per pound a short time previously. A goose cost 6s to 7s that Christmas, while a pair of chickens could be had from 3s to 5s.

CARDS AND PARCELS

Fewer people than usual returned home to Nenagh from other parts for the Christmas of 1922. The Nenagh News of December 30 explained why: “Broken railways and difficulties in travelling prevented city dwellers from getting to their country homes this year”. The sending and receiving of Christmas cards – not to mention the welcome parcel – assumed even greater importance in that situation. The new Free State stamps went on sale for the first time in Nenagh in early December that year. The Guardian viewed their issue as “a visible expression of the new-born freedom of Ireland”.

The Nenagh Postmaster reported that Christmas postage had been “very heavy”. But he was proud to say that all deliveries had been made on time in both town and countryside. But pity the poor rural postmen sawing about the countryside on their bicycles in nasty weather with heavy bags of post. They had to work not only on Christmas Eve, but also on Christmas Day when there was also a delivery. But their Christmas rounds were lightened by the little gifts of money from appreciative households, not to mention the warming glass of whiskey to keep out the cold.

CANDLE IN THE WINDOW

Several old Christmas customs were alive and well in 1922. A tall, coloured candle was placed in the kitchen window on Christmas Eve – often using a half turnip as a candlestick – and left there to burn throughout the night. The custom in parts of Tipperary was for the youngest member of the family to light it. The candle in the window was to guide the Holy Family on their Christmas Eve journey. For the same reason the door was left unlocked and the fire left burning on the hearth lest they should need to seek shelter for the night. Another reason for leaving the door unlocked was the belief that on Christmas Eve – in order to honour the Saviour’s birth – the souls of the faithful departed were allowed to revisit the places they loved best in life.

Families remained at home during Christmas day and Christmas night. It was in fact frowned upon to visit another house on that day. But there was probably little incentive to go out on Christmas Day 1922 because the weather was cold, wet and windy. It had been like that for several days and the Nenagh News reported that business in Nenagh suffered as a result. That Christmas of a century ago was far from the White Christmas so beloved of songsters.

‘THAT HATE AND STRIFE WOULD CEASE’

But whatever the weather, people still ventured out on Christmas Day for Mass. It seems to have been a point of honour at the time to go to the earliest one possible. The Nenagh News noted that “in St Mary of the Rosary there was a marked display of religious fervour, as each priest had the privilege of saying three Masses. Many took advantage of being present at two or more”. At the 12 o’clock High Mass Monsignor McMahon, PP, said in his address to the congregation that “he hoped the present black cloud of disturbance would shortly pass away, and that peace, prosperity and unity would bless the land of St Patrick”.

The desire for peace and an end to the bitterness and violence of civil war was echoed in a poem written by a young woman named Guilfoyle from Pallas, Toomevara, and published in the Nenagh News of December 23, 1922. The sentiments it expressed were undoubtedly shared by the great majority of people during that Christmas of a century ago:

“Oh, would to God that hate and strife would cease,

Throughout our land, and all would dwell in peace,

That dark distrust that ends each class and kind,

Might be replaced by bonds of love which bind.”