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Here are the answers to my questions of last week.
1) How far up is the River Slaney tidal?
The Slaney is tidal up as far as the old bridge in Enniscorthy. This is important, because fishing where the river is tidal is free to anyone, whereas in the parts where it's not tidal, there are fishing rights which can be sold and inherited like land. Knowledge of hidden spots where you could fish without being seen by the owner of the rights was jealously guarded and traded.
2) What's the best place to stand outside Bunclody to get a lift headed northwards?
The wide spot at the bottom of the hill, just below the Angler's Rest pub, on the opposite side. There were some drivers so used to picking up hitch hikers here that even if there weren't any, they'd pull in and wait, because there'd be one along soon. I don't suppose that happens any more...
3) What is St. Enda's, and why would anyone tell you to go there?
St. Enda's was a popular misnaming of St. Senan's, a psychiatric hospital outside Enniscorthy. Like any such place, people were conversationally condemned there for not conforming to the speaker's expected norms. The "St. Enda's" thing came from a teacher in Bunclody who insisted, point blank and completely, that that was its name. I suspect, in hindsight, that she made a mistake, and didn't have the confidence to back down when challenged by a student, but for some reason, the mistake stuck in local parlance for a while. The teacher didn't come back for the following year.
As an aside, my great-grandfather was involved in some way in the building of St. Senan's; it's a big impressive red brick building overlooking the Slaney a little way south of the town. I stayed quiet about this familial involvement in school...
4) Ib dug sluggin', aw? What did I just ask you?
"Are you going for a pint?". I've no idea if it's authentic Shelta or not, but Shelta and some bizarre local adaptations of it were in heavy use in North Wexford. I gather from later experience that they were in use in Cork as well; the terms "fien" and "byore", at least, were common.
5) If someone wants to scon you, what precisely do they want?
Snog, shift, French kiss, light petting - I don't think there's actually a universal English term for the activity. "Scon" was a Kilkenny term (we used "shift"), but it was very, very important to be conversant with the exact nuances of these terms, because if someone asked you at a disco, "Will you scon my friend?", you needed to know what you were getting into. And for some discos, there could be people there from two or three counties away.
6) Nirvana, or Pearl Jam?
It doesn't matter which, but you had to have a firm opinion, and be able to back it up, or be dismissed as a musical non-entity. I was a late developer in terms of popular music, but fell firmly on the Nirvana side back then.
7) What wood is a camán made from?
Ash. This is one of those pieces of information that is so ingrained that I cannot believe other Irish people do not know it. Intellectually, I can accept that someone might never have come into contact with hurling or camogie (possibly by having an incredibly soft hearted Physical Education type in their school), but at a gut level, I can't really comprehend it.
8) Kris Kros'll make you... ?
Jump! Jump! Kris Kros (or was it Kross?) were a truly terrible act, a pair of Amrican kids (I think they may only have been about 13) who recorded a self-referential pseudo-rap piece which managed to take off hugely. The sight of an entire dance floor of teenagers pogoing in time to the "Jump! Jump!" bits must have reduced many pub and nightclub owners to tears of terror for their building.
9) Have you got a spandex hyperwiper?
I know I have! I have no idea what this was, but it was one of those ritual questions to which you knew the ritual answer, or in some mysterious way, lost social status. I thought for a while it might have been a Simpsons reference - many of these things were - but there's no trace of this on google, so I can only assume it was something short-lived and incredibly local.
10) What were/are the On Yoke and the Hydro (spelling optional on the former, I never saw it written down)?
The On Yoke was a nightclub, a bit before my time, somewhere in South Wexford. It may have been one of the first nightclubs in the county; it was certainly popular beyond all reason, with busloads of teenagers arriving in from as far away as Waterford and Kildare on Saturday nights. The Hydro was the later equivalent, in Kilmuckridge. Both palces were notable for letting in people who were under (in some cases, well under) the legal drinking age. I can only assume that, as in Keogh's pub in Bunclody, the local police settled for knowing where the kids were, rather than enforcing the letter of the law. I have very little memory of what the Hydro looked like; the remaining impression is of near darkness, loud music, vigourous moshing, and pints for two pounds.
11) Name the song: Yo no soy marinero, Soy capitan
La Bamba, a song that held the number one spot for quite some time in the summer of 1987, and has been held ever since as a popular song for those too drunk to remember the words, mainly due to the first line of the chorus, an enthusiastic La la la la la la bamba!.
12) What is the theme song of the Boys Brigade? (hint; Presbyterian hymn)
Will your anchor hold in the storms of life? The BB was an attempt to put together a "Protestant Scouts". It was a sad little pseudo-military sectarian organisation, meetings of which consisted of learning hymns, marching, and, um... not a lot else, actually. I assume that by this stage, it has either vanished or become something a little more pleasant. I was in it solely because every other Protestant kid my age was, and it seems to have been an occasion of universal embarrassment. There was an equivalent for girls, probably called the Girls Brigade, although I honestly can't remember. The theme song was a miserable dirge about anchors and storms as a metaphor for faith, not that anyone ever explained that.
1) How far up is the River Slaney tidal?
The Slaney is tidal up as far as the old bridge in Enniscorthy. This is important, because fishing where the river is tidal is free to anyone, whereas in the parts where it's not tidal, there are fishing rights which can be sold and inherited like land. Knowledge of hidden spots where you could fish without being seen by the owner of the rights was jealously guarded and traded.
2) What's the best place to stand outside Bunclody to get a lift headed northwards?
The wide spot at the bottom of the hill, just below the Angler's Rest pub, on the opposite side. There were some drivers so used to picking up hitch hikers here that even if there weren't any, they'd pull in and wait, because there'd be one along soon. I don't suppose that happens any more...
3) What is St. Enda's, and why would anyone tell you to go there?
St. Enda's was a popular misnaming of St. Senan's, a psychiatric hospital outside Enniscorthy. Like any such place, people were conversationally condemned there for not conforming to the speaker's expected norms. The "St. Enda's" thing came from a teacher in Bunclody who insisted, point blank and completely, that that was its name. I suspect, in hindsight, that she made a mistake, and didn't have the confidence to back down when challenged by a student, but for some reason, the mistake stuck in local parlance for a while. The teacher didn't come back for the following year.
As an aside, my great-grandfather was involved in some way in the building of St. Senan's; it's a big impressive red brick building overlooking the Slaney a little way south of the town. I stayed quiet about this familial involvement in school...
4) Ib dug sluggin', aw? What did I just ask you?
"Are you going for a pint?". I've no idea if it's authentic Shelta or not, but Shelta and some bizarre local adaptations of it were in heavy use in North Wexford. I gather from later experience that they were in use in Cork as well; the terms "fien" and "byore", at least, were common.
5) If someone wants to scon you, what precisely do they want?
Snog, shift, French kiss, light petting - I don't think there's actually a universal English term for the activity. "Scon" was a Kilkenny term (we used "shift"), but it was very, very important to be conversant with the exact nuances of these terms, because if someone asked you at a disco, "Will you scon my friend?", you needed to know what you were getting into. And for some discos, there could be people there from two or three counties away.
6) Nirvana, or Pearl Jam?
It doesn't matter which, but you had to have a firm opinion, and be able to back it up, or be dismissed as a musical non-entity. I was a late developer in terms of popular music, but fell firmly on the Nirvana side back then.
7) What wood is a camán made from?
Ash. This is one of those pieces of information that is so ingrained that I cannot believe other Irish people do not know it. Intellectually, I can accept that someone might never have come into contact with hurling or camogie (possibly by having an incredibly soft hearted Physical Education type in their school), but at a gut level, I can't really comprehend it.
8) Kris Kros'll make you... ?
Jump! Jump! Kris Kros (or was it Kross?) were a truly terrible act, a pair of Amrican kids (I think they may only have been about 13) who recorded a self-referential pseudo-rap piece which managed to take off hugely. The sight of an entire dance floor of teenagers pogoing in time to the "Jump! Jump!" bits must have reduced many pub and nightclub owners to tears of terror for their building.
9) Have you got a spandex hyperwiper?
I know I have! I have no idea what this was, but it was one of those ritual questions to which you knew the ritual answer, or in some mysterious way, lost social status. I thought for a while it might have been a Simpsons reference - many of these things were - but there's no trace of this on google, so I can only assume it was something short-lived and incredibly local.
10) What were/are the On Yoke and the Hydro (spelling optional on the former, I never saw it written down)?
The On Yoke was a nightclub, a bit before my time, somewhere in South Wexford. It may have been one of the first nightclubs in the county; it was certainly popular beyond all reason, with busloads of teenagers arriving in from as far away as Waterford and Kildare on Saturday nights. The Hydro was the later equivalent, in Kilmuckridge. Both palces were notable for letting in people who were under (in some cases, well under) the legal drinking age. I can only assume that, as in Keogh's pub in Bunclody, the local police settled for knowing where the kids were, rather than enforcing the letter of the law. I have very little memory of what the Hydro looked like; the remaining impression is of near darkness, loud music, vigourous moshing, and pints for two pounds.
11) Name the song: Yo no soy marinero, Soy capitan
La Bamba, a song that held the number one spot for quite some time in the summer of 1987, and has been held ever since as a popular song for those too drunk to remember the words, mainly due to the first line of the chorus, an enthusiastic La la la la la la bamba!.
12) What is the theme song of the Boys Brigade? (hint; Presbyterian hymn)
Will your anchor hold in the storms of life? The BB was an attempt to put together a "Protestant Scouts". It was a sad little pseudo-military sectarian organisation, meetings of which consisted of learning hymns, marching, and, um... not a lot else, actually. I assume that by this stage, it has either vanished or become something a little more pleasant. I was in it solely because every other Protestant kid my age was, and it seems to have been an occasion of universal embarrassment. There was an equivalent for girls, probably called the Girls Brigade, although I honestly can't remember. The theme song was a miserable dirge about anchors and storms as a metaphor for faith, not that anyone ever explained that.
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To be fair, they may have improved vastly here in the twenty years since I was last involved.
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I was in the BB too and it always struck me that their logo (an anchor) would be better suited to an organisation like the Sea Scouts. The Boy Scout's Fleur de li emblem easily beats the BB's anchor though.
I never really got the point of the BB. As you said, it was just hymns, songs, marching and more marching. I gave the Boy Scouts a whirl too, that seemed a bit more pointful but the group I was in was barely organised chaos so we never did anything terribly exciting.