MATTIE McGRATH & HOLY WATER

This is one of Tina's stories from the time when I was Harbour Master in Castletownbere in the 1980's; note that I say one because there are many tales from that time in West Cork. I was there helping to develop the port as one of Ireland's major fishery centres so the harbour did get Spanish, English and other foreign vessels landing that required the presence of a Customs Revenue Officer. This Officer in Castletown was one really nice young man called Matthew McGrath from Dublin. He was known as Mattie.
As I have said, Mattie was a really nice young man and became virtually one of the family, he was not much older than our sons, Greg and Gerard. He introduced Gerard to Gaelic Football [a cross between rugby and soccer] and they all went out to the Wheel Inn for the local dances and fun on weekends. Sometimes Velia, who was 5 years old at the time, would persuade Mattie to take her on board the regular Spanish vessels for a dish of scrumptious french fries cooked in olive oil. You get the picture - a young fellow away from home and finding a happy family on hand.
Now Mattie boarded in the town with a typical old-school Irish Catholic landlady, you know the sort, religious pictures, the Sacred Heart, statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and so on. And always a container of Holy Water by the door.
Every week she would go to the local newsagent and pick up Mattie's order of a Motor Magazine. However one particular week he finished early and picked it up for himself and went back to his lodgings, reclined on his bed, and started to read and enjoy the magazine. Now, totally to his amazement the Landlady entered his room completely uninvited and charged him with reading "a dirty magazine!!" Mattie was totally bemused, somewhat angry, and perplexed as to what to say. I think he really had to bite his tongue.
As Mattie was Customs Officer he worked odd hours when vessels entered or departed the port so later that evening he went out to the harbour. When he got back to the lodgings he found patches of damp and the landlady had obviously turned over his room looking for the book. Then, amazingly, she informed him primly that she "had blessed the room with Holy Water to re-sanctify the place." This brought Mattie to boiling point but we think he calmed down a bit.
Move on a few days and Mattie is at our place ensconced on the settee with Greg, Gerard. and Velia. I am in the armchair. We are all watching TV and enjoying the "Miss Universe Contest" - there was good natured banter and all trying to pick the winner including Velia. There were lovely smells from the kitchen as Tina was making a pie for supper and listening to the laughter in the lounge. Then she entered armed with a basin of cold water AND pastry-brush and proceeded to bless all present with great solemnity. Needless to say the place descended into chaotic laughter ...........you know neither Tina or I can remember who won?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

AN ISLAND NATION

Image
AN ISLAND NATION Island Nation or EU satellite state? Last night Jeremy Paxman, on the 19th May 2016, presented an objective view of the European Union. It is clear that the EU intends becoming a federal state and that the United Kingdom would become subsumed into that bureaucratic nightmare. I give you an alternative - the open sea  and the Commonwealth. We are an island nation off Europe but not part of Europe.The Commonwealth needs us and we most certainly need them - they are the World. It is not a pipe dream, the building blocks are still there - just - and it is predicated on the following :- “The Charter brings together the values and aspirations which unite the Commonwealth - democracy, human rights and the rule of law - in a single, accessible document. The Charter expresses the commitment of member states to the development of free and democratic societies and the promotion of peace and prosperity to improve the lives of all peoples of the Commonwealth. The Cha
Read more

Where You Stand and Prejudice (2016)

Where you stand and prejudice. I  have written before on the Newfoundland aphorism of “where you stand depends where you sit.” With that saying in mind here are some of my thoughts on that most contentious of subjects - prejudice, -  racial or ethnic, take your choice.  I look to where I came from, my origins, and then look at what affects my life today.  I come to the inevitable conclusions that prejudice is illogical , not Christian, and most certainly not productive.   My Grandfather, William Hogan, and Grandmother, Mary Ellen, were part of the Irish diaspora that took place in the latter part of the 19th Century. William Hogan was born in 1857 in Cappoquin and Mary Ellen in 1860 in Cork. The Great Irish Famine took place over the years 1845 - 1852 when approximately one million died; the Irish population fell by 25% due to death and emigration. Ireland’s rural population had rapidly grown in the Nineteenth Century. This was because a large family was an insurance of continued
Read more

I was called a Flat Earther

Image
Gordon Brown called me a "Flat Earther" FPI trawler in ice. In December 2009 the Prime Minister, Mr.Gordon Brown, called me a "Flat Earther". His remarks were pointedly directed at anyone who harboured any scepticism of Climate Change and that included me. Now I am a retired Master Mariner so that epithet seemed somewhat silly as I have spent a life time sailing over the horizon and not falling over the edge of the world. Anyway I have decided to briefly write about my experieces at sea and let you judge me and tell me if I deserve the sobriquet "Flat Earther". In 1954 my Father indentured me to Sir William Readon Smith & Sons of Cardiff, tramp ship owners, as an Apprentice Deck Officer. I was just sixteen years of age. My life long affair with weather and climate started at the same time as my voyage to command and management in shipping. I was eight years with tramp ships, man and boy, and sailed away for anything up to a year circling th
Read more