This is an interview with Ennistimon publican Nan Ahern. The interview was recorded by Cuimhneamh an Chlair Cuairteoir Frances Madigan on 30 December 2010 and 13 January 2011. Nan was aged 89 at the time of the interview and was born in 1921. The interview is made up of three recordings, two from 30 December and one from 13 January.
In the first recording Nan talks about her childhood in Ennistimon and her family’s history as bakers and blacksmiths. She also talks about her schooldays, her interests including playing golf, playing the church organ and musical theatre, and some detail about fairs in Ennistimon.
In the second recording Nan discusses seasonal customs, including Christmas, St Stephen’s Day, New Year’s Eve, St Brigid’s Day, Garland Sunday, Chalk Sunday, Lent, St Patrick’s Day, Easter, Whit Sunday, May Eve, St John’s Eve, Halloween and St Martin’s Day. She mentions some piseogs or superstitions associated with these events. She goes on to describe wakes and funeral traditions, holy wells and cures, some stories from the War of Independence in the area, rural electrification, and World War II and rationing,.
In the third recording Nan talks about her family pub in Ennistimon, the McNamara family of Ennistimon House (Falls Hotel), the 18th century poet Brian Merriman, fairs and marts in Ennistimon, the Toll House on the bridge in Ennistimon and the collecting of tolls, attending the 1932 Eucharistic Congress in Dublin and hearing John McCormack sing, and brass bands in Ennistimon.
The recordings are accompanied by a photograph of Nan in her family’s bar in Ennistimon, taken at the time of the interview.