A set of interviews with Catherine Talty of Cloonlaheen, Coore, near Miltown Malbay, county Clare. The interviews were recorded in Cloonleheen by Cuimhneamh an Chláir Cuairteoir Tomás Mac Conmara on several dates between 2008 and 2015 (dates listed below). Catherine was born in 1916 and is around 92 at the time of the 2008 recordings.
Catherine also made a number of home recordings of her memories, which can also be found in this Women’s Stories collection on the Digital Repository of Ireland.
The first interview with Catherine was conducted on 16 December 2008 and there are three recordings. In this interview, Catherine speaks about her recollections of life in Clounlaheen, rural electrification, her schooldays, emigration, republicanism, the West Clare Railway, the Economic War, World War II, rationing and housedances.
The second interview was conducted on 6 April 2011 and there are three recordings. In this interview, Catherine recalls the tradition of flax growing and weaving in Cloonlaheen, transhumance and ‘booleying’ (summer grazing), holy wells, superstitions and cures, and the election victory of Fianna Fáil in 1932.
The third interview was conducted on 7 April 2015 and there are eight recordings. In this interview, Catherine recalls the tradition of house dances, discusses some local musicians, stories about Biddy Early, stories about the Great Famine, the impact of 1916 and the War of Independence, the Economic War of the 1930s, different kinds of food and cooking, stories about faction fighting in the 19th century, wool processing and weaving, process of growing and weaving linen from flax, and a story about a local woman who survived the Lusitania.
The interviews are accompanied by a number of photographs of Catherine taken at the times of the interviews.