The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
‘Literary gem’ recalls Dingle of old
MODERN Dingle is renowned as a centre of culture, the culinary capital of Kerry and a tourist destination that is the envy of every town of its size in the country. But it wasn’t always like that. Older residents remember a bleak, seldom-visited backwater, where life was harsh and life’s pleasures simple.
Those memories of a town far removed from the cosmopolitan hub that Dingle has become form a precious archive that has now been preserved for future generations thanks to the work of a group of Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne students.
Tasked with putting together an entry for the national Fiontair mini enterprise competition, transition year students Niamh Browne, Doireann Ní Choileáin, Sadbh Ní Bhrosnacháin and Ciara Ní Bhric came up with the idea of a local history book, based on people’s recollections of Dingle in their youth. The girls’ interest in local history and culture didn’t quite fit the business-oriented profile of the competition, but they reckoned producing and selling a book was a viable business venture.
Their outside-the-box thinking proved fruitful. Even before it went to the printers, the bi-lingual book won the Munster section of the competition and progressed to the national final where the girls ‘got robbed’ by a more traditionally businesslike entry.
In an effort that well beyond the call of duty, the girls saw the book through to completion and it was officially launched by Máire Uí Shithigh on Friday night in Benner’s Hotel, where it was very warmly received. Máire described the book as “obair inspioráidach” (an inspirational work) while Micheál de Mórdha added, “this literary achievement is a very bright gem”.
The 30 contributors to the book include TP Ó Conchúir who recalled how women who had emigrated to America to earn a dowry would return home to arranged marriages. “They came home and messed up everything because there would be women here trying to find themselves a man but when the Americans came home they would be pushed aside...”
Ita McCarthy recalls the nuns in the adjacent convent looking in through the window to watch television at night and, overall, contributors remember the nuns kindly but the CBS was a different matter. Paddy Curran remembers one monk (Christian Brother) who “would hammer your backside with a leather belt which he would soak in water to toughen it”.
Margaret and Celsus Sheehy tell how they opened Dingle’s first registered B&B (Milltown House) in 1962 and Bill and Vivian O’Shea relate how in 1963 they decided to build the Alpine guesthouse, which became the first Bord Fáilte registered guesthouse in Dingle - and Ireland at the time.
Mass tourism was still some way off but that happened, as TP Ó Conchúir relates after the film “Ryan’s Daughter brought us from the Stone Age to the 20th Century in two years”.
At that point Dingle was set on a course of development which has never altered, but did it produce a better place in which to live? The girls are unanimous in preferring modern Dingle. The idea of walking to school in bare feet has no appeal; corporal punishment is almost beyond comprehension, and as for ‘decking’ a teacher (TP Ó Conchúir) – “we’d get sent away for psychological assessment”.
The girls all feel better off living in a town where they can all get summer jobs and where there is lots of entertainment, but they also think “there was probably better craic in Dingle when there were lots of families and children living in town”.
The book is available in local bookshops and on Amazon.