“Good God! to think upon a child, that has no childish days, No careless play, no frolics wild, no words of prayer and praise! Man from the cradle, ’tis too soon to earn their daily bread, And heap the heat and toil of noon, upon an infant’s head. O, England! though thy tribute waves, proclaim thee great and free, While those small children pine like slaves, there is a curse on thee!”
Child labour, as we are aware, is the exploitation of children through any form of work that deprives them of their childhood; interferes with their ability to attend regular education, or is mentally, physically, socially and morally harmful to their being. Poverty and lack of schools are considered the primary cause of child labour.
Child labour has existed to varying extents throughout world history and as late as 2017, four African nations (Mali, Benin, Chad and Guinea-Bissau) witnessed over 50% of children, latter aged between the ages of 5-14, working, the largest employers of child labour.
With the onset of the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century, there was a rapid increase in the industrial exploitation of labour, including child labour. The Victorian era in particular became notorious for the conditions under which children were employed. Children as young as four years old were employed in factories and mines, working long hours in dangerous, often fatal, working conditions. In coal mines, children would crawl through tunnels, latter too narrow for adults to fit.
Children were also employed as errand boys, shoe blacks, or selling matches, flowers and other cheap goods. Some children undertook work as apprentices to respectable trades, such as building or as domestic servants. Their Working hours were long: builders worked an average of 64 hours a week during summer months and 52 hours during winter months, while servants indoors worked an 80-hour week. Child wages were low; as little as 10–20% of an adult male’s wage.
With the later growth of trade unions these issues began to change. German-born philosopher, economist, political theorist, historian, sociologist, journalist and revolutionary socialist, Karl Marx (1818-1883) was an outspoken opponent of child labour, stating that British industries “could but live by sucking blood, and children’s blood too”, and that U.S. capital was financed by the “capitalized blood of children”.
The English poet and novelist, better known by her initials Letitia Elizabeth Landon [L.E.L.] (1802–1838) castigated child labour in her 1835 poem “The Factory”, portions of which she pointedly included in her 18th Birthday Tribute to the Princess Victoria in 1837.
Thankfully, in this case our world has changed considerably for the better.
Schooldays Over.
Lyrics: The late, great British folk singer, songwriter, folk song collector, labour activist and actor, James Henry Miller, better known by the stage name of Ewan MacColl. Vocals: Irish singer, folk musician and Dublin actor, the late, great Luke Kelly.
Schooldays Over.
Schooldays over, come on then John, time to be getting your pit boots on. On with your sark* and the moleskin trousers*, it’s time you were on your way, Time you were learning the pitman’s job and earning the pitman’s pay.
Come on then Jim, it’s time to go, time you were working down below. Time to be handling a pick and shovel, you start at the pits today, Time you were learning the collier’s job and earning the collier’s pay,
Come on then Dai, it’s almost light, time you were off to the anthracite. The morning mist is on the vallеy it’s time you were on your way, Time you were learning the miner’s job and earning the miner’s pay.
Schooldays over, come on then John, time to be getting your pit boots on. On with your sark and the moleskin trousers, it’s time you were on your way, Time you were learning the pitman’s job and earning the pitman’s pay.
End
[*sark: Any long, shirtlike garment worn next to the skin, as a chemise, nightshirt]. [*moleskin trousers: Working menswear, woven of carded cotton yarn in a dense weft-faced satin weave, similar to today’s jeans in terms of cut and construction and still commonly used to make trousers today].
In Thurles, in the 1920’s, there lived a little girl on ‘Pudding Lane and Jail Street’, (Today’s JeremiahO’Donovan Rossa Street). She would grow up to become a Thurles trader.
I remember, when I was a boy, my father John Joe; trading on the side-walks of Liberty Square on what was known as ‘The Bank Corner’, situated at the junction of Liberty Square and Slievenamon Road in the town. My father traded in cabbage plants, fish on Friday’s and vegetables shared from my uncle’s cart.
There, too, traded Nellie Keane, who later went on to have own a vegetable shop in West Gate, where her daughter, Phil Keane, would also carry on a business and a tradition. Phil, who lived in Derheen, had the heart of a poet.
Nellie was twelve years old, and showing early signs of her entrepreneurial skills by doing messages for her mother in Nan Noonan’s shop in Liberty Square, where Scanlon’s newsagents later existed until recently.
On Christmas Eve, down in Noonan’s News agency, Little Nellie Keane was, like all the children in town at Christmas, gazing at the large number of asses, ponies, jennets and carts in town, enabling people to bring home their Christmas goods, which, back then, would include a ‘Hansel’*
[* Hansel – From old Saxon word meaning “to deliver into the hand”, latter being a small gift given at the end or beginning of the year to bring good luck from traders; a practise long since discontinued.]
Everybody was alive with the spirit of Christmas and toasting the spirit of the grand and glorious season. And it was a good Christmas, for business was brisk and people were happy enough, after a war in Ireland and a war in Europe.
And so, that Christmas Eve, as little Nellie Keane looked into that little shop window in Liberty Square, she sighed, when she noted that all the dolls were sold. However, just before she went home, little Nellie spotted this bisque coloured doll; a doll in a box. Nellie wondered why that particular doll on this particular day was not already sold. “What’s the matter with the doll?” she asked Nan Noonan, a kindly lady, indeed. “Oh, but that poor doll’s eyes never open, and sure we could not sell it so,” said Nan Noonan. But Nan observed the wonder of Christmas in the sympathetic child eyes of little Nellie Keane, and her generosity led her over to the box containing the doll with closed eyes. She then handed the boxed doll to little Nellie. She asked Nellie to look after the mysterious doll and to always have nice clothes on it, to play with it and to keep it pretty, proper and clean.
And so, delight on her face; the boxed doll cuddled in her arms, little Nellie strolled up the side-walk of Liberty Square, in Thurles, not caring how cold and frosty it was; with the snow beginning to cast it’s magic mantle over the whole town. She turned right at the corner of Liberty Square, hugging her precious doll; keeping her warm from the blasts of icy air, absolutely and utterly convinced it was really truly a wonderful world this day in the Watery Mall and Thurles town. As the jolly carollers sang their songs of Christmas, little Nellie Keane knew this would always be the most memorable Christmas of all for her.
But our little story does not end here. Our little Nellie went home and wondered how she might cure the sore eyes of the little boxed doll. Could there be a way of asking Santa to help the little doll? She prayed to God and Santa on that Christmas Eve, and like little children all over the world, she went to bed early that night, but without her doll. For she felt she should leave her doll downstairs in the kitchen, beside the cosy turf fire, so she would remain nice and warm in that lovely Keane home. Little Nellie, after a long time kept watch, peering out her small bed-room window for Santa Claus, who per chance might come over the fields, from the Presentation and Ursuline Convents, finally fell asleep.
The next morning she woke up and there were sweets in her stocking. But she could not wait to open such as she rushed down the stairs to give a little hug to her little boxed doll by the fireplace. She burst into the kitchen and the most amazing and wonderful thing met her gaze. The doll, was now sitting up on a chair by the fire, with the most beautiful blue eyes she had ever seen. “Oh, she was cured,” shouted Nellie, as she danced around the kitchen floor in delight, having removed the doll from its box.
Nellie’s father, Johnny Keane, suspected perhaps the heat from the fire had cured the eyes, or was it the kindness and love of a little girl who now hugged and kissed her little doll, wishing her a Happy Christmas.
But our happy story is still not over, for Nellie Keane grew up to be a much-loved and very kind and popular businesswoman in the Market Town of Thurles. According to her daughter, Phil Keane, Nellie never lost her love of dolls, and always had a present of a doll for Phil herself, on returning to Thurles after trips in Ireland and abroad. Little Nellie Keane’s daughter, Phil, an old neighbour and friend of mine since childhood, became a world famous craftworker, who designed all kinds of dolls; Indian dolls, Red Indian dolls, Chinese and Japanese dolls, designed in all shapes and sizes, colours and materials.
Phil annually presented dolls and toys to children in need, in various parts of Ireland and Britain. “I feel it’s nice to give back something,” said Phil, who won over 7,000 awards for crafts and cookery worldwide; an interest fostered by her mother’s love of dolls and by her Aunty Jo’s interest in crafts. “Nellie loved dolls and she bred that love in me,” Phil told me once. Well, times have changed, and the Market House in the Square and the men and the women with the carts of fish and vegetables, (God be good to them), have now disappeared; vanished and gone into Thurles folklore. I am sure that in the town of Thurles there are many little children now writing to Santa Claus, reminding parents not to forget to post their letters. And, though times and customs have changed, I’m sure that the innocence of childhood has not vanished with the years. In a way, it would be nice to think that even some of the parents are not buying dolls for the children alone – but secretly for themselves, and, maybe, they’ll find out, like Nellie Keane all those years ago, through the kindness of a shopkeeper in Liberty Square, that there is magic and joy in even the most bruised and broken toy.
Remembrance Day (or Poppy Day) is observed annually, on November 11th, to recall the end of the First World War and all of its associated hostilities. Back then, these hostilities were ended “at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month” of the year 1918″, at Compiègne, Northern France, following the armistice, signed by representatives of Germany and the alliance of states, between 5:12am and 5:20am on that morning. Its purpose also is to honour armed forces members who have died in the line of duty. It was on the 7th. November 1919, King George V first issued a proclamation which called for a two-minute silence, having read a letter published in the London Evening News of May 8th, 1919, by a Melbourne journalist, Edward George Honey. It was Mr Honey who first proposed a two minute silence in memory of those, who so willingly sacrificed their lives for the relative peace and freedom we sadly no longer enjoy today, [I refer to in particular, the situations in Gaza, Israel, Russia, Ukraine and elsewhere].
King George V’s proclamation of 1919 read “All locomotion should cease, so that, in perfect stillness, the thoughts of everyone may be concentrated on reverent remembrance of the glorious dead”.
Thurles WW1Dead Meanwhile, here in Thurles on today, let us never forget some 73 soldiers, including Victoria Cross recipients; all who were residents of the Thurles area and who lost their lives during WW1.
In all, at least 50,000 families in Ireland were affected by the loss of a loved one, during the First World War.
Siegfried Loraine Sassoon CBE MC
Siegfried Loraine Sassoon CBE MC(1886-1967) was an English war poet, writer, and soldier himself decorated for bravery on the Western Front and who became one of the leading poets of World War I. His poetry clearly described the horrors of trench warfare and satirizes the patriotic pretensions of those who, in his view, are responsible for war, fuelled by nationalism, in the form of aggressive, proactive foreign policy.
In honour of ‘Remembrance Day’, we, hereunder, feature one of SiegfriedSassoon poems; the title of which is sadly, rarely spoken about.
Suicide In The Trenches
I knew a simple soldier boy, Who grinned at life in empty joy, Slept soundly through the lonesome dark, And whistled early with the lark.
In winter trenches, cowed* and glum, With crumps* and lice and lack of rum, He put a bullet through his brain. No one spoke of him again.
You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye, Who cheer when soldier lads march by, Sneak home and pray you’ll never know, The hell where youth and laughter go.
End
Cowed* Meaning ‘Intimidated’. Crumps* Meaning ‘exploding shells’.
The finial (from Latin: finis, meaning end), which originally donned the flag on the 1798 memorial statue when it was first erected on Liberty Square, Thurles in 1901, has now, at last been, replaced.
Pic (1): 1798 Memorial Flag with finical replaced. Pic (2): Old picture showing original finical prior to accident.
Accidently broken, together with the tip of the Arming Sword, during the erection of Christmas lighting some years back; while the Arming Sword tip was replaced, alas the finial was not and same vanished.
Back in the 19th century, this finial shape would have been better known as a “truck”, with its original purpose meant to keep a wooden flag pole from splitting.
At the very top of every flagpole can be found a finial, which is not just a decorative piece that users construct. Most finials today appear in the form of a gold ball and a few are observed as an eagle. Back on September 16th 1898 the flag pole finial on the White House, latter located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. United States, was replaced by a patriotic eagle, same made of aluminium and coated in a gold anodized finish.
A finial ball is truly required for pole maintenance. A number of military flagpoles were at one time topped with gold-coloured eagles, but these proved impractical because flags would become entangled and torn, during high winds; hence the switch to spheres shapes, which eliminated this unnecessary waste and expense.
In the absence of the Stone Mans finical, many local people in Thurles believed the flag pole represented a pike, but of course it never was a pike.
The new finical is made from a left over piece of lime stone slab, which was used to replace a badly cracked piece of limestone previously, in Holycross Abbey, and carved by stonemason and sculptor Mr Philip Quinn.
A badly corroded 100 year-old grenade located near the monument at Solohead in South West Co. Tipperary was removed to a safe location where it was destroyed in a controlled explosion on Friday last, September 22nd, by the Irish Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal team.
Corroded ‘Mills Bomb’, a fully intact ‘Mills Bomb’ and their inventor English engineer Sir William Mills.
The corroded device located by Tipperary County Council staff carrying out road repairs, resembled an MK I time-fused fragmentation hand grenade, latter used during the early years of World War I. The device, according to its original designer, was then the simplest, yet most fool-proof grenade ever manufactured and replaced the existing cast-iron canister, latter set on an 18-inch stick, which was dangerous to use because it often got caught on trench fronts, when lobbed. However, the MK I was retired from active use before the war ended, and was replaced in 1918 with the improved Mk 2 grenade used through the period of World War II.
Known by a more popular name, the “Mills bomb”, this series of British hand grenades, were used by British and Imperial forces, having been designed by English engineer Sir William Mills, (24th April 1856 – 7th January 1932) who also gave us our aluminium golf clubs, known as Metallic Golfing Instrument Heads. Some 75,000,000 of these World War I Mills Bomb grenades were manufactured, with their four-second time fuses, allowing the thrower to easily take cover before they exploded.
Numerous, similar devices are located every year here in Ireland, with one such grenade device located in the Rosemount area of Thurles, in February 2018. On November 16th, 2017, two men, one from Cahir, Co. Tipperary and the other from Clonmel in Co. Tipperary, were arrested having in their possession two fragmentation grenades. On the 14th of May 2020 a Mills bomb, dating back about 100 years was made safe by the Irish Army having been discovered at Harold’s Cross bridge in Dublin, while on Wednesday 6th of March 2015, a man located a grenade Mills bomb at his home while out gardening in Newtown Lawns, Mullingar, Co Westmeath. Earlier on September 22nd, 2009, a World War II ‘Mills Bomb’ was found in Cahir, Co. Tipperary. In 2016 in the small village of Aughrim in Co. Galway another such device was located, and on Tuesday May 21st 2013 a Mills Grenade was discovered by people digging at their home in Crosshaven, Co Cork.
Most of these devices were brought smuggled home by Irish men who had joined the British Army to fight enemies on the front during World War I, and retained for intended use during Ireland’s fight for Independence, in the years 1916-22. Unused they were hidden away in private sheds or buried, to be located by future generations.
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