Omnibus – The black craft

  SMOKE AND STEAM rise in the marvellous colour photograph on the cover of this year's JOTS 8 â€â€ the Journal of the Old Tuam Society, Volume 8. The scene is the placing of an iron rim on a wooden cart wheel, and the two men in the picture are the blacksmith George McGrath and his assistant Michael Naughton. Joe Dillon took the picture in August 1983, when wooden carts were still a relatively common sight on country roads, in the bogs and occasionally on the streets of the town. George McGrath died the following year, well before his time. [private] George McGrath's son, also George, in an interview with Owen Ward, gives a comprehensive account of the work his father did from day to day and year to year. McGrath's forge was on the Mall, opposite where Corrib Crafts is now located in the old Church of Ireland primary school, and it was the place where small boys like me would peep in to the darkness to marvel at the red-hot iron being shaped on the anvil, as the hammer rang and the sparks flew. Young George joined the Garda Siochána, but from the age of 11 to 18 he worked alongside his father on Saturdays and during holidays, and as he says himself, developed muscles his schoolmates did not have. When I met him at the launch of JOTS 8 on Friday night in the splendid Synod Hall of St Mary's Cathedral he told me he has now retired from the Force, but he has not forgotten the skills he learned from his father, and still does some ironwork. It's in the blood, obviously. The pictures of the blacksmith at work, and there are more inside the journal, reminded me of the craftsman who practised a complementary trade only a couple of doors away from us on the Galway Road. His name was John Byrne, and he was a carpenter, a cartwright and a wheelwright. In a larger community those trades might have been practised as different specialities, but not here. John Byrne made kitchen furniture for the house built by Bill O'Connor for my grandfather in 1947, and I ate my meals and did my homework on the table he crafted by hand in his workshop where the lawn of Jarlath Crisham's house is now. How galling it is for me now to think what little interest I took in the dying craft practised every day so close to me. John Byrne appeared to be a cranky old man to me, but I suppose he was not that keen on youngsters getting in his way while he worked. But I do remember him shaping the shafts and sides of the carts, cutting out the curved sections of the wooden wheels, and shaving the spokes. Only once do I remember the excitement of the iron rim being heated to fit on the wheel. That work may have been done by the Connollys, neighbours across the road who also had a forge. There were other forges in the town, one that I now know of at Bishop Street, run by the grandfather of monumental sculptor Liam Kelly where the stone yard is now. But back to JOTS. I've barely moved beyond the first article, and there are another score to enjoy. As usual a wide range of topics and interests is covered, and you can read about 'The deerfoot of Dowras' â€â€ the great Corofin athlete John J Daly, who ran in the Olympic Games in St Louis (1904) and the intercalated Games in Athens in 1906. Padraig Stevens is the researcher and writer. The Handcock Estate still crops up in many property titles and other legal documents in these parts, and the story of the family, whose seat was at Carantrila Park, near Dunmore, is told by Catherine Corless. The McGrath brothers from Kilconly, Tuam, all fought in the British Army in World War I and remarkably, all of them survived to be photographed together in uniform in 1919. Their descendants live in the Manchester area of England, and are still in contact with their relatives in this area. More local still is Kevin O'Dwyer's article on The Making of a Village, on the building of the Athenry Road and Tubberjarlath houses and the families who lived in them. There is much, much more: Gettysburg via Castlehackett:â€Ë†Col Patrick Kelly of the Irish Brigade, by Brendan Higgins; Alison (O'Connell)â€Ë†Titley on the Tuam Art Exhibitions of the 1940s, at which were shown works by some of the foremost modern Irish artists of the day, people like Louis LeBrocquy and Evie Hone. I could go on, but space does not permit, but be assured that JOTS 8 is a fitting seasonal purchase for readers at home and abroad. â€â€ David Burke [/private]