Yvonne Gallagher had the pleasure of interviewing Sonny Scanlan who shared his early memories of living in Quin.

Sonny is the oldest native in Ballyhannon and his father and grandfather lived in the house before him. Billy Moylan, the tallest man in Clare was amongst the many visitors and as you will hear in the video he had a hidden talent. He points out that the number of houses in the area has risen from 5 to 39 and used to be called The Watery Village.

In this clip, Sonny eloquently recounts what was involved in the Thrashing Process. The harvesting began in earnest in early August where the men cut the corn with a scythe and gathered them into ‘shaves’.

These shaves were then bought into the haggard by horse and cart where they were later ground to seed by the thrashing machine. It is lovely to hear how the neighbors used to pull together to share the work load.

In this short clip Sonny remembers how one of his neighbours was afraid to meet a red headed woman on New Year’s Day. So much in fact that she refused to go to mass when she knew Sonny’s red headed sister was going to be there. Interestingly, she didn’t mind meeting a red headed man … go figure 🙂

Sonny explains that neither he or nor his brother, Timmy RIP,  would up-root a fort for fear of bad luck.