Fogarty's Threshing
Author: Jim Nolan
Performed by Danny Browne

Fogarty's Threshing
Author: Jim Nolan
Performed by Danny Browne

Theme: Local event and characters
Jamsie Byrne is home from America, he came home the other day,
We talked about all the things that happened in the parish since he went away.
We talked about all the auld lads and the things that they said and done,
He said he was sorry to come back home and find they were nearly all dead and gone.

We looked across at an old broken-down house, you know says he the last time I handled a fork
Was over there at Fogarty’s threshing, the day before I went to New York.
I remember it was a cold frosty morning and we were threshing a big rick of oats
But we were well prepared for the weather with our L.D.F. boots and topcoats.

I remember old Fogarty coming out to the haggard and he started to lay down the law,
He put three of us minding the sacks at the mill and three more for to make up the straw.
He told two young lads to open the sheaves and myself and Jack Murphy to pitch,
And he says ‘when ye take the top off the rick will ye make it up in a neat little heap in the ditch’.

The driver got up in the engine, and the fly wheel it started to spin,
Then he gave the whistle a blow that work was about to begin.
Then he gave this lever a pull and the mill it started to hum,
And the dust, it went up in the heavens when they opened the lid of the drum.

About half past eleven Jack Murphy dropped down on one knee and he says with a nod and a wink
‘Ye may take it easy now lads the barmaid is here with the drink’.
Sure enough, Mrs. Fogarty had arrived with the porter, it was covered with thick creamy froth,
And judging by the look of the bucked she had not lost any time with the cloth.
She buried her hands down in the porter as she filled each one of the tins,
She says ‘I never got time to give them a rub after mixing the food for the hens’.

At dinner time a lot of the lads went home, you see the place had not got a very good name,
And if we’d known what we were going to get, I think we would have all done the same.
Mrs Fogarty says ‘ye’s all must be starving, sit in and eat all ye’s are able’,
And to tell the truth of the woman that day there was lashings of grub on the table.

Somebody said that the meat tasted quare, of that there wasn’t a doubt,
Jack Murphy said ‘wherever she got it, I’ll try and find out’’.
Mr.s Fogarty asked us did we want any more, Jack said ‘I do’ and he held out his plate,
‘And I tell you, Where ever you got it that’s the finest of mate’.
Well, Mrs. Fogarty’s face lit up with delight and she made a neat little bow,
She says ‘you’d hardly believe it but that was the hind leg of the sow.
She died after having the boneens, the poor unfortunate baste,
We thought it nothing short of a sin to see such a fine lot of mate going to waste’’.
Jack clapped his hand over his mouth and said ‘I don’t want anymore’,
And he made an almighty burst for the door.

After dinner when the lads came back they asked us what we had to eat,
And when we told them they said it was a pity to have missed such a treat.
About four o’clock this young chap went over to Jack, of course, he’d been told what to say,
He says ‘Mrs. Fogarty is boiling the boneens, ye’s can have one apiece for your tea’.
Jack’s face turned purple with rage, of course, we all took to laugh,
Well, he gripped the young lad by the scruff of the neck and buried him down in the chaff.

O’, ‘tis forty years since that day, there has been many changers since then,
Although I enjoyed all my years in New York, I am glad to be back home again.

Location: Carlow south
The great storyteller gives a fun recitation about an event from the county, giving a view of traditional work on the farm, as well as some of the mischief!

From Carlow Streams